Scottish Gaelic /Gàidhlig na h-Alba
What is Gaelic?
Gaelic is the Celtic language spoken in Scotland. Once the main language of Scotland it is now a minority language in its own homeland. Scottish Gaelic is closely related to Irish Gaelic and Manx and more distantly to Welsh, Breton and Cornish. The Gaelic language is a key part of the wonderful rich Celtic heritage of Scotland. Gaelic is also spoken in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Mac means 'son' in Gaelic so anyone with a Mac.. name probably has Gaelic speaking ancestors.
Gaelic has some marvelously unusual features that at first can make it seem daunting to learn, but this fantastic language is well worth learning.
Gaelic spelling is one of the first things that people notice. To many people Gaelic spelling seems unpronounceable; this is because Gaelic has more sounds than English but uses fewer letters (18 rather than 24). To make up for this many Gaelic letters have more than one sound. D for example has four sounds that it makes; da or do is similar to the English 'D' sound, de or di is like the English letter 'J' , dha or dho makes a sound like a 'G' at the back of the throat and finally dhi or dhe makes a 'Y' sound.
* My tip for new learners of the language is to ignore the phonics section of your learning material for the first while and focus on matching sounds to words. Once you have learned a number of words and phrases the phonics section will make much more sense and it will also stick in your memory better.
Sheena's Garden -this is a bilingual story with sound, a great way to hear some Gaelic, also great for kids
Radio na Gaidheal - BBC Gaelic radio from Scotland, has talking shows and music shows with all Gaelic commentary 'eist beo' is listen live and 'eist a rithist' is listen again.
Bord na Gaidhlig - Since 2005 Gaelic has been an official language of Scotland Bord na Gaidhlig is the government entity that deals with Gaelic in Scotland. There is a lot of great information and links on this site.
Gaelic Council of Nova Scotia and Office of Gaelic Affairs are both good sites for Gaelic in Nova Scotia
Stor Data is an on line Gaelic dictionary and is linked to many other on-line Gaelic dictionaries
ACGA - An Comunn Gaidhealach Ameriganach or American Gaelic Society is the major Gaelic organization in the US and Canada
Mac means 'son' in Gaelic so anyone with a Mac.. name probably has Gaelic speaking ancestors.
Gaelic has some marvelously unusual features that at first can make it seem daunting to learn, but this fantastic language is well worth learning.
Gaelic spelling is one of the first things that people notice. To many people Gaelic spelling seems unpronounceable; this is because Gaelic has more sounds than English but uses fewer letters (18 rather than 24). To make up for this many Gaelic letters have more than one sound. D for example has four sounds that it makes; da or do is similar to the English 'D' sound, de or di is like the English letter 'J' , dha or dho makes a sound like a 'G' at the back of the throat and finally dhi or dhe makes a 'Y' sound.
* My tip for new learners of the language is to ignore the phonics section of your learning material for the first while and focus on matching sounds to words. Once you have learned a number of words and phrases the phonics section will make much more sense and it will also stick in your memory better.
Sheena's Garden -this is a bilingual story with sound, a great way to hear some Gaelic, also great for kids
Radio na Gaidheal - BBC Gaelic radio from Scotland, has talking shows and music shows with all Gaelic commentary 'eist beo' is listen live and 'eist a rithist' is listen again.
Bord na Gaidhlig - Since 2005 Gaelic has been an official language of Scotland Bord na Gaidhlig is the government entity that deals with Gaelic in Scotland. There is a lot of great information and links on this site.
Gaelic Council of Nova Scotia and Office of Gaelic Affairs are both good sites for Gaelic in Nova Scotia
Stor Data is an on line Gaelic dictionary and is linked to many other on-line Gaelic dictionaries
ACGA - An Comunn Gaidhealach Ameriganach or American Gaelic Society is the major Gaelic organization in the US and Canada
My connection to Gaelic
My interest in Gaelic started in high school. Celtic everything was in fashion and I found a copy of Teach your Self Gaelic with tapes. I was also very interested in traditional Gaelic music. A few years after high school I visited U.K. and while traveling in Scotland I encountered Gaelic again. Back in Colorado I found that there were classes close to where I was living. My next step was going to Scotland for a year to do a course in Traditional Music and Gaelic Language. It was an amazing year and when I returned I decided to pursue a bachelors degree in Celtic Studies. To do that I went to Nova Scotia for three fabulous years. After that I decided to return to Scotland and become a Gaelic medium teacher (Gaelic immersion teacher). I spent three years in Scotland, one learning to teach and two teaching various levels of primary school. In July of 2009 I returned to Colorado and am doing all I can to promote Gaelic.