XPost: soc.culture.irish, ie.general, soc.culture.scottish   
   XPost: soc.culture.welsh, soc.culture.cornish, soc.culture.breton   
   From: micheil@shaw.ca   
      
   On Thu, 4 Jan 2007 19:16:14 -0000, "Andy"  wrote:   
      
   >Is the old Gaeilge the same as Gaeilge these days though? - My Mother-in-law   
   >was born and grew up in Galway and maintains that some of the words have   
   >changed quite a lot than when she was young.   
   >   
   >Andy.   
      
   I think that's true of most languages as they encounter modern   
   technology and the world of English. Scots-Gaelic has words borrowed   
   during the English occupation of 1746 on, and there has been a great   
   deal of work done on producing new vocabularies for modern matters, as   
   well as a substantial effort to standardize spelling and grammar.   
      
   Indeed, modern Irish seems to have adopted J and K to handle some of   
   those imported words, while Scots-Gaelic sticks to the standard Irish   
   alphabet which has 18 letters:  a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o,   
   p, r, s, t, u which it uses to spell more than 60 separate sounds by   
   some very ingenious means to achieve an almost completely phonetic   
   vocabulary, with a few irregular exceptions, which are still keeping   
   scholars busy and annoyed.   
      
   This compares very favourable against the 44 plus sounds represented   
   in English by 26 letters, which fails to get anywhere close to a   
   phonetic vocabulary. For example, the English word "bow" has two   
   pronunications and two unrelated meanings.   
      
   Scot-Gaelic tends to keep mispronounced words like acairsaid, (say   
   "ach-ker-setch) meaning anchorage, already borrowed from English,   
   Scots and Viking Norse. (A large part of northern Scotland and its   
   offshore islands were part of the Norse Empire for some 400 years)   
      
   But today, rather than adopting foreign words, Gaelic tends to   
   translate technical words into Gaelic equivalents, very much as German   
   does, whereas English, an essentially German language with a French   
   overlay does not, but  tends to anglicize a new foreign word and use   
   it as is. This "helicopter" from "heliko" (Greek for a spiral) and   
   "pteron" (Greek for a wing). (Gaels, as Gaelic-speakers call   
   themselves, being used to helicopters, write "Heileacoptair"   
      
   Thus, a word like "hygiene" from French "hygiène" and New Latin   
   "hygieina", both from Greek "hugieine" = "health" is borrowed and   
   modified to suit local preferences in English, while Gaelic borrows   
   from itself with "slàinteachas - hygiene" from "slàinte" = "health".   
      
   There are of course many local preferences which have not gone away,   
   such as "teilefòn (same sound as English) or simply "fòn" (say "fawn")   
   and although words were created to replace them, such as "guthan"   
   (voicing) from "guth", a voice, nobody but purists actually use them.   
      
   Gaelic is an Indo-Euopean language, albeit a distant member of the   
   family and some words can be found which might surprise. For example,   
   the word "lasair", a flame, from "las", to light, sounds incredibly   
   modern to many ears, given its resemblance to "laser".   
      
   Ad although not quite on topic, there are many English words and place   
   names which reflect the fact that England was once a Celtic country   
   whose people have long forgotten their Celtic origins.   
      
   The Avon, Shakespeare's river, is the Celtic word for "river" - I use   
   Celtic here to include the Celtic languages, especially French and   
   Belgian Gaulish; and Welsh)   
      
   "River" in Gaelis is "Abhainn", said AH-ving, and "Afon" (said Ah-von)   
   is Welsh for river)   
      
   The word "dune" a small hill, often corrupted into "Down" as in the   
   Sussex Downs, is also the Gaelic word for as small hill and more   
   recently, a castle as in "Dùn-Eidinn - Edwin's hill / castle also   
   called Edinburgh. I think it's quite fascinating how the   
   English-Celtic place names have clung on, despite at least two changes   
   of language following various invasions. Indeed, at one point I even   
   rented a cottage in Wiltshire in an area called "Collymore", akin to   
   modern Gaelic "Coille Mhòr" (Coll-yeh Vore) or "Big Wood".   
      
   Boring, I imagine, but for those interested in place names and their   
   origins, rather fascinating, especially when found hundreds of miles   
   from today's Celtic-speaking countries. One such, "Port a' Ghàidheil"   
   - "Haven of the Gael" has always fascinated me - today it is spelled   
   "Portugal", south of Galicia and Asturias, Spain's Celtic provinces...   
      
      
      
      
   The Highlander   
      
   Faodaidh nach ionann na beachdan anns   
   an post seo agus beachdan a' Ghàidheil.   
   The views expressed in this post are   
   not necessarily those of The Highlander.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)