XPost: soc.culture.irish, ie.general, soc.culture.scottish   
   XPost: soc.culture.welsh, soc.culture.cornish, soc.culture.breton   
   From: ciaran@ciaran.com   
      
   The Highlander wrote:   
   > 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.   
      
   Wow, that is really interesting about the origin of the name "Portugal",   
   but I guess not when you consider the Castro Celtic culture is very   
   prominent in the archaelogy of the area.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)