Wednesday 29 February 2012

First Gaelic Lesson - Saying Hello/Goodbye

Since I have been neglecting my Gaelic word of the day recently - not through choice, I just hit the publish button every time I post and then think, 'oh, I've forgotten it again' and then don't get round to editing the post -  and since plenty people have been saying they enjoyed learning a word or phrase of Gaelic, I thought I'd take things a step further.


On Friday mornings Alasdair and I go to the Gaelic parent & toddler group at the boys' school. My official title on a Friday is playleader, which basically means I set out the toys, organise the craft, organise the snack-time, lead everyone in some Gaelic pre-school song fun and then ensure that everything gets tidied up again. All the while with Alasdair as my little helper.

I also often make up sheets of phrases to give out to the parents, usually related  to whatever subject I might be basing the crafts/story/songs on for those weeks (like just now we are doing clothes followed by body parts), as most of the parents are just learning the language and not native speakers.


So I thought, why not share some of these?


And I thought 'hello and goodbye' would be a good place to start.


First, you can download and print out your own copy of the sheet below.

I have the middle column as a sort of pronounciation guide but it really helps to hear the phrases too, so I rustled up a wee clip below that of me reading out the phrases to help you out a bit. It's a bit rough, but I was too shy to read it to the camera :0)






Who knows, we might have pockets of Gaelic speakers springing up across the globe now!

3 comments:

  1. Ah...very fun! Thank you!...it looks like "mh" sounds like "v" and "bh" sounds like "v"....is there a "v" in the gaelic alphabet? and is it always the case that "mh" and "bh" sound like "v"?
    Thanks, Kirsteen!

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  2. Top of the class! You are right, the Gaelic alphabet has no j, k, q, v, w, x, y or z.

    Mh and bh are always pronounced v. At risk of confusing you just as you think you have the hang of this, did you notice that in 'good morning' and 'good evening' you pronounce the word for good 'mhath' but in 'good afternoon/evening' it is pronounced 'math'? :-)

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  3. Thanks for taking the time to put this on your blog. It is very useful. You have a beautiful accent!

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