BLOG I RUBHACH MUN IAR I UNINHABITED ISLANDS
Ro-ràdh | Introduction
Bragar and Arnol, as well as the West Side in general, is a part of the Isle of Lewis that is filled with stories, traditions, and history. However, being from Point, on the other side of the island, I knew very little about it. Through working here at Grinneabhat I will be speaking to the community, exploring the area and take note of what I find, hence Rubhach mun Iar, Rubhach around the west. I particularly would like to document words in Gaelic that people used when they were younger, but do not hear often now as well as any old stories about the area.
Ask most young people in the Western Isles what the Gaelic is for a bird they see, particularly an uncommon one, and chances are they would have no idea. I am working on a project related to this where I will ask members of the community to take pictures of the wild life that they see and show the photo they took to someone in their community, possibly a neighbour or a relative such as their granny, uncle, or whoever, and speak with them about what they know about it and the word they use to describe that animal. This will hopefully encourage an inter-generational conversion and document some of these words you might not hear as much these days.
There is a great importance to having older and young people speaking to each other in Gaelic because it is quite common for a feeling of awkwardness from both parties and simply just switching to English.
In Wales however, the young and the old both converse in Welsh freely and without any stiffness. And it shows! Welsh is far from dying. According to www.gov.wales, since March 2020, the number of people able to speak Welsh has been increasing.
There is a lot of effort being done to keep Gaelic alive and there are people that work exceptionally hard to do just that, however we need people to be able to speak freely to each other to keep it going.
We also need to consider that when speaking to each other in Gaelic that different ways of speaking, or dialects should not be shamed as it discourages those in different communities and people of different ages from conversing with each other. People who throw English words into their Gaelic (e.g., ‘A bheil i a’ faireachdainn nas fhearr?’ ‘Uill, chan eil i extra.’ or another classic, 'Thoirt hand shiftadh na caoraich!') shouldn’t be shamed either for the same reason. Also in the case of learners, discrediting them for using an English word here or there could discourage them.
Through these 10 weeks of my placement here at Grinneabhat I am keen to speak to the people here at Bragar and Arnol and hear what they have to say and document what I learn through them. The blog will be written in both English and Gaelic, with translation where necessary.
Follow my Instagram for updates to new blog posts @rubhachmuniar
A Journey to the West Side of Lewis
07/09/2023
I have reached the end of my summer placement with Grinneabhat and will be returning to University in Glasgow next week. I have greatly enjoyed my time working with the people here and I have learnt a lot through the work.
I would like to thank Tina for taking me on, the whole team at Grinneabhat who I worked alongside with, and most importantly the community here in Bragar and Arnol for warmly welcoming me in.
As a computing student, my initial role was working on the website. With the passing weeks, I picked up a range of projects and helped with a variety of day-to-day tasks - I have acquired a lot of valuable experience to take back to Glasgow. I also have a deeper understanding and appreciation for our culture and the different aspects of communities on the Island. I learnt an incredible amount about the West Side and its people and history here.
I noticed the softer Gaelic on the West Side. The Rubhadh has perhaps a harsher pronunciation of Gaelic than other parts of the Island. I remember someone saying that in South Lochs we are referred to as “Tunnagan as a’ Rubha” where they pronounce tunnagan the Point way with almost an ‘r’ sound (as in tornagan). Similarly, the word for small, beag, is pronounced buck in Point. There are other notable differences as well – many say “an’ a’ shin” instead of “ann an sin”.
The language is clearly evolving, and in previous blogs I wrote about language and the Island 100 years ago and 5000 years ago, but what about 250 years ago?
Exactly 250 years ago this week, the famous Boswell and Johnson were on Skye, a place very similar to Lewis at that time. However, it may have been slightly chillier than today. According to Berkley Earth, the average global land temperature over the past 250 years has increased by 1.5 C, though some would disagree that there has been any change in weather at all¹. However, it is clear from ‘A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland’ published later by Samuel Johnson that it was no less windier 250 years ago. He wrote:
“The harvest in Col, and in Lewis, is ripe sooner than in Sky; and the winter in Col is never cold, but very tempestuous. I know not that I ever heard the wind so loud in any other place; and Mr. Boswell observed, that its noise was all its own, for there were no trees to increase it.”
The harsh wind is not the only thing that isn’t new, you might be surprised to read that vaccinations were being carried out in the Hebrides 250 years ago! While it was unlikely to be a similar setup to a COVID vaccine centre at the Caberfeidh Hotel, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson noted when in Skye,
“The Laird having all his people under his immediate view, seems to be very attentive to their happiness. The devastation of the small-pox, when it visits places where it comes seldom, is well known. He has disarmed it of its terrour at Muack, by inoculating eighty of his people.”
We are familiar with vaccination with COVID, but most people are unaware that vaccination was possible and effective at that time.
The method of vaccination then may not be for the squeamish. To vaccinate a healthy individual, they would inhale through their nose a powder that was made from ground down scabs and boils from smallpox victims. You might think this is disgusting, but it is not too dissimilar to how you now receive some types of vaccine – a weakened version of the virus is introduced to your system to build antibodies. The individual vaccinated for smallpox might have some minor symptoms, but nothing that would kill them. I wonder if they were asked to wait 15 minutes before leaving after snorting boils?
On the other hand, something that we would expect to have always been on the Island but wasn’t is potatoes. Along with tomatoes, sweetcorn, vanilla, beans, peppers, blueberries, and tobacco, the humble potato is native to the Americas. It was not until 1750 that potatoes become common to Europe and Boswell & Johnson noticed how quickly they became a staple in the Hebrides:
“Potatoes at least are never wanting, which, though they have not known them long, are now one of the principal parts of their food. They are not of the mealy, but the viscous kind.”
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Butterfly feeding on mint in Point. Mint, which is not indigenous either, was introduced to England by the Romans. I can’t find any clear documentation of mint being introduced to the Hebrides but if you have any information of any plants being brought to the Islands, please let me know!
After eating their potatoes, it was noted:
“After supper the ladies sung Erse songs, to which I listened as an English audience to an Italian opera, delighted with the sound of words which I did not understand.”
Now you might think ‘Erse songs’ are a lost tradition but you will notice when reading the Journal that there is no mention of Gaelic throughout! Back then, Gaelic was referred to as ‘Erse’ by Scots and English speakers which meant ‘Irish’ in Scots, however at this time ‘Erse’ would have probably been used to refer only to Scottish Gaelic.
The journal highlights the ever-long struggle that our so-called Erse language and culture:
“The clans retain little now of their original character, their ferocity of temper is softened, their military ardour is extinguished, their dignity of independence is depressed, their contempt of government subdued, and the reverence for their chiefs abated. Of what they had before the late conquest of their country, there remain only their language and their poverty. Their language is attacked on every side. Schools are erected, in which English only is taught, and there were lately some who thought it reasonable to refuse them a version of the holy scriptures, that they might have no monument of their mother-tongue.”
It makes me wonder the amount of language and culture lost to these centuries long snuffing. As the Welsh poet Waldo Williams puts it in his poem ‘Cofio’ (translated to English),
“And little words of languages long-vanished,
Lithe words once lively on the lips of men,
And pretty in the prattle of small children,
No tongue will ever utter them again.”
You might wonder what Boswell and Johnson thought of Lewis, but despite travelling to a number of islands, they never reached the Outer Hebrides. However, it is mentioned:
“There is not in the Western Islands any collection of buildings that can make pretensions to be called a town, except in the Isle of Lewis, which I have not seen.”
My name, Torcull (also spelt Torquil or Torcuil), is closely connected with Lewis and goes back to that time, but is rare now in Lewis.
‘The Torquils of Point, Lewis’ by William Cumming goes into great detail on this. Most if not all Torquils you meet on Lewis will be from, or have relation from, the Knock, Swordale and Aignish area in Point due to the patryonic naming convention (being named after a male ancestor) working all the way back to the chieftains of the Macleod’s of Lewis (Siol Torcaill) who fled to Point after losing most of the Island to the Mackenzies².
The book is an interesting look into genealogy, history, and stories that is an excellent read even if you are not a Torcull of Point like me. If you are interested in genealogy, the culture, history, and traditions of our island please consider giving William’s publications a read. You can find out more at: https://rtresearch.co.uk/publications
My journey to the West Side has come to an end and my journey to the Central Belt begins, this is the end of the Rubhach Mun Iar but now begins the Rubhach Mun Deas!
It’s been a great experience over the summer and I particularly liked writing all my thoughts down in the past few months through this blog.
I’ve talked about fossil words a couple times in my posts - words that only have a meaning when they are part of a phrase or other word. Tying up this very last blog with my very first blog exactly 3 months ago, ‘'Maothag' and other '-ag' words’, I realise that there are a great deal of fossil words trapped in these ‘-ag’ words. A boinneag is a small drop of a drink or liquid, but you wouldn’t hear someone say boinne today! The same with bird names: faoileag, curracag, feadag. What does faoil, currac, and fead mean and who would say it?
Thanks to all the readers of the blog and for all the responses and thoughts that have been coming in. And to ask for the last time, any thoughts, feedback, words, and complaints stick them in the comment section or to torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org!
[1] I was struck by some of the comments made by some people on this topic, for example, ’We don’t want these giant fans on the island – it is cold enough as it is.’ and ‘I don’t believe in climate change – when I was young smoke from cars and boats was black, and now you never see that.’
[2] There is also a tendency for surnames to cluster in different parts of the islands, but that is for another blog.
Thinking about 2024 yet?
02/09/2023
I was recently asked about this phrase from the blog introduction above, “Thoir dhomh hand shiftadh na caoraich!” (which I have changed slightly here), meaning ‘Help me move the sheep’. The question was about the use of the English phrase ‘shifting’ instead of a proper Gaelic word. For purists, this is certainly a problem, but we need to remember that a language develops by shamelessly stealing from round about.
For me, the borrowing and modification of words from English is an indication the language is going along nicely in spite of the small number of speakers left.
In this vein, we can note that some of the blatant borrowing can sound quite amusing. For example, there is no common word in Gaelic for wondering as in, ‘I was wondering … ‘. Perhaps we never used to wonder, but we certainly do now. The solution, ‘Bha mi a' wond-rigeach … ‘!
Thankfully, there is no Gaelic Police, of course and we are not criticised by any authority for this opportunism. There does seem to be Garden Police on the island though… cleaning my new second-hand car I found this message presumably placed on the windscreen for the previous owner.
A message placed on a car in Lewis. Perhaps the original message on the windscreen, to which this was post script, was ‘Sorry, I reversed into your garden and hit your car.’
As we take from other languages, there are some words we can give as well. Here are some examples.
Norrag – which is a short sleep, often during the day to kill time. Not quite the same as ‘nap’.
Luaran – the weird feeling you get after spinning around too fast which is not really dizziness.
Sgread – the sharp cry that really cuts into your brain.
Siollagan – these small potatoes that are too annoyingly small to peel and can be put aside for planting next year.
Ard-na-teasaith – the Gaelic equivalent of ‘up to high doh’; being overly excited or nervous.
Luideag – the use of an old piece of cloth as a quick bandage rather than something sterile.
Làithean daor(a)– the real Gaelic for holidays, especially this year.
Sgudal – rubbish, but possibly useful.
Gaos – meaning having ‘get-up-and-go’ in Lewis, though not the dictionary definition.
These Gaelic words will be familiar to native speakers and even Leòdhasaich that don’t have much Gaelic will be aware of one or two.
You might to be surprised to know almost no native speakers know the months in Gaelic. This may seem strange when our ancestors built immense stone circles here on the island as rudimentary calendars, but people in Lewis make a greater distinction on the seasons (an geamhradh – winter; an t-earrach -spring; an samhradh – summer; am foghar – autumn), and these have only a limited connection with the months in the Western Isles. It is not possible to assign months to the seasons on Lewis in a consistent and predictable way!
That came to mind this week as we were finishing our 2024 calendar with the help of Intermedia, the team at Grinneabhat, and all those who submitted photos of wildlife in their area. The calendar features the best pictures (with the Gaelic names and placenames) from the Gaelic Wildlife Competition that recently concluded. While the majority of the calendar will be in Gaelic, the months and days will be bilingual, so here is a chance to learn the months in Gaelic. Contact Grinneabhat for a copy at info@arnolbragar.org or alternatively get in touch with me at torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org.
January pages for the 2024 Grinneabhat Calendar. Photo by Gordon Macrae (Dòbhran - Loch Sìophort, Na Lochan)
June pages for the 2024 Grinneabhat Calendar. Photo by Jane Davidson (Gràineag - Seann Bhùth Arra, Steòrnabhagh)
You will notice the word for Sunday used in the calendar is ‘Là na Sàbainn’. In Gaelic there are different words for Sunday with ‘Là na Sàbainn’ and ‘Là na Sàbaid’ being more popular in Lewis and Harris. Elsewhere however, you might find that ‘Didòmhnaich’ is used.
With ‘Là na Sàbaid’ meaning ‘Sabbath day’ you would think that ‘Didòmhnaich’ is a more secular term – however, ‘Didòmhnaich’ comes from the Latin, ‘Diēs Dominicus’ meaning ‘The day of our Lord’.
Diluain, Dimàirt, and Disathairne (Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday) all come from the same Latin root as the English equivalent, however the rest of the days have an interesting archaic meaning:
Diciadain (Wednesday) – Di- + ciad + aoine – first fast day.
Diardaoin (Thursday) – Di- + eadar + dà + aoine – between two fasts day.
Dihaoine (Friday) - Di- + aoine – fast day.
This came from fasting on Wednesdays in remembrance of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, and fasting on Fridays to commemorate the crucifixion – typically practiced by Catholics.
Like the days, many greetings are religious in origin. For example, goodbye is a shortening of ‘God be with you’¹ and in Lewis it is common for future plans to qualified by acknowledging our mortality … and that tomorrow is not promised: ‘chan eil a-màireach air a ghealltainn’. You might say for example, ‘Chì mi a-màireach thu, ma bhios sin air ar caomhnadh’ or ‘Fàg e - nì sinn an ath sheachdain e, ma bhitheas sinn beò leis an t-slàinte’, and I guess that has now worked itself into the English phrase, ‘if we’re spared’. After helping someone with a task you might be told, “Pàighidh an Cruthaichear tu” (often an excuse not to pay money!)
Do you have any interesting Gaelic words to share? Leave your thoughts in the comment section or send an e-mail to the usual place torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org
Monsters in the Landscape or Saviours of the Planet?
21/08/2023
The climate on the west and east sides of the island differs significantly, I was told, with the west being somewhat worse. The reasoning is that our weather comes predominantly off the Atlantic and that some 20 miles of land affords the east coast some shelter in comparison with the exposed west. However, there has been no evidence of that over this very good summer.
The very strong wind over the year - often an inconvenience for islanders - is seen by others as a valuable resource that should be exploited. At a typical wind speed of 20 mph, a wall of energy of length 100 miles and height 1 mile flows from the west delivering to the Western Isles an average power of one million, million watts (1,000 GW). To put this in context, the average electrical power consumption of all of Europe is 300 GW. If captured, it would supply Europe three times over.
But who does the wind belong to, those who must live with challenges it poses, or the country as a whole? And is it correct to industrialise a beautiful part of the world to help avert devastating climate change? These questions are very relevant to the West Side today and many have strong views one way or the other¹. According to heraldscotland.com², at least 11,000 islanders object to large wind farms on the island – the subject is controversial and has polarised opinion.
Monster in the landscape or saviour of the planet? Image Credit: Andrew Mackenzie, Aird, Point
Another controversial topic is whaling. There is a long history of whaling in the Western Isles. The booklet by Francis Thompson, ‘The Lewis Trivia Book Quiz’, is filled with interesting facts about Lewis including a piece about the ‘Great Whale Hunt’ in 1869. A school of whales came into Stornoway Harbour and were duly slaughtered.
Mass cetacean stranding are clearly not a new thing and back then it was considered a massive bounty from the sea, a cause for celebration throughout the community. Compare this with last July in Tolsta, over 150 years later, when a mass stranding of pilot whales evoked very different emotions.
An interesting Gaelic word mentioned in the trivia book is ‘slabhraidh’ which the book states is ‘the chain used to hang a pot or a kettle over a peat fire’, usually in a blackhouse.
I spoke to a woman of the age of 94 who was born and spent her childhood in a blackhouse. She told me about an old bodach who lived by himself nearby. As kids they would go into his blackhouse where a frying pan with sgadan³ was sometimes on the slabhraidh. They would stand across from each other and push the bodach’s dinner back and forth to each other like a swing.
The islands are changing – from standing stones to slabhraidh to giant turbines. As they say, ‘S iomadh rud a chì duine tha fada beò!
Slabhraidh holding a kettle at The Arnol Blackhouse. You would find many different things hanging from one such as a kettle, pot, or pan
Here is an old pot in Point that has spent many years in a blackhouse hanging on a slabhraidh - now retired to being a plant pot.
‘Slabhraidh’ is an interesting word because the root of the word isn’t immediately obvious. The etymology of the word works all the way back to the Ancient Greek word ‘lambánō’ meaning ‘I take’ or ‘I catch’. This Greek word is also where the English word ‘latch’ comes from. Although you can find a lot of common roots in Gaelic and English, they are very different languages with very different structures.
One little known example is that the order of adjectives in English and Gaelic is quite different. Most people don’t know the exact rules for what adjective goes where in either language, but we all know what sounds correct and what sounds wrong.
Looking at English to start with, the sentence ‘The lovely big white sleeping dog’, sounds perfectly fine, but as soon as you mess with it – ‘The white big sleeping lovely dog’ – it is painfully awkward.
The same happens in Gaelic. Taking the same sentence: ‘Tha an cù mor snog geal a cadal’. If it was, ‘Tha an cù a cadal mor geal snog’, it sounds completely broken and almost impossible to understand.
The order of the English sentence given goes: Quality, Size, Colour, Purpose, Noun.
The order of the Gaelic one goes: Noun, Size, Quality, Colour, Purpose.
There does not seem to be a decipherable pattern between the two. Why is that? Does that say something about differences in language and culture? More importantly, why do these unspoken rules on adjective order in various languages exist? Perhaps you are familiar with these grammar rules in different languages, if so, I’d be interested to hear about them.
There is an exception though, the ordering can be broken in poetry. We have looked at complex bàrdachd, but getting children and learners to create simple rhymes is an excellent way of extending vocabulary. Remember in Gaelic that alliteration can be just as effective as rhyme and you can even rely on word rhythm.
A good place to start might be with limericks (a link to Gaelic Ireland after all). Here is my attempt, remembering limerick should be a bit edgy:
Bha bodach às a’ Rubha,
‘S thòisich e coiseachd a’ chù,
Rinn an cù mess,
‘S dh’fhàg e am poca sa phreas,
Ach thog e an cac le làimh co-dhiù.
Send in limericks you came up with at torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org or in the comment section if they can fit.
[1] Imagine holding a hoop of area 1 m2 into the wind in Bragar on a breezy day. The energy flowing through is the same as the solar energy falling in the same hoop if placed on the ground in the middle of the Sahara desert.
[2] https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23637051.storm-brews-isle-lewis-offshore-windfarm/
[3] Sgadan (herring) is an interesting word because it is of unclear origin. One theory is that it comes from the Old Norse skata meaning ‘kind of fish’.
‘Bidh Glic!’ says the Oyster Catcher
10/08/2023
Like all healthy living languages, Gaelic is evolving. We can see this happening in the differences between the conversations of different generations and in recordings that go back 100 years.
Voice recordings can technically go back to 1877 when Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, a device that could record and play back sound, but there are no known Gaelic conversation recordings from the 19th century. Interestingly, Edison thought the main use for his invention would be to record the last words of the dying.
No recording from before 1877 is possible, though the science fiction author Philip K Dick in his novel, ‘Galactic Pot Healer’, describes how the fingers of the medieval potter vibrated very slightly through the sounds around about leaving a small surface trace in the manner of a vinyl disk. An advanced civilisation would be able to recover and replay the sound.
Another piece by Phillip K Dick, ‘Roog’, tells the story from the perspective of a dog, Borris, who is witnessing his owner carefully placing precious food into containers outside. Unbeknownst to the dog, these are bins. When the binmen come to take the bins away, the dog thinks that they are alien robbers who he calls ‘roogs’ and cries ‘roog! roog!’ to warn his owner of these extra-terrestrial thieves, but the owners do not understand him and simply think he’s being unruly. This leads to Borris growing more and more frustrated.
Dogs only understand very simple commands. Probably the simplest Gaelic language group is the set of sheepdog commands, and we would expect these to be largely unchanged over time (though, the very basic ‘come here’ can vary in Lewis from ‘thig ’seo’ to ‘thig ann a sheo’). In Irish, the commands include ‘súigh síos’, ‘an seo’, ‘fág é’, and ‘stad’, all of which would be understood by a dog on Lewis. Bear in mind, dog whistling commands are probably more effective and tend to be universal¹.
Without recorded evidence, it is unclear how far back we would need to go before our language would become unintelligible to the modern ear. We can broaden the question further – is the sound and song of the birds now the same as in the distant past? Did the neolithic West Sider hear the same sounds in the sky as we hear now?
Old folklore would suggest, yes.
Oyster catchers, the black and white wading birds with the long orange beak, are a protected species who build very simple nests near the water – it is a serious offence to disturb these. I was speaking to Murdo Morrison, the nephew of the Bragar bard mentioned in a previous blog, and he told me an interesting story about these creatures. It is a story which explains a Gaelic term for the species, Isean Bhride – Saint Bride’s bird.
The story goes that this Irish Saint was being chased by robbers and when she fell asleep due to exhaustion, oyster catchers covered her in seaweed, hiding her from the robbers. As a thanks, she marked these birds with a white cross on their back and taught them Gaelic – ‘bidh glic, bidh glic’ (‘be wise, be wise’), the sound they made then, and still the sound we hear almost 2,000 years later.
Going back to Thomas Edison, the first recording he made on his phonograph in 1877 was of himself reciting the nursery rhyme, ‘Mary had a little lamb’. This rhyme has been translated to Gaelic and is recited in primary schools across the country. The Gaelic learner is assisted by online translation software, but care must be taken as these tools have limited understanding of idiom. Let’s see how the nursery rhyme evolves using Google Translate:
English
Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go.
English to Gaelic
Bha uan beag aig Mairi,
Bha a lomradh geal mar an sneachda.
'S ge b'e àit an deachaidh Muire,
Bha an t-uan cinnteach a falbh.
Gaelic to Russian
У Мэри был маленький ягненок,
Ее шерсть была белой, как снег.
И куда бы Мария ни пошла,
Ягненок обязательно ушел.
Russian to Finnish
Marylla oli pieni lammas
Hänen turkkinsa oli valkoinen kuin lumi.
Ja minne tahansa Mary menee,
Lammas on ehdottomasti poissa.
Finnish to Latin
MARIA habebat oviculam
Pellis eius erat alba sicut nix.
Et quocunque Maria vadit,
Ovis certe abiit.
Latin to Swahili
Mariamu alikuwa na msichana mdogo
Ngozi yake ilikuwa nyeupe kama theluji.
Na popote Mariamu anakwenda,
Hakika kondoo wametoweka.
Swahili to Chinese
玛丽有一个小女孩他的皮肤洁白如雪。 无论玛丽走到哪里， 事实上，羊已经消失了。
Chinese to Vietnamese
Mary đã có một bé gái
Da anh trắng như tuyết.
Bất cứ nơi nào Mary đi,
Trên thực tế, những con cừu đã biến mất.
Vietnamese to Gaelic
Bha nighean bheag aig Màiri
Tha a chraiceann geal mar an sneachda.
Ge bith càite an tèid Màiri,
Gu dearbh, tha na caoraich air falbh.
Gaelic to English
Mary had a little daughter
His skin is white as snow.
Wherever Mary goes,
Indeed, the sheep are gone.
It is quite impressive how much information was kept through various translations, despite the fact that Mary now seems to have a daughter! This shows that while translation software can be impressive, you cannot rely on it completely.
Be aware there can be similarities in words in very different languages that are a possible source of confusion for translation software. The word for cow, ‘bò’, is the same in Gaelic and Vietnamese, with the grave on the ‘o’ too, but the etymology of these words is completely different².
These are refered to as false cognates. Words that have a similar definition and spelling, but have different etymologies. These can exist within the same language as well – for example, the word island and isle in English seem to be very closely related to each other but that is not the case³. I couldn’t find any in Gaelic, but there is no doubt many. After all, looking back at my random Gaelic word generator, you can see Gaelic words typically have a similiar beginning, middle, and end.
If you have any thoughts, stories, or anything interesting, stick them in the comment section below. Otherwise e-mail torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org
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Purple tansy on a croft in Point. These may be a false cognate of themselves. Purple tansies aren’t tansies at all! Am Faclair Beag gives the translation as ‘lus na sgairpe’ meaning scorpion plant due to the nickname of its genus Phacelia being ‘scorpion weed’
[1] In the Bible, Judges 5:16 the English Standard Version, suggests that people whistled for sheep, but the Gaelic version is completely different: ‘Carson a dh’fhuirich thu am measg cròthan nan caorach, a chluinntinn mèilich nan treud? Airson roinnean Reubein bha smuaintean mòra cridhe’ and ‘ Why did you sit still among the sheepfolds, to hear the whistling for the flocks? Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart’ Both were translated from the original Greek, hence it would be an error to try to translate between English and Gaelic just by comparing the Bible versions.
[2] Etymology is the history of a word or phrase, especially its roots. In Vietnamese, it is believed one of the possible roots of the word ‘bò’ is it being of imitative origin, meaning it came from the noise the cow makes. For Gaelic, it is thought to come all the way back from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE), ‘*gʷṓws’. Other languages with a word for cow descended from this PIE word is Sanskrit (go), Latvian (govs), and Latin (bovis).
[3] ‘Island’ comes from the Old English ‘īġland’, whereas ‘isle’ comes from the Latin ‘insula’.
Songs Sacred and Profane
03/08/2023
In an earlier blog, I wrote about neolithic people. Breaking apart the word ‘Neolithic’ gives us the prefix, ‘neo-‘, meaning new, and the suffix, ‘lithic’, meaning relating to stone - hence the New Stone Age where farming replaced the earlier hunting-gathering¹.
In Gaelic, the prefix ‘neo-‘ also exists, but is used quite differently – it changes a word to its opposite. It is not the only prefix used for negation, ‘mì-‘ and ‘an-‘ are others (think of mì-thoilichte), but ‘neo-‘ is slightly unusual in that it is rarely found in day-to-day speech².
But if we look at the Bible, there are many, many words of this form:
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neo-choireach (Genesis 44:10) – innocent
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neo-sheasmhach (Genesis 49:4) – unsustainable
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neo-bhrìgh (Ieremiah 19:7) – insignificance
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neo-chiontach (Ieremiah 22:3) – innocent/harmless
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neo-fhìrinneach (Tuireadh Ieremiah 2:14) – unjust
-
neo-gheamnaidh (Eseciel 16:30) – self-indulgent
-
neo-chothromach (Eseciel 18:29) – unfair
-
neo-ionraic (Eseciel 22:27) – unrighteous
-
neo-mheasarra (Eseciel 23:11) – excessive
Throughout a standard Gaelic Bible you will find many more of these words. These are largely out of fashion because the Bible was translated to Gaelic between 1760 and 1800, and the day-to-day language has moved on since then.
Indeed, there is some discussion as to whether the difference between the formal language of the Bible and vernacular speech is a problem (as evidenced by the disappearance of many of the neo-words³). However, there are clear advantages in maintaining a standard in language, and the Bible does this admirably .
Many of the changes in Gaelic come from the Gaelic Orthographic Conventions (GOC) from 1976. This was created to correct the inconsistences that were present in the standard of written Gaelic so that there were guidelines in place for Gaelic educators to follow. This means you might find quite different spelling used in older books written before this.
Just before GOC was created, Club Leabhar published ‘Laoidhean’ in 1973. I recently came across this book of the religious poetry of an Alasdair MacLeòid of Knock, Point. The introduction does not say much about this village bàrd , or when he was active, but the poetry is both complex and interesting. He was converted late in life, it seems, and a theme running through the poetry is regret for a misspent and wasted youth, and a need to warn young people of the dangers of life as he says, ‘san fhàsach’, in the desert:
Gu tric a bhios tighinn dhachaidh orm
Mo làithean air an t-seacharan
‘S mi sileadh deòir an aithreachais
‘son m’ aineolas ‘nam òige
Bearing in mind that it is difficult to translate songs and poems from any language because it loses its rhythm and subtleties, it can be loosely translated as follows:
Many times, I sit and think
Of these days lost from the Truth
Many times, I bow and weep
For my days of ignorance of youth
However the last verse of each dàin tends to be hopeful, for example:
‘Nuair dhùineas am bàs mo shùilean
‘Sa chuireas càch fo’n ùir mi
‘Nam chadal ‘son car ùine
Gus an dùisg mi ann am Pàrras
Again, loosely translating:
When death seals my eyes
And they bury me deep
One short sleep
Awakened in Paradise
Notice also that he did not make these poems rhyme and how visceral the work is.
Quite different is the bàrdachd of Dòmnhall ‘an Moireasdan, the Bragar bard . He is very well known here on the West Side (in contrast with Alasdair MacLeòid who is largely unknown in Point). He was born in Bernaray but went to Bragar when he married at 18. He worked as a fishman and later moved to America .
After spending some time there at the start of the 20th century, he returned to Bragar, where his brother, Murchadh ‘an Moireasdan built Lakefield – the famous house with a whale bone over the gate!
The famous whalebone arch and Lakefield. Constructed by Domhnall's brother Murchadh.
Being called back to America by his family there, it is said that a crowd gathered on the shore as his ship was leaving and sung his song, ‘Eilean Beag Donn a’ Chuain’, which made his departure from the land of his birth even more difficult.
You can see an excerpt of this piece with a translation in the introduction of the Bragar and Arnol croft history book we sell here at Grinneabhat:
O ‘s làidir na bannan gam tharraing a-null
Gu Eilean beag donn MhicLeòid,
‘S gu stiùir mi gun solus gu cala mo long
Nuair ruigeas mi ceann mo lò.
‘S ma ghreimicheas m’ acair ri Carraig nan Àl
Bidh m’ anam tighinn sàbhailt’ beò,
Mo shiùil air am pasgadh am fasgadh Chill Sgàir
Le m athair ‘s mo mhàthair chòir.
The direct translation is:
O Strong are the bonds that are taking me over,
To the little brown Isle of Macleod
I could steer expertly my boat to harbour
When I reach the end of my days
If my anchor can catch on the rocks.
My soul will be safely at rest
My sails folded in the lee of Cill Sgair
With my dear father and mother.
The rest of this song praises the Isle of Lewis as well as the soldiers from the island who had served in the First World War and the miseries of war that they faced. The song ends with this excerpt about him one day wanting to be buried in Cill Sgàire, the cemetery in Bragar. Domhnall Moireasdan eventually died in Duluth, USA in 1952.
I gave his nephew Murdo Morrison a call about where he was buried and he confirmed he was buried in Duluth, however his unused plot still remains in Bragar cemetery - next to his father and mother. Murdo is currently writing a book about Grinneabhat and the old school building which we await with interest.
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Here is a tile at the entrance of Grinneabhat of Domhnall and his Duluth family. I was told by Catriona Campbell that Domhnall ‘an Moireasdan’s family in Duluth are still in contact with their relatives in Bragar.
Although the work of Domhnall ‘an Moireasdan is very different to that of Alasdair MacLeòid, you can probably see similarities in the sentiment.
These are only two examples of village bards, West and East – there are many more. Let me know of the bàrdachd in your area in the comments section or at torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org
[1] Incidentally we are currently in the Oil Age (‘Aois na h-Ola’) which is coming to an end. It is unclear if the Oil Age will continue until the last drop has been removed from the ground, or if we will instead move onto something better. After all, the Stone Age did not end because people ran out of stones.
[2] Though you will find 9 pages of neo- words in Dwelly!
[3] The structure of Gaelic means that there are fewer negated words needed than in English, hence it is quite natural for many of these neo- words to drop out over time through lack of use. The different structure means there is no simple translation for ‘No’, the absolute negative.
There are also concepts in English that are difficult to translate: Try ‘I was wondering ..’, for example
[4] The meaning of words also changes over time. An example is the word ‘profane’ in the blog title whose which has a different meaning in religious and non-religious contexts.
[5] Another Gaelic word loaned to English.
[6] There are many bards from Bragar: Ruaraidh mac a Ghobhainn, Padraig Caimbeul, Padraig’s brother Ruaraidh Caimbeul, Calum Macaoidh, and no doubt many more.
[7] I was also told by local Anne Campbell that according to the historian David Gange from Birmingham University, Domhnall ‘an Moireasdan gave the young Bob Dylan music Lessons!
From Blackhouses to Whitehouses (and Back Again)
26/07/2023
‘Tha smùdan fhéin an ceann gach fòid, is dòrainn ceangailte ris gach maith.’
– Every peat emits smoke, every good has some evil intermingled.
Another great proverb and translation from Sutherland’s own Babi Nic Leòid. Note however the implication that although peat is good, the smoke from it is evil.
Where did this idea come from, I wonder? Perhaps it goes back to the blackhouse. Peat provided warmth and light; however, without a chimney the build-up of smoke inside must have been hell¹.
Blackhouses are of course the dry-stone dwellings that housed both the people and the livestock of the island in earlier times. They made up all the village dwellings up to a century ago, but most have been pulled down since, or fallen down. In Point, you might only find the ruins of one or two, but here on the West Side a lot of work has been done on the restoration and maintenance of blackhouses, such as the Arnol Blackhouse up the road from Grinneabhat.
Visiting the Arnol Blackhouse (one of the last functioning blackhouses), I told them about the proverb I found and my little theory behind it, and my (perhaps naïve) assumption of a building always full of smoke. They explained that while the fires they keep in the conserved blackhouses nowadays does fill the building with smoke, back then the fires were kept roaring with a lot of fuel so that smoke didn’t settle in the room; it simply blew out the window and doors².
This makes sense. We have to remember that while blackhouses seem to a young person to have existed in the distant past, there are people alive today who remember living in them – and who liked living in them.
Things started to change around the 1920s. People around the island started building whitehouses. In Point the stones of the old were mostly reused in the new leaving nothing behind, not even ruins.
Whilst there is a tendency to feel sentimental about this loss of history, the builders had little time for sentiment and practical need dominated. We also need to remember the same stones would have had been in use for thousands of years and enclosing them now in concrete is just another use.
In China, the Great Wall has had the same treatment. In the 1960s during the cultural revolution, a time of great hardship in China, the wall was stripped apart to build houses – less than 10% of the Great Wall remains now.
At the time the whitehouses were built, most villages had a person who went round building houses with perhaps several buildings under construction at the same time. The method was simply the use of shuttering and poured concrete. Including a lot of large stones in the walls saved on cement, but caused problems for future occupants. The rate of expansion of stone with temperature varies widely with the type of stone, hence many of these walls are now cracked and leaking.
The whitehouses were usually one room deep, 1 ½ or 2 storeys with a lean-to kitchen extension at the back. The great renovations of the 1980s removed most of the elegance of this simple design, but one can still visualise the original building within.
The houses made by each builder can be recognised by the similarity of style and dimension. And although the focus was on reducing cost, one common adornment was the addition of metal finials to the dormers, and this separated otherwise identical buildings. Most of these objects have since been discarded, but you can still find some in place. This is an example from a house in Point. You could send me a photo of any left in your village.
Finial on whitehouse in Point. These would have been the work of a skilled blacksmith.
The thick insulating stones of the blackhouse made them cool inside in the summer, and warm in the winter. Rather ironically, it is proving almost impossible to bring pre-war houses to even close to the insulation standard of the discarded blackhouses, leaving many of the occupants in fuel poverty. Reducing the cost of heating these houses is a major challenge.
Can we incorporate the best aspects of the blackhouse into a modern island building design in a way that is sympathetic to the environment (and history) and will address the current energy crisis?
Leave your thoughts, comments, or feedback in the brand-new comment section below. Less hassle and as anonymous as you’d like. Otherwise, get in touch via torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org
[1] Even in a modern house a ‘blowdown’ can be a problem.
[2] This is the process of convection at work – all fireplaces are smoky until the gases are hot enough to move rapidly upwards.
‘To change, or not to change, that is the question’: Proverbs and Sayings
18/07/2023
Rummaging through Grinneabhat’s attic, a book of old proverbs was found written by Babi Nic Leòid. This short 16-page book, ‘Gaelic Proverbs’, is filled with Gaelic sayings each followed by the English translation. I couldn’t find much information about Babi apart from the short introduction at the start of the book.
She is a native speaker of Gaelic from the Assynt area of Sutherland with a deep love for the Gaelic language. Babi was concerned for the decline of the language, and in hopes of retaining the heritage and the wisdom stemming from countless generations, she compiled this book of proverbs. The book was published in 1973 by ‘Club Leabhar’. It may be a hard find, but I recommend picking it up if you can, especially as a learner – proverbs provide an understanding of the culture and the syntax of any language.
The source presents the proverbs in the Sutherland Gaelic dialect. The original phrases are easily understood by someone on the island, but may not flow entirely naturally from the lips of a Leòdhasach. Here are some selected phrases from the book with the original Sutherland Gaelic, how we might say the same thing in Lewis, the literal meaning, and the message or lesson (where it is obvious).
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Am fear nach cluinn air choir, cha fhreagair e air choir.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: Fear nach cluinn ceart, cha fhreagair e ceart.
Literal Translation: Someone that does not hear correctly does not answer correctly.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Cas a’ dol, cas a’ tighinn.
Literal Translation: One leg going and one leg coming.
Meaning or Message: To be undecided.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Chan aithnich thu duine ach an loisg thu cruach mhòine còmhla ris.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: Chan aithnich thu duine gu' losg thu cruach mhònach còmhla ris.
Literal Translation: You don’t know someone until you burn a peatstack together.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Am fear nach seal roimhe, seallaidh e as a dhèidh.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: Fear nach seal air adhart, seallaidh e air ais.
Literal Translation: Someone that does not look in front, looks back.
Meaning or Message: You will regret it if you don’t plan ahead.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Cha tig an aois leatha fhèin.
(Common expression in Lewis)
Literal Translation: Age does not come by itself.
Meaning or Message: The aches and pains of old age.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Is duilich am fear nach bi ‘na chadal a dhùsgadh.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: Tha e duilich fear nach eil na cadal a dhùsgadh.
Literal Translation: You cannot wake someone who is not sleeping.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: A’ chuiseag a dh’fhàsas anns an otrach ‘s I as àirde a thogas a ceann.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: 'S e an cuiseag san òtrach tha a’ fàs nas àirde.
Literal Translation: The weed that grows on the dunghill lifts its head highest.
Meaning or Message: Someone from a hard upbringing can achieve a lot.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Cha sheas poca falamh ri balla.
Literal Translation: An empty bag will not stand against a wall.
Meaning or Message: You cannot work if hungry.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Cha tig às a’ phoit ach an toit a thèid innte.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: Cha tig ás a phoit ach na chaite innte.
Literal Translation: Nothing will come out of the pot that hasn’t gone in.
Meaning or Message: Conservation of energy!
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Fear nach dean cur ri là fuar, cha dean e buain ri là teth.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: Fear nach cuir air latha fuar, cha bhuain e air la teth.
Literal Translation: Someone who does not sow on a cold day will not reap on a hot day.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Garaidh an caoran dubh e fèin mus gar e sinne.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: Bidh a’ mhòine dhubh ga bhlàthachadh fhèin mus blàth i sinne.
Literal Translation: The black peat warms itself before it warms us.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Gheibh cearc an sgrìobaidh rud-eigin.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: Gheibh cearc a sgrìobas rudeigin.
Literal Translation: A scratching chicken will get something.
Meaning or Message: So long as you are doing something you have a chance of getting something.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Is ann air dh’èirich a’ ghrian.
Literal Translation: The sun rose on him.
Meaning or Message: A lucky person.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Is cam is dìreach an lagh.
Literal Translation: The law is both straight and crooked.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Is fheàrr sguir na sgàineadh.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: ‘S fheàrr sgur na sgàineadh.
Literal Translation: Better to stop than to split.
Meaning or Message: Don’t overeat.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Is iomadh rud a chì am fear a bhitheas fada beò.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: ‘S iomadh rud a chì duine tha beo fada.
Literal Translation: A lot of things are seen by people who live a long life.
Meaning or Message: Old people see a lot of changes over a lifetime.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Is iomadh là buidhe gu Bealltainn.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: ‘S iomadh latha buidhe gu Bealltainn.
Literal Translation: Many yellow days until May.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Is math an còcaire an t-ocras.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: ‘S e an sabhs nas fhearr an t-acras.
Literal Translation: The best cook is hunger/The best sauce is hunger
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Is mòr an t-eallach an t-aineolas.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: ‘S mòr an cuideam an t-aineolas.
Literal Translation: The burden of ignorance is great.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Is suarach an càirdeas a dh’fheumas a cheannach tric.
Literal Translation: Worthless is friendship that must be bought many times.
Original Sutherland Gaelic from Source: Neach gun dà là, neach gun là idir.
Lewis Gaelic Equivalent: ‘S ann oirnn a thàinig an dà latha.
Literal Translation: Someone without two days, someone without a day at all.
Meaning or Message: Every person has ups and downs.
They are all very interesting and a lot of them you will hear in Lewis.
The significance of the colour yellow in Gaelic was mentioned before, and here it turns up again. Presumably, ‘Is ann air dh’èirich a’ ghrian’, and ‘nach buidhe dhuit’, which both relate to luck and fortune, are connected, perhaps through the yellow of the sun. But it is unclear what ‘Is iomadh là buidhe gu Bealltainn’ means. Maybe a reference to the first day of May (‘latha buidhe Bealltainn’). There are also negative aspects to the colour yellow. If as a child you were to gorge yourself on a food to the extent you risk permanently sickening yourself of it, the warning from the parent would be, ‘Sgur, mas cuir tu bhuidheach ort fhèin!’ Possibly jaundice?
Some of the phrases I could only speculate on what they could mean. What do you think the lesson or message behind the two relating to peat are: ‘Chan aithnich thu duine ach an loisg thu cruach mhòine còmhla ris’, and ‘Garaidh an caoran dubh e fèin mus gar e sinne’?
Let me know at the usual address torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org, or feel free to write in the comment section below. Let me know too if you disagree with any translations I have made.
I have taken the liberty to modify some of the original phrases, and I know there are people who might object to this. There are advantages in keeping the original form to highlight cultural intricacies, and modifying could skew the meaning or point. That being said, the changes I made highlights the slight differences between Gaelic from Sutherland and Lewis, and hopefully makes these proverbs a little more accessible.
A slug on a thistle. The breathing hole, which only exists on the right side of a slug, is called a pneumostome. I can’t find any Gaelic or even Irish word for this slug part. Perhaps I should run it through the random Gaelic word generator!
Tourism, Modern and Ancient
13/07/2023
The East Side of the island is more populated than the West Side, but it was not always like this. In neolithic times, the Bragar, Arnol and Brue area was probably the population centre of Lewis and Harris.
Certainly, Point was not densely populated at that time - there is very little evidence of neolithic remains, just a couple of small standing stones in the whole district. However, it could be argued that this is a result of necessity – building material is scarce on the eastern side of the island and convenient accumulations of stones would tend to be re-used and may now be incorporated in the buildings of the villages.
There is circumstantial evidence for this; there is a hill in Swordale called Steisal, suggesting the place of the standing stone(s), but there is no sign of any stones.
The West Side is different. Down towards Callanish are the large standing stones, but it was probably on the flatter land around Bragar the main population lived, worked and farmed¹ ² with further south as the religious centre.
This is clear from a look at PastMap (https://pastmap.org.uk/map). Look at the dense archaeology at the end of Brue:
Image Credit: https://pastmap.org.uk/
We can speculate on what life was like round that time. Evidence of human activity in Lewis & Harris dates as far back as 9000 years ago. However, scientific dating methods indicate the standing stones and other structures were built and were certainly in use (whatever that use was) between 2900 BC and 2000 BC. Over this period, the world population is estimated to have grown from 15 million people to 30 million (0.4% of the current world population!).
We welcome to Grinneabhat tourists from many countries, but if you lived in Lewis at that earlier time and you got a hankering to travel, what would you see around the world?
If the ancient Hebridean managed to set sail and travel to Egypt around 2500 BC, they would witness the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Travelling easterly around 2200 BC, the Xia dynasty would be in power in China, practising bronze casting and manufacturing silk. At this time, Abraham would have been alive in modern day Iraq – the patriarch of all Abrahamic religions. They would also find 10% of the world population living in the Indus valley with well-established cities. Further north, they may very well have bumped into a woolly mammoth. Far from a primitive world.
Not a woolly mammoth, but a small dinosaur roaming around Point today. There were no chickens on the neolithic West Side. First domesticated around 6000 BC in China, chickens had only reached Eastern Europe by the time the Callanish Stones were built.
This ancient tourist on their travels would encounter writing in the form of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese logographs, Cuneiform, and Indus script. There is no indication of writing having been in use at this time in the Hebrides, consequently the language spoken at the time is unknown, but unlikely to have been related to Gaelic.
Nevertheless, there is some evidence for words in Gaelic which could have been taken from the earlier neolithic languages³. These are another type of fossil word that are still very much in use: the list could include 'adharc', 'aran', 'baile', 'bradan', 'sgadan', 'peata', 'giomach', and 'feòil'.
When you speak Gaelic, you are carrying forward thousands of years of history.
As usual, any comments or thoughts to torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org .
[1] The area was probably heavily wooded, hence standing stones made little sense.
[2] The summers were 1°C warmer than now and the winters 1°C colder (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiJqb_f3vL_AhWQwAIHHQYbBxUQFnoECA0QAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.st-andrews.ac.uk%2F~rjsw%2Fall%2520pdfs%2FTippingetal2012.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0oGHCgtZMN6yforZ7ch2O-&opi=89978449 )
[3] Bear in mind that finding absorbed words in not easy. The change as the word is it is adapted to common sounds in the new language may be significant. For example, the laxative syrup of figs becomes in Gaelic ‘fisig’. But on the other hand, ‘Hello’ is unchanged.
Gaelic Word Generator
11/07/2023
Previously, I wrote about Iceland creating a word for computer instead of using computer as a loan word. However, words being created like this is very rare.
Languages develop by borrowing words from other languages which are modified to follow the rules of that language and they develop and diverge from there. Think of 'shifting' turning into 'shiftadh' when it is used in Gaelic.
Inventing new Gaelic words based on the allowed Gaelic syllables and word structure is easy with a computer. Try the word generator below!
500,000 different words are possible. This could be extended significantly by adding the grave accent and allowing for longer and shorter words. Because the basic language rules are followed, you should be able to pronounce all the generated words, though many will seem quite alien!
'Aonag' is one that popped up for me which made me think about a small lonely thing.
Did any interesting words appear for you? And did a possible definition come to mind? E-mail me the word and your definition to torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org. I may create a short made-up dictionary from them.
Javascript needs to be enabled for the program to work.
Where is the Middle?
05/07/2023
In Gaelic, ‘am meadhan’ refers to the middle, but only in the sense of being somewhere within (as in the middle of a crowd). To specify the exact middle or centre of something requires you to be more precise, for example, ‘ann an teis-meadhan an rathaid’. ‘Teis’ in this case is possibly a fossil word as it now has no distinct use on its own.
I am now in the middle of my placement here at Grinneabhat and the past 5 weeks have flown by. My manager Tina, the trustees and all the other staff here have been exceptionally welcoming and kind. Each day at Grinneabhat is something new which keeps it engaging. Some days I’m in the office, others working in the café, or at events such as a music performance or an exhibition opening. There is always something to keep me on my toes.
You will see a lot of returning faces here in Grinneabhat. Looking around the room at our curry night last Saturday, the whole place had the life of a restaurant ten times its size. You could see tables talking over to every other table, the patrons catching up the staff, and the chef pulling up a chair to a couple of the guests at the end of service. We might as well have had one giant roundtable! It really shows the strong sense of community Grinneabhat brings.
Through my time here I have worked on a number of projects. One of them is our competition to bring Gaelic words for plants, animals, fish and birds back into use, as well as recording Gaelic placenames.
This competition is important because I notice in Point the vocabulary seems to be contracting with each generation. For non-crop plants, only the following words are in common use:
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Deanntag – thistle or nettle
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Copag – dock leaf
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Fliodh – chickweed or any fine weed
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Cusag – general weed
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Seileastair – iris
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Luachair – rushes
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Glasach – grass
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Lus – any herblike plant
And it need not be like that, the proper names are given in John Cameron, ‘Gaelic Names of Plants’ (1883), available on the internet. But I suppose the shorter list is understandable because these are the dominant weeds on any Lewis croft.
But things are changing. In a few years, a field protected from grazing animals will as likely fill with newly-arrived species such as Gorse, Broom, Gunnera, Rhododendron, Lady’s Mantle, Pampas Grass, New Zealand Holly and Crocosmia. Should we not bring to people’s attention the Gaelic words for these?
The neglected Lewis croft in the year 2050 as predicted by AI
Similarly, with placenames. Local people may call a hill or a path one name which may not be on a map, or may differ from the name on the map. Through the competition, we can record some of these names. However, if the Gaelic for the animal and placename is just the common name found in the dictionary or on a map, that is completely fine to submit. Any age, from any place!
The photo below I took of a moth is an example of what to submit.
Thanks for Tina who came up with the competition idea, Mairi from the Outer Hebrides Wildlife Festival, Emily and Liz of Neuro Hebrides, Jen and Maryann at Galson Estate, Sgoil Shiaboist and Sgoil nan Taobh Siar for all the support.
‘Never a lender or a borrower be’
29/06/2023
We are all familiar with the saying in the title, but Gaelic borrows extensively from English (try ‘paidhir mhiotagan’) and other languages as well. This is not necessarily a problem – it is the structure of a language that is more important to preserve than the vocabulary.
The borrowing is not always direct. There are words in Gaelic that seem to be connected with other languages, but through strange and tenuous routes. For example, the Gaelic for pneumonia is, ‘an greim’. This word, ‘greim’ also means to grip. In French, ‘la grippe’ is the flu.
Gaelic lends as well as borrows. You will also find many words in English that come from Gaelic. Whisky is one, which comes from ‘uisge beatha’. The route whisky took was ‘uisge beatha’ being called ‘usquebaugh’ in English to being simplified to ‘whiskybae’ to then simply, ‘whisky’.
There are some Gaelic words that you would think is just lazy Gaelic using an English word, but it’s actually the other way around. Take the word we use for pet, ‘peata’. This clearly looks like someone stuck an ‘a’ at the end of pet and called it a day. However, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, ‘pet’ is derived from the Gaelic ‘peata’ which came from the Old Irish ‘petta’ which was a word to describe a tame animal. Other examples of these English words that are from Gaelic are ‘gob’ which means beak, ‘shanty’ which is derived from ‘sean taigh’, and ‘galore’ which comes from ‘gu leor’.
Another interesting word that you would typically hear Americans saying is ‘shindig’, which is a lively party, a phrase that grew in popularity in the 1950s. This word comes from one of our words, ‘sìnteag’, which means to hop or skip around.
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A photo I took of 'seilcheagan' by the Cabarfeidh Hotel. The root of 'seilcheag', according to MacBain's Dicitionary, comes from the Greek 'sésclos', meaning snail.
The Celtic Magazine in 1877, states when speaking of loan words between English and Gaelic,
“They [Gaelic speakers] insist that, where there is borrowing, Gaelic invariably occupies the position of the gracious giver; that of the humble receiver, never.”
This quote suggests that Gaelic would never dare pinch a word from English. The writer was of course living in a time before taxis, helicopters, and computers (tagsaidh, heileacoptair, and coimpiutair). I’m sure a few thousand other examples pop into mind.
In Iceland, when the computer was invented, they decided to create the word, ‘Tölva’ which is their word for number and for witch put together. I suppose, ‘bana-bhuidseach-àireamh’ doesn’t roll off the tongue as well.
The origin of a borrowed word is not always obvious. One word I have heard in the West Side is 'samhaidh', as in 'chan eil samhaidh aige' meaning 'He is not sharp'. Is this possibly a loan of the word 'savvy'?
Have you heard of any other interesting loan words or Gaelic having influence or similarity to other, more distant languages than English? E-mail your thoughts, words, or stories to torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org
Peat Igloos
24/06/2023
I am sure you have heard that Inuits have over 50 words to describe ice and snow, but did you know we probably have as many in Gaelic to describe peat? The words range from the minute to the large: ‘smùr’, which is the peat dust; ‘caoran’, the small bits of peat; ‘fàd’, a single peat; ‘ceap’ is turf; ‘puill’, is the word for a peat bank; and at the far end of the scale, ‘mointeach’ is the entire moorland. A great source for all the terms and words relating to peat is ‘Rathad an Isein’ by Anne Campbell. Anne is a local artist and archaeologist, who has a immense knowledge about the moorland here on Lewis.
The ‘pigloo’. AI (Artificial Intelligence) is in the news at the moment – what do you think of the results when I asked AI to make me a peat igloo?
We cut peat all over the island, but just as accent and language varies a little across the islands, so does the method used to dry peat. In Point we throw peats on top trying to put as few inside the bank as possible.
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Peats drying in Point. The individual peats are starting to shrink away from each other as they dry. A single dry peat will typically be two thirds the original size in all directions.
On the West Side the peat throwers go upwards building a wall, ‘a togail gàrradh’. These skyscraper structures on the edge of the bank can get very large indeed. Do you have any photos of this which you could share? And which method is better, up or out?
In Point cutting starts in early Spring ( ‘Àm na mònach anns an Rubha’) but on the West Side, I have been told, the trigger for starting the cutting is when someone in May declares, ‘Tha an ola ag èirigh!’, which presumably comes from the idea that oil rises upwards into the peat to increase its energy content. I am not sure there is scientific evidence for this? In Point, the cutting begins at the end of March or the start of April, whether anyone sees the oil rising or not.
This year, the peats have never been easier – ‘Bho an tairsgeir chun an teine’ in only 4 weeks. If you have not already done so, you could risk it and cut this late in June, but you might have to cut the peats salami thin!
Is cutting peats an environmental problem though? With the recent plan to ban the sale of peat in order to protect peatlands and reduce carbon emissions, it makes one think. A calculation is needed to judge if peat cutting is really a problem when cutting for personal use.
Peat increases in depth by 1 mm a year, which means that 1 km² area accumulates 1,000 tonnes of peat a year, hence it can be extracted without net harm in small quantities. With 595 km² of peatland in the Western Isles we could extract 595 million kg a year without harming the environment, 50 tonnes for every household on the islands. Why then are so many in ‘fuel poverty’?
Have you heard any other peat terminology or have any peat cutting thoughts? Let me know at torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org
Incorporating pallet technology to dry peat on the West Side, a method that has not yet reached Point.
There is an interesting and relevant article in The London Review of Books concerning peat cutting in North Uist. The oil was an issue there as well. Thanks to Calum Macdonald, Garrabost, for bringing it to our attention.
Link: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n12/fraser-macdonald/on-marshy-ground?s=03
‘What’s for dinner?’ ‘Ubhal a' bhìgis!’
21/06/2023
In English there are a large number of ‘fossil words’. These words only have a meaning when they are part of a phrase. A few examples would be ‘to and fro’, ‘without further ado’, ‘with bated breath’ or ‘to run amok’. Have you heard any phrases like this in Gaelic?
You might find them in sayings such as, ‘ubhal a' bhìgis agus pìos de chaolan ga do sheanamhair’, which is a common response to someone asking what is inside the box you are carrying or what you are having for lunch. The latter part of the phrase means ‘…and a piece of intestine for your grandmother’, which is very fine and normal, but what on earth is meant by, ‘ubhal a’ bhìgis’? Another alternative wording for this phrase is ‘cùl a bhìgais’ which I hear is used in Bragar and Arnol and as far out as Gress.
I heard a story here in Grinneabhat from Tina whose father would say, ‘cùl a bhìgais agus pios banana!’ Has anyone explained to you the meaning of ‘ubhal a' bhìgis’ or have you heard any other strange phrases? Let me know at torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org
A good place to find these fossil words in Gaelic is in old song books. I am sure you will find many of these songs with mysterious words still sung here in the West Side today.
A lot of Gaelic songs are the result of emigration, which is very relevant this year because of the Metagama centenary. There were a number of reasons why people emigrated, either through choice or otherwise.
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The Metagama project by the Darns and Yarns group. Each pin represents someone from Bragar and Arnol that left on the Metagama.
Andrew, from Tolstadh a’ Chaolais sent an e-mail with a very interesting word he has heard from his village, ‘Beingearachd - this is very specific. A beingaireachd was a second or third son who didn’t stand to inherit any land so purposefully married into a family with only daughters to inherit their family’s land and would move into that family’s home with them. He wasn’t deserving of a chair at the table so he had to make do sitting on the bench/being.’
Of course, this ‘spare’ also had the option of emigrating to America. Very similar to what the beingearachd of the current Royal Family has done. He was also very far down the seating order at the recent coronation of his father.
'Isn't Yellow on You' says the Rubhach
16/06/2023
I was told the other day that ‘rubhach mun iar’ looks like ‘rubhach mun lar’ (‘Lar’ meaning floor). Which changes the image of a Rubhach going about the West Side to a Rubhach going a bit too heavy on a night out.
Like any language, Gaelic is filled with sentences that can be interpreted incorrectly.
Similarily, you might see ‘Saor Alba’ written on walls around Glasgow or tattooed on someone’s back. The intention for this phrase is to read as ‘Free Scotland’. This phrase is created from the word for free, ‘saor’, and Scotland, ‘Alba’, melded together. However, this can give the wrong message to a Gaelic reader.
Gaelic does not have the same grammatical rules as English. In the phrase, ‘Saor Alba’, the adjective is in the wrong place, as it should be after the noun and, furthermore it should be lenited to become ‘Alba shaor’. Lenition, if you are not sure what it is, is where the first consonant is softened, typically by sticking an ‘h’ after it. There are many different reasons why words are lenited, however that is for another time.
Getting back to it, ‘Saor’ as a noun is the word for joiner. ‘Saor Alba’ reads closer to ‘Scotland’s Joiner’. Maybe it should be a new tag line for Lewis Builders.
However, this also happens the other way around. I was told a story here in Bragar from Christine Macleod about Gaelic speakers sending telegrams. One telegram reads, ‘Nach buidhe dhut a Mhàiri, a’ dol a phòsadh luaidh do chrìdhe aig dheireadh na mìos!’, which correctly translates to, ‘Aren’t you lucky Mairi, marrying the love of your life at the end of the month!’ However, when it was received on the other end, to translate what was sent, they simply used a dictionary to translate each word, one by one. This turned into, ‘Yellow to you Mary, going to marry the lead of your heart at the bottom of a basin!’.
What are some other examples of this you have heard of, where when you transliterate the phrase it turns into nonsense? Or is there any phrases we use which makes you wonder where it came from e.g. ‘nach buidhe dhut!’, why on earth would ‘yellow to you’ come to mean to wish someone luck? E-mail me your thoughts, words, or stories to torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org
The pretty yellow flowers at this time of year at the Bragar Machair might give some indication where the phrase came from
Am Bacan
08/06/2023
Every house in Lewis and further had a bacan, however you rarely see them nowadays. They were used for securing and had many different uses, from keeping things being blown away in the wind, to keeping your cow or ram grazing in a specific area. To secure the bacan in the ground you would use an ‘oileag’, a fist sized stone, to hammer it in. Here in Bragar they would have a cow tied to one of these in the machair, leaving a crop circle of sorts where they ate. I was told a gruesome story yesterday about someone losing their two front teeth trying to tether a ram with a bacan. It wasn’t always a simple job.
It’s interesting that we have a very specific word for an iron stake, ‘bacan’, but words for generic things you may tie to a bacan such as a cord, rope, string, or line are just the Gaelic pronounciation of the English word (còrd, ròpa, sreang, lìn). Does this suggest there was a point in time where we had a bacan but no rope? Or most likely the old word fell out of fashion and ‘ròpa’ became simpler to say. Let me know via torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org if you know some proper Gaelic words that they would use for rope, string, or line.
On the other hand, an example of a strange word that is still used is ‘bobhstair’ which is a mattress. While mattresses are now intricate and expensive engineering creations, at the time the name was given, a ‘bobhstair’ would have been a sack full of hay.
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Here is a bacan we have in a croft in Point, currently holding a bucket as opposed to a cow or a ram it would be constraining in its heyday.
I’ve been told that in some people here in Bragar mark their bacans with an identification mark. We don’t do that over in Point. A new, recently sharpened tairsgeir, possibly, yes, but not a Bacan. Are Rubhachs simply more trustworthy towards each other or do people in the West Side just have common sense?
'Maothag' and other '-ag' words
07/06/2023
Before we could nip down to the crofters for full, well-balanced chicken feed, hens were typically fed just what you had such as boiled potatoes or bread. While this was resourceful, this meant that chickens sometimes had a calcium deficiency and this would lead to hens laying eggs without a shell, hence the term ‘maothag’.
This presumably comes from the word ‘maol’ meaning ‘bare’ or ‘bald’, and with the '-ag' suffix added, this turns into 'maothag', a 'little bare thing'. The cure to a ‘maothag’ was to collect fine broken down shells from the beach and sprinkle them throughout the hen shed to counter this calcium deficiency.
Another one of these ‘-ag’ words is ‘graphag’, which is a small triangle that appears when three peat banks are cut towards each other. Gaelic is filled with these wonderful words that you would never think needed a name.
Can you think of any of more of these ‘-ag’ words that you know? Possibly ask your granny for some. If you find any, please e-mail me at torcull.macleod@bragararnol.org with the word and where you’re from. With your permission, I will add your word to this page along with any stories you have behind it.
Presumably Edison thought the recording of last words would be for inheritance purposes and perhaps a replacement for a Will? The most famous last words were by a General Sedgwick during the American Civil war who when asked not to stand up but remain crouched stated, 'They couldn't shoot an elephant from ...'
AML
I recently came across the amusing song Saoil A' Mhór which refers to Arnol in a couple of places (words here: https://www.letrasdecanciones.fm/anna-murray/saoil-a-mhor ) Did Donald Morrison compose this one as well? I suppose Arnol had its own bards as well?
Calum
Just to add to the way you explain how words are negated in gaelic, one interesting example is 'moch' meaning early in the day and 'anmoch' (an-moch) meaning late in the day.
J MacDonald
Very interesting article about the whitehouses. Do people know who constructed these houses? They are very similar in all the villages. Presumably they had a common building plan which would need to have been approved by the authorities of the time in Stornoway. I wonder if these county council records still exist?
Calum
I notice you spell a person from Point as Rubhach rather then Rudhach. Are both correct?
AML
Good proverbs in the latest blog. I think the one about not knowing someone till you have burnt a peatstack with them could refer to the challenges with cutting and drying the peats together, or it could simply be that you need to live with someone at least a year to get to know them properly.