Thomson D.S. The New English-Gaelic Dictionary. - Glasgow: Gairm
Publications, 1986. - 211 p.
The need for an up-to-date English-Gaelic Dictionary has been a pressing one for a long time. Those currently in use are Mackenzie's, dating from 1845, and Maclennan's, dating from 1925, both recently reprinted without alteration or addition. Neither has been adequate for a long time, and both miss entirely the explosive expansion of new concepts and terms that are characteristic of the last fifty years. Just as importantly, both fail to distinguish adequately between the separate senses that many English words have, and this lack of close definition has proved a pitfall for many leaers of Gaelic. A recent pocket dictionary, Abair, has a selection of up-to-date words and usages, but the range of items is restricted by the size.
In another sense, The New English-Gaelic Dictionary comes at an opportune time. The Examination Board, through its Gaelic Panel and a specialist' Sub-committee on Orthography, has recently approved new recommendations for Gaelic spelling: the new orthography will come into use in the Board's examination papers in 1985, and has already been adopted by such organisations as the Historical Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic, the National Bible Society of Scotland (in the new translation of Mark) and Gairm Publications, including the influential quarterly Gairm. This new system is used in the present Dictionary, which thus uses only the grave accent as a mark of length, signals the class of the consonant by the class of the adjacent vowel, introduces some simplification of consonant groups, uses clearly defined conventions for vowel representations, makes greater use of the hyphen to signal non-initial stress, restricts the use of the apostrophe, and tidies up the spelling conventions for borrowed words. (For example, we use f?in rather than f?in, togte rather than togta and taigh rather than tigh, coithional rather than coimhthionat and buaghallan rather than buadhghallan (occasionally two forms are featured, as bliadhna and blianna for 'year'), boireann rather than boirionn and turas rather than turus, a-mach and a-nis rather than a mach and a nis, chan cil and nuair rather than chan 'eil/cha n-eil and 'n uair, and we write borrowed words such as dioro, n?idhlean, tacsaidh, soircas, poileasaidh (giro, nylon, taxi, circus, policy) according to Gaelic conventions). Both ?/?s and ?/?s survive in this work, for 'out, out of, ex-, dis-' etc.
Each head-word is followed by an abbreviation indicating the part of speech involved, and the Gaelic equivalent(s), nouns being followed by an indication of their gender (when variable this is indicated also). Semantic categories are separated by the use of a semi-colon, while both [/] and [, ] indicate closer alteatives or syrtorfyms. Illustrative phrases are sometimes given at the end of the article. Thus 'ham n (meat) hama f; sliasaid f, ceathramh m deiridh', where the items after the semi-colon do not refer to meat, and sliasaid and ceathramh deiridh both refer to a part of the
anatomy (human or animal). Although, by using these conventions of the semi-colon, comma and oblique, and on occasion further explanatory English glosses, the Gaelic equivalents of different senses of English words are set out, it will sometimes be advisable to follow up different Gaelic words in more detail than can be given here; in such cases Dwelly's Illustrated Gaelic Dictionary should be consulted, and its wealth of examples considered.
Both literature and speech have been freely drawn on for the purposes of this dictionary, and various dialect forms feature e.g. bocsa and bucas (box), muidhe/crannag (chu), le?bag/l?abag (flounder), ciont(a) (blame). Alteative stresses may be indicated e.g. ion-mholta, ionmholta. Gaelic equivalents for mode, technical and abstract terms have been culled from writing, speech and imagination, and adaptations of various kinds (cainb-lus 'cannabis', caisgeas 'impedance') are used as well as borrowings (siolandair "cylinder', taidhr 'tyre', cuango 'quango'); various inteational scientific terms are adapted lightly or not at all (quantum, Freudail 'Freudian'). A considerable number of commoner proper names (personal, place, institutional) is included. Existing dictionaries have been used, and Tomas de Bhaldraithe's English Irish Dictionary (1959) has often been a source of stimulation and guidance. A few word lists have been consulted e.g. John Paterson's The Gaels have a Word for it (1964), the Examination Board's 'List of Linguistic and Literary Terms', the 'Business Vocabulary' produced by the Gaelic Educational Materials Unit, Nicolson Institute, Mackie's list of musical terms (Gairm No. 78, 1972) and the Glossary in Bith-e?las (1976).
A significant number of new words and usages came into currency through the pages of Gairm since 1952, and so it is particularly appropriate that Gairm Publications should be publishing this Dictionary. I wish to thank my colleagues Donald J. Maclean and Robert Ferguson and Mary Mackenzie for their help in launching and distributing the book, and the many contributors to Gairm over the last thirty years for the stimulation they have contributed.
August, 1981, Aberfeldy
Derick S. Thomson
?
The need for an up-to-date English-Gaelic Dictionary has been a pressing one for a long time. Those currently in use are Mackenzie's, dating from 1845, and Maclennan's, dating from 1925, both recently reprinted without alteration or addition. Neither has been adequate for a long time, and both miss entirely the explosive expansion of new concepts and terms that are characteristic of the last fifty years. Just as importantly, both fail to distinguish adequately between the separate senses that many English words have, and this lack of close definition has proved a pitfall for many leaers of Gaelic. A recent pocket dictionary, Abair, has a selection of up-to-date words and usages, but the range of items is restricted by the size.
In another sense, The New English-Gaelic Dictionary comes at an opportune time. The Examination Board, through its Gaelic Panel and a specialist' Sub-committee on Orthography, has recently approved new recommendations for Gaelic spelling: the new orthography will come into use in the Board's examination papers in 1985, and has already been adopted by such organisations as the Historical Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic, the National Bible Society of Scotland (in the new translation of Mark) and Gairm Publications, including the influential quarterly Gairm. This new system is used in the present Dictionary, which thus uses only the grave accent as a mark of length, signals the class of the consonant by the class of the adjacent vowel, introduces some simplification of consonant groups, uses clearly defined conventions for vowel representations, makes greater use of the hyphen to signal non-initial stress, restricts the use of the apostrophe, and tidies up the spelling conventions for borrowed words. (For example, we use f?in rather than f?in, togte rather than togta and taigh rather than tigh, coithional rather than coimhthionat and buaghallan rather than buadhghallan (occasionally two forms are featured, as bliadhna and blianna for 'year'), boireann rather than boirionn and turas rather than turus, a-mach and a-nis rather than a mach and a nis, chan cil and nuair rather than chan 'eil/cha n-eil and 'n uair, and we write borrowed words such as dioro, n?idhlean, tacsaidh, soircas, poileasaidh (giro, nylon, taxi, circus, policy) according to Gaelic conventions). Both ?/?s and ?/?s survive in this work, for 'out, out of, ex-, dis-' etc.
Each head-word is followed by an abbreviation indicating the part of speech involved, and the Gaelic equivalent(s), nouns being followed by an indication of their gender (when variable this is indicated also). Semantic categories are separated by the use of a semi-colon, while both [/] and [, ] indicate closer alteatives or syrtorfyms. Illustrative phrases are sometimes given at the end of the article. Thus 'ham n (meat) hama f; sliasaid f, ceathramh m deiridh', where the items after the semi-colon do not refer to meat, and sliasaid and ceathramh deiridh both refer to a part of the
anatomy (human or animal). Although, by using these conventions of the semi-colon, comma and oblique, and on occasion further explanatory English glosses, the Gaelic equivalents of different senses of English words are set out, it will sometimes be advisable to follow up different Gaelic words in more detail than can be given here; in such cases Dwelly's Illustrated Gaelic Dictionary should be consulted, and its wealth of examples considered.
Both literature and speech have been freely drawn on for the purposes of this dictionary, and various dialect forms feature e.g. bocsa and bucas (box), muidhe/crannag (chu), le?bag/l?abag (flounder), ciont(a) (blame). Alteative stresses may be indicated e.g. ion-mholta, ionmholta. Gaelic equivalents for mode, technical and abstract terms have been culled from writing, speech and imagination, and adaptations of various kinds (cainb-lus 'cannabis', caisgeas 'impedance') are used as well as borrowings (siolandair "cylinder', taidhr 'tyre', cuango 'quango'); various inteational scientific terms are adapted lightly or not at all (quantum, Freudail 'Freudian'). A considerable number of commoner proper names (personal, place, institutional) is included. Existing dictionaries have been used, and Tomas de Bhaldraithe's English Irish Dictionary (1959) has often been a source of stimulation and guidance. A few word lists have been consulted e.g. John Paterson's The Gaels have a Word for it (1964), the Examination Board's 'List of Linguistic and Literary Terms', the 'Business Vocabulary' produced by the Gaelic Educational Materials Unit, Nicolson Institute, Mackie's list of musical terms (Gairm No. 78, 1972) and the Glossary in Bith-e?las (1976).
A significant number of new words and usages came into currency through the pages of Gairm since 1952, and so it is particularly appropriate that Gairm Publications should be publishing this Dictionary. I wish to thank my colleagues Donald J. Maclean and Robert Ferguson and Mary Mackenzie for their help in launching and distributing the book, and the many contributors to Gairm over the last thirty years for the stimulation they have contributed.
August, 1981, Aberfeldy
Derick S. Thomson
?