Watson A. The Essential Gaelic-English Dictionary. - Birlinn
Publishers, 2001. - 440 p.
Dictionary makers often point out that their work is a compromise -between completeness on the one hand and space and expense on the other. Even the monumental Dwelly dictionary of Gaelic is not comprehensive, and there are stories of copies of Dwelly in Highland homes, their pages speckled with words added by the family from their own Gaelic.
Another common defence mechanism among dictionary makers is for them to acknowledge that their choice of words and expressions will not please everyone. They are usually right!
In the present volume the aim has been to present as rich a cross-section of the Gaelic language as possible in the space available, giving due weight both to the new contexts of our times and to the riches of the past, as well as to both colloquial and more formal language. The registers, styles and contexts represented in the dictionary include: vulgar, familiar, colloquial, formal and traditional words and expressions; examples drawn from mode poetry, mode and traditional song (an area that attracts many leaers to the language), proverbs and sayings and, occasionally, placenames; the more common vocabulary of administration, politics and govement, joualism and information technology also figures here.
As a leaer of Gaelic myself, I have had the leaer in mind throughout - though I naturally hope the fluent leaer, and perhaps even the native speaker, will find value and interest here also. A priority has been to include in the entries as many examples as space would allow, showing words and expressions in actual use. There are many cases where merely giving a translation equivalent of the headword would not be adequate. A further aim has been to include the kind of explanatory information that I would have found useful myself (and still do! ), as a leaer of the language.
Novel features of the dictionary include the cross-references given in many entries. These refer the reader to related words and expressions (NB, not necessarily exact synonyms) with the aim of increasing the
leaer's vocabulary or reminding the more advanced user of alteative words that might be appropriate in a particular context. This gives to the dictionary a little of the nature of a thesaurus, for those who might find that useful, as well as doing a little of the work of an English-Gaelic dictionary by leading the reader to more than one possible Gaelic equivalent for a given word or concept in English. It is hoped that the cross-references might also encourage the leaer to lea by browsing. In general, I have tried to make the dictionary into a leaing and reference tool a little more flexible than existing Gaelic-English volumes.
Another feature not, I think, found in any other Gaelic dictionary is the giving of a limited number of Scots equivalents for headwords. This is done for two main reasons. Firstly, a Scots equivalent can help to make a particular nuance clearer. For example, 'a wifie', or 'an old wifie' for cailleach, or 'give a row to' for the verb c?in, can give a Scot a clearer idea of some shades of meaning of these words than the English equivalents on their own. Secondly, the presentation of the two languages in the same context might help in a very small way to build bridges between them, encouraging us to think of them as side by side rather than in opposition. As someone with a strong interest in both Gaelic and Scots, I'm saddened and exasperated to see the exchanges that break out from time to time in the press along the lines of 'My language is older than yours, so there! ' or 'Why should your language get more money from the govement than mine? ' It would surely be more productive to concentrate on what should unite us rather than the mostly illusory or irrelevant things that appear to divide us.
Many regret the decline of the pithy, idiomatic Gaelic of the past, and find the Gaelic used today in administration, joualism and broadcasting, for example, pale and fushionless in comparison. But a dictionary has to embrace a language as it is. I make no apology for giving samples of these barer registers of Gaelic, and for going so far as to include examples of caiques (expressions closely based on an English model such as ?rdaich ?omhaigh na G?idhlig - raise/promote the image of Gaelic), and one or two other expressions or constructions that may well be questionable from the point of view of approved grammar and usage, but which form a part of the language as it is used today.
Language inevitably evolves in step with a society, its technologies, attitudes and preoccupations, and Gaelic has been no exception. And in an age where even a world language such as French has been seriously penetrated by Anglicisms - in spite of a centuries-old official policy of keeping the language 'pure' - it is not surprising if Gaelic too has been radically affected in many of its registers.
At the same time, a good deal of traditional Gaelic survives in the modem language, especially in the form of set expressions, idioms, proverbs and sayings. Users of the language who so wish, therefore, can cultivate a style and a vocabulary that include a goodly leavening of traditional language, enriching their Gaelic without running the risk of sounding too old-fashioned or pretentious. A good selection of such material is included in this dictionary, though it should be noted that the kind of items that are specifically marked '(trad)' would not always fit comfortably into ordinary conversation. They are given as the kinds of words and expressions that might be useful in a fairly specialised context, or to give information that the more advanced leaer might find of interest. For example is math seachad e - it's good that it's over - has the traditional feel to it, but would be appropriate and expressive in an everyday context, on completion of some task or other. On the other hand, for example, the traditional dative ann an Albainn - in Scotland - or the phrase fhuair e b?s le n?imhdean - he died at the hand of enemies - would seem archaic. It goes without saying, though, that many of the items marked '(trad)' will be met with in reading Gaelic from earlier decades or centuries, which is another excellent reason for their inclusion here.
It is my view that the leaer of a language should, especially in the earlier stages, err on the side of conservatism and not immediately take up the latest changes in colloquial usage. There is the obvious risk of sounding foolish by trying to be trendy when your grasp of the language may not yet be secure! Or at times native speakers may feel you are trying to be too clever.
In the entries, for the sake of consistency, I have made one or two conservative choices in presentation. In particular, I have regularly used the genitive case of the noun after a present participle, as in a' cosnadh airgid - eaing money. I have done this because the genitive is 'grammatically' correct. In fact, though, many speakers have ceased to observe this 'rule', and the construction with the radical form of the noun - a' cosnadh airgead - would be acceptable in most contexts except, say, an examination, or a formal talk or speech.
Dictionary makers often point out that their work is a compromise -between completeness on the one hand and space and expense on the other. Even the monumental Dwelly dictionary of Gaelic is not comprehensive, and there are stories of copies of Dwelly in Highland homes, their pages speckled with words added by the family from their own Gaelic.
Another common defence mechanism among dictionary makers is for them to acknowledge that their choice of words and expressions will not please everyone. They are usually right!
In the present volume the aim has been to present as rich a cross-section of the Gaelic language as possible in the space available, giving due weight both to the new contexts of our times and to the riches of the past, as well as to both colloquial and more formal language. The registers, styles and contexts represented in the dictionary include: vulgar, familiar, colloquial, formal and traditional words and expressions; examples drawn from mode poetry, mode and traditional song (an area that attracts many leaers to the language), proverbs and sayings and, occasionally, placenames; the more common vocabulary of administration, politics and govement, joualism and information technology also figures here.
As a leaer of Gaelic myself, I have had the leaer in mind throughout - though I naturally hope the fluent leaer, and perhaps even the native speaker, will find value and interest here also. A priority has been to include in the entries as many examples as space would allow, showing words and expressions in actual use. There are many cases where merely giving a translation equivalent of the headword would not be adequate. A further aim has been to include the kind of explanatory information that I would have found useful myself (and still do! ), as a leaer of the language.
Novel features of the dictionary include the cross-references given in many entries. These refer the reader to related words and expressions (NB, not necessarily exact synonyms) with the aim of increasing the
leaer's vocabulary or reminding the more advanced user of alteative words that might be appropriate in a particular context. This gives to the dictionary a little of the nature of a thesaurus, for those who might find that useful, as well as doing a little of the work of an English-Gaelic dictionary by leading the reader to more than one possible Gaelic equivalent for a given word or concept in English. It is hoped that the cross-references might also encourage the leaer to lea by browsing. In general, I have tried to make the dictionary into a leaing and reference tool a little more flexible than existing Gaelic-English volumes.
Another feature not, I think, found in any other Gaelic dictionary is the giving of a limited number of Scots equivalents for headwords. This is done for two main reasons. Firstly, a Scots equivalent can help to make a particular nuance clearer. For example, 'a wifie', or 'an old wifie' for cailleach, or 'give a row to' for the verb c?in, can give a Scot a clearer idea of some shades of meaning of these words than the English equivalents on their own. Secondly, the presentation of the two languages in the same context might help in a very small way to build bridges between them, encouraging us to think of them as side by side rather than in opposition. As someone with a strong interest in both Gaelic and Scots, I'm saddened and exasperated to see the exchanges that break out from time to time in the press along the lines of 'My language is older than yours, so there! ' or 'Why should your language get more money from the govement than mine? ' It would surely be more productive to concentrate on what should unite us rather than the mostly illusory or irrelevant things that appear to divide us.
Many regret the decline of the pithy, idiomatic Gaelic of the past, and find the Gaelic used today in administration, joualism and broadcasting, for example, pale and fushionless in comparison. But a dictionary has to embrace a language as it is. I make no apology for giving samples of these barer registers of Gaelic, and for going so far as to include examples of caiques (expressions closely based on an English model such as ?rdaich ?omhaigh na G?idhlig - raise/promote the image of Gaelic), and one or two other expressions or constructions that may well be questionable from the point of view of approved grammar and usage, but which form a part of the language as it is used today.
Language inevitably evolves in step with a society, its technologies, attitudes and preoccupations, and Gaelic has been no exception. And in an age where even a world language such as French has been seriously penetrated by Anglicisms - in spite of a centuries-old official policy of keeping the language 'pure' - it is not surprising if Gaelic too has been radically affected in many of its registers.
At the same time, a good deal of traditional Gaelic survives in the modem language, especially in the form of set expressions, idioms, proverbs and sayings. Users of the language who so wish, therefore, can cultivate a style and a vocabulary that include a goodly leavening of traditional language, enriching their Gaelic without running the risk of sounding too old-fashioned or pretentious. A good selection of such material is included in this dictionary, though it should be noted that the kind of items that are specifically marked '(trad)' would not always fit comfortably into ordinary conversation. They are given as the kinds of words and expressions that might be useful in a fairly specialised context, or to give information that the more advanced leaer might find of interest. For example is math seachad e - it's good that it's over - has the traditional feel to it, but would be appropriate and expressive in an everyday context, on completion of some task or other. On the other hand, for example, the traditional dative ann an Albainn - in Scotland - or the phrase fhuair e b?s le n?imhdean - he died at the hand of enemies - would seem archaic. It goes without saying, though, that many of the items marked '(trad)' will be met with in reading Gaelic from earlier decades or centuries, which is another excellent reason for their inclusion here.
It is my view that the leaer of a language should, especially in the earlier stages, err on the side of conservatism and not immediately take up the latest changes in colloquial usage. There is the obvious risk of sounding foolish by trying to be trendy when your grasp of the language may not yet be secure! Or at times native speakers may feel you are trying to be too clever.
In the entries, for the sake of consistency, I have made one or two conservative choices in presentation. In particular, I have regularly used the genitive case of the noun after a present participle, as in a' cosnadh airgid - eaing money. I have done this because the genitive is 'grammatically' correct. In fact, though, many speakers have ceased to observe this 'rule', and the construction with the radical form of the noun - a' cosnadh airgead - would be acceptable in most contexts except, say, an examination, or a formal talk or speech.