The Little Letter for Gaelic Learners

Ruairidh was telling you about a book that came out this year – The Naughty Little Book of Gaelic. It was put together by Michael Newton. He’s not encouraging people to engage in bad behaviour or bad language! But there’s an interesting vocabulary there. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

Ruairidh reckons that English is better than Gaelic if you want to use bad language. We don’t have a word like the ‘f-word’. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have bad words in Gaelic. Or bad phrases. They exist, and a small guidebook has come out which is full of them. In addition to swearing, there are chapters about cursing, using tobacco, drinking and sex. Find out more in this week’s letter. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

We don’t have too much writing in Gaelic that deals with desire and lust. The famous poet Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair wrote poetry like that, however. But not much of it was published. Find out more in this week’s letter. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

This week, Ruiairidh has more folklore for you involving the fairies. Be sure to catch this week’s letter which tells the old story The Humpbacked Old Men and the Fairies. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

You’ll be familiar with the fairies. If not personally, you’ll have heard stories about them. Do you know how the fairies came into being? There’s no account of them in the Bible, as far as I’m aware. I don’t think that Charles Darwin passed an opinion on them either. But the old Gaels had an opinion on the matter. Here’s an account from Mingulay in the nineteenth century. Find out more in this week’s letter. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

Is there a plant you really like because it has a special fragrance? A long time ago, when Ruairidh was living in Tasmania, he liked the lemon-scented boronia. It had a smell like a lemon. It brings back memories of beautiful days in the mountains. This week he takes a look at Scottish flowers. Find out more in this week’s letters. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

Today Ruairidh has more information about Clach a’ Choire – The Ringing Stone – on Tiree. Make sure you listen to this week’s letter to find out more about a story about the stone and Lachlann the Bàrd. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

Ruairidh was in Tiree recently. He was staying in Balephedrish. That’s on the north side of the island. Balephedrish was named, apparently, for Aodh MacPhèadrais. He was a cleric in the fifteenth century. Find out more about Aodh MacPhèadrais and Tiree in this week’s letter. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

In some place in the Highlands there is the Wonderful Land. Everyone belongs to the same clan – the Wonderful Clan. It’s one of them – Big Gòrach MacIongantach – that left us this history. There were two brothers with the same given [baptism] name. Big Gòrach was three years older than Wee Gòrach. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

Each person will have his own choice of the most beautiful glen in Scotland. The choice of the late Finlay MacRae was Glen Affric. Finlay passed away a few weeks ago. He was heavily involved in the conservation of the forest in the glen. Find out more about Finlay MacRae's work with Glen Affric in this week's letter. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

The squirrel only rarely appears in place-names in Scotland. Why is that? Well, in his new book Reading the Gaelic Landscape, John Murray says that it possibly proves that the Highlands were losing their forest when the Gaels were naming the land. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

Am Bile is near Portree on the Isle of Skye. It’s a big grassy slope. Am Bile. Bile is an old Gaelic word for a tree. Often it stands for a tree that was sacred. Perhaps that was in [the] pre-Christian days. Find out more about Am Bile in this week's letter. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

In May Ruairidh was in Knoydart in Canada. In June he was in Knoydart in Scotland. Both Knoydarts are nice, but different from each other. Find out the differences and the similarities in this week’s letter. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

Ruairidh continues to tell us about the poet Allan MacDonald, Allan the Ridge. He was from Mabou in Cape Breton. He lived between 1794 and 1868. Effie Rankin wrote a book about him. Find out more about Allan in this week’s letter. Accompanying text is available in both English and Gaelic at bbc.co.uk/litirbheag

When Ruairidh was in Nova Scotia recently, he met Effie Rankin. She gave him a copy of her book Às a’ Bhràighe. The book is about a poet in Nova Scotia in the nineteenth century. He was Allan MacDonald or Allan the Ridge. He shows the wealth of Gaelic in Nova Scotia.