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New for 2014, learngaelic.net have a new Gaelic course online. I tried lesson 1 last night and I got 7 out of 10 in the quiz. Also mutations (Cymraeg) have a Gàidhlig eqiuvalent called lenitions that are caused by certain words, however it's just the 'h' that's added and the sound changes, a Mhòrag, a Chatrìona etc.

Six interesting words to get going:

fuar oer cold
blàth cynnes/twym warm
dorcha tywyll dark
soilleir[/i disglair bright
fliuch gwlyb wet
tioram sych dry

You can just imagine someone chucking a bucket of water over you. Fliuch!

http://www.learngaelic.net/lg-beginners/

So there's an author I like whose Christian name is Mhairi. Why is there a lenition when it's unaffected by any other word? That's how it appears on her book and is pronounced Vairi.

I'm not 100% sure yet, Gill! I do know that when you're addressing someone face to face you use 'a' between the greeting and the name. Halò a Mhàiri. Halò a Mhòrag. Halò a Dhonail etc. I emailed someone at the Bòrd na Gàidhlig before the winterval called Màiri. I guess she would often lenit and the b would become a v.

However before I became interested in Gaelic, I knew of the existence of a Scottish folk song (in Scots English) called 'Mhàiri's Wedding'. Apparently no lenition exists, it's Màiri's Wedding according to Google. But I never knew this!

So, as I have learned (and it's NOT THAT MUCH at the moment!!) the true name is Mairi, but in conversation it lenits. This does not happen with personal names in Welsh, except with more than name where the 'a' (and) causes an aspirant mutation, as in Sian a Chatrin, Dylan a Thecwyn.

I guess many people in Scotland would name their baby girls Mhàiri unaware of the fact it is not the true form, just because it sounds Scottish and Gaelic. The late John Martyn did so!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Martyn

Weather's been interesting today. This morning, I could say tha e dorcha. Or perhaps tha e fliuch.
This afternoon was a case of tha e tioramand that e soilleir
Then at teatime it was tha e dorcha and tha e fliuch once more!

tha e..... = mae hi'n...... = it is (when the weather is concerned)

Just found out what my name is in Gàidhlig. It's Dàibhidh. I knew because I had an email from somebody in Inverness and she addressed me 'Hàlo a Dhàibhidh.

Of course, Welsh personal names are very angliscised (Jones, Griffiths etc.) but Scots and Irish names that 'sound' angliscised (Donnie Munro, Gerry Adams, Moya Brennan etc.) all have Gaelic equivalents and are used in Gaelic/Irish media and conversation: Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh for example.

You may or may not have heard of a commercially available cocktail of whisky and honey called Glayva. You often find it tucked away with the kirch and advocaat in the supermarket. Glayva comes from the two words glè mhath which mean Very Good! Realised it when I was practising saying glè mhath in the shower just now. I already know what 'glè' is because I know the phrases 'tha e glè fhuar' and 'tha e glè fhliuch' , meaning that it's very cold and very wet respectively.

It's so good when the jigsaw pieces come together like this when you're learning something.

You may or may not have heard of a commercially available cocktail of whisky and honey called Glayva. You often find it tucked away with the kirch and advocaat in the supermarket. Glayva comes from the two words glè mhath which mean Very Good! Realised it when I was practising saying glè mhath in the shower just now. I already know what 'glè' is because I know the phrases 'tha e glè fhuar' and 'tha e glè fhliuch' , meaning that it's very cold and very wet respectively.

It's so good when the jigsaw pieces come together like this when you're learning something.

I was watching 'Speaking Our Language' last night and managed to pick up 3 Gàidhlig words (plus another one from 'Gaelic For Punks' by An-tUabhas on Soundcloud that's slightly naughtier than pòg ma thòin making 4) which I can still remember this morning:

an tSìde the weather
tha e brèagha it is lovely (suppose you could say tha e glè bhrèagha also)
an tEilean Sgìtheanach the Isle of Skye

I didn't have to repeat the programme one hundred plus times nightly like I have to do with a single scale. Just once, followed by a rewind through the part where the word was spoken and subtitled, plus looking up the word on the learngaelic.net dictionary.