An acquaintance of mine has taken it into his head to send me a couple of e-mails in (presumably Scots) Gaelic, and I’d be grateful if any speakers of Gaelic could let me know what they say. I’ve had a go at translating the messages using on-line resources, but without much success.
Mods, I’ve checked the forum rules and requests for translation help are apparently OK. I don’t think there’s anything untoward in the messages but if there’s anything offensive in there I apologise in advance.
Message 1:
"X choir,
An urrain dhuinn bruidhinn air feasgar di dòmhnaich. Bu toil leam clàs-fon a chleachdadh. Bhith mi fòn a chuir air ochd uair mas toil leat.
X"
Message 2:
"X choir,
A bheil thu air leughadh ath-mìneachadh. Tha e glè doirbh. Anns an clàs-fon shealtainn mi aig mo duilleagan agus chaill mi de thuirt mi an toiseach gun robh e air ràdh mun “emphatic verbs” Ma bha mi air a tuigsinn thuirt e gu bheil thu ag ràdh:
Mo thaghadh-sa
do thaghadh-sa
a thaghadh-san
a taghadh-se
ar taghadh-e
ur thaghadh-se
an taghadh-san
Ah bhiel mi ceart? Tha mi a’ smaoineachadh nach bheil uile gnìomhairean air an son sin. Tha ceart a-rithist.
His use of “mi” would make me think it’s Scots-Gaelic rather than Gaelic or “ulster scots”. I only know a little Irish, and alot of the words used are Irish, but my guess would be along the lines of such:
First message
"Dear X (X fair, literally),
We something something on Sunday. I have a will ( I desire to) conference call (clás is a buckle, amongst other things) something, Call me when you want to.
X
The second one is asking about wether a list of tenses of a verb is correct, and about something the leader (perhaps a class leader) was saying about it.
The last line is something like “am I correct? I was thinking about wether something something. The right is running (??) or What’s right is right (??)”
Hi ToF, thanks for the reply. I’m pretty sure the message was intended for me because he did start it with my name both times, and because I replied to the first one saying I’d have to find a dictionary and decipher it. He knows I don’t speak Gaelic, so I really don’t know why he’s doing this. I did manage to work out from the first message something about a phone call (at eight o’clock?). It’s all very odd.
While I only know two phrases gaelic and don’t know you to spell them, I suggest you answer with something which sounds like ‘pok mi hoad’ (as an aside, I would love to know how to spell it, along with ‘slange va’).
Nope, it’s kiss my ass. The other one I don’t know about, but when Mr. Dusty wakes up from his nap, I’ll ask him. There’s a good chance he’ll know.
K, here’s how “poge mahone” is spelled. (That’s a long “o” in poge, btw)
Pog Mo Thoin. There’s supposed to be an accent mark above the first “o” but I can’t figure out how to type it that way…
Sorry for the hijack, Ellef. I’ll try to behave now.
Thanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately I can’t really use it as whilst I have no desire to be rude to this guy, I don’t wish to get into some sort of jokey flirtatious correspondence with him either because (a) I don’t fancy him, and (b) he’s married.
It might be, as TwistofFate said upthread, that he meant the message for someone else whose address is next to mine in his address book.
Quick rule for future if you want to know whether it is the Scots or Irish variety of Gaelic. The fadas go the other way. In Irish they’re á é ó etc. , in Scots Gaelic à è ò etc.
Thanks for the link, AG. I did try using that dictionary among others to decipher the message, but I without knowing how the language works I didn’t get very far.
Never mind, I’ll wait a while and see if anyone else responds, and if not I think I might be able to ask someone at work.