Gaelic

Chunnaic agus chuala sinn mar–thà gu bheil fuaimneachadh na phàirt mhòr de dhualchainnt.

Tuigidh tu na chanas cuideigin le blas no dualchainnt eadar-dhealaichte ged a tha fuaim diofraichte air an cainnt.

Dè mu dheidhinn cànain ge–tà?

Uill, tha sin a rèir cho faisg is a tha dà chànan càirdeach ri chèile.

Tha a' mhòr­chuid de na cànain air feadh         an t–saoghail a' buntainn ri teaghlach cànain.

Tha Beurla na pàirt den teaghlach Ghearmailteach, agus Gàidhlig na pàirt den teaghlach Cheilteach.

Mar sin, tha dàimh gu math faisg eadar Gàidhlig na h–Alba agus Gàidhlig na h–Èireann, mar a chunnaic sinn aig toiseach a' Chuspair seo.

Tha oidhirpean ann gus ceanglaichean a thogail is a neartachadh eadar Alba agus Èirinn.

Bidh am buidheann Colmcille:

English

We have already seen and heard that pronunciation is a big part of dialect.

You can understand what someone with a different accent or dialect says even though their speech sounds different.

What about language though?

Well, that depends on how closely two languages are related to each other.

Most of the languages around the world belong to a language family.

English is part of the Germanic family, and Gaelic is part of the Celtic family.

Therefore, there is a very close relationship between Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic, as we saw at the beginning of this Cuspair.

There are efforts to build and strengthen links between Scotland and Ireland.

The organisation Colmcille:

Gaelic

a' cumail taic ri pròiseactan agus tha app ann a–nise airson abairtean ionnsachadh san dà chànan

English

supports projects and there is now an app to learn phrases in both languages

Gaelic

Gu mì–fhortanach, tha eachdraidh na Gàidhlig cuideachd gu math coltach ann an Alba agus Èirinn.

Tha Gàidhlig na h–Èireann air crìonadh gu mòr bho 1850 air adhart ri linn nam Fuadaichean agus ri linn na Gorta Mòire.

Bha còrr is ochd millean duine a' fuireach an Èirinn ann an 1840, ach thuit sin gu 4.5 millean ann an 1900.

Tha Gàidhlig na h–Èireann (Gaeilge) na cànan oifigeil ann am Poblachd na h–Èireann agus tha i ga teagasg anns na sgoiltean air feadh na dùthcha.

Mar sin, ged a tha na coimhearsnachdan gnàthasach a' crìonadh, tha timcheall air dà mhillean ann an Èireann a chanas gu bheil comas labhairt aca sa Ghàidhlig.

Air sgàth 's gu bheil dàimh gu math dlùth eadar Gàidhlig na h–Alba agus Gàidhlig na h–Èireann tha an t–uabhas a ghabhas tuigsinn eadar an dà chànan.

Tha seo fìor cuideachd eadar cànain eile a tha faisg: Duitsis agus Gearmailtis, no Suainis, Danmhairgis agus Nirribhis, no Portagailis agus Spàinntis, mar eisimpleir.

Ach tha diofaran mòra ann cuideachd, gu sònraichte a thaobh gràmair agus ghnìomhairean.

Tha còmhraidhean sìmplidh eadar an dà chànan an ìre mhath furasta—chan eil diofar mòr eadar iad seo:

English

Unfortunately, the history of Gaelic is also very similar in Scotland and Ireland.

Gaelic in Ireland has declined significantly from 1850 onwards during the Clearances and the Great Famine (An Gorta Mór).

More than eight million people lived in Ireland in 1840, but that fell to 4.5 million in 1900.

Irish Gaelic (Gaeilge, Irish) is the official language of the Republic of Ireland and is taught in schools throughout the country.

Therefore, although the traditional communities are declining, there are approximately two million in Ireland who say they can speak Gaelic.

Because there is a very close relationship between Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic, there is a lot that can be mutually understood between the two languages.

This is also true between other languages that are close: Dutch and German, or Swedish, Danish and Norwegian, or Portuguese and Spanish, for example.

But there are also significant differences, especially in terms of grammar and verbs.

Simple conversations between the two languages are relatively easy—there is not much difference between these:

Gaelic

Agus ged a tha tòrr fhaclan gu math coltach ri chèile san dà chànan, tha liosta nach beag de dh'fhaclan a th' againn nach eil aca, no a th' aca nach eil againn.

Tha corra eisimpleir ri fhaicinn sa chlàr an seo.

Cluinnidh tu freisin fad na h–ùine acasan far an canamaid cuideachd .

Agus chan eil am facal beag feumail co–dhiù acasan, 's e ar aon nós a chanas iad.

English

And although many words are very similar in both languages, there is a considerable list of words that we have that they don't have, or that they have that we don't have.

A few examples can be seen in the table here.

You will hear freisin used all the time by them where we would say cuideachd .

And they don't have the useful little word co–dhiù , they say ar aon nós .

Gaelic

Tha diofar mòr eadar na gnìomhairean no briathra .

A–rithist tha an t–uabhas ann a tha coltach ri chèile, ach cuid a th' againn nach eil aca.

Chithear eisimpleirean sa chlàr air an taobh chlì gu h–ìosal.

Tha tràth làithreach (present tense) aca agus cleachdaidh iad Níor an àite Cha do , agus Ní an àite Cha —am measg iomadh diofar eile!

English

There is a big difference between the gnìomhairean (verbs, Gaelic) or briathra (verbs, Irish).

Again there is a lot that is similar, but some we have that they don't.

Examples can be seen in the table on the left below.

They have the tràth làithreach (present tense) and they use Níor instead of Cha do , and Ní instead of Cha —among many other differences!