The Companion to the Fiery Cross, a Breath of Snow and Ashes, an Echo in the Bone, and Written in My Own Heart's Blood
Page 76
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription: /GABBERlunzi/
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 241
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: Small lead badge given to beggars as a license to beg within the borders of a parish.
Phrase (as printed): Gabhainn! A charaid!
Phrase (if revised): a Ghabhainn! A charaid!
Phonetic transcription: /ə ɣAVain ə CHAridge/
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 249
Language: Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Translation: “Oh, Gavin! oh friend!”
Phrase (as printed): Gaelic cursing
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: EITB
pb: 644
hc: 459
Language: historical note
Translation: Such a familiar feeling, the one Roger has here as he addresses his class! And a topic often raised by people dabbling in any language—cursing. “We haven’t got bad words in the Gàidhlig …Which is not to say ye can’t give a good, strong opinion of someone,” as Roger says. How right he is, although you need just consult the Naughty Little Book of Gaelic to get a sense of what is yet possible!
Phrase (as printed): Gaelic discouraged
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: EITB
pb: 399
hc: 283
Language: historical note
Translation: This passage in Echo in the Bone is reminiscent of the life of so many Highland children who were savagely beaten by those loyal to the British education system for speaking the only language they knew, and in their own country, often by those with Gaelic themselves, like Mr. Menzies! I am very happy that we have moved past such times but also very grateful to Diana for including this kind of material in her books, highlighting the true history of cultural oppression in Scotland. I know of people who had the meter stick broken across their backs, were belted until their hands broke out in welts; one monolingual boy in Perthshire received such a beating about the head for speaking his native language that he went deaf in one ear, and some children in Lewis in the 1950s were forced to wear a human skull hung round their neck if they were caught speaking the only tongue they knew. This kind of thing left Gaels with a terrible sense of betrayal and anger, which often became directed at the language itself rather than at the establishment which had encouraged this repulsive violence and psychological abuse toward children. And so, among the ashes of Gaelic pride, myself and others work. The respect and appreciation shown by Outlander fans for our tongue and culture promises to be a precious and motivating force in the years to come.
Phrase (as printed): Gàidhlig
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription: /GAAleek/
Book: EITB
pb: 382
hc: 271
Language:
Translation: Scottish Gaelic: this is the most common pronounciation of the language moniker and the reason why many people pronounce the English equivalent /gahlick/. In fact, the English word refers to something more akin to a language family and does not hold any kind of national significance apart from when coupled with either the words “Scottish,” “Irish,” or “Manx.” To be a Gael was indeed once to be part of a “nation,” in a sense, but bound by linguistic and cultural ties rather than the arbitrary drawing of lines across a map. Clanna nan Gàidheal ri guailibh a chéile/klana nən GAIYL ree GOOailəv ə CHAYlə/“children of the Gael at each other’s shoulder” attests beautifully to this. And so there is no great sin whatsoever in calling our language “Gaelic” in English, just as the word looks, because, after all…not all Gaels are Gals!
Phrase (as printed): garbel
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 245
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: To rumble, as an empty stomach.
Phrase (as printed): German
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: FC
pb:
hc:
Language:
Translation: I grew up bilingually, but not as you might expect, with Gaelic and Scots—no, not that lucky. Along with the standard English I spoke as a first language, however, I picked up passable colloquial German from my father, a reluctant WWII veteran who stayed in Germany for three years after the fighting had ceased, for the love of a woman whose husband returned most unexpectedly from the Eastern Front to find my father wearing his slippers. As our teenagers take great pride in saying these days: “Whoa…awkward!”
Phrase (as printed): gille
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 241
Language: Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Translation: “A boy, a servant”: sometimes corrupted in English usage to gillie, you can also find it in Glasgow parlance as keilie.
Phrase (as printed): girdle
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 245
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: A flat iron plate set over the fire and used for cooking. Small girdles were often carried by Scottish mercenaries, swung on their belts, enabling them to make oatcakes in the field. Similar in meaning and derivation to the English “griddle.”
Phrase (as printed): Glasgow kiss
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: FC
pb: 898
hc: 607
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: A head butt—more correctly “Glesga kiss” or often “stickin the nut in sumdie,” meaning to strike someone with the use of one’s head. I have witnessed one of these bad boys delivered on several occasions and am thankful never to have been the recipient. It is seen as something of a martial art form in Glasgow and if administered correctly will generate terrific force, despite no use of the arms for further thrust. On a Saturday night in Glasgow town center, I once saw a huge bald man in a brightly-colored shirt “stick the nut” in an opponent with such gusto that it sent the man up five steps at the front of a department store. This may well be a good place to add a note about the name “Glasgow” itself, often said—and I believe erroneously—to mean “dear green place.” There is nothing to suggest that any word for “dear” is part of the name, and the assumption that gow is derived from Old Welsh I also believe to be a false one. Glas is clearly the Gaelic word for “green” or “gray,” but when you discover how the word is pronounced in my home area of Dalriada, you hear old men from Lochfyneside (John MacVicar, School of Scottish Studies Archives) saying /GLASSachəv/. Now, what this sounds distinctly like is glas-achamh (glas-achadh elsewhere), or “green field.” In the eastern part of Dalriada—in Cowal, and also east of there in Stirlingshire by all accounts, the areas that border Glasgow itself—it sounds like /GLASSəchoo/, which would give very obvious rise to the modern Gaelic Glaschu (pronounced exactly like that). I am of the firm belief that I’m onto something here and that the place name Glasgow is derived exclusively from Scottish Gaelic and means “green field.”
Phrase (as printed): gomeral
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription: /GOMerəl/
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 245
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: Fool, idiot.
Phrase (as printed): gowk
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 253
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: Awkward, silly person; also cuckoo. You can see the similari
ty between the Gaelic cuthag/KOOak and Scots “gowk.” The question is which gave rise to which! Although most often Scots has borrowed from Gaelic, the opposite is also quite often the case.
Phrase (as printed): gralloch
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 245
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: Slaughter, specifically the knife stroke that disembowels a killed animal. I have the feeling that this may indeed be a Scots’ borrowing from Gaelic, but reference to the original Gaelic I cannot find.
Phrase (as printed): greetin’
Phrase (if revised): greetin
Phonetic transcription:
Book: FC
pb: 62
hc: 43
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: “Crying.” Both Swedish and Danish contain words very similar to this, which mean to mourn or lament. It’s an everyday expression in Lowland Scotland, where you will hear people saying to their children the likes of, “Och, pack yer greetin in” (“Stop your crying”) and “She’s a richt greetin-faced wee besom!” (“She’s a rather sullen little broom!”) “Besom,” meaning initially a “household broom,” has happily transferred into Scots as this super fun rebuke! Don’t you just love the way we Scots think?
Phrase (as printed): Griogal Cridhe
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription: /greegəl KREEə/
Book: EITB
pb: 124
hc: 88
Language: Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Translation: “Darling Gregor,” literally “Gregor (of the) Heart”: This is a very old song and a lovely one, performed by many great artists over the years.
Phrase (as printed): griss
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 239
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: Nail.
Phrase (as printed): gu leoir!
Phrase (if revised): gu leòr!
Phonetic transcription: /g’LYAWr/
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 244
Language: Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Translation: “Plenty, enough!”
Phrase (as printed): gum biodh iad sabhailte, a Dhìa
Phrase (if revised): gum biodh iad sàbhailte, a Dhia
Phonetic transcription: /goom beeɣ ad SAvəltchə, ə YEEa/
Book: EITB
pb: 838
hc: 593
Language: Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Translation: “Let them be safe, oh, God.”
Phrase (as printed): gun robh math agaibh, a nighean
Phrase (if revised): gu robh math agad, a nighean
Phonetic transcription: /g’ro MA-akəd ə NYEEin/
Book: ABOSA
pb: 435
hc: 299
Language: Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Translation: “Let you have good”: this is the form of “thank you” that we use in Dalriada—where I’m from, in Argyll—as well as throughout Ireland. In this case, in talking familiarly to someone, you’d be more likely to use the informal agad than agaibh. The phrase itself is a sort of fossilized form, and I am unsure as to its exact origin.
Phrase (as printed): harled
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 240
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: Plastered. Harling is a specific technique for coating the outside of a building: small stones would be mixed with the plaster, and the mixture would then be hurled at the wall. There are many lovely castles of the 16th and 17th century in Scotland which are spoken of as having been harled, some of them in a weak sort of rosie pink, which, believe it or not, looks very attractive!
Phrase (as printed): hauld your wheesht!
Phrase (if revised): haud yer wheesht!
Phonetic transcription: /hod yer wheesht/
Book: MOBY
pb: 245
hc: 177
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: “Hold your quiet.” The word “wheesht” in fact comes originally from the Gaelic ist/eeshtch/“shush” which is derived from the word éist/aishtch/“listen”. It is still preferred in some dialects of Lewis Gaelic to the contracted ist. Wheesht is one of hundreds of Gaelic words borrowed into Lowland Scots, a fact rarely ackowledged by its speakers, often out of genuine ignorance. There is work to be done there, for sure!
Phrase (as printed): havers
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription: /HAYvərs/
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 243
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: To speak incoherently, inaccurately or without obvious purpose. “A hink ye’r haverin pal!” (“I believe you to be talking complete nonsense!”)
Phrase (as printed): hiddie-pyke
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 246
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: A miser, a niggard.
Phrase (as printed): hough
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 245
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: A shin of beef.
Phrase (as printed): hurley
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 239
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: A noise or tumult, or a wheel or handcart. “Hurley, hurley, round the table” indicates the passing of food round a table, with concomitant noise and conversation, a “hurl” being a short, impromptu journey. A hurley in more modern usage is a child’s makeshift vehicle, constructed of pram wheels and the like; also known as a “bogie,” and a matter of great pride and showing off if one can be built to a decent standard.
Phrase (as printed): hurly-burly
Phrase (if revised): hurlie-burlie
Phonetic transcription:
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 243
Language: Lowland Scots
Translation: A tempest; a tumult.
Phrase (as printed): Ian Mòr
Phrase (if revised): Iain mór
Phonetic transcription: /EEaiyn MORE/
Book: MOBY
pb: 685
hc: 497
Language: Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Translation: “Big John”: used to denote the difference between Ian junior and senior, the name Ian would normally be spelled Iain in Gaelic and is the most direct equivalent of John in English. Eóghann/YOan/ is another example.
Phrase (as printed): ifrinn an Diabhuil! A Dhia, thoir cob-hair!
Phrase (if revised): ifrinn an Diabhail! A Dhia, thoir cobhair!
Phonetic transcription: /EEfarin ən JEEal ə YEEa hor KOhər/
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 250
Language: Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Translation: “Devil’s hell! God help us!”
Phrase (as printed): ifrinn!
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription: /EEfarin/
Book: MOBY
pb: 57
hc: 41
Language: Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Translation: “Hell!”
Phrase (as printed): is e Dia fèin a’s buachaill dhomh
Phrase (if revised): is e Dia féin as buachaille dhomh
Phonetic transcription: /shay jeea FAIN əs booachil ɣaw/
Book: EITB
pb: 60
hc: 43
La
nguage: Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Translation: “ ’Tis God himself who is my cowherd”: given that the Highlands were near enough devoid of sheep until the people were thrown from the land and replaced by these white menaces, it is perhaps nice to consider this very Gaelic version of the sentiment “the Lord is my shepherd.” Here, God is the Gael, and the Gael his cattle! The word “shepherd” comes, of course, from “sheep-herd.” Interesting that the word “cowherd” then came to give us “coward.”
Phrase (as printed): is fhearr an giomach na ‘bhi gun fear tighe
Phrase (if revised): is fheàrr an giomach na bhith gun fhear-taighe
Phonetic transcription: /SHAAR ən GEEmach nəree goon AIR TIEə/
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb:
hc: 250
Language: Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Translation: “Better a lobster than no husband”: Scottish Gaelic proverb. I reckon many a modern woman would happily differ—no begging required!
Phrase (as printed): is mise Seaumais Mac Choinnich à Boisdale
Phrase (if revised): is mise Seumas MacCoinnich á Baghasdail
Phonetic transcription: /əs meeshə SHAYməss machKUNyich e bözdal/
Book: EITB
pb: 790
hc: 560
Language: Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
Translation: “I am James MacKenzie of Boisdale”: I remember cycling through Uist with friends, getting to Loch Boisdale, setting the bikes down, and getting comfy with a cup of tea and a toasted sandwich, only to see a tiny boy astride my huge mountain bike—his legs too short for him to sit any higher than the bar below the saddle—whizzing past the café window at breakneck speed and as cool as you like. Having got up sharply and no little umbrage taken, three lads—two of whom had grown up exclusively in Glasgow—were told by the lady who ran the café: “Don’t stress yourselves, boys, he’ll be back.” And he was, about five minutes later, wearing a huge, cheeky grin, having tried out the bike for size. That’s the island attitude for you in a nutshell: “Calm down; you’ll live longer!”
Phrase (as printed): kebbie-lebbie
Phrase (if revised):
Phonetic transcription:
Book: OLC Vol. I
pb: