Gaelic Lessons

[Rooster]

I'm just throwing this out here: would anyone be interested in some Gaelic lessons? I was going to type up some notes but if I do that then I may as well just post them on here if anyone is interested (I could link to some audio files of conversations too).

[Rooster]

Lesson 1 - Ciamar a tha thu? How are you?

Còmhradh (Dialogue)

Mairead NicRath meets her friend Tormod MacÌomhair on the Uig, Skye-Tarbert Harris ferry one day. They are latter joined by Mairead's cousin Iseabail NicLeòid, whom Tormod does not know.



Mairead: Hallo, a Thormoid.
Tormod: Hallo, a Mhairead. Ciamar a tha thu?
Mairead: Tha gu math, tapadh leat. Ciamar a tha thu fhèin?
Tormod: Tha gu math, tapadh leat. Tha i brèagha an-duigh.
Mairead: Tha gu dearbh.

(Iseabail joins them)

Mairead: A Thormoid, seo Iseabail.
Tormod: Hallo, Iseabail. 'S mise Tormod MacÌomhair.
Iseabail: Hallo, a Thormoid. 'S mise Iseabail NicLeòid. Ciamar a tha sibh?
Tormod: Tha gu math, tapadh leibh. Ciamar a tha sibh fhèin?
Iseabail: Meadhanach math, tapadh leibh. Cò às a tha sibh, a Thormoid?
Tormod: Tha mi à Leòdhas. Cò às a tha sibh fhèin, Iseabail?
Iseabail: Tha mi às an Eliean Sgitheanach.4tIMC21k-nw
cPxwm5oK9WE

Quick Vocab

Hallo, a Thormoid. Hello, Norman.
Hallo, a Mhairead. Hello, Margaret.
Ciamar a tha thu? How are you? (familiar singular)
Tha gu math, tapadh leat. I am fine, thanks. (familiar singular)
Ciamar a tha thu fhèin? How are you yourself?
Tha i brèagha an-duigh. It's lovely today. [talking about the weather]
Tha gu dearbh. Yes indeed.
A Thomoid, seo Iseabail. Norman, this is ishbel (...here is Ishbel)
'S mise Tormod Nicìomhair. I'm Norman MacIver
Ciamar a tha sibh? How are you? (plural or formal singular)
Meadhanach math, tapadh leibh. Reasonably well [lit: middle good], thank you. [formal]
Cò às a tha sibh, a Thormoid? Where are you from, Norman? [lit: who are you from]
Tha mi à Leòdhas. I am from Lewis.
Tha mi às an Eilean Sgitheanach. I am from the Island of Skye.

Mìneachadh (Explanation)

Surnames
Many Scottish surnames begin with the Gaelic word Mac meaning son, eg: MacDonald, MacInnes, MacAllister. These literally mean Son of Donald, Son of Angus and Son of Alasdair. In Gaelic, the form of such surnames changes when referring to a female. Murdo MacRae is Murchadh MacRath (a male) but Margaret MacRae is Mairead NicRath.

Nic means daughter (of). A similar system operates in ICeland with the forms -son and -dottir.

Familiar and formal forms
In Gaelic there are two ways of saying you. Thu is used in contexts of familiarity and informality, as when addressing someone you know well, or someone your own age. In less familiar, and more formal settings, such as conducting business and when showing respect to older persons and to one's superior (haha)
the form sibh is used. Sibh is also the plural form of you. The same distinction is made between tapadh leat (familiar singular) and tapadh leibh (plural and formal singular).

Abairtean cudromach (key expressions)

How to:

Introduce yourself:
'S mise .... (your name) [sounded as Ish mish-ah]

Introduce someone else:
Seo ... (their name) [sho]

Ask how somene is, and reply:
Ciamar a tha thu? [ka-mer a ha oo] sing, fam
Ciamar a tha sibh? [ka-mer a ha shiv] pl, form
-Tha gu math, tapadh leat. [Ha goo ma, tapa lat]
Tha gu math, tapadh leibh. [Ha goo ma, tapa leiv]

Ask where someone is from, and reply
Cò às tha sibh/thu? [co as ha shiv/oo]
Tha mi à .... (your place) [ha me a (and you have to draw that "a" sound out) ...]
or if the name of your place has a definite article at the front
Tha mi às an ... (your place) [ha me as an ...]

Say thanks
Tapadh leat
Tapadh leibh

Say it's a fine day
Tha i brèagha an diugh [ha ee bree-ah an joo]

[The weather is referred to by i which is the feminine form of it. An-diugh means today]

Gràmar (Grammar)

1 Addressing People

Personal names often change form and are pronounced differently when someone is being addressed. Mairead becomes a Mhairead and Tormod becomes a Thormoid.

The names of males usually have an h added after the initial letter, which affects the sound of the letter (this is lenition which we'll see a lot more later), and masculine names are slenderized at the end by usually adding a narrow vowel e or i, but mostly i. So, Tormod [toromod] becomes a Thormoid [horomich]. Seamus [shemus] becomes a Sheamuis [hamish].

Female names usually just lenite the first letter.

Lenition does not occur with the letters l, n or r. And names beginning with vowels do not lenite.

2 I, you, he, she, etc

Singular forms Plural forms
mi I sinn we
thu you (familiar) sibh you
sibh you (formal)
e he/it iad they
i she/it

There is no direct equivalent of it in Gaelic ie, there is no neuter pronoun. All objects are either masculine or feminine and are referred to as e [eh] or i [ee].

3 Emphatic forms

Personal pronouns have emphatic forms, which have no equivalent in English. English emphasizes pronouns by using italics or underlining them. "I'm from Skye" but "I'm from Skye and she's from Lewis". Gaelic uses the forms below to give emphasis.

Singular forms Plural forms
mise I sinne we
thusa you (familiar) sibhse you
sibjse you (formal)
esan he/it iadsan they
ise she/it

Empahsis can also be given to pronouns by adding fhèin (self). For example, mi fhèin I myself, thu fhèin you yourself, etc.

4 Word order

In most sentences in Gaelic, the verb comes first:

Tha mi à Muile I am from Mull
Cheannaich mi blobhsa I bought a house

In questions, however, the question word(s) precede(s) the verb:

Ciamar a tha thu? How are you?

5 The verb 'to be'

Tha is the most common form of the positive present tense of the verb 'to be'. In answer to questions it can mean yes. In statements it can mean is or there is, am, are or there are, depending on the subject being referred to:

Tha mi sgìth. I'm tired.
Tha Iseabail brèagha. Ishbel is lovely.
Tha iad a' tighinn. They are coming.
A bheil sin ceart? Tha. Is that right? Yes.

There is, however, another form of the present tense of the verb 'to be'. Is or it's abbreviated form 'S is used in statements which link two nouns or a noun and a pronoun:

Is mise Seumas. I'm James.
'S ise Mòrag. She is Morag.

6 À/Às (from, out of)

There are two ways of saying from in Gaelic.

The usual form of the word form is à. It is the form used with most place names.

Cò às a tha thu? Where are you from?
Tha mi à Uibhist I am from Uist
Tha mi à Glaschu I am from Glasgow
Tha mi à Inbhir Nis I am from Inverness

When the Gaelic form of the place name includes the [the definite article], às is used.

Tha mi às an Eilean Sgitheanach.
The mi às an Òban.
Tha mi às na Hearadh (I am from Harris ['n' is plural of 'an' the def. art.]
Tha mi às a'Ghearastan

The basic form of the names The Isle of Skye, Oban and Fort William are An t-Eilean Sgitheanach, An t-Òban and An Gearastan respectively. Following à/às and other prepositions the word for the (in these examples an t- and an) can take another form. This will be covered later.

Insight

Returning questions
To return a question in Gaelic, you simply add fhèin to they end of the question originally posed. Thus, you would say Cò às a tha thu fhèin? (Where are you from yourself?) after you have replied to the initial question I Cò às a tha thu? (Where are you from?)

Expressing thanks
There are several ways of expressing thanks in Gaelic. Taing is simply 'Thanks' while Tapadh leat and Tapadh leibh literally mean 'Thanks (be) with you'. To express more gratitude, you could say Mòran taing, 'Many thanks', Ceud taing, 'A hundred thanks'or the more effusive Mìle taing, 'A thousand thanks'.

A good word
The word math occurs in this unit as 'well' in responses such as Tha gu math, well or fine, and Meadanach math, 'reasonably well'. However, the basic meaning of the word is 'good' as in Feasgar math, 'Good afternoon/evening', Math fhèin, 'Excellent' and, in slightly different form (lenited) in `Glè mhath [glay-va], 'very good' and Slàinte mhath, 'good health' or 'cheers'.

[Veovis]

How regular is the orthography? This is the factor I use to decide whether or not I want to learn a language.

[Rooster]

How regular is the orthography? This is the factor I use to decide whether or not I want to learn a language.

It's fairly regular. There are a few spelling rules and it's unusual for them to be broken. The stress is usually in the same place and such, with minor issues cropping up with loan words.

http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/38390.html

[CommieTroll]

Is this Scots Gaelic?

[Rooster]

Is this Scots Gaelic?

Yeah sorry, could have pointed that out more.

[CommieTroll]

Yeah sorry, could have pointed that out more.

I've been learning Gaelic in school for over 7 years ( I live in Ireland btw) and I could only pick out a few words from your original post, just goes to show that I don't pay attention in class :laugh: Are there many Scots Gaelic speakers about today?

[Rooster]

I've been learning Gaelic in school for over 7 years ( I live in Ireland btw) and I could only pick out a few words from your original post, just goes to show that I don't pay attention in class :laugh: Are there many Scots Gaelic speakers about today?

There's only about 60,000 people who are native speakers (plus maybe another 30 or 40 thousand who have picked up bits and pieces from school or family but can't speak it fluent). Recently there seems to be more of an interest. Anyway, I'm just doing this because there isn't much in the way for people to learn Gaelic compared to other languages. I'll type up a couple of lessons every week or so, or I'll try to at least.

How many Irish speakers are there?

[Rooster]

Lesson 2

Càit' a bheil sibh a'dol? [catch a veil shiv a dol]

Where are you going?

Comhradh

Dòmhnall MacAsgaill and his wife Ealasaid are in the departure lounge of Stornoway Airport. Dòmhnall starts a conversation with a couple who are also awaiting their flight.



Dòmhnall: Tha i fuar.
Alasdair: Tha i glè fhuar. [lenition after glè]
Dòmhnall: Cò às a tha sibh fhèin?
Alasdair: Tha mi à Barraigh. Tha sinn a'dol a Bharraigh an-dràsta.
Dòmhnall: Tha sinne a'dol a Ghlaschu. Seo Ealasaid, mo bhean.
Ealasaid: Ciamar a tha sibh?
Alasdair: Tha gu math, tapadh leibh. Seo mo bhean, Seonag.
Seonag: Hallo. A bheil sibhse a'dol a Bharraigh?
Ealasaid: Chan eil. Tha sinn a'dol a Ghlaschu. Tha Dòmhnall ag obair ann an oifis ann an Glaschu agus tha e a'dol dhan oifis an-duigh.
Seonag: Tha mi fhèin agus mo chèile ag obair ann an taigh-òsta ann am Barraigh. tha mise ag obair anns a' bhàr agus tha Alasdair ag obair anns a' chidsin. Tha an taigh-òsta anns a' Bhàgh a Tuath.
Ealasaid: Glè mhath, gu dearbh. Agus càit' a bheil sibh a' fuireach?
Seonag: Tha sinn a' fuireach anns an taigh-òsta. Càit' a bheil sibh fhèin a' fuireach? A bheil sibh a' fuireach ann an Glaschu?
Ealasaid: Chean eil. Tha sinn a' fuireach ann am Pàislig.
Seonag: A bheil e snog?
Ealasaid: Och tha. Tha e glè shnog [lenition again]
Alasdair: A Sheonag! Sin am plèan a Bharraigh.
Ealasaid: Obh obh, a Sheonag. Tha e beag!
Seonag: Tha. Tha e glè bheag ach tha e math.2iZCyLxFY4Q

Dòmhnall MacAsgaill Donald MacAskill
Ealasaid Elizabeth
Tha i fuar. It is cold. [Ha ee foor]
glè fhuar very cold [glay-oor] Fh usually becomes silent
a' dol going [a dol]
a' dol a Bharraigh going to Barra [a dol a varr-eye]
an-dràsta just now
mo bhean my wife
A bheil sibhse a' dol a Bharraigh Are you going to Barra?
Chan eil. No
Tha Dòmhnall ag obair ann an oifis Donald works in an office
agus and
mi fhèin agus mo chèile... my spouse/partner and I...
ann an taigh-òsta in a hotel
ann am Barraigh in Barra
anns a' bhàr in the bar
anns a' chidsin in the kitchen
anns a' Bhàgh a Tuath in Northbay
glè mhath very good
Càit a bheil sibh a' fuireach? Where do you live?
Tha sinn a' fuireach anns an taigh òsta. We live in the hotel.
A bheail sibh a' fuireach ann an Glaschu? Do you live in Glasgow?
ann am Pàislig in Paisley
A bheil e snog? Is it nice/pretty?
Sin am plèan. There/that is the plane.
Obh obh! Oh dear!
Tha e beag. It is small.
ach tha e math but it is good

A common way of starting a conversation (pretty much in any language) is to refer to the weather:

Tha i brèagha. - It's beautiful/lovely (you can use this with anything though such as, she is lovely ["i" is feminine]
Tha i fliuch - It's wet
Tha i fuar - It's cold
Tha i garbh - It's wild/rough

Grammar

1. Lenition

In Gaelic, the consonants at the beginning of words change in sound under certain conditions. This is known as lenition. In writing, the change in sound is normally shown by inserting an h after the initial consonant. An h is never inserted after l, n or r, nor after the s in sg, sm, sp or st. Lenition basically just makes the sound softer and is often used in reference to feminine nouns.

Lenition occurs in several situations:

In adjectives following glè (very):
glè (very) + beag (small) [sounds like big] > glè bheag (very small)
glè + math (good) [m-ah] > glè mhath (very good) [v-ah, the m again changing to a v sound]
glè + snog (nice) > glè shnog (very nice) [shnog sounding as 'nog' with the 's' sound being dropped]

In words following a or do (to):
a + Barraigh (Barra) > a Bharraigh (to Barra)
do + Glaschu > do Ghlaschu (to Glasgow)
but a Lèodhas (to Lewis), because l never shows lenition.

In nouns following mo (my):
mo + bean (wife) > mo bhean (my wife)
mo + cèile (spouse) > mo chèilie (my spouse)

2. The

The most common form of the in Gaelic is an, but you'll find other forms as you go along. I'll get into this in more detail later.

3. A/Do (to)

A/Do lenites the following word:
a + Barraigh > a Bharraigh

But, if the following word begins with a vowel then dh' is inserted before the word, mostly just to make it easier to say:
a + Inbhir Nis (Inverness) > a dh'Inbhir Nis [dh adds a 'yuh' sound, like the first sound in the english word 'you']

Often a is formally written as do:
do Ghlaschu (to Glasgow)
do dh'Ile (to Islay)

If the word following a or do is the, then a or do combine with the (an) in the word dhan (to the):
dhan oifis [yan ofeesh] - to the office

Sometimes the word after dhan is lenited:
cidsin (kitchen)
dhan chidsin (to the kitchen)

This happens if the word begins with b, p, f, m, c, g.

I know, this looks confusing but it gets easier the more you do it.

4. [B]Ann (in)

Ann am and ann an both mean in and in a:

ann am bàr - in a bar
ann an Ìle - in Islay

Ann am is used if the following word begins with b, p, f, m, c or g.
ann am Pàislig - in Paisley

Otherwise ann an is used:
ann an oifis - in an office

To express in the, Gaelic uses anns followed by the:
anns an taigh-òsta - in the hotel
anns an oifis - in the office

If the noun starts with f, it is lenited:
anns an fheur - in the grass

If the noun begins with b, p, f, m, c or g, the becomes a' , and the noun is lenited, regardless of gender:
anns a'bhàr - in the bar
anns a'chidsin - in the kitchen

Anns is often reduced to s:
san oifis - in the office
sa chidsin - in the kitchen

Where Gaelic place names include the word for the, anns is used to express in:
anns an Eilean Sgitheanach - in the Isle of Skye
anns an Òban - in Oban

5. The verb 'to be'

In the previous lesson, tha, was introduced as the positive form of the present tense of the verb 'to be':
Tha mi à Steòrnabhagh - I am from Stornoway [literally; be me from Stornoway]

The negative form is Chan eil:
Chan eil mi à Bogha Mòr - I am not from Bowmore

The question form of this verb is a bheil:
A bheil sibh à Glaschu? - Are you from Glasgow?

The positive answer to a question ebginning with a bheil is tha (yes) and the negative is chan eil (no).

[CommieTroll]

There's only about 60,000 people who are native speakers (plus maybe another 30 or 40 thousand who have picked up bits and pieces from school or family but can't speak it fluent). Recently there seems to be more of an interest. Anyway, I'm just doing this because there isn't much in the way for people to learn Gaelic compared to other languages. I'll type up a couple of lessons every week or so, or I'll try to at least.

How many Irish speakers are there?

I'm guessing there's about 80,000 speakers in Ireland but that's just me guessing:laugh: There are still regions in the West of Ireland that speak it as a first language. It's taught in all primary & secondary schools but they make a disaster of it, that probably why I have some distaste for the language.
There's probably a few thousand speakers in the UK & America because of Immigration etc. Are you a fluent Scots Gaelic speaker? If so, where did you learn?

[Rooster]

I'm guessing there's about 80,000 speakers in Ireland but that's just me guessing:laugh: There are still regions in the West of Ireland that speak it as a first language. It's taught in all primary & secondary schools but they make a disaster of it, that probably why I have some distaste for the language.
There's probably a few thousand speakers in the UK & America because of Immigration etc. Are you a fluent Scots Gaelic speaker? If so, where did you learn?

I'm not fluent. I had learn a few phrases and some basics years ago for work but it never set in so I'm trying to re-learn it now through a combination of night classes and a couple of books that I have. I agree that forcing people to learn it is probably the wrong way to go about it (just thinking back to french class in school and the number of kids just refusing to learn). Speaking of French, it's certainly refreshing to be learning a non-romance language for once.

[CommieTroll]

I'm not fluent. I had learn a few phrases and some basics years ago for work but it never set in so I'm trying to re-learn it now through a combination of night classes and a couple of books that I have. I agree that forcing people to learn it is probably the wrong way to go about it (just thinking back to french class in school and the number of kids just refusing to learn). Speaking of French, it's certainly refreshing to be learning a non-romance language for once.

That's the same with me and Russian, I hear Rosetta Stone works well if you keep at it but it's pretty costly, ah well, I can just get it off the Pirate Bay:laugh:

[Nox]

That's the same with me and Russian, I hear Rosetta Stone works well if you keep at it but it's pretty costly, ah well, I can just get it off the Pirate Bay:laugh:

You just saved me 400 quid.

[CommieTroll]

You just saved me 400 quid.

It takes up A LOT of space on your hard drive though

[Ballyfornia]

I speak the closest Gaeilge dialect to you, Good ol Donegal. Supposedly the 2 can talk i harmony with each other. Its just written down different, or so i'v been told.

[Ballyfornia]

I agree that forcing people to learn it is probably the wrong way to go about it.

Couldn't agree more with that. In Ireland due to the compulsory learning of Irish people lose interest and don't want to do it, While if you compare it the north people who choose to do Irish are very close to being fluent withing a year.

[CommieTroll]

I speak the closest Gaeilge dialect to you, Good ol Donegal. Supposedly the 2 can talk i harmony with each other. Its just written down different, or so i'v been told.

Are you from Donegal? I think Donegal has the best dialect/accent in English and Irish

[Rooster]

That's the same with me and Russian, I hear Rosetta Stone works well if you keep at it but it's pretty costly, ah well, I can just get it off the Pirate Bay:laugh:

I don't think Rosetta Stone is that helpful. I think it's useful for certain things like pronunciation and learning vocabulary, but you really should use it in conjunction with some good grammar lessons.

Speaking of Russian, would anyone be interested in me trying to type up some Russian lessons as well? I will get back to this Gaelic thing when I have some free time (possibly Monday).

[Rooster]

I speak the closest Gaeilge dialect to you, Good ol Donegal. Supposedly the 2 can talk i harmony with each other. Its just written down different, or so i'v been told.

I know that Irish Gaeilge has gone through some spelling revisions to make it simpler. They tried to do that with Scots Gaelic but I think most attempts have been abandoned because it confuses the spelling rule we have and where loan words have come from. There was a change from d to t I think in a lot of words, though, and some words have had an extra vowel stuck in such as taigh for house, which was originally tigh. Out of interest, we say ceart gu leor for okay, or correct enough and say it like kersh goo lore. How do you say and write it?


Couldn't agree more with that. In Ireland due to the compulsory learning of Irish people lose interest and don't want to do it, While if you compare it the north people who choose to do Irish are very close to being fluent withing a year.

Speaking to people who have studied it in school, you get the impression that the teachers tried to teach through discipline rather than through encouraging. Like slamming the desk with a metre stick when the teacher heard kids speaking in English. It's the same with every language class I've been in, to be honest. Hopefully I'll get some level of fluency when the year is out. :unsure:

By the by, I've updated lesson two and added in some audio. I'll continue with this when I get the time.

[Rooster]

Lesson 3 - Dè 'n aois a tha thu?

How old are you?

Còmhradh

Seumas MacAmhlaigh is taking part in a phone-in programme on Radio nan Gàidheal. He is being interviewed by Sìne NicArtair, the programme presenter.



Sìne: Ceart ma-thà, a Sheumais. An toiseach, dè 'n aois a tha thu?
Seumas: Uill, a Shìne, tha mi sia air fhichead.
Sìne: Sia air fhichead. Glè mhath. Agus a bheil thu pòsta, a Sheumais?
Seumas: Tha gu dearbh. Tha mi pòsta aig Catrìona.
Sìne: A bheil Catrìona ag èisteachd?
Seumas: Tha. Tha mi 'n dòchas!
Sìne: Hallo, a Chatrìona! A bheil thu ag èisteachd? A-nis, a Sheumais, a bheil teaghlach agaibh?
Seumas: Tha, a Shìne. Tha mac agus nighean againn.
Sìne: Dè 'n t-ainim a tha orra?
Seumas: Alasdair agus Sìne.
Sìne: Sìne? Ainm snog! Agus dè 'n aois a tha Alasdair agus Sìne?
Seumas: Tha Alasdair còig bliadhna a dháois agus tha Sìne trì.
Sìne: Còig agus trì. Math fhèin! Cò ris a tha iad coltach? Cò ris a tha Alasdair coltach?
Seumas: Uill, tha e beag, bàn agus tha e glè mhodhail cuideachd.
Sìne: Agus Sìne? Cò ris a tha ise coltach?
Seumas: Uill, tha Sìne beag cuideachd, ach tha i dorcha. Tha i glè mhodhail cuideachd.
Sìne: Glè mhath, tha sin snog. A-nis, càit' a bheil sibh a' fuireach, a Sheumais?
Seumas: Tha sinn a' fuireach aig ceithir deug. Rathad na Mara, Ràinaiseadar anns an Eilean Sgitheanach.
Sìne: Tapadh leat.
J8IDvOYj9QA

Seumas MacAmhlaigh - James MacAulay
Sìne NicArtair - Jean MacArthur
Ceart ma-thà - Right then.
an toiseach - firstly, at first
Dè 'n aois a tha thu? - How old are you?
uill - well
sia air fhichead - twenty-six
A bheil thu pòsta? - Are you married?
pòsta sig Catrìona - married to Catherine
ag èisteachd - listening
tha mi 'n dòchas - I hope
A bheil teaghlach agaibh? - Do you have a family?
teaghlach - (a) family
Tha mac agus nighean againn - We have a son and daughter (literally; be a son and daughter at us)
nighean - (a) daughter
Dè 'n t-ainm a tha orra? - What are they called?
ainm snog - (a) nice name
còig bliadhna a dh'aois - five years old or five years of age
trì - three
còig agus trì - five and three
math fhèin - excellent
Cò ris a tha iad coltach? - What are they like?
bàn - fair haired
modhail - well-behaved
cuideachd - also
dorcha - dark
Aig ceithir deug, Rathad na Mara - At fourteen sea Road

Grammar:

1. Numbers

The numbers one to ten are listed below. Note that one aon lenites words starting with b, p, f, m, c and g. Two dà lenites in the usual way (see lesson 2).

1 aon
2 dà and dhà
3 trì
4 ceithir
5 còig
6 sia
7 seachd
8 ochd
9 naoi
10 deich

When counting, or starting with these numbers in isolation, as well as showing the last number of a sequence (such as in a phone number), a is added before the word: a h-aon (notice the "h" here, it is used to break up the two vowels which Gaelic doesn't like), a dhà, a trì, a ceither, a còig, a sia, a seachd, a h-ochd (notice "h" again, these are pronounced), a naoi, a deich.

Numbers 11-19 are performed by adding the word deug to the end of the word, like adding -teen in English:

11 aon-deug
12 dhà-dheug (notice that "two" lenites. It lenites all letters possible)
13 trì-deug
14 ceithir-deug
15 còig-deug
16 sia-deug
17 seachd-deug
18 ochd-deug
19 naoi-deug

20 is fichead. Two and twenty treat all words as singular ie, they don't cause the thing being counted to enter the plural form (in English this sounds quite strange because it would come out like "two dog, twenty dog" instead of "two dogs, twenty dogs")

After this, things get confusing as there's an old counting system and a new one. The old one is based on twenty, much like French, but I'll be concentrating on the new system.

Basically, after the word fichead twenty, you add and one, or, and two, etc.

21 fichead 's a h-aon
22 fichead 's a dhà
23 fichead 's a trì

30 trithead and so on.

2. Possession (using aig)

Possession or 'having' is shown by using aig (at or of) with the appropriate form of tha:

Tha nighean aig Catrìona. - Catherine has a daughter (literally: Be a daughter at Catherine)
Tha càr aig Dòmhnall - Donald has a car
Chan eil teaghlach aig Niall - Neil doesn't have a family.

[tanklv]

Every time I pass by this thread, my mind reads "Garlic Lessons"...

...sorry - I can't help it...

[X5N]

Though I'm currently focused on Icelandic right now -- to some degree -- I thank you for posting this. The last surviving Celtic languages are somewhere on the list of languages I would like to learn.

I think it's unfortunate that these languages are being threatened by English. Keep up the good work, comrade.