Scottish Grans Only

Loving these!

My 90y old stepfather from Plockton ‘the jewel of the Highlands’ speaks Gaelic. He & his 96y old brother learnt it at school back in the day.

I was curious one time as to how many Scottish folk these days spoke Gaelic? Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t. Someone gave her a Christmas greeting a couple of years back & she didn’t know how to respond.

I can’t blame her as apparently it turns out that those who can would fit in one football stadium. Out of 5 million residents. It’s a hobby language it seems. Nice to keep the owd traditions going ... for those who might be interested. But all that Gaelic signage must be expensive. I think EU grants paid for most of it back in the day.
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CherryTree my ex father in law used to talk about the 'stank' and was very amused I didn't know it. I wonder if it's more common in the West?

Marydoll. I have just seen your comment about never having heard the word Houghmagandie.

Did you never read the Burns poem “Gie the lass her fairing”. Ranked up there with Lady Chatterly’s Lover as banned literature at my school.

My father fell down a stank, when he was ten years old and broke his leg. The family couldn't afford hospital treatment, so they tied a piece of wood to it to make a splint. He walked with a permanent limp for the rest of his life. Hard times, indeed.
Nowadays, the Council would have been sued!

Espee, I went to a convent school. .

Urm see you still have your spurtle .Whether or not our dear leader speaks Gaelic is of no interest to most of us .However there is a growing nterest of young folk to learn the language that was banned in their GGP's day and even more recently.Far from being TAUGHT in schools children weren'y allowed to speak in their native tongue.
My next door neighbours have the Gaelic ,their education on a Hebridean Island was in English they learned Gaelic at home
However all of their GC go to Gaelic School in Glasgow ,theres a bus picks them up and brings them home the 20 ish miles .
The Gaelic signs are great ,the tourists love them ,it reminds them that ENGLAND is a foreign land and they are n the land of their forefathers .
The price doesn't equate to the value ,as with most things in life and we ,in the main are happy to see our native language used .Before the ban it was common even in my area around Loch Lomond ,thats 18 miles from Glasgow so most would have anscestors who spoke it .

Esspee It was that very poem that taught me that word. Burns did use it in more than one of his works but I really can’t remember which.
Aveline Some might see getting their bahookie skelpt as foreplay to a bit of houghmagandie ?
Urmstongran Very few of us indeed have the Gaelic, but I’d bet most of us know at least one very useful phrase - Pog Mo Thoin!

I learnt a bit of Gaelic during lockdown. My father's family are Highland, so I wanted to know how it works and how you pronounce the words.

It was a bit of chave, but worth it. I can read our gran' roadsigns now, and follow Runrig songs ?

Grannydarkhair, is that what I would say as “pug mahone”?
Oooh errrr! ?

Marydoll Surely you were a rebel in convent school? I would never have heard of that poem if it hadn’t been banned at my school. It is a sure fire way of getting teenagers to do something - ban it. ?

I use a lot of Scots words & expressions but don't have a broad accent.

It wis gey dreich the day so ah steyed in an reddit up the hoose.

Urms, here is info on the cost of Gaelic signage - mostly provided when new signs are needed.

www.gov.scot/publications/foi-19-01319/

Tha mi ag ionnsachadh Gàidhlig cuideachd - le Duolingo .

Some folk are ill tricket, would ye no say? Maybe jist canna help it. It's the wey they're made.

Esspee

*Grannydarkhair*, is that what I would say as “pug mahone”?
Oooh errrr! ?

Marydoll Surely you were a rebel in convent school? I would never have heard of that poem if it hadn’t been banned at my school. It is a sure fire way of getting teenagers to do something - ban it. ?

Espee, I was a wee, cowrin, tim’rous beastie, (excuse the paraphrasing). I was terrified of both the nuns and my mother! ?

We did read Women in Love, ( that was an education ?) as part of our sixth year studies. I suspect the nuns were oblivious to the contents.
Our English teacher was a former actor and and absolutely scary, they wouldn't have dared meddle with her!

Though a lowly Lancastrian with no, as far as I'm aware, Scottish blood to mingle with my Irish and Welsh, I love the lilt and lyricism (and subversion ) of Scots.

Some phrases must have crossed the border and drifted South because I've always used gein it laldy and dinna fash yesen, they remind me a lot of vintage lanky.

Marydoll My English teacher was Robert Trotter an actor who moved on to star in Take the High Road. He had the wonderful ability of being able to read Burns or Shakespeare in such a way that you understood it and got lost in the story even if you didn't know every single word.

volver

I learnt a bit of Gaelic during lockdown. My father's family are Highland, so I wanted to know how it works and how you pronounce the words.

It was a bit of chave, but worth it. I can read our gran' roadsigns now, and follow Runrig songs ?

I did the same. I may never actually 'need' to use it, but it was interesting to learn nonetheless.

I knew I'd gone a bit far with my Scottish word use when my then young son said, 'Mum, I've fashed myself!' I had to tell him to ca' canny.

Exiled in England for over 50 years, I haven't lost the vocabulary though my Sassenach sons say I don't have a Scottish accent - they're wrang, ye ken. On the phone to my sister in Scotland, I become more Scots as I do when the train crosses the Border.
Urms, there's no reason why Nicola should speak Gaelic. Like me, she comes from Ayrshire.

Grandmabatty Stank is one that I still use. Yes I'm west coast Clyde built .?
Brought up on songs like
Ally bally.
Skinny Malinkie long legs
and ye cannie shove yer Grannie aff the bus ?

CherryTree?

annodomini same here talking to relatives and of course crossing the border.
I think there must be a switch that trips when passing the Welcome to Scotland Saltire sign ???????

Have you noticed at the border it’s usually sunnier once the cheer goes up. (We do all cheer, don’t we?)

It's also chillier, but we can't have everything.

I had to have a wee read of your words and phrases. I know an odd one with being N.Irish and listening to friends who love the Ulster Scots. Brilliant!

No reason that Nicola or any Scot living in the lowlands south of the Highland Line should be expected to have the Gaelic. Most of that area, particularly the Eastern side, spoke Middle Scots, which was very similar to Middle English. As far back as Geoffrey Chaucer's time (the Canterbury Tales were written between 1387 and 1400) there was a thriving exchange of poems and stories between writers and makars in both languages, the Scottish makars being known even today as the "Scottish Chaucerians" Gaelic was the language of the North and West.
(A list of makars mentioned by poet William Dunbar in c.1505 is at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lament_for_the_Makaris )

I find the links with Baltic countries even more interesting. The Icelandic word for a vacuum cleaner is a stoorsooker. ? It isn't spelt that way but pronounced like that.