{"id":22825,"date":"2023-04-14T18:50:41","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T18:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=22825"},"modified":"2023-04-16T15:52:22","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T15:52:22","slug":"holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=22825","title":{"rendered":"Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/omniglot\/52802424594\/in\/dateposted\/\" title=\"Armadale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52802424594_96181698fa_z.jpg\" alt=\"Armadale\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Last week I was on holiday. I spent most of the time learning Scottish Gaelic songs at a college on the Isle of Skye, and stopped at my mum\u2019s in Lancashire for a few days on the way back. I had a wonderful time, met some interesting people, and learnt some beautiful songs.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/omniglot\/52802570245\/in\/dateposted\/\" title=\"The winning quiz team\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52802570245_36b3f9f70e_z.jpg\" alt=\"The winning quiz team\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It was my 9th visit to the college since 2008 and certainly won\u2019t be my last. When I first went there I used as much Scottish Gaelic as I knew, and filled in any gaps with Irish, which I speak more or less fluently. As the two languages are closely related, this sort of works, though differences in the pronunciation and meaning of words can lead to some misunderstandings.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/omniglot\/52802623133\/in\/dateposted\/\" title=\"A view from Sabhal M\u00f2r Ostaig\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52802623133_1302519646_z.jpg\" alt=\"A view from Sabhal M\u00f2r Ostaig\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Recently I\u2019ve been learning a lot more Gaelic with Duolingo, and can now speak it fairly well. This makes understanding the songs easier, although they often use poetic and old-fashioned words that don\u2019t usually appear in my lessons. As well as speaking Gaelic, I also spoke some Dutch, Japanese, Welsh and a bit of English.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i4wIQ092eyA\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Normally I try to add a certain number of pages to Omniglot each week, and to write blog posts, and make podcasts and videos. Last week I didn\u2019t do any of that, apart from one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/2023\/04\/08\/leaves\/\">Celtiadur post<\/a>, and had a break from it all, which was great.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fH5Zin416s4\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This got me thinking &#8211; do I really need to do so much every week? Did you miss the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?page_id=2614\">Adventure in Etymology<\/a> last week, or the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?page_id=2644\">Celtic Pathways<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?cat=108\">Omniglot News podcast<\/a>, or the new language and other pages that weren\u2019t added to Omniglot? Were you aware of all of these?<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mPJKnEMuFiU\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Maybe I\u2019ll start doing the Adventures in Etymology every other week, and alternating with the Celtic Pathways podcast.<\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, here\u2019s a little piece I wrote on the train from Glasgow to Mallaig. I was trying to write a train-related song, and came up with this. I haven\u2019t thought of a tune for it yet.<\/p>\n<p>The snake of steel<br \/>\nrattles and shakes<br \/>\nthrough steep glens<br \/>\nwhere eagles soar<br \/>\npast foaming fishpaths<br \/>\nwhere waterdogs play<br \/>\nthrough empty lands<br \/>\nwhere none do bide<br \/>\nto the ocean&#8217;s edge<br \/>\nwhere seals hide<br \/>\nand the water meets the sky<\/p>\n<p>The threads of distraction<br \/>\nare loosened<br \/>\nand there&#8217;s time to see<br \/>\nbeyond the wind&#8217;s eye<br \/>\ntime to think and dream<br \/>\nto talk and rest<br \/>\nAs the iron horse<br \/>\nclitters and clatters<br \/>\nAlong the metal road<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m also working on a song in Scottish Gaelic inspired by my lessons in Duolingo. It\u2019s called <em>Thoir an Aire  (Watch out)<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thoir An Aire (Watch Out)<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Seist (Chorus)<\/em><br \/>\nThoir an aire, thoir an aire (Watch out, watch out)<br \/>\nThoir an aire, tha Iain a&#8217; tighinn (Watch out, Iain is coming)<br \/>\nThoir an aire, thoir an aire (Watch out, watch out)<br \/>\nTha Iain r\u00f9isgte is tha e a&#8217; tighinn (Iain is naked and he\u2019s coming)<\/p>\n<p>Ghoid M\u00e0iri a drathais (Mairi stole his underpants)<br \/>\nGhoid M\u00e0iri a briogais (Mairi stole his trousers)<br \/>\nGhoid M\u00e0iri a geansaidh gorm is geal (Mairi stole his blue and white jersey)<br \/>\nGhoid M\u00e0iri a l\u00e8ine (Mairi stole his shirt)<br \/>\nGhoid M\u00e0iri a br\u00f2gan  (Mairi stole his shoes)<br \/>\nGhoid M\u00e0iri aodach Iain gu l\u00e8ir  (Mairi stole all his clothes)<\/p>\n<p>Ruith air falbh, ruith air falbh (Run away, run away)<br \/>\nRuith air falbh tha Iain a&#8217; tighinn (Run away, Iain is coming)<br \/>\nRuith air falbh, ruith air falbh (Run away, run away)<br \/>\nTha guga aige is tha e a&#8217; tighinn (He has salted gannet and he\u2019s coming)<\/p>\n<p>C\u00e0it bheil Calum? (Where is Calum?)<br \/>\nC\u00e0it a bheil Coinneach? (Where is Kenneth?)<br \/>\nC\u00e0it a bheil Ceiteag? (Where is Katie?)<br \/>\nAm faca tu iad? (Have you seen them?)<br \/>\nC\u00e0it a bheil Mairead? (Where is Margaret?)<br \/>\nC\u00e0it a bheil M\u00f2rag? (Where is Morag?)<br \/>\nRuith iad air falbh (They ran away)<br \/>\noir tha Iain a&#8217; tighinn (because Iain is coming)<\/p>\n<p><audio controls=\"\"><source src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/songs\/sager\/thoiranaire.mp3\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\"><embed src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/songs\/sager\/thoiranaire.mp3\" width=\"100\" height=\"50\"><\/audio><\/p>\n<p><em>All photos were taken by me. The videos are from the end-of-course c\u00e8ilidh at SMO. I\u2019m not sure who took them.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I was on holiday. I spent most of the time learning Scottish Gaelic songs at a college on the Isle of Skye, and stopped at my mum\u2019s in Lancashire for a few days on the way back. I had a wonderful time, met some interesting people, and learnt some beautiful songs. It was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,104,10,56,73,77,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dutch","category-english","category-language","category-scottish-gaelic","category-travel","category-welsh","category-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22825"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22835,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22825\/revisions\/22835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}