[Scottish Gaelic] Useful links for beginning learners

[nighean-neonach]

Hey Daniel, nach cuir thu seo gu ceann an liosta (sticky), mas e do thoil e?

As I've noticed I keep on posting the same links again and again, I thought a list for reference might be useful.

If you are a beginning learner of Scottish Gaelic, have a look at these sites:

http://www.taic.btinternet.co.uk/ - This is quite a comprehensive online course, rather traditional and grammar based in its approach, and with sound files for all the words and sentences. It is provided by a native Gaelic speaker, as far as I know.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba/fogh ... ndex.shtml - This is another online course, provided by the Gaelic BBC. Compared to TAIC it presents more of a conversational approach, with lots of useful everyday dialogues, including sound files as well.

These two online courses will give you a good start, whether you just want to get a first impression of the language, or whether you can't afford any textbooks yet.

Try out the rest of the BBC site as well. Click on "Èist beò" in the upper right hand corner to get to the online radio programme.

For in-depth information on Gaelic phonology see here http://www.akerbeltz.org/ - this site is a real treasure trove, with very detailed explanations and lots of sound files for all the of the Gaelic language. The site is maintained by a German linguist with expert knowledge on Gaelic.

If you want to get in contact with the Gaelic (learners') online community, have a look at this site: http://www.tirnamblog.com/ - there are lot of people writing blogs in Gaelic, but be careful, lots of them are learners, even mere beginners, so you will see loads of incorrect Gaelic in those blogs
There used to be a nice international Gaelic forum on the web as well, but it's been down for a while.

If you need an online dictionary, the best one is http://smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/faclair/sbg/lorg.php - but one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a beginner is typing some stuff in there and translating your ideas word by word into Gaelic. Do try and learn some basics first, and make sure you know a bit about Gaelic sentence structures and some fundamental rules like initial sound mutations, etc.

In case you have any questions, feel free to ask here on the forum.

[Supreemio]

If you want to start learning Scottish Gaelic, then I recommend you to get ''Coloquial Scottish Gaelic'' its fun while learning, and I must say that I learn something new from it every day. Its a bit easier for me to learn as I speak Irish and I can just look at the sentence once or twice then I know how to say it becauses some of it is really similar to Irish.

[nighean-neonach]

Hey, but this is the links thread. Don't we have another topic for book recommendations?

[eurabol]

The old Fòram na Gàidhlig has gone, but there is a new (or revived?) one, with a lot more lower-level learners posting (and getting help, I note), so good for beginners and those who lack confidence, though not only these:

http://www.noclockthing.de/foramnagaidhlig/

There is also a fairly active-looking German board which has a Gaelic-only section:

http://www.schottisch-gaelisch.de/phpBB2/

[csjc]

Thanks so much for these!

The first link, especially, looks exceptional. I'm the type who really needs an intenstive grammatical base before I delve any further into a language. It looks like I'll be taking on Gàidhlig this summer.

[h.c.arthur]

nighean-neonach,

thanks for all the great links! I'm just starting to learn the language. I have a teach yourself book with cds but these really help, especially the phonology site. as a linguist it really helps to have the information presented that way.

[h.c.arthur]

Thanks so much for these!

The first link, especially, looks exceptional. I'm the type who really needs an intenstive grammatical base before I delve any further into a language. It looks like I'll be taking on Gàidhlig this summer.

I agree! you really can't get too far without knowing about the structure of a language

[Núria Harket]

Hi

Some dictionaries: http://englishtips.org/page/3/

http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks/cultures_lang ... onary.html

http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks/encyclopedia_ ... asdad.html

Courses for beginners (Scottish): http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks/eLearning_boo ... aelic.html
http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks/eLearning_boo ... 4019X.html

Núria

[ffrench]

I thought I had found http://learngaelic.net/ on UniLang, but it certainly deserves a place on the list. The videos help a lot with pronunciation and the setups are cute to watch and all.

[johnklepac]

Tha so an math faclair:
http://www.lexilogos.com/english/gaelic_scottish_dictionary.htm

[ceid donn]

Tha so an math faclair:
http://www.lexilogos.com/english/gaelic_scottish_dictionary.htm

I think you mean to say:

Seo agaibh faclair math
Here's (for you) a good dictionary

That's the clearest way to express that. Like with all Celtic languages, the adjective follows the noun in Gàidhlig, with a few exceptions. And there's no indefinite article in Gàidhlig, so it's simply "faclair math".