A bit about this endeavor

Greetings! Over the past couple years I have been slowly attempting to learn Scottish Gaelic. The language is a fascination of mine. It sounds beautiful and writes eloquently. Unfortunately, the language is slowly dying and without the efforts of a few selective universities and associations, it would be lost within a few generations.

While I can not take the time to go immerse myself in Scotland, I have been attempting to learn it through websites, books, cds, and by listening to BBC's Alba radio. I was hoping to pick up a Rosetta Stone course on Scottish Gaelic, but the closest they have is Irish, which is quite a bit different.

Unfortunately, most of the resources I have read or listened to attempt to teach common phrases that, while useful if you find yourself stranded in some part of Scotland that doesn't speak any English, does not allow me to grasp the language on a whole.

The idea of this blog is to post a few words, sentences, or sayings a day that will help me practice writing and reading Scot's Gaelic. Hopefully down the road I can find an adequate voice embedder so I can show pronunciation. Until then, my "English-stacized" writing will have to suffice.

Let me take a moment to say that I am not anywhere near fluent. That... that doesn't even seem to convey it. I am not anywhere near... Hmm. I do not even assume to know that what I am writing is accurate and I can promise you that I will make mistakes. I am hoping to have somebody that speaks and writes this language give me some corrections.

Also note that similar to most other languages, Scottish Gaelic has two different ways to talk to people. The first is the informal way, which is how you probably speak to friends or people younger than you. The other is the formal way, which you use when you meet somebody new, talk to your parents or elders, or are on a job interview. While I will be trying to stay consistent with learning the informal way, chances are a few formal words will slip in.