Hi! So I just wanted ask, Jamie has so many loving pet names in Gaelic for Claire and just his loved ones in general. And I can't pronounce any of them!!! Could you maybe please give a run-down of all the Gaelic endearments and their pronunciations if you know them? Like the only one I know is mo nighean donn(coz he says it on the show), but the rest go *whooosh!* over my head! Nothing Gaelic sounds the way it spelled!
Hi anon - I won’t even try at pronunciations, but I’ll gladly provide you a list of the endearments that come to mind. Please excuse my spelling - my knowledge of Gaelic is exclusively from Outlander (except for “Erin Go Bragh,” but that’s something completely different…)
Readers - please jump in if I miss anything:
Mo nighean donn = my brown-haired lass (note: intrepid readers will know that Jamie calls Claire “mo duinne” in Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber - due to Diana Gabaldon not having any help with Gaelic during her writing of the first two books)
Mo chridhe = my heart
Mo graidh = my love
Mo chiusle = my blood (Jamie and Jenny use this to refer to their children and grandchildren)
A bhailach = lad (in Gaelic, I understand that “a” indicates direction - you don’t call someone “lad,” you need to add “a” to indicate that you’re referring to that person)
A charaid = friend
A leannan = sweetie/sweetheart
A nighean = lass/lassie
I feel like I can actually contribute something here, given that I grew up in an area that is bilingual English/Gaelic lol Even the road signs are bilingual!
So I’ve heard or spoken these terms of endearment before and although the Canadian Gaelic pronunciation is slightly different than Scottish, it’s not too far off.
Mo nighean donn = moh nee-in dohn
Mo chridhe = moh khree (the ch is pronounced with a k-sound, like loch, it’s more at the back of your throat)
Mo graidh = moh gar-rai (the gar is quick, like you’re saying all three letters at once)
Mo chiusle = moh khuush-le (Although Diana has Jamie say in the books that a chiusle means my blood, that’s sort of a figurative translation. It literally means the beating of my heart or my pulse, so basically your reason for living.)
A bhailach = ah bahl-akh
A charaid = ah kah-rai
A leannan = ah lee-anan
A nighean = ah nee-in
There’s lots of others but here’s a couple extras that are also sometimes seen in the books, off the top of my head…
How are you? = Ciamar a tha thu? = kia-mar aa haa u
My beloved = M'annsachd = mahn-sahkt
My darling = A muirninn = ah voor-nin
Blessing = Beannachd = byan-acht
Witch = Ban-druidh = bahn drooy
And just for the fun of it, my name!
Julia = Sìleas = Shee-lass
Now this is a worthwhile tumblr post! Thanks ladies. Especially @sileas84, thanks for the pronunciation guide. Ugly american here, but I had no idea there were Gaelic speaking areas in Canada? Where?
Gàidhlig Chanada (Canadian Gaelic) is spoken in the province of Nova Scotia (New Scotland).
Gaelic has been spoken in Nova Scotia for almost 250 years. Highlanders brought it with them when they settled the area. The very first group of Gaelic-speaking Highlanders actually came over in the mid-1600′s to an area called Port Royal, which is about 20 mins away from where my parents live, but they don’t count because it wasn’t officially settled for another hundred years. Our Scottish sister town is Stirling.
There are only about 500 people in NS who speak it as a first language, but we have the provincial Department of Gaelic Affairs and Colaisde na Gàidhlig (the Gaelic College) that run workshops and immersions to get as many people speaking it as possible. A lot of Scots even come over to attend the college.
Wicked interesting post! I’m only like 1/8 Scottish, but that branch of the family came over to Nova Scotia for a few generations before heading down to the U.S.
