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Gaelic with Jason Video Links

Just links to Jason's video lessons for my own quick reference :)

Get Started with Scottish Gaelic 5 videos Tips on Gaelic Pronunciation 10 videos Gaelic Grammar Made Simple 52 videos Learn Gaelic with The Witcher 18 videos Foundational Gaelic Stories 9 videos Intermediate Gaelic Stories 19 videos

Last Updated: 20221229

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Introduction to Gaelic

The Gaelic alphabet Contains 18 letters. These are the same letters as in English, except there are no J, K, Q, V, W, X, Y, or Z. The letters remain in the same order.

Broad with broad, slender with slender Gaelic shares this rule with the Irish language. In Gaelic, vowels are regarded as either broad or slender: A, O, and U are broad, and I and E are slender. When vowels are split by a consonant or consonants, they will either be broad and broad on both sides, or slender and slender. This won't tell you exactly how to spell a word, but will help you rule out many wrong combinations. Here some examples of broad with broad: brònach, spòrsail, ciamar, Seumas; and slender with slender: leisgeul, duilich, toilichte. There are a few exceptions, for example five of the seven days of the week, i.e. Diluain, Dimàirt, Dihaoine, Disathairne, and Didòmhnaich, which used to be hyphenated and therefore were not subject to such spelling conventions.

Word Order The basic word order of Gaelic is VSO ; verb, subject, object. Compare this to English, which is SVO, or Korean, which is SOV.

Pronunciation Generally, stress is on the first syllable in Gaelic. Dialectal differences are actually quite small, but accents may vary. One of the most noticeable difference in pronunciation involves the word sibh, which generally differs in Lewis and the north of Scotland.

Noun Gender Gaelic nouns may have one of two genders, masculine or feminine. The neuter gender is no longer in use. The majority of nouns are masculine but many of the feminine nouns are commonly used. Try to learn these feminine nouns in conjunction with an adjective or their definite article to make them easier to recall and use.

The Gaelic pronouns mi, thu, sibh, sinn, iad, i, and e. The emphatic forms of the pronouns are mise, thusa/tusa, sibhse, sinne, iadsan, ise, esan.

Informal singular vs. polite plural Note this distinction between thu and sibh, and their related prepositional pronoun forms. Greetings and other expressions may also vary, e.g. tapadh leat vs. tapadh leibh, or 'S e do bheatha vs. 'S e ur beatha.

Prepositional pronouns Gaelic often uses prepositional pronouns to perform diverse grammatical functions. Examples of prepositional pronouns include leam, agam, orm.

There is no indefinite article in Gaelic The word cù, which means dog, could be translated as either "a dog" or simply "dog".

The masculine definite article There are three forms; before words beginning with BFMP (Big Fat Members of Parliament). e.g. am bàta; preceding other consonants, e.g. an leann; and preceding vowels e.g. ant-aran.

The feminine definite article There are three forms; before words beginning with b, c, g, m, and p, add a' and lenite, e.g. a' chaileag; before words beginning with a vowel, f+vowel, or with any other letter excluding sl, sn, sr, or s+vowel, add an (and lenite if beginning with f), e.g. an sgoil or an fhaoileag; and before words beginning with sl, sn, sr, or s+vowel, add an t-, e.g. an t-sràid. You can also remember that sg, sm, sp and st add an (and not an t-).

The nominative plural definite article There are two forms, although the plural form of the definite article is the same for masculine and feminine nouns. When the noun begins with a consonant, use na, e.g. na daoine (the people) and when the noun begins with a vowel, use na h-, e.g. na h-eich (the horses).

The Magic of Lenition The gender of the noun often causes a special type of consonant mutation called lenition. Usually, this causes an extra h to appear after the initial consonant. You can see an example of this with words like madainn (a feminine noun), and feasgar (a masculine noun): Madainn mhath, vs Feasgar math. Singular feminine nouns usually cause this lenition (in writing) in adjectives starting with the consonants: B, C, D, F, G, M, P, S, and T, but not in those beginning with: L, N, R, SG, SM, SP, ST, or vowels.

To be or not to be Like Spanish, Gaelic has two verbs which mean "to be", is and bi. Is is the copula and is used to define things, whereas bi is the substantive and is used to describe things.

Last Updated: 20221229

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Gaelic Grammar Links

This will be a list of links to useful grammar explanations on Learn Gaelic, Speak Gaelic, and other sites, since I often find it difficult to find the grammar explanations I'm looking for in a timely manner.

Fundamentals The definite article with lots of examples List of question words and conjunctions Possessive pronouns The relative pronouns gu, gun and gum Practice using nas 'more' and as 'most'

Prepositional Pronouns

Prepositions Express "going to" Using a, do and dhan

Last Updated: 20221229

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Work on your Gaelic pronunciation!

Use Gaelic Sounds, Fuaimean na Gàidhlig, or The Unofficial Guide to Pronouncing Gaelic to get a formal introduction to the sounds, use Gaelic with Jason's pronunciation tips to refine your pronunciation, or just listen to Radio nan Gàidheal to absorb the sounds through passive listening!

Before I started learning my first foreign language (Korean), I had already been listening to K-pop for a couple of years. When I started learning, my pronunciation was already almost perfect (if I do say so myself) thanks to the huge amount of audio input I'd already consumed - even though I had understood very little of it! So I highly recommend listening to radio, podcasts or music from the very beginning! :)

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Gàidhlig Learning Resources

Speak Gaelic

The current de-facto Gaelic learning resource supported by the Scottish government, Speak Gaelic currently has course content covering up to A2, with plans to expand up to B2 level. Each level has 13 lessons with several sections each, intended to be covered over a thirteen-week period. Speak Gaelic also has an accompanying video series and optional in-person classes.

The online course

In-person classes

YouTube channel

BBC Alba

Extra Podcast

LearnGaelic

The predecessor to SpeakGaelic, LearnGaelic features several courses, a dictionary with sound files, and beginner friendly pronunciation guides and vocabulary lists, as well as an archive for the extensive (over 2,000 posts and counting!) intermediate reading/listening series' The Little Letter An Litir Bheag and Letter to Learners Litir do Luchd-ionnsachaidh.

Beginner's Courses Beginner's Course: 60 lessons Beag air Bheag (Little By Little): 35 lessons Speaking Our Language: 72 lessons

Intermediate Activities These mostly take the form of listening files or videos with both Gaelic transcription and English translation, as well as integration to the on-site dictionary. Perfect for expanding upon your learning, learning new vocabulary, or practicing your passive skills (i.e. reading and listening). There are over two thousand posts in total so I dare say there's plenty to get stuck into :) An Litir Bheag Litir do Luchd-ionnsachaidh Watch Gaelic Look@LearnGaelic Learn Gaelic songs Resources Dictionary Thesaurus Gaelic Sounds Vocabulary Lists Grammar

Other Sites and Resources

Formal Study Sabhal Mòr Ostaig An Cùrsa Inntrigidh (distance learning) eSgoil N5 and Higher Gaelic (distance learning)

Apps Duolingo and Duome Glossika Mango Languages Transparent Languages Memrise

Video and Audio Gaelic with Jason Speaking Our Language Can seo Gàidhlig Gu Leòr eSgoil National 5 course recordings Gaelic NS Radio nan Gàidheal Beag air Bheag (separate from the LearnGaelic course!) Fuaimean na Gàidhlig For children and parents Gaelic Nursery Language Links Go! Gaelic Gaelic4Parents BBC Bitesize National 5 Gaelic BBC Bitesize Higher Gaelic Ceumannan series

Textbooks Oxford Children's Scottish Gaelic-English Visual Dictionary Everyday Gaelic Complete Gaelic Gaelic in 12 Weeks Progressive Gaelic series Colloquial Scottish Gaelic Ceumannan

Communities Gaelic Learning Community Scottish Gaelic Duolingo FB group The Gaelic Meme Machine FB group https://www.foramnagaidhlig.net/ Other https://www.faclair.com/index.aspx https://www.ainmean-aite.scot/ https://gaelictoolkit.uhi.ac.uk/ https://gaelicgrammar.org/ https://www.anseotal.org.uk/en/index.jsp http://www.storlann.co.uk/beurla/index.html http://www.igaidhlig.net/gd/ http://danamag.org/ An Sgeulachd Ghoirid Smathsin https://sgeulachdan.scot/ Taic.me.uk

My Recommendations

Or rather, the path I'm taking on my Gaelic learning journey? I started off with Duolingo and still use it every day for practice, and then I solidified the basics with the LearnGaelic Beginner and Little By Little Courses (and lots of Anki cards), and worked through Progressive Gaelic 1.

I still use Duolingo and am currently attending earrann 2 of An Cùrsa Inntrigidh with SMO, and have been studying with the N5 eSgoil videos to prepare for the Higher course (hopefully next year!). I still make Anki cards for any interesting sentences that crop up on Duolingo that I think I'll want to recall later.

I plan to go through the Ceumannan books which I know the Higher course uses to some extent. I'd also like to go through Speaking Our Language, Speak Gaelic, Gaelic with Jason, Gaelic in 12 Weeks and the rest of the Progressive Gaelic series, and then start An Litir Bheag before SMO's follow on course after ACI :)

Last Updated: 20221229