What was the first Gaelic book you ever owned?

Fàilte oirbh uile! Welcome to all!

What was the first Gaelic book you owned? How did you come by it? Share the memories.

Mine was a battered copy of MacLaren's Gaelic Self-Taught in a thick, blue paper cover, comandeered when I was about 10 years old. It had been bought by my Dad around when my parents got married - my Mum's a native Gaelic speaker, he isn't. I got to know the first two or three chapters almost by heart, but found it very tough going indeed. To describe this book as "dry" is like saying the Sahara desert is not damp. I still have it, forty hrrmph years later. It's even more battered now, and though I rarely look at it, it will always have its place on my shelves. And my Dad still doesn't speak Gaelic.

I have a few different books but have not really engaged with them. Teach Yourself Gaelic, Scottish Colloquial Gaelic, Gaelic is Fun, Gaelic is Fantastic.
After my Masters Degree (end 2011) I intend to make decent inroads to the language though.
I'm currently reading Latin and Greek for my Masters of which the Latin and the the grammar from both should be of great utility on studying further any Celtic language.
When I lived in the Donegal gaeltacht I found a great resource called 'Now your Talking' which was a book/cassette jointly produced (if I recall correctly) by TG4 and the BBC.
The format was great and it would be great to come across something similar in Gàidhlig.

Well, here's a few online resources

http://www.flightline.co.uk/learn-to-speak/scots-gaelic/

A CD-ROM useful for drill and practice, but not 100% accurate, as it is a word for word translation of similar products for other European languages, ignoring where Gaelic does not quite fit the pattern.

https://lsh507.securepod.com/gaelicbooks.org/merchantmanager/index.php?cPath=10

The Gaelic Books Council's site - best place to find books to buy. Some CDs, DVDs etc

http://www.bbc.co.uk/alba/foghlam/learngaelic/

The BBC's excellent set of Gaelic resources, including another chance to see Speaking Our Language in i-player. They might be reissuing them on DVD.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/alba/foghlam/learngaelic/

Fantastic dictionary site, giving access to five dictionaries, plus Irish and Manx.

Hope these are useful!

Probably Can Seo, and although dated now, it was regarded as pretty a radical approach to Gaelic language learning (actually any language, comparing it to the French I was learning at that time at school).

I seem to remember it was seen as controversial, and sniffed at by the acdemic purists.

They're on YouTube now
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=can+seo+&aq=f
I do recall that it was very popular - over 1 million people registered an interest in learning Gaelic.

Co-dhiù, what was your first Gaelic book?

It was my grandfather's copy of Am Bìobull Gàidhlig.

Wow! Do you still have it?

Apart from Teach Yourself Gaelic, the first Gaelic book I ever had was An Leabhar Mòr, The Great Book of Gaelic, a bi-lingual anthology of poetry and art from Scotland and Ireland. It was first published in 2002 (about the time I was first interested in Gaelic) and contains 100 Gaelic poems (with English translations) from 600AD to modern times and 100 pieces of art/calligraphy. It may not count as a proper Gaelic book but it is visually stunning, the Gaelic poetry is accessible and it would be a great addition to any Gaelic library.

It certainly does count! I love an Leabhar Mor (see my books). I think poetry is the best thing to read in Gaelic - it's the soul of the language, and you get so much back for the effort you put in.

I came across a quote from Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill where she says "writing in Irish is the oldest continuous literary activity in Western Europe" - and all Gaels are inheritors of that tradition. She has two poems in an Leabhar Mor - Ceist na Teangan, brilliantly translated by Paul Muldoon, and Dubh, which is so simple in form that I can understand it, even though I'm not an Irish speaker.

One of my favourites is "De a thug ort sgriobhadh 's a' Ghaidhlig?" by William Neill (page 142) and its wonderful illustration of trees full of faces by Stan Clementsmith.

Do you have a favourite?

With the best will in the world, the eye tends to slide over incomprehensible words. One reason I like an Leabhar Mor so much, is that it is so beautiful that it encourages you to linger on the page long enough to really start reading the Gaelic.

(Edited to fix annoying typo)

My first Gaelic book was Can Seo too. I can't remember how long ago it was, but I seem to remember the programmes were on BBC TV. Maybe it was late at night, for videoing. I've a feeling we missed a couple and lost heart - no stamina. I'll check it out on You-Tube.

No, sadly. It seems to have vanished in one of our many moves.

Sorry this was so terse - I'd been struggling with a broadband connection that was actually worse than dial-up.

Good to have you aboard, MacShealbhaich! Hope your connection is better.

Re an Leabhar Mor, my feelings about poetry change with my mood. However I am often most receptive to the melancholy aspect of loss and longing that seems to be prevalent in Gaelic poetry. I rather like Dha Pàdraig, Bràthair Mo Mhàthar by Myles Campbell on page 202. The phrase "Chan eil 'na ar beatha ach turas eadar dà shian." translated "Our life is but a journey between storm-showers" is wonderful.

On a happier note, the anthology does have some cheerful love poetry. "Bothan Airigh am Bràigh Raithneach" - "A Shieling in Brae Rannoch" is rather jolly.

A couple of years ago I was doing a particular phase of some research I'm still working on that required reading the Annals of Tigernach (I always try and use primary sources, where I can), and found that he jumped about from Latin to Old Irish - sometimes in the same sentence. Without the Latin and the Gaelic I'd have been a bit at sea and obliged to use secondary material.

Yes, swancr, if it's melancholy poetry you like, you've come to the right language! :) I had a look at "Dha Padraig..." - it is lovely, with little snapshots of haymaking, and bible echoes.

I don't know if you know, but "Bothan Airigh am Braigh Raithneach" is also a song (no distinction between song and poetry in traditional Gaelic culture). It has a lovely, swoony melody, appropriate to its lovestruck, daydreaming character. You can hear it sung by Julie Fowlis here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsl7ruSE3DY

an Leabhar Mor gives more verses than are usually sung these days, so it's good to find.

Sounds like something I could add to my library!

Thank you so much mta for the link to youtube with Julie Fowlis singing "Bothan Airigh am Braigh Raithneach". It is a lovely song and it is so completely different from how I had been imagining it in my head. I thought the poem was quite light and I was imagining a jaunty tune but how wrong could I have been. It is hauntingly beautiful.

19 'S e do bheatha - you're welcome, swancr! I think Julie does sing it in a slightly downbeat way - it's one of the few Gaelic love songs (or so it sometimes seems) where love is requited. There is indeed a touch of humour in the song - who but a young girl could think her love as "as fheàrr dhan tig culaidh" - "the best that ever wore a cloak"? And she's just as much in love with the thought of her own new home, with its cows and sheep, as she is with him. So it can be sung with a little more cheer!

The first Gaelic book I ever had is a tiny yellow booklet, which I still have but Librarything won't even let me add to my books, presumably because it doesn't have an ISBN number). I picked it up in Scotland away back in the early 1970s, can't remember how. It's called 'Ceol nam Beann: The Ceilidh Song Book' (Revised edition) and it has the words (Gaelic only) for what it says are 60 of the best songs in Gaelic. It has a publication date (for this revised edition, presumably) of 1972, and it appears to have been published (or should that be issued) by the Gaelic League of Scotland, the Highlanders' Institute, Berkeley Street, Glasgow (I remember seeing the blackened ruins of that). It has an impressive logo on the front with the lion rampant surrounded by a circle of words in Gaelic: Dionasg Gaidhlig na h-Alba: Cha n-fhois gu buaidh no rest until victory?. I forgot about it for years but dug it out when I was in Australia in the 1980s and started listening to a local Scottish/Irish radio station (called Scotland Revisited) that often included songs in Gaelic, and I remember trying to follow the words of some of them with this book, without much success, needless to say.

Oh, well, my first gaelic book was Teach Yourself Gaelic by Boyd Robertson, along with the dictionary. I've collected a few more since then.

My first Gaelic book was Irish Gaelic: Now your Talking.
It perhaps is the best language learning book and audio I have ever owned. In Gaidhlig I think it was the Teach Yourself Colloquial Gaelic course, but it might have been the Boyd Robertson TY set, I honestly can't recall. Both are underused :-(

The first Gaelic book I ever owned, if you can count it as a Gaelic book, was Faclair na Pàrlamaid. When I was fifteen or so, and a big fan of languages, my grandmother ended up with a complimentary copy from someone or another. She had little desire for it, so passed it on to me. I was delighted.

The first Gaelic book I ever bought was a Gaelic bible when I was seventeen. I saw it in an Oxfam bookshop in Glasgow for £2.50, and thought I'd go for it.

>24 fergus.reoch: I'm wondering if the first Gaelic book was any use for looking up vocabulary from the first one bought - my guess would be "not much"!

I rather like that idea :)

"...as Moses was admonished of God when he was building the tabernacle, 'See that you do all things in accordance with to the articles laid down in sub-section 12a of the secondary legislation...' "

...a rèir mar d'orduicheadh do Mhaois 'nuair a bha e air tì am pàilliun a chur suas. Oir feuch, (a deir e,) gu'n dean thu na h-uile nithe rèir
na h-altan a tha clàraichte ann an fo-earran 12a nan dàrna reachdas...

(I must say, one of the great things about modernity is that from my flat in Cairo I can access both Faclair na Parlamaid and the bible in Gaelic at the touch of a button!)

GGA! ("Gaire gu h-àrd" - the Gaelic LOL) And, yes, there are some things that make it great to be modern. Not having to build an ark on divine instruction's being one of them.