Blair Collection > Deo-gréine

H
AX DEO-GHREINK,
these pages, my craving for information still
unappeased. Why was the same word pro-
nounced in so many different ways? How
was the spelling a'o apparent guide to the
pronunciation? Why? What or I low ? The
answers I got all amounted to the same thing.
•• Because it was so !" I was young thru, and
easily discouraged, and after vainly sighing
for a Gaelic edition of " Aim," who had done
me yeoman's service in beginning other
tongues, [gave up tin' attempt in despair.
If there were grammars and text-books to
be had at that time, neither 1, nor anyone I
consulted on the matter, knew anything about
them ; and although I used to try and get the
people to tell in*- the names of things in Gaelic,
and learned to say " Kemar hashie " and
■ ' Hakuma." I got no further at that time.
Then' are many 1 know who can learn lan-
guages from colloquialisms, backwards as it
were, but, unfortunately, I am not one of them.
I cannot pick up sentences unless 1 know the
words of which they are composed ; nor can I
use verbs without being able to conjugate
them.
My next serious attempt was when I had
< iaeiic-speaking nurses for my children, and
tried to learn along with them. This time I
got an Episcopal prayer-book with Gaelic and
English on opposite pages ; but, as before, my
difficulties remained unsolved — the nurses
mostly preferred English, and nothing would
persuade them to go on talking Gaelic when
I failed to understand them at once.
1 think everyone who has tried to learn
t < ia'lic will bear me out in this : how impossible
it is to get a Gaelic speaker to continue re-
solutely to speak the language, to hammer
away with questions and remarks, to a be-
ginner, no matter how earnestly that poor
beginner may implore !
Personally, I know only one kind old Gaelic
friend who has given me much help in these
latter days, in this way never speaking a
word of English and insisting that I should
not do so either. But this sort are almost as
rare as dodos !
The truth is, that so lew native Gaelic
speakers realize the difficulties of their lan-
guage, and in their hearts reall) think one
very dull, not to pick up their talk at once by
rote !
My days were fully occupied at this period.
Young children do not leave much time for
intellectual pursuits, and I was again tempor-
arily discouraged ; but I never lost hope that
some day 1 should find the leisure and the
opportunity to accomplish my heart's desire.
Exactly three years ago an active-minded
young friend, full of ardour to learn Gaelic,
came to live near me for a time, and we deter-
mined to start work together in real earnest.
We persuaded the parish minister to be our
teacher, and he at once introduced us to Reid's
Grammar. My blessings on that book and on
its author, for it led me safely over the slough
of despond ! I should like to recommend it to
every one who proposes to take up the study
of ( laelic seriously. If I could only see a new
edition with more exercises, and more insist-
ence on idioms, I should be quite satisfied with
it.
Since then I have gone on steadily — slowly,
it is true, for one does not learn so easilv as
when one is young — but surely all the same,
and w ith unflagging interest ; getting lessons
whenever possible, but only lately beginning
to overcome the nervous shyness in trying to
talk, and still finding my chief stumbling-block
in understanding others. This is no doubt
due to studying so much alone, and one should
avail oneself of every opportunity of hearing
the language spoken. I have twice hadGaelic-
speaking visitors for a month at a time, and I
try to attend Gaelic church services whenever
possible — even in London, where the monthly
and crowded Gaelic Sunday meetings are
m< ist inspiring.
These last three summers 1 have spent some
weeks in a Gaelic-speaking district, and what
delightful holidays these were in North Uist,
Tiree and Barra ! In this latter island I was
fortunate enough to find a landlady who had
no English, and three delightful young
daughters who had very little, and whose
sweet voices and charming manners would
have made Gaelic desirable, I am sure, even to
such a hardened " Gaelicphobe " as has lately
been sending unpatriotic letters from Lochaber
to the Oban Times!
In fact all my neighbours in these far-away
islands exemplified the high level of manners,
breeding, and pronunciation of English which
prevail among the true Gaels, and which are
in such marked contrast to the ways and the
accent of those w ho allow their Gaelic to
perish, and who too often lose along with it
all their line racial characteristics.
Having gone through the mill myself, I
should like t( i offer a few hints to those who are
at present learning this most elusive language.
( )f course, after an elementary course of gram-
mar, the next step is to know plenty of words;
and my experience says : Don't try to learn
lists, but get an easy reading book, mark every
word you don't know, look it up, and write
the English On the margin, and always go over
the same piece two days running. Have Reid
beside you, and turn up constantly his lists of
irregular verbs, and his table of compound
prepositions.
Get as often as possible an hour's reading