In honor of the chat with Herself tonight,
I thought I'd try to help with the translation and
pronunciation of Gaelic words in the books, starting with Outlander. With apologies for any
mistakes I might make along the way…I'm using 3 books and a lot of guess work at times.
With luck, we'll get a more polished view when The Companion comes out. I'm listing the
chapters, but not the pages, in case people have hard back, paper back, trade copy, or
Cross Stitch. So, here we go….
Chapter 9: Geilie mentions balgan-buachrach/bal-gan
buachar to Claire. I assumed it was
an herb of some sort. Here is what my wanderings told me. balgan means "bag, belly,
womb". I could not find buachrach, but it was very similar to a word meaning "cow dung",
and balgan was used in conjuction with other words to specify certain types of mushrooms.
Sooo, making a leap here, I thought it might be a kind of mushroom found in cow pastures.
Chapter 10: The MacKenzie war
cry…Tulach Ard!/Tooluch Ar!. It means "Lofty Knoll!"
Not very bellicose.
Chapter 16: In his ardor, Jamie
calls Claire mo duinne/mo doonye. It's supposed to mean
"my brown one", but DG has told us it's wrong and has made the correction in Voyager,
but there is something about the way this sounds…
Chapter 22: Jamie is talking to
his horse, just before they see the wolves.Stad, mo
dhu/stadh, mo doo, means, "Stop, my black one". And then Sguir!/sgurj, also means
Chapter 24: In response to toasts
in their honor, Jamie says, Buidheachas, mo
cariad/Booyuchus, mo carij. Buidheachas means "gratitude". So, I'm figuring this must be
an idiomatic expression, meaning, "Thanks, my friend".
Chapter 24: Jamie talking to Cobhar
in the stable greets the horse with ciamar a tha
thu?/kaymar a ha hu. It means "How are you?"
Chapter 24: Still in that stable, Jamie calls Wee Hamish duiine/doonu. It means "man".
Chapter 24: More ardor from Jamie.
He calls Claire mo airgeadach/mo ar a gedek,"my
silver one", and calman geal/kal-a-man ge-al, "white dove". Oh, to be talked to
Chapter 26: Jamie calls Donas mo buidheag/mo booyag, "my yellow one".
Chapter 26: When they approach
Lallybroch, Jamie says to the dogs Sheas!/Hes!.
It means "stop". Apparently, there are many words in Gaelic meaning "stop". He
also says mo maise/mo mash-u. That means "great beauty". That could be
debatable with those hounds.
Chapter 26: Here are a couple
of errors that DG corrected later on. She has Jamie
call Jenny mo cridh. It's supposed to be mo chridhe/mo rhee, meaning "my heart".
And she has Ian call Jenny mo dhu /mo doo, meaning "my black one". I hope my
Gaelic improves as much as Herself's has.
Chapter 31: Jenny calls Jamie ruadh/ruoj. It means "red".
Chapter 33: Jamie is teaching
Wee Jamie how to pee, and calls him gille/gillu. It
means, "lad". Such a good Uncle Jamie is.
Well, I hope this helped get everyone
psyched for tonight. And I hope I'm not too
far off in my guesses.