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Scotland Languages: Difference between revisions
→Scottish Gaelic
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Many personal names such as Iain (John), Malcolm, Duncan, Fiona and Morag all ultimately derive from the language too. | Many personal names such as Iain (John), Malcolm, Duncan, Fiona and Morag all ultimately derive from the language too. | ||
The most common class of Gaelic surnames are, of course, those beginning with ''mac'' (Gaelic for ''son''), such as ''MacGillEathain'' (MacLean). The female form is ''nic'' (Gaelic for ''daughter''), so Catherine MacPhee is properly called in Gaelic, ''Caitrìona Nic a' Phì''. [Strictly, "nic" is a contraction of the Gaelic phrase "nighean mhic", meaning "daughter of the son", thus Nic Dhomhnuill, really means "daughter of MacDonald" rather than "daughter of Donald".] Although there is a common misconception that "mac" means "son of", the "of" part actually comes from the genitive form of the patronymic that follows the prefix "Mac", e.g., in the case of MacNéill, Néill (of Neil) is the genitive form of Niall (Neil). | |||
Several colours give rise to common Scottish surnames: ''bàn'' (Bain – white), ''ruadh'' (Roy – red), ''dubh'' (Dow – black), ''donn'' (Dunn – brown), ''buidhe'' (Bowie – yellow). | |||
===Alphabet and pronunciation=== | ===Alphabet and pronunciation=== | ||