Quote:
I don't understand the usage of bhárr in the last line. The line is "air àird a' chuain" in every verse prior, then it switches here and I'm stumped.
air àird a' chuain = on the high seas ("on the height of the sea")
Although
cuan means "bay" in Irish, I think it can mean "sea" in some dialects (Ulster?) and that's what it means in Gaelic. They use
bàgh for "bay" (usually, but there are some other terms as well).
bàrr means "the very top" , so it means something more like "on the very crest of the high seas"
Technically, the expression would be
a bhàrr air .... The "a" seems to be dropped for poetic reasons (that happens a lot in Irish songs as well), so the "b" stays lenited.
The full lyrics can be found here:
http://www.celticlyricscorner.net/fowlis/tha.htmQuote:
Céit = old-irish beginning of summer?
In both Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the names of the months are fairly recent. The Gaels did not traditionally divide the year into 12 months, but seasons or other periods of time based on their activities or the weather (in Gaelic, the current name for December is
an Dùbhlachd, meaning something like "the blackness"). Different areas might have different names. For example,
Cèitean is the accepted term for May in Scotland now, but some people use[d]
Màigh (obviously borrowed from English).
One other note is that
bha is the Scottish Gaelic form of the Irish
bhí, so
Bha a cridh' le gaol gu sgàineadh would be
Bhí a croí le grá go scáinead [
Ba also exists in Gaelic, but is unchangeable as in Irish].