- Aims of DASG
- About Corpas na Gàidhlig
- About the Fieldwork Archive
- How to Cite
- History
- Historical Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic
- DASG Team
- Advisory Board
- Publications
- Acknowledgements
- How to Help
- Copyright
- Terms and Conditions
- Contact Us
- Language in Lyrics
- Am Briathradan
- LEACAN
- DASG Launch
- Gairm Online
Seillean na Tòine Mòra (Seillean-Ruadh)
A while ago I began work on some boxes full of audio recordings that belong to the School of Celtic and Gaelic here at the University of Glasgow. The recordings were made in Scotland and Nova Scotia, including songs and stories that have been passed down from generation to generation.
The tape North Argyll was probably recorded by Duncan MacQuarrie with an anonymous informant and we don’t have a date either. The tape, however, is full of interesting words from Argyll including Seillean na Tòine Mòra [bee of the big backside] for bumble bee.
“’S e ‘seillean na tòine mòra’ a chuala mi air a’ ‘bhumble-bee’.
[I’ve heard ‘seillean na tòine mòra’ for bumble bee]
An e?
[Really?]
’S e, ach chan eil fhios a’m. Sin na chuala mise.
[Yes, but I don’t know. Thats what I’ve heard]
Cha chuala mi ach ‘seillean na tòine mòra’.”
[I’ve only ever heard ‘seillean na tòine mòra’]
There are different words across Scotland for a bee or a bumble bee and there are many in DASG’s Faclan bhon t-Sluagh. Seillean mór was used in South Uist, seillean ruadh in Killin (Perthshire) and bodach-ruadh was used in Inverness. Tìlleag was collected in Sutherland and deilean in Harris. You can see more here.
We hope that some of the recordings will be available online sometime next year. You can leave your comments and other words for seillean na tòine mòra under our blogs and we have pages on Facebook and Twitter.
There are no comments for this post