Gàidhlig / English
Siubhal

Siubhal

Posted by Eleanor on 26th April 2018
This week’s blog comes to you from the sunny banks of the Seine in Paris’ 6th Arrondissment, and is inspired by the love of travelling and visitng new places that Gaels have been known for for centuries. While most of us know the word “siubhal” to mean travelling, or when used as a noun to mean a journey, there are many idiomatic uses for this word beyond just the motion of moving from one place to another.

From ­­Breakish on Skye we have “siubhal sìth” or “fairy travel”, which according to the archive was a power or ability that some appeared to have whereby they could cross great distances much quicker than ordinary people. In South Uist, a variation on the same phrase, “siubhal sìtheadh” was used if someone had a vision of a group of people who appeared to be walking on air.

The archive also gives us the phrase “siubhal-oidhche” from Scalpay in Harris, with the wonderfully ambiguous phrase “night marauding” listed as the meaning, which sounds like something worthy of an Enid Blyton novel, although perhaps that is not quite what is meant!

“Siubhal” appears in a musical context all over Gaelic Scotland meaning “variation”, particularly in relation to pìobaireachd (pipe music). “Siubhail dublachd” and “siubhal singilte” (both from the Ross of Mull) refer to double variation and single variation in “ceòl mòr”, one of the forms of traditional music of the Highland bagpipes.

The word siubhal can also be used to describe parts of a machine or instrument that moves. For example, from Canada we have “maide siubhal“ which is part of a spinning wheel, specifically the “stick going up from the treadle”. From North Uist we also have “an iarun siubhail”, another part of a spinning wheel – this time the “iron hook on the axle”.

Outside of the DASG archive, LearnGaelic also gives us “siubhal gun siùcar”, literally “a trip or journey without sugar”, as a possible translation for the English phrase “a wild goose chase”, meaning expending a lot of energy on something that proves fruitless.

Do you know of any other ways to use the word “siubhal”? Why not write to us on Facebook or Twitter and let us know. That’s all from me this week. As they say here, “à la prochaine!”
 
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