DASG Blog

Seanfhaclan agus Shennocklen: Càirdeas agus Comasan ann an Seanfhaclan Gàidhlig na h-Alba agus Gàidhlig Mhanannach

We are fond of sayings and proverbs at DASG, we even have some in “Fieldwork”, and other languages, especially Celtic languages, therefore I found an interesting topic for writing a blog today. In this blog I want to have a look at proverbs that we have in Scotland in comparison with the proverbs they have in (The Isle of) Mann. RecentlyI have been reading a very interesting book, “The folk-lore of the Isle of Man: being an account of its myths, legends, superstitions, customs & proverbs, collected from many sources-” le A.W. Moore. That has been very helpful to me with the research here. After reading it a couple of times I found that many of their proverbs were very similar to the ones we have, with little variations to them. It was amazing just how similar the messages that were behind them were and the way they were explained in the different images, or “stories”. Sometimes the language is not entirely exact in their meanings but I wrote in square brackets their meanings in English.

Here are some that are connected to “Common Truths” and our variations of them:

• "Eaisht lesh dagh cleeaysh, eisht jean briwnys” [“Listen with each ear, then do judgement”] –“Fear nach cluinn gu math, cha fhreagair e gu math” [“He that will not listen well will not answer well”].
• The proverbs above are connected other ones here: “Cha vel fer erbee cha bouyr, as eshyn nach jean clashtyn” [“There is no man so deaf as he who will not hear”]. This reminded me of“An nì nach cluinn thu an-diugh, chan aithris thu a-màireach” [“What you will not hear today, you won’t recite [it] tomorrow”] a little.

This one deals with deals with “Morality”:

• "Eshyn lhieys marish moddee, irrys eh marish jarganyn” [“He who will lie down with the dogs will rise up with the fleas”] – “Am fear a laigheas sa pholl, èiridh e gu fluich, salach” [“The man that lies in the mud will rise wet and dirty”]. I’m not too sure about the words of this one entirely but if you know please let us know!

I found lots of proverbs that were connected to “Selfishness”, against selfishness especially:

• "Dy chooilley ghooiney er a hon, as Yee son ain ooilley” [Every man for himself, and God for us all”] – “Do gach fear a sgarbh fhèin”. The two proverbs here aren’t completely connected here but I wouldn’t say that they are not connected in any way. It reminded me of another version I found in “Proverbial Lore in Embo and the other Gaelic-speaking fisherfolk communities of East Sutherland” by Nancy Dorian, with “Thoir a  h-uile fear sgor à creig d[h]a fhèin!” [“Every fellow will take a chip out of a rock for himself!”]. Similarly, I remember a proverb in the book “Saoghal Bana-mharaiche” by Seòsamh Watson, with “’S iomadh fear [a] chaidh gus a’ choille airson bata d[h]a fhèin” [“Many a man has went to the forest for his own bat”].
• "Slaa sahll er toinn muck roauyr” [“Daub grease upon the rump of a fat pig”] – “A’ cur mèith air muc mhèith” [“Putting fat on a fat pig”]. Altough I can’t remember where I found this one, I remember another proverb that was very similar with the other ones above: “’S ann air a’ chàrn as motha a thuiteas clachan (beaga) air a mhullach” [“It is on the tallest cairn that (small) stones fall on its top”]. Let us know if you have any information about this one!

I have loads to write about comparisons and similarities of the two languages, but I shall continue with this topic next week. Do you know any of the proverbs about? Do you have any suggestions or information about the proverbs in this blog? Let us know on facebook, twitter and our own website!