Unit 11 - Talking about parts of the body
Tha falt ruadh oirre. "She has red hair. "
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The colours in Gaelic are to a large degree attributive, meaning that the same word may actually mean a different colour with reference to a particular object compared to a second object. For example, a càr liath may be a light-blue car but falt liath is the grey hair of a person no longer in the first flush of youth.
This also occurs to a degree in English where "red" in a red pillar-box and red hair represents significantly different chromatic qualities in each case. Ruadh may represent the ginger ("red") of a person's hair, or the colour of an old copper coin or the colour of whisky. It appears as ruaidh in the genitive or possessive case, pronounced approximately "roo-eye" and has been anglicised as "roy", as in the famous character in Highland history, Rob Roy MacGregor (Rab Ruadh MacGriogair).
- càr liath
- light-blue car
- falt liath
- Grey hair
- ruaidh
- genitive, or poseesive, case of red
- Rab Ruadh MacGriogair
- Rob Roy MacGregor
Now listen to Eilidh using these terms describing hair colour in a simple conversation.
