Unit 24 - The seaside

A’ Mhuir "The Sea"

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Some of us live by the sea. Others visit it from time to time. There is a wonderful Gaelic vocabulary associated with the marine environment. We shall merely scratch the surface here – but we hope that many of you will delve deeper! You will note that some words, like muir, have a genitive (or possessive) form which is very different from the standard nominative form of the word. The genitive of muir (sea) is mara (of the sea - think of "marine” or “maritime”).

Here is some vocabulary to get you started – both the nominative and genitive forms of the words, and their meanings, are given.

a’ mhuir
the sea
na mara
of the sea
an cladach
the shore
a’ chladaich
of the shore
am bàta
the boat
a’ bhàta
of the boat
an cala
the harbour
a’ chala
of the harbour
an t-iasgair
the fisherman
an iasgair
of the fisherman
an tràigh
the beach
na tràghad
of the beach
an lìon
the net
an lìn
of the net
an fheamainn
the seaweed
na feamann
of the seaweed

Transcript 1

Now listen to Seònaid and Iain as they take a walk down to a busy fishing harbour.

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