Gravestone inscription

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wpr66
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Gravestone inscription

Post by wpr66 »

On the gravestone of Donald McKinnon (died 1881), said to have come from The Isle of Skye, and perhaps Glen Ora on the island, there is the following inscription in what may be the local dialect or Scottish Gaelic or something quite different. On the headstone it is all in capital letters:

Fannaiph dluth ri josa cha diphir e tuille siph a sphetr a dhaiph a chrasan gu prath a chum ur chuideachadh

It follows a quotation from the book of Ephesians, in English, and I was wondering whether it was the same thing in his native language:

'By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.'

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Jim
HappyChip
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Re: Gravestone inscription

Post by HappyChip »

Hello Jim,

By coincidence I was on the Isle of Barra last week spending some time in graveyards for genealogy purposes, and there were many McKinnons' headstones!

I have to say right away that as a first year learner of Scots Gaelic, I am not able completely to translate your phrase or confirm whether it comes from Ephesians. However, it looks like it does indeed come from the Bible as "Ìosa" ("josa") is "Jesus".

"cuideachadh" is a masculine noun meaning "aid", "help", "assistance". It lenites, i.e. adds the "h" as the second letter in certain circumstances.

"dluth" means "near"; "ri" means "to" or "against".
"cha" is a word that is used as part of a way of negating the sentence or clause.
Could "gu prath" possibly have been instead "gu brath"? This means "forever".

"a chum" means "in order that", "for the purpose of", or "therefore".
"ur" might be complicated. I think here it means "your".

Sadly a lot of these words are completely unfamiliar to me and I can't track them down in Dwelly: http://www.faclair.com/

There is a Scots Gaelic group on Facebook that would I'm sure be able to help you further:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/2216292068/

I hope this helps a little.
wpr66
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Re: Gravestone inscription

Post by wpr66 »

Hi Happychip
Thanks so much for your effort to translate what to me seems an impossibly hard language. It's amazing how different cultures solved the problem of writing down words in such different ways.

I've had a look at Dwelly after your posting and could get no further with it. I'm now sure, however, that the inscription isn't just a Gaelic version of the bible text on the gravestone, and while I was pondering your reply it made me realise the way in which the lines are arranged: it's a poem or the words of a hymn or song. Not much of a help but it probably means I can rule out a bible verse, unless of course it's a psalm. But if you right about Josa being Jesus, then it's not a psalm.

I'll go onto facebook as you suggest and see how I go.

Thanks again
Jim
wpr66
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Re: Gravestone inscription

Post by wpr66 »

Hi again Happychip
I meant to send you the inscription in the form it appeared on the gravestone. It won't help, but you'll see it's in verse.

Fannaiph dluth ri josa cha diphir e
Tuille siph a sphetr a
Dhaiph a chrasan gu prath a
Chum ur chuideachadh


Regards
Jim
HappyChip
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Joined: 24 Oct 2011 23:30

Re: Gravestone inscription

Post by HappyChip »

Thanks for the layout info Jim. It's an interesting one! Scots Gaelic has been evolving all the time in its spelling, and I think it needs someone who would know the 19th century conventions.

I had a further look at Dwelly and wondered if "Fannaiph" could be part of the verb "faint" or "weaken" -- only the root is spelt "Fannaich". It's tempting to try and make some sort of sense of these words -- "Weaken not, for you are near the Lord" sort of thing, but I'm sure that would turn out to be a false path!

"Tuille" is suggested in Dwelly as a variant spelling of "tuilleadh" -- "more", "addition".

If the good people on Facebook are unable to help, I will ask my Gaelic teacher at the end of the week if she can translate it.

Regards,
Ailsa
wpr66
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Re: Gravestone inscription

Post by wpr66 »

Thanks Ailsa
I need a 19th century Scots Gaelic hymnal. Look forward to hearing from you after your visit to teacher
Jim
HappyChip
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Re: Gravestone inscription

Post by HappyChip »

Hello again Jim,

I had a word with my Gaelic teacher at the end of my lesson about this inscription. She was in a bit of a hurry to leave unfortunately, but will look at it again next week. She did say however that a lot of the "p"s should be "b"s in order for it to make sense, e.g. "siph" should be "sibh".

She said the general sense of it was "Safe with Jesus", and she thinks the "chrasan" might be related to "bones".

The "sphetr" part made no immediate sense to her, I'm afraid.

Will report back next week!

Ailsa
wpr66
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Joined: 21 Oct 2011 04:17

Re: Gravestone inscription

Post by wpr66 »

Hi Ailsa
I tried the Facebook group you suggested and they came up with many suggestions which I've put together, then tried to make it sound like reasonable English verse. It resembles the Old Testament psalms which tended in two lines to say the same thing in different words. This is what I've got so far. The slashes indicate the ends of lines:

Remain close to Jesus/
He will not abandon you./
And he will give you his grace/
Forever being your help.

I look forward to your teacher's take on it.

With thanks again
Jim
annmck
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Joined: 06 Apr 2012 09:45

Re: Gravestone inscription

Post by annmck »

Hi, WPR66

I've been puzzling over this inscription for some years, as Donald & Anne are ancestors of mine. I finally typed it into google this afternoon and your post came up. So, thanks for the legwork!

Donald was, from memory, born in Bracadale parish, near Talisker, on Skye.

Glen Ora is the name of the family property established some years after they emigrated.

(Are you connected to the family?)
Cheers, annmck
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