Thàinig am faclair aig Dwelly a-mach eadar 1901-1911 a' chiad turas, obair mhòr a bheatha agus tha am faclair seo am broinn an Fhaclair Bhig againne.
Chaidh Dwelly fhèin ath chlò-bhualadh iomadh turas bhon uairsin agus 's e Dwelly's fhathast "faclair mòr na Gàidhlig" a dh'aindeoin aois. Leis cho feumail 's a tha e, 's ann gu tric a bhiodh daoine ag ràdh gur bochd nach urrainnear faclan a lorg ann bho Bheurla gu Gàidhlig cuideachd. Stòras mòr de dh'fhaclan air an glasadh ann an duilleagan leabhair. Ach ràinig Dwelly linn an lìn aig a' cheann thall - thug e bliadhnaichean ach chaidh a thionndaidh 'na fhaclair air loidhne as urrainn do dhuine sam bith àite sam bith rùrachadh - bho Ghàidhlig gu Beurla agus bho Bheurla gu Gàidhlig.
Ach chan e sin deireadh na cùise. Tha fhios aig a h-uile duine gur e seann fhaclair a tha ann an Dwelly agus gu bheil sinne beò sa chiad linn ar fhichead. Agus bha dùil againn bhon toiseach air sgàth sin am faclair a leasachadh air dà dhòigh. Sa chiad dol a-mach, tha sinn ag obair gus diofar goireasan briathrachais a thoirt cruinn san aon àite. Tha e caran sàrachail do dhaoine ma bhios aca sùil a thoirt air iomadh tùs mus lorg iad na bha a dhìth orra. Mar sin dheth, bidh Faclair nan Gnàthasan-cainnte a' gluasad bho Akerbeltz dhan Fhaclair Bheag. Agus feuchaidh sinn ri goireasan eile a thoirt cruinn an uairsin. Tha ceanglaichean ann a-nis cuideachd eadar an Stòr-dàta agus am Faclair againne.
A bharrachd air sin tha clàir ùra an Fhaclair Bhig ann. Tha sinn ag obair air clàir ùra anns am bith torr fiosrachaidh mun fhacal, le fuaimean 's a h-uile càil. Ma nì thu rannsachadh airson "water", chì thu na tha fa-near dhuinn. 'S e obair mhòr a tha ann agus chan urrainn dhuinn a leasachadh ach 'nar n-ùine shaor agus mar sin, tha e a' fàs ach 's e fàs slaodach a tha ann. Cum sùil air a' cheàrn seo mar a chanas iad.
Ach san eadar-àm, tha sinn làn dòchas gum bi na tha againn mu thràth 'na inneal feumail do choimhearsnachd na Gàidhlig.
Mìcheal "Akerbeltz" 7 Uilleam
Mu ar
dèidhinn
|
Tha mi air a bhith an sàs saoghal na Gàidhlig a-mach bho 1998 nuair a thàinig mi a dh'Alba. Thug mi a-mach ceum aig Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann ann an Ceiltis (no, dhomh-sa, Gàidhlig an latha an-diugh seach bàrdachd nan linntean a dh'aom) is cànanachas (le cudrom air fòn-eòlas is togail cànain). Ged nach robh dùil agam ris idir nuair a bha mi òg, tha companaidh bheag agam a-nis a tha a' libhrigeadh seirbheisean cànain, mar eadar-theangachadh, ceartachadh, oideachadh, comhairleachadh cànanachais is rudan mar sin. 'S fìor thoil leam obair le faclan - agus faclairean ach, thar rud sam bith eile, teagasg fuaimneachadh na Gàidhlig do luchd-ionnsachaidh. Agus togail làrach nan goireasan Gàidhlig agus iGàidhlig. Thòisich mi air Dwelly a thionndaidh 'na fhaidhle digiteach nuair a bha mi aig an oilthigh fhathast is mi seachd searbh sgìth de ghainnead faclairean Beurla gu Gàidhlig - agus beag dùil gun atharraicheadh sin gu luath. Dh'fheuch mi air "a thaidhpeadh a-steach" an toiseach agus nuair a ràinig mi an litir B, leig mi seachad seo bhon a bha mi ag iarraidh mo bheatha air ais. Thionndaidh mi ri OCR an uairsin (Optical Character Recognition) as dèidh dhomh am faclair a chur tro lèirsinnear. Ach ged a bha an teicneolas air fàs na b' fhearr bhon a dh'fheuch mi e roimhe sin, b' e sin an ceum a b' fhasa dhen t-saothair. Fhuair mi rud ris a chanas na h-eòlaichean "brochan" agus thug mi "beagan ùine" a dhol troimhe facal air an fhacal, duilleag air an duilleag nuair nach robh càil dhòrainneach eile agam ri dhèanamh mar theachd an tìr a lorg. Nuair a bha mi deiseil le sin, bha e agam agus eagal orm a sgaoileadh air sgàth chùisean còir-lethbhreac. Agus bha sgilean prògramachaidh a dhìth orm cuideachd. Ach latha brèagha meadhan a' gheamhraidh seo chaidh, chuir fear Uilleam fòn thugam (a tha fada nas fhearr air prògramachadh 's a tha mise). Bha esan air cead fhaighinn am faclair a chur air an lìon agus as dèidh bhliadhnaichean, bha e deiseil 's air an lìon ann am priobadh na sùla. Tha mi glè thoilichte fhaicinn gu bheil Dwelly-d, deich bliadhna as dèidh dhomh tòiseachadh air, ri làimh sluaigh fada nas motha a-nis. Cuiribh gu deagh fheum e, a chàirdean, is gabhaidh tlachd ann! Mìcheal "Akerbeltz" Bauer |
Mhothaich mi gu bheil beartas sa Ghàidhlig airson dealbh a thoirt air cruth na tìre nach eil ann sa Bheurla 's mi 'nam shreapaiche bheanntan. Gu mì fhortanach, chaill mo theaghlach ar cuid Ghàidhlig Pheairt san linn seo chaidh, Chunnaic mi gu luath nach robh na goireasan air loidhne is na faclairean clò-bhuailte freagarrach gu leòr do luchd-ionnsachaidh, le comasan rannsachaidh cuingichte is stòrasan beaga de dh'fhaclan, 's mi ag ionnsachadh na Gàidhlig. Bha
e soilleir as dèidh beagan deasbaid air a' chùis gur e
tionndadh air loidhne dhen fhaclair aig Dwelly an dòigh
air adhart a b' fhearr. Dh'fheumadh siostam mar sin a
bhith so-rannsaichte bhon Bheurla gun a' Ghàidhlig
cuideachd agus comasach air deasachadh gus gabhail
a-steach atharrachadh a' chànain. Agus dh'fheumadh e
faclairean eile na Gàidhlig agus a dual-chainntean
gabhail a-steach cuideachd. Faclair beò de chànan beò. Ged a fhuair sinn brosnachadh gu lèir, cha d'fhuair sinn maoineachadh poblach sam bith airson a' phròiseict seo agus ràinig sinn an ìre seo air ar maoin fhèin. Ach tha maoineachadh poblach riatanach airson am pròiseact a chur air adhart. Tha am faclair seo 'na toiseach tòiseachaidh ged as e seo am fear as motha agus as cumhachdaiche a tha ann sa Ghàidhlig. Tha cothrom ann a-nis Dwelly a chleachdadh an dà chuid Gàidhlig gu Beurla agus Beurla gu Gàidhlig. Tha am faclair comasach air beartas a shusbaint a stòradh, a' gabhail a-steach dhealbhan is fhuaimean gu èasgaidh. Faodar a dheasachadh 's ùrachadh gus bun-stèidh a chur airson faclair mòr beò na Gàidhlig. 'S mathaid gur e seo an ceum as motha a ghabh faclaireachd na Gàidhlig ann an cha mhòr ceud bliadhna agus bidh e a' cur gu mòr ri beatha ar cànain. Uilleam MacDhonnchaidh 'S e manaidsear phròiseactan agus innleadair bhathair-bhuig a tha ann an Uilleam MacDhonnchaidh, le cudrom 'na obair air pròiseactan laghail, meadaigeach èiginneach, ionmhasail agus GIS/siostaman geò-eòlas. Rinn e obair airson buidhnean mar Seirbheis Tar-chur Fala na h-Alba, Telenor agus companaidhean ioma-nàiseantach na h-ola, gas agus geò-eòlas. |
Dwelly's was first published between 1901 -1911 and represents his life's great opus and its his dictionary that is at the heart of the Faclair Beag.
It has been reprinted many times since and in spite of its age, Dwelly's remains the "great Gaelic dictionary". Being so useful, it has often been lamented that it isn't possible to use the dictionary from English to Gaelic too. A great source of terminology locked into the pages of a book. But Dwelly's eventually reached the age of the web - it took many years of work but it was eventually transformed into an online dictionary that anyone anywhere can now search - from Gaelic to English and from English to Gaelic,
But that wasn't the end of it. We all know that Dwelly's is an old dictionary and that we are living in the 21st century. So the plan had always been to improve the dictionary in two ways. In the first instance, the aim was not just to digitise Dwelly's but also to bring together various terminology resources in the same place for people's convenience. For that reason, the Faclair nan Gnàthasan-cainnte which to date was on the Akerbeltz site is being integrated into the Faclair Beag. And we will continue to try and add more resources to it, such as the links between the Stòr-dàta and our Faclair.
And secondly there are the new entries of the Faclair Beag. We're working hard to create new entries that contain a lot of information about a given word, including sound files and suchlike. If you do a search for "water", you will see what we're aiming for. It's a lot of work that, for now, we have to carry out in our spare time so progress is a big slow. But watch this space as they say.
In the meantime we very much hope that the current contents of the Faclair Beag will become a useful tool for the Gaelic community.
About us
|
I been involved in the world of Gaelic since 1998 when I came to Scotland where I took a degree in linguistics (with an emphasis on phonology and language acquisition) and Celtic (which for me meant modern Gaelic, not bardic poetry) at Edinburgh University. Although I never suspected the like when I was
younger, I now run a small company
offering Gaelic language services such as translation,
proofreading, tutoring, linguistic consultancy and
suchlike. I greatly enjoy working with words - and
dictionaries - but above anything else, teaching
Gaelic pronunciation to learners around the world. And
of course running my Gaelic
language resources site and iGàidhlig. I started working on turning Dwelly's into a digital file while still at university when I grew fed up with the lack of English to Gaelic dictionaries one night. That, and little prospect of that changing in a hurry. After having tried the "type it into the computer" approach for a while (I got to the letter B) I abandoned that approach in favour of a human existence and began using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on scanned pages of the dictionary. But although the technology had improved somewhat by then, that was by far the easiest bit, resulting in something called "brochan" in technical language. Proofreading it then was the long and drawn out affair as life kept interfering with mundane issues. Once that was done, copyright issues and my lack of computing skills put everything on ice until William (who is much better at programming than I am!) contacted me one day not so long ago. He had also got permission to put the dictionary online, so in the twinling of an eye, suddently there we were. So 10 years after getting started, I'm now delighted to see Dwelly-d being now available to a much wider audience. Put it to good use and enjoy! Michael "Akerbeltz" Bauer |
As a
mountaineer I quickly found that Gaelic has a richness
of vocabulary for describing our land that's missing
from English. Sadly, our native Perthshire Gaelic was
lost from my family during the last century. As a
learner I discovered that existing online resources and
paper dictionaries were inadequate with limited search
capabilities and vocabulary.
Will Robertson |
