Ar n-Athair: The Lord’s Prayer in Gaelic
When I used to lecture to university students about oral tradition and memory, I would repeat a line from the textbook about how much non-literate people memorize, and how little we literate folks memorize by comparison. But then I would quote the lyrics of a Britney Spears song from memory to make the point that we actually do memorize quite a bit; it’s just not folk tales any more. What we memorize are the texts we hear repeated the most often, in relevant social contexts.
Having said that, sometimes you do set your sights on learning a text by heart that is not repeated very often in your immediate environment. For someone who is new at learning the Scottish Gaelic language, and is of Christian belief or heritage, the sacred symbolic text of the Lord’s Prayer might seem like a natural thing to learn. I’ll explain why that isn’t necessarily a good idea, and talk about when and how to learn the prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer in Gaelic at the Church of the Pater Noster, Jerusalem
The quintessential prayer of Christianity, the Lord’s Prayer appears in the New Testament of the Christian Bible in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 9-13 (it also appears in shorter form in Luke 11:1-4). It is called the “Lord’s” prayer because it is the prayer given by Jesus himself to his disciples as an example of how to pray as a Christian. Because of this, Christians all over the world, including Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans, and Eastern Orthodox, incorporate it into their liturgies and daily practices.
Some Christian groups collect and display the Lord’s Prayer in as many different languages as possible, perhaps to show the universality of Christ’s teachings or the global reach of Christianity. These multilingual displays can be found both in sacred sites like the Pater Noster Church on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem, and online.
The Lord’s Prayer in many languages of the world at the Church of the Pater Noster, Jerusalem
I first started learning Gaelic in 1989 with Dr. Rod MacLeod, a professor of cell biology and immunology. He was originally from the Isle of Lewis, with a Ph.D. from Cambridge, and had ended up in the unlikely location of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA, teaching at the University of Illinois. Another prof put together our little group on the prairie, the Scottish Gaelic Society, composed of students, faculty, and townies.
One member of our group, a history professor’s wife, had been asked to say the grace at a local Burns Night supper. Burns Night, held each January 25 as a celebration of the life and work of a Lowland Scottish poet who wrote in Scots, has little or nothing to do with Highland Gaelic culture. But our group member subversively chose to say the Lord’s Prayer in Gaelic at the supper.
Our Gaelic teacher photocopied a handout with the words of the prayer in Gaelic, and spent an evening going over the pronunciation of the prayer with us. We dutifully, painstakingly, and painfully tried write down the pronunciation, using our inadequate English-language notation to represent the sounds.
I had only been learning Gaelic for a few months at the time, and I found it really hard to wrap my tongue around those words. I could have recorded our teacher with my clunky analog cassette recorder for practice, but it did not occur to me because that was not the done thing in Gaelic classes back then. So after the class, I gave up and tucked away the handout in my files.
Many years went by (twenty, to be exact). In fits and self-funded starts I gradually became fluent in Gaelic. I emigrated to Nova Scotia in 2010 and I encountered the Lord’s Prayer in Gaelic again as a symbolic text. This tourist souvenir from the 1970s, purchased at an antique store in Cape Breton, gives us another picture of how people think about “the Lord’s Prayer in Gaelic” as a talisman of sorts in popular culture.
A Lord’s Prayer wooden plaque from Cape Breton
The plaque was printed on plywood and varnished. It’s printed in a neo-Gothic typeface which has nothing to do with Gaelic culture, but looks old (in keeping with the stereotype of Gaelic as an “ancient language”).The wood grain evokes the rustic woods of Cape Breton. The title is in English for those who are not in the know, and the prayer concludes with what looks like a cheeky claim to Cape Breton authorship. To visitors and Capers alike, this souvenir symbolizes the Gaelic culture and Christian faith of the island.
Finally living full-time in a place with Gaelic heritage, I started to think again of learning the Lord’s Prayer in Gaelic. We started attending Port Wallis United Church in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Our minister, Reverend Ivan Gregan from New Brunswick, may be the last native Gaelic-speaking Protestant minister in North America. Ivan speaks English, French, Gaelic, and a number of other languages, and he always lists the “Our Father” in the church bulletin in multiple languages including Gaelic.
Port Wallis United Church bulletin
My husband Tim, who is also learning Gaelic, copied the prayer onto a small piece of paper and put it in his shirt pocket so that he would have it on hand each Sunday morning to try to recite the prayer in Gaelic during the service when everyone else was reciting it in English. But because the prayer is recited so quickly, and in English, by the rest of the congregation, this is actually pretty tough. So we both gave up after a while.
I finally memorized the Lord’s Prayer in Gaelic in 2013. How? One of our local Gaelic teachers, Kathleen Reddy, did part of her training in the Isle of South Uist in Scotland. She has started holding an annual Rosary celebration in her home with a statue of the Virgin Mary, as has been done in South Uist since the 1950s. I attended her celebration and awkwardly grappled with a rosary for the first time in my life (as a Presbyterian and Buddhist, previously I’d only had experience with Buddhist prayer beads).
Halifax Gaelic teacher Kathleen Reddy
As we participated in the ritual with Kathleen, a funny thing happened—I memorized the Lord’s Prayer in Gaelic.
I couldn’t believe it happened so quickly, and I couldn’t believe it took so long to get to that point.
It turns out that repeating it numerous times, in a context where it “counts,” with a group of people doing the same thing, really helps. And the other reason I was able to memorize it so quickly was because I had already spent 20 years preparing. In other words, I could already speak Gaelic. I was no longer learning the text phonetically as a bunch of random sounds, the way so many people try to learn Gaelic songs. I knew how to pronounce the sounds, my tongue had the muscle memory for it, and the words finally meant something to me. With this foundation in place, memorizing the text was no harder than learning the lyrics to a stupid pop song that you hear on the radio all the time (but thankfully, far more meaningful and rewarding).
The reason it took so long is that it’s extremely hard to find a community, a group of like-minded Gaelic speakers.
The Lord’s Prayer is a highly symbolic text, and it’s both easy and hard to learn in Gaelic if you’re starting as an adult. This story points to three lessons: 1) the importance of learning the structure and meaning of the language rather than just phonetically learning symbolic texts; 2) the importance of learning Gaelic, or any other language, by using it with other people in real-life situations as much as possible; and 3) the difficulty of finding other people in such real-life situations!
UPDATE: I have written a second blog post about the Lord’s Prayer in Gaelic, featuring pronunciation videos. Please feel free to check it out.
I love this post. It reminds me of being in Croatia in 1995, where my grandparents had fled as refugees from Bosnia. My very Catholic grandmother was horrified to learn that I didn’t know the Lord’s Prayer (since my parents hadn’t raised me religious). Presumably filled with guilt and fear after being lectured about this, I learned the prayer in secret and whispered it to my grandmother one evening. It was a series of sounds and meaningless words for me at that time. I knew the language fluently but had no religious context to put the prayer into.
Later, I learned the prayer in Ukrainian as part of a sung version in my Slavic women’s choir. It still meant nothing to me. I learned it in Latin, which stuck with me in its beauty from various sung masses in high school choirs. I learned it several more times in other languages and promptly forgot them for lack of practice.
Many years later, I am able to appreciate the Lord’s Prayer — in Croatian and English as well as other languages — through a religious context since becoming a Quaker. Now the Croatian feels real and significant to me. Whatever the reason for learning a text, we need to have the foundations for understanding it if it’s going to be more than just a scattered collection of words.
Tapadh leat for this beautiful post!
I saw the link on Facebook and had to follow!
Where can I download an oral or sound version, of the Lord’s Prayer in Scottish Gaelic? Thanks
Deagh cheist a Dhonnchaidh, good question Duncan! I’ve scoured the internet pretty thoroughly before, but I had another good look today and I can’t find a good one for Gaelic learners.
There is one YouTube video of a little boy saying what sounds like a Protestant version, but the sound is not the clearest and in general children are not the best models for pronunciation if you are learning the language as an adult (I say this as a parent!). I wouldn’t recommend to try to learn it from this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kZuBzY1iHc
I also dug up a video from An Drochaid Eadarainn (The Bridge between Us), a website for Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia, of the Catholic version of the Lord’s Prayer. The video starts with the Fàilte Dhut a Mhoire (Hail Mary) and then the interviewer asks if Annag has the Ar n-Athair (Lord’s Prayer) in Gaelic. Her recitation of the prayer lasts from :22 to :35. She then finishes with the Glòir do’n Athair (Glory Be). The video is embedded on this page: http://www.androchaid.ca/%C3%B9rnaighean Unfortunately the sound quality is poor and I would not recommend trying to learn it from this version, either.
Alas there’s another sound recording on An Drochaid Eadarainn from 1972 which is very interesting from a folklore perspective but has even poorer sound quality (again it’s the Catholic prayers): http://www.androchaid.ca/%C3%B9rnaighean-0
My guess is that the Lord’s Prayer is not included in coursebooks because it is religious in nature, and for people who say it on a regular basis and learned it at church or in family worship, they might not realize that Gaelic learners want to learn it. As I mention in the blog post, I went for years learning Gaelic without learning it properly even though it’s a cornerstone to my own faith. (Also, making videos for YouTube require some techno-savvy and willingness to give up some privacy.)
I’ll record a video of a Protestant version as soon as I can and put it on YouTube! Of course we can pray anywhere, but I might take my phone over to my church and do it there to give the video a nice background. 🙂 It takes a bit of forethought and setup because I use a tripod and a proper microphone for good sound, and I like to script things a bit to make it a good learning tool. When it’s posted I’ll announce it so you don’t miss it! Thanks for the inspiration!
A Dhonnchaidh,
I’ve got a new video up on YouTube now with a Catholic version of the Lord’s Prayer in Scottish Gaelic, made with the help of my friend Joe Murphy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwhyMQeWh54
A Protestant video version coming soon!
Thanks for this post! Can’t wait to see your video of the Protestant version of the Lords Prayer!
Protestant version done now; see the YouTube link below!
Thank you!
Hello Emily…
I came across this site and post by chance, whilst looking for sound files for Catholic prayers in Scots Gaelic. I gather from this page and an unfruitful search that they don’t exist!! In the picture of Kathleen Reddy, she appears to have a copy of Iul A’ Chriosdaidh which I have here and I was thinking that it would be great if someone fluent in Scots Gaelic would make a recording of all the prayers in this book. I personally can’t cope with Irish influenced pronunciation etc.. I need pure Scots. I know it would be a labour of love but I bet there are lots of people who would be immensely grateful for it. Would you feel like broaching the idea with her or anyone else you know? Just a suggestion but it’s worth a try! Best wishes from Kintyre, Scotland.
Francisca, I’m sorry I missed replying to your comment a while back! Whether a fluent Gaelic speaker would want to record all the prayers from Iùl a’ Chriosdaidh in a video would be entirely up to that person! I agree with you that it would be a wonderful way to engage Gaelic learners.
Given that no one has done it so far, I’d guess that it’s probably not a priority for the people who would be capable of doing that. It would take an enormous amount of time as a volunteer project, more than you would think, because video editing takes quite a lot of time. It would also take the willingness for someone to put themselves out there on YouTube as an example, which is not for the faint of heart!
You could also try writing to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Argyll and the Isles to ask if they would be willing to undertake such a project: https://rcdai.org.uk/.
If anyone is willing to do a project like this, I’d be willing to collaborate on it, so in that case please send me a message through the “Contact” page of my blog.
If there’s any word on whether that ever happened, I’d love to hear it.
Just to clarify, I am not aware of any effort to do that. I’m just suggesting that the only way I could possibly think of for that to happen, would be for everybody who wants to see it happen to e-mail the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles to keep requesting it. And then maybe (and this is really just a guess on my part, I have no say in this whatsoever!) if enough people contacted them to ask for it, maybe they would consider doing it? Again, while I as an individual can recognize the demand for that, I have no authority or say in the matter of carrying out a project like that. I’m also not Catholic, I’m from a different Christian tradition. so I feel it would be presumptuous of me to do it. It would definitely be an enormous voluntary project!
Has there been progress with the Protestant version on YouTube? I’ve been tagged with reading it at a Kirkin’ service, and I’d like to be sure of the pronunciation.
Thanks
Darrel,
Thanks for your message! Yes I will try to get it posted in the next week or two! When is your service?
Emily
Protestant version done! Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOOv8K1z_nc
I’m so glad I now have the 2 versions to compare. I just started down my genealogical path. I knew my great Gpa was born in Scotland but not much else. I joined a Scottish group her in Oklahoma and asked if anyone spoke Gàidhlig. No one did. As we were preparing for the Highland games, our president asked if I’d learn the Lord’s Prayer. Uh…. Why me? Because he said you already speak 3 or 4 other languages. (True Spanish and French as well as smattering of a few others) anyway, using just a scrap of paper another person had from her dance teacher from Scotland (with vague phonetics) I began my journey. We have a group with not a single native speaker so we are relying on YouTube and CD’s. I like the new version, it’s a little different than Novia Scotia’s. Thank you!
Hello!
Im lookng for a direct translation from English to Gaelic of 1 line in the prayer:
“Forgive those who trespass against us”
Thank you for your comment! The literal line in the prayer (as shown on the free PDF download which you can get if you sign up for my blog email list) is the Bible verse Matthew 6:12:
GAELIC BIBLE: “Agus maith dhuinn ar fiachan, amhail mar a mhaitheas sinne d’ar luchd-fiach”
KJV ENGLISH BIBLE: “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”
LITERAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE GAELIC BIBLE: “and forgive to-us our debts, as forgive we to our debtors”
You can safely omit the “Agus” (“And”) at the beginning.
I don’t normally do free individual translations requests on the blog, but I am happy to give Bible verses straight from the Gaelic Bible. However, to separate the words, “forgive those who trespass against us” from the context of the verse changes the meaning of the words (and therefore changes the theology). The prayer is the voice of Jesus modelling for us how one person should ask God to forgive us for our sins, and also saying that we should forgive those who sin against us. The verse and the Lord’s Prayer are not asking God to forgive those who sin against us, but that’s how the phrase comes across when taken out of the larger context of the verse (translation is tricky even though it seems like it should be simple).
Hi Emily
I would like to learn the Lords Prayer (Protestant) in Gaelic with the correct pronounciation of the words and of course with first a line in Gaelic and second the english version, can you offer any way I can obtain this ?
Thanks
Yes! In the last line of the blog post above is a link to another post on the Lord’s Prayer, which has my own YouTube video tutorial, and recordings of 2 other people reciting the prayer in Gaelic: https://gaelic.co/lords-prayer2/
Also, if you join the Gaelic.co blog email list (link in the footer below) you can access a free PDF download “cheat sheet” that I created with a rough-and-ready phonetic pronunciation.
You should be able to use my video and cheat sheet for the Gaelic lines, and then just alternate with the English which you know already. Hope this is of help!
This lovely video was just posted on Facebook of a student from Cape Breton singing the Lord’s Prayer in Scottish Gaelic while on a visit to Connemara — beautiful singing!
https://www.facebook.com/100011533727728/videos/511661982561588/
Hi Emily,
I am a London-based composer. I am currently writing a musical set in the Outer Hebrides and I would like to set part or all of the Lords Prayer in Scottish Gaelic but I don’t speak the language. Are you able to send me a phonetic breakdown of the prayer? Thank you.
The answer is “Yes and no!” To get the phonetic breakdown that I created already, sign up for my blog email list (see the link in the footer on every page). Subscribing will take you to a thank-you page with free PDF downloads, and the Lord’s Prayer PDF handout with phonetics is one of them. That said, your concept for the musical, and incorporating a single text this way, opens a can of worms in ethical, cultural, and aesthetic terms. Phonetics like the ones in my handout (in English orthography, not IPA) are never truly accurate. They are really only intended as a supplement to listening to the audio file, a bridge to learning and memorizing the text, and a bridge to Gaelic language learning more generally. Email me through Gaelic.co/contact or DM me on Twitter (@DrEmilyMcEwan) and I can discuss the ethics of a composer incorporating a minority-language text into a longer work as a non-speaker and/or non-student of the language. It may depend on the longer-term plans for the work as well. Thanks!