The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #45577   Message #1070619
Posted By: GUEST,duine-saor
11-Dec-03 - 08:31 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: dolores keane's moll dubh
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: dolores keane's moll dubh
a charaidh,

Actually, there is no aspirant in this case. You were correct in both spelling and in terminology.

"Black woman" in Scots Gaelic (in this case Lochaber dialect from Cape Breton), can mean a black-haired or avisaged woman, a nun, or a black-hearted bitch, depending on context and intonation, etc.

And yes, it also meant nun in Irish, although the other chap was not incorrect either.

Gaelic has many ways of expressing things, on many levels. Gaelic on the bardic level is very hard for people outwith to figure out, because of idiom, cultural context, etc., which is why many non-Gaelic people dealing with the music never pick up the deeper meanings.

le gach durachd math,

S