Here's a message Dave Rado couldn't post because there's a limit on the number of links a Guest can post:

---

Hi Hugh

Thanks for drawing my attention to the "balaich" version - I hadn't noticed that post. That explains why some of the recordings sound so totally different - for instance, Robin Hall and Jimmy MacGregor and Linda Macleod are clearly singing "balaich" rather than "gillean", which was part of the reason I was so confused before I read your post. But all the written lyrics I've seen have it as "gillean" for some reason.

But I'm still confused by the different pronunciations, and still find some of the the phonetic rendition at scotsindependent.org rather strange, given the recordings.

Phonetically speaking:

Robin Hall and Jimmy MacGregor sound like they're singing "Hookev aran tony pallaich".

Cluich Còmhla sound like they're singing "Hookev aran hanay geeyen" (NOT geelyen, and "do na" really does sound like "hanay" in their recording).


Linda Macleod sounds like she's singing "Hookev aran donna ballaich" (not "doe na").

As for Callum Kennedy, if he sings any consonants at all in the second verse of his rendition, I can't hear them!

So that's several different pronunciations of "do na" and of "ballaich" and of "gillean", and apart from one of the "ballaich"s, not one of them matches the pronunciations given by Scotsindependant.org, at least to my ear.

Also I'm not clear why you prefer ballaich rather than gillean? And what does ballaich mean?