Mo Ninghean Dhu?

Subject: Mo Ninghean Dhu?
From: Jen
Date: 06 Feb 98 - 01:07 PM

anyone ever heard of this song? it sounds awfully familiar, any lyrics or a translation?

Subject: RE: Mo Ninghean Dhu?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 06 Feb 98 - 01:30 PM

It looks like Scots Gaelic to me, 'My daughter black', word for word, is the best I can do, I'm afraid. I'll take a look for a song but I don't have many from the Scots highland and islands, and know practically nothing of Scots Gaelic. But Ninghean I've run into a few times before. I think the Irish still have a similar word, but its not in my Irish dictionary and they usually use 'na' for 'son of' or 'daughter of', depending on whether the one refered to was masculine or feminine.

Subject: RE: Mo Ninghean Dhu?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 06 Feb 98 - 01:36 PM

It turned out to be extreemely easy. "Mo nighean dubh" is in Alfred Moffat's 'The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands' (full edition, not the cut one) and I think it's still in print. (Mine copy isn't very old.)

Subject: RE: Mo Ninghean Dhu?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 06 Feb 98 - 01:59 PM

Moffat give Gaelic and English words but doesn't say where either or his tune came from. He translates the title as "My black-haired maid", so 'maid' may be a secondary meaning for 'nighean', but I know it's not the primary one. Moffat's tune is a 2/2 time one. Another tune, 3/4, was widely reprinted in the 18th and early 19th century as "Ceann Dubh Dilis/ Curri Koun Dileas" (Black-headed Deary/Darling), and T. D'Urfey even wrote a song for it in 'Pills to Purge Melancholy', but I don't have original words for it.

Subject: RE: Mo Ninghean Dhu?
From: Jen
Date: 06 Feb 98 - 05:42 PM

Thanks! I looked and looked and found nothing. Figured if anyone could find it, they would be here.

Jen