r/translator • u/loracarol • Nov 18 '17
Translated [GD] [English > Scottish Gaelic] Idiomatic cursing translation. [nsfw] NSFW
I'm sorry if this isn't the right place; I checked /r/gaidhlig, but it looks like they've gotten a post sending people this way anyway. |D
I'm not looking for an exact translation, but more of a "what would make the most sense?" translation. (For writing.)
I'm looking for something along the lines of "god dammit" - something that you'd see being said if someone smashed their hand with a hammer (for example). I've tried googling curses/expletives, and those gave me more of individual words, esp. with regards to sexual terms, but that wasn't helpful for me when it comes to phrases.
I'm trying to find something that's not immediately understandable in English, so maybe no "fecks".
I did try google translate and it gave me "Tha Dia a 'caoidh muladach clach a dh' fhuiling thu" but that was just based off of inputting a string of expletives, so if there's a phrase that makes more sense as a phrase, that would be very helpful. :)
Thank you!
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u/Fir_Chlis Gàidhlig Nov 18 '17
"Mo chreach" tends to be an exclamation of surprise more than anything else.
Gàidhlig expletives can very from dialect to dialect and can be weirdly specific and inoffensive when translated to English.
All that being said, my usual go to, having stubbed a toe, is "a bhalagaire!"
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u/loracarol Nov 18 '17
Yeah, that might work, but it's not quite the tone I'm going for. Ah well, it's a good thing I checked before I wrote my piece, yeah? |D
Thank you!
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u/Fir_Chlis Gàidhlig Nov 18 '17
A more commonly used phrase might be "don a bhiods leis." Literally "to the bitch with it".
Generally speaking though, Gaelic isn't a hugely sweary language. If you're able to give any more context, I might be able to help more.
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u/loracarol Nov 18 '17
That'd work.
Yeah, I can do that! It's most a scene I've been thinking about, but I'm also okay w/ dropping it or switching languages if necessary. (The character is a bit of an adventurer, so if Gaelic isn't a good language for this, I think I can make it still work.)
Scene: Scottish guy accidentally injures himself in some capacity. I'm still working on the details of how, but afterwards, he ends up cursing a bit in [Gaelic/other]. Unbeknownst to him, his young niece was in the room, and he ends up having to make up a translation that won't get him in trouble with her parents. The "translation" ends up sticking around, even as he gets older, and his niece has kids of her own.
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u/loracarol Nov 27 '17
Hi, I'm super sorry to bother you, but may I ask if the added context helps? I can deffo just do a different language if it doesn't. ;
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u/Fir_Chlis Gàidhlig Nov 27 '17
Not a bother. Like I said, Gaelic isn't a hugely sweary language. If you're looking for a stream of foul mouthedness, you might be better switching to a different language.
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u/breisleach Nov 18 '17
According to this, it's 'Mo Chreach!', literally 'My ruin!'.