“Bhio’ tu dìreach ga ithe, bha e cho math = You would just eat it, it was so good”
-
Tiber F.M. Falzett
Abstract
This paper intends to examine metaphors and other tropes in Scottish Gaelic that are capable of shedding light on local aesthetic attitudes concerning various forms of verbal art and music among Gaelic speakers at the communal level. Special attention will be given to lexemes that are associated with the gustatory and employed by speakers to denote quality and acceptability in a performance or during more general forms of discourse, including blas (taste), brìgh (essence), and ith (eat). The symbolic use of these words reveals a blurring in the distinctions of genre boundaries as well as relationships between language and other forms of performance culture, including music, and provides a unique view on the semantic realm of ‘taste’ in a way that is arguably distinct from its application in dominant Western aesthetic circles. It will also be shown how such concepts of ‘taste’ and ‘essence’ are central to the transmission of various forms of intangible culture within Gaelic-speaking communities, revealing the role of such idioms in the maintenance of communal tradition. By exploring the semiotic range of these terms among Scottish Gaelic speakers both synchronically through ethnographic fieldwork and diachronically through corpora of printed texts in the language, it is hoped that deeper insights will be given into the inner mechanics of a Scottish Gaelic aesthetic ethos.
Abstract
This paper intends to examine metaphors and other tropes in Scottish Gaelic that are capable of shedding light on local aesthetic attitudes concerning various forms of verbal art and music among Gaelic speakers at the communal level. Special attention will be given to lexemes that are associated with the gustatory and employed by speakers to denote quality and acceptability in a performance or during more general forms of discourse, including blas (taste), brìgh (essence), and ith (eat). The symbolic use of these words reveals a blurring in the distinctions of genre boundaries as well as relationships between language and other forms of performance culture, including music, and provides a unique view on the semantic realm of ‘taste’ in a way that is arguably distinct from its application in dominant Western aesthetic circles. It will also be shown how such concepts of ‘taste’ and ‘essence’ are central to the transmission of various forms of intangible culture within Gaelic-speaking communities, revealing the role of such idioms in the maintenance of communal tradition. By exploring the semiotic range of these terms among Scottish Gaelic speakers both synchronically through ethnographic fieldwork and diachronically through corpora of printed texts in the language, it is hoped that deeper insights will be given into the inner mechanics of a Scottish Gaelic aesthetic ethos.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Prologue 1
- Endangered metaphors 15
- “Our language is very literal” 21
- “My heart falls out” 77
- Walking like a porcupine, talking like a raven 103
- Are Nahuatl riddles endangered conceptualizations? 123
- Bodily-based conceptual metaphors in Ashéninka Perené myths and folk stories 145
- The use of a conceptual metaphor in the Siroi language of Papua New Guinea 161
- Kewa figures of speech 185
- Metaphors in Dimasa and Rabha – A comparative study 205
- Numbers that Chumburung people count on 221
- The importance of unveiling conceptual metaphors in a minority language 253
- Antlers as a metaphor of pride 275
- Metaphors of the Finnish Roma in Finnish and Romani 293
- “Bhio’ tu dìreach ga ithe, bha e cho math = You would just eat it, it was so good” 315
- Metaphors of an endangered Low Saxon basis dialect – exemplified by idioms of STUPIDITY and DEATH 339
- Index of conceptual metaphors/metonymies 359
- Name index 361
- Subject index 365
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Prologue 1
- Endangered metaphors 15
- “Our language is very literal” 21
- “My heart falls out” 77
- Walking like a porcupine, talking like a raven 103
- Are Nahuatl riddles endangered conceptualizations? 123
- Bodily-based conceptual metaphors in Ashéninka Perené myths and folk stories 145
- The use of a conceptual metaphor in the Siroi language of Papua New Guinea 161
- Kewa figures of speech 185
- Metaphors in Dimasa and Rabha – A comparative study 205
- Numbers that Chumburung people count on 221
- The importance of unveiling conceptual metaphors in a minority language 253
- Antlers as a metaphor of pride 275
- Metaphors of the Finnish Roma in Finnish and Romani 293
- “Bhio’ tu dìreach ga ithe, bha e cho math = You would just eat it, it was so good” 315
- Metaphors of an endangered Low Saxon basis dialect – exemplified by idioms of STUPIDITY and DEATH 339
- Index of conceptual metaphors/metonymies 359
- Name index 361
- Subject index 365
