Ladies in the Leabharlann…

Beannachd leibh! (That is hello in Scots Gaelic.)


Having spent a few years with a caravan in North Wales I was just about getting used to Welsh road signs and the fact that Merched and Dynion are Ladies and Gents (and not vice versa) and library is llyfrgell. Now, staying on Lewis at my brother‘s, I have to get used to Scots Gaelic and something like Boir and Fir (female and male respectively) and Leabharlann. I say ‘something like’ because I cannot recall exactly what was on the toilet doors in the café this morning and I’m having trouble with Gaelic dictionaries, both on-line and printed. Neither had a word for Lady or Ladies (are there no ladies in Scotland?) and the long words in the dictionary for male and female, and men and women were certainly not the ones on the doors. Fortunately the street signs are bilingual.