Based on Diana Gabaldon’s novels, Outlander is admired for its inclusion of Scottish Gaelic and Scots Leid as Gabaldon herself is a huge advocate of Scottish minority languages.
As she wrote the books, Gaelic-speaker Iain MacKinnon Taylor reached out and offered help with translation, while expressing his fear over the looming extinction of Gaelic. In response, Gabaldon said: “Maybe so, but I tell you what Iain – if Gaelic does die, it won’t be because you and I didn’t try.”
This passion can be felt all throughout the Outlander series (dubbed ‘the Scottish Game of Thrones’) especially between the show’s leading romance, Jamie and Claire, who use Gaelic words affectionately.
Valentine’s Day 2023 has passed but there’s always time to learn this romantic Scottish vocabulary and indulge in the romance of the Scottish Highlands that Outlander portrays.
(Note: The following phonetics were made with support from a fluent Gaelic speaker. They maintain, however, that as a non-Latin language with unique vocalisation, standard English phonetics serve only as a well-meaning suggestion. For audio pronunciation please check out LearnGaelic’s online dictionary.)
5. Gràdh (Love)
The Scottish Gaelic word ‘gràdh’ simply refers to love. An example of its use in a sentence is ‘Gradh Geal Mo Chridhe’ which means ‘Fair love of my heart’. You can pronounce it like “graagh”. Photo: Submitted
6. M’annsachd (My blessing)
Sweetheart, darling, dear… There’s nothing wrong with these words but imagine being referred to as someone’s blessing, now that’s special! To pronounce the term of endearment you can say “m-aa-own-suchk”. Photo: Submitted
7. Colman geal (White dove)
The ‘Dinna Fash Sassenach’ blog says that Jamie refers to Claire with this term of endearment to describe her as she bathes in the moonlight. The word is pronounced like “cullaman geeh-yal”. Photo: Submitted
8. Bràmair (Sweetheart for a boyfriend or girlfriend)
Unlike other gendered words in Gaelic, SpeakGaelic reports that this word “does not really have a gender” and can be used to refer to your boyfriend or girlfriend as ‘sweetheart’. You can pronounce it like “brah-mer”. Photo: Submitted