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Remember that there used to be two types of kilt - the féileadh beag (the ‘small kilt’, sometimes Anglicised as philibeg) and the féileadh mór (the ‘big kilt’, sometimes Anglicised as philimore). What survives today is the philibeg, but the philimore was, as the name suggests, bigger, heavier, with the plaid wrapped between the legs and then flung over the shoulder. Much better at keeping out the Highland draught …“Soraidh leis a’ bhreacan ùr, oir ’s ann air a tha mo rùn, b’ait leam e os cionn mo ghlùin, ann am pleatadh dlùth mu’m chuairt”“Farewell to the new tartan, for that is what I love, I liked it above my knee, in thick pleats around my waist” - from the disrobing of the Gaels after the failure of the 1745 uprising.

In Scotland, it’s a bourach (Scots or Scottish English) or a buarach (Scottish Gaelic).In all cases, the word is pronounced with the hard, fricative ch sound, as in the Scottish loch or the German Bach. In approximate terms in English, the whole word is pronounced like BOO-rokh, with the stress on the first syllable.The word originally and literally means a small mound or pile of something (like clothes). This means that, etymologically, it’s related to the German Berg (mountain) or Burg (fort on a high place), hence also distantly related to the Greek πυρ (pyr, originally a pyre, a bonfire, now just a fire) and hence very distantly related to برج (bourj, a tower) in Arabic. Don’t you just love etymology?(Another meaning of bourach / buarach is the fetters traditionally used to tie the legs of a cow together at milking time, to prevent the cow from kicking its legs and thereby making a mess, ironically enough.)Anyhow, just as a pile of clothes implies disorganisation, so that is the figurative meaning of bourach / buarach - a mess, a real mess in fact. I think that the word does well in Scotland, because you can really express yourself and let some frustration out when you say it out loud - which is really satisfying:Example 1: “Chaidh sinn don a’ phàrtaidh ach cha do dh’fhuirich sinn fada ann, oir ’s e fìor bhuarach a bh’ann” - “We went to the party but we didn’t stay long, since it was a real bourach” - this suggests that the party was a real mess, nothing organised etc.And here’s a topical example as at the time of writing (September 2018):Example 2: “Thathar ag ràdh air feadh na dùthcha gu’m bheil Brexit a’ dol ’na bhuarach” - “It’s being said up and down the country that Brexit is turning into a bourach”Enough said.The term omishambles - funnily enough, shambles can also refer in English to piles of disorganised clothing - is unusual because it marries a Greek prefix omni- (all, everything) with a traditional English word shambles (perhaps with a dash of some tongue-in-cheek irony). However, the marriage works, although I don’t recall hearing the word earlier than the first decade of the 21st century. It’s now gaining in popularity.On the other hand, bourach / buarach in Scotland has been around for centuries. It’s a great word and, regardless of whether you have every connection to Scotland or absolutely no connection to Scotland, I invite you to use it.You won’t regret it.

I can’t tell you what Americans sound like when they speak Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig na h-Albann), as I’ve never heard this happen.If it’s any consolation, I have however heard Canadians speak Scottish Gaelic and, there, it’s just different but charming. Obviously, the Canadian accent is influenced by the English language, but it’s often the English of Scotland or Ireland that feeds into the Canadian accent, rather than the English of England. As such, and as long as the cardinal sounds of Gaelic are pronounced correctly (some of which are very different from English), we’re fine with it and really don’t mind if the Canadian accent comes through when the person is speaking Gaelic. This is in contrast to what happens at competitive singing and poetry events in Gaelic in Scotland (known as a mòd) where, if you let any ‘interference’ from English into your pronunciation of the words, you will lose marks. At a mòd, you are judged as much on the purity of your accent in Gaelic - your blas, as we call it - as on your fluency in the language.When it comes to Canadian speakers of Gaelic, I guess that we just ‘cut them some slack’ and, after 150 years or so of emigration, don’t expect them to sound as if they had left Scotland yesterday. Above all, we’re just happy and honored that there are a small number of Canadians who have kept the language and traditions alive, all the way on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean - an Cuan Siar (the Western Ocean, as it’s known in Gaelic).For Canada is the second home of the Gael - oir ’s e Canada an darna dachaigh do’n Ghàidheal.(PS / In case you are wondering what Gaelic with a Canadian accent sounds like, here’s a sample from the Canadian group The Rankin Family, who sing many of their songs in Gaelic: