# Scottish Gaelic: bailceach rainig



## john welch

i'm exploring the sense of a phrase meaning " moving with the strong man". Could you comment on this Gaelic expression? Does it seem to have a Celtic heroic aspect to it, or suggest a line in ancient poetry?
My idea is to link it with Sanskrit: balin ring  "warrior. advance, move", and Sanskritic dialect: ring balin "following, with. warrior".


----------



## clansaorsa

I would translate 'bailceach rainig' more as 'the arrival of the strong man' or 'a strong man arriving' in Scottish Gaelic. Given the date of your posting you probably aren't interested any more - but I've only just registered with the forum.


----------



## john welch

Thank you, email messaging sends new posts.
Armstrong and McBain give _rainig "_arrived, reached_." (_So , E_. came _has the senses of " moving. arrived ", as an example) 
_Bail _is linked to_ Beal _in _Bealtuinn bailceach _which is what I was hoping for.


----------



## L'irlandais

Oh deary deary me,
As has been pointed out to you else where on the WWW, the correct spelling of the second word in the title is* ràinig*.
(Do you not take on board what native speakers tell you on-line?)  Accents, by the way, are not optional in Scottish Gaelic.
Another use of the adjective *bailceach* meaning : "Tall, erect man, stout man" is entirely unconnected with the word "May" in your post #3.
The word order in the title is entirely un-Scottish Gaelic like.  But then you knew that already.

"A' Bhealltainn bhailceach" means "rainy May"  No link between "bail" and "beal" can be implied in this context.  Think ""rain" and "bright" in English, unconnected words.
Since "Bealtaine" in Scottish Gaelic, simply means (the month of ) May.


> Which was one of four season festivals in Celtic culture.  Marking the begining of Summer, went the cattle were driven out to pasture.
> Bonfires were associated with these festival rituals


.  So the word Bealtaine's etymology is derived from "*bright fire*".
The word "beal" here means simply bright (or perhaps white).

(It goes without saying that ;  any similarity or appearant linguistic links between Australian Aboriginal language and Gaelic are extremely improbale & cannot possibly be proven, sorry.)


----------



## john welch

As I don't have the accent key then I can only use the available font and Armstrong Dict has both forms ("Irish: rainidh").
When I was shown the correct form I copied that with accent to other Forums, but this one was my 1st and the title can't be corrected now.
My point is about Phoenician-Celtic convergence in gods and semantics. Rain is involved in _bheal _as with _Belenos _bright sun-god of rain and hot-springs. Why does_ bhail_  mean "rain" unless some other semantic is happening? The expression about "May flood" could have Beltane / Baal origin, both being rain gods.
Being teachable and compliant, I will PM you further.


----------



## john welch

Here's a comparison of _bheal_ "bright" with "May":
may (v.1) 

Old English mæg "am able" from PIE *magh- (1) "to be able, have power" 
May 

fifth month,; possibly from PIE *mag-ya "she who is great," root *meg- "great" .


----------

