glugach adj.
[glug n. + -ach suffix; cf. FGB glugach]
forms
singular
nominative
- a1704Edward Lhuyd in the Scottish Highlands (1963) 148 Glygach.
- 1741
- 1790Macantsaoir Orain Ghaidhealach 200 Bruidhinn ghluggach.
plural
genitive
- a1899
dative
- 1877
in adverbial use
- 1848
senses
1.a. Of speech: halting, impeded, indistinct; stuttering, stammering. Also, of a person speaking in such a manner.
- a1704Edward Lhuyd in the Scottish Highlands (1963) 148
Stammering. Balyv, A[rgyll]; Glygach, In[verness]. - 1741
- a1778NLS Adv.MS.73.2.2 43
Teanga Ghlugach Shlaopach Ghloncach | Nach laibhir poncoil no blasta | Mar Ghlamarsuich coin a gól blathaich | Milleadh na Gáilic ’sga sracadh. - 1790Macantsaoir Orain Ghaidhealach 200
Cia mar a dheana’ é oran, | Gun eolas gun tuigse Naduir, | O nach deana’ é air doidh é, | Bu chora dha fuireach samhach, | Bruidhinn ghluggach ’s cuid di mabbach, | Moran staddich ann am paírt [sic] di, | Na ni e phlabbartich chomhradh, | Cho bheo na thuigeas a Ghaelic. - 1871An Gaidheal I 11
Carson nach bu choir duine glugach a chreidsinn? Tha e ’n conaidh a priseadh fhacail. - 1877An Gaidheal VI 209
Is cainnt a’ Ghaelig nach aom gu bhi air a truailleadh ann an sgoirneanaibh glugach, agus le teangannaibh mhabach, liotach, faoin-bhriathrach nan Gall! - 1890An t-Eileanach 214
Bha buachaille aig Eachunn ris an abradh iad an Glugaire, ’s e sin a chionn e bhi glugach ’n a bhruidhinn agus gu ’n robh dragh fuasach aige anns na facail fhaotainn a mach. - 1895Mac-Talla IV No. 12. 6
Bha e glugach—cearbach na chainnt—agus ’s ann rinn an luchd-eisdeachd fanoid air ’s b’éigin da ’n t-aite fhàgail le tamailt. - 1932Dieckhoff Pronouncing Dictionary (1988) 100
Glugach, a. gLugɐK, stammering. - 1969DASG Fieldwork Archive Sutherland
Glugach | […] not being able to form words distinctly (e.g. a drunk person). - 1972
- 2013Grannd Gàidhlig Dhùthaich Mhic Aoidh 288
He’s stammering / He’s got a stammer. Tha e glugach.
1.b. Of a sound made by an animal: halting, irregular, punctuated.
- 1943Caimbeul Òrain Ghàidhlig 5
Tha’n coileach spliugeach, círeanach, | Réidh, rioghail, binn a ghairm-sgairtich | Le glochair ghlugach gogadaich | A ghoileam bheothail sheirm-sgeigich.
2. Of reading: in a halting or faltering manner.
- 1848Fear-tathaich nam Beann VIII 221
Tha ro mhòran dhiubhsan a léughas [de’n Ghàedhealtachd] nach dean ach glé ghlugach e, agus aig nach ’eil tuigse, no tuaiream air ciod a tha iad a’ léughadh.
3. Of movement: unsteady, clumsy.
Alexander Carmichael (a1899 [1941]: 27) translates the following extract as: ‘My one foot black, | At mouth of brook, | My other plashing, | Wounded’. The rhyme also appears in 1964 Aithris is Oideas 100 where glugach is glossed as ‘clumsy’. Cf. gluganach adj.- a1899Carmina Gadelica IV (1941) 26
Mo leth-chas dubh | Am beul an t-sruth, | Is té dhiubh glugach | Reubte.
4. Of a sound made by an animal: gulping, gurgling.
Alexander Carmichael (a1899 [1900]: 287) translates the beginning of the following extract as: ‘The gulping of the gulping stirks, | The gulping of the hairy ones […]’. He explains glugalaich, gluglaich as ‘gulping, gurgling, full of gulping; from “glug,” gulp. The term is applied to a person who stammers, who makes a liquid noise in the throat, who moves unsteadily, and to an animal suffering from throat disease’.- a1899Carmina Gadelica II (1900) 287
Glugalaich nan gamhna glugach, | Glugalaich nan gruaigean, | Glugalaich nan gamhna glugach, | Muigh ri mullach Ruai-bhall.
- a1975
6. Of writing: broken, incomplete; full of gaps.
- 1911Cox Dualchas agus an Àrainneachd 159
Tha na notaichean aig Alasdair [MacGilleMhìcheil] garbh, glugach, làn de mhearachdan agus làn cànan coimheach na Beurla mar a tha iad, a’ cur nar cuimhne nach ann ri daoine anns an fharsaingeachd a tha sinn a’ dèiligeadh, is sinn a-mach air cultar dùthchasach, ach ri daoine fa leth cuideachd.