What's the Gaelic for 'wallaby'?

[shewhomust]

I had heard about the department in the Vatican whose responsability it is to come up with Latin words for things previously unknown to Latin about which the Pope might wish to speak.

But it seems there is also an organisation with the similar task of finding Gaelic names for wildlife not traditionally settled in Scotland. Mostly this seems to concern birds and insects whose range is extended northwards by climate change. But there are also some species imported as exotics, like the red-necked wallaby, which colonised the island of Inchconnachan on Loch Lomond after it was imported by a former owner. Gaelic speakers can now express their opinions of the uallabaidh ruadh-mhuinealach.

Comments

[cmcmck]

So the Gallic for wallaby is wallaby? :o)

[shewhomust]

Apparently so!

[nineweaving]

That's a gorgeous article! And "uallabaidh" ought always to be spelled that way.

Nine

[shewhomust]

Except that if that were the preferred spelling, I might struggle to spell it the same way twice!