Oor Wullie’s mischief might keep him busy, but he’s still had time to master a new language.
For the first time, our iconic cartoon character – or Uilleam Againne as he might now be called – has been translated into Gaelic.
A new version of the Oor Wullie annual is set for release later this month.
Gaelic publisher Cuilean Craicte spent a year translating some of Wullie’s classic strips.
“We want to publish books that kids will love and we couldn’t think of anything more fitting than Oor Wullie,” explained the publisher’s Mairi Kidd.
But “Jings! Crivvens! Help ma Boab!” proved tricky to translate.
“His catchphrase is so iconic and we spent a lot of time debating our version,” Mairi added.
“There isn’t a direct translation so we used popular exclamations.”
They settled on “Lochd! Mo chreubhag! Dìgean mise!”
“Lochd is an expression meaning ‘mercy’ that is especially common in Harris,” Mairi explained.
“Mo chreubhag literally means ‘my body’ and sounds quite like ‘crivvens’ as the ‘bh’ sound in Gaelic is a ‘v’.
“Dìgean mise derives from a phrase which means ‘protect and keep me’.”
The book can be ordered online at cuileancraicte.org from October 15.
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