Colin B.D. Mark

Colin BD Mark is a British teacher, lexicographer and writer on the linguistics of Scottish Gaelic. He is the author of three books, a number of articles as well as short stories published in the Gaelic language quarterly Gairm. ^[1]

He holds an undergraduate degree in Classics from the University of Aberdeen. He taught for nearly 40 years in a number of schools in the South-East and North-East of Scotland.

His Gaelic verbs systemised and simplified (2006) received widespread praise including from Ruairidh MacIlleathain, BBC Alba journalist, and writer “Colin Mark's simplified and systemised approach serves to maximise the student's understanding of how they work. But the idiomatic use of verbal forms, which may not always follow cold logic, is not ignored, and Mr Mark's work gives appropriate expression to the beauty and uniqueness of Gaelic phraseology and idiom.” ^[2]

His Gaelic to English Dictionary (2002) is one of a small number of Scottish Gaelic dictionaries in the modern era and has received praise for it's practical and user friendly nature. David Stifter, who reviewed the dictionary in Language (journal) the journal of the Linguistic Society of America said “Since the publications of Edward Dwelly’s and Malcolm MacLennan’s still widely used dictionaries of Scottish Gaelic almost a century has gone by, and the need for a modern dictionary of the language—modern both in the words and phrases included and in its user-friendly make-up—has long and ever more urgently been felt. This gap has now been filled by Colin Mark’s new Gaelic-English dictionary. The material for the dictionary, reputedly over 90,000 entries (counting headwords and examples of their usage), has been collected in twenty years of study of modern Gaelic literature.”^{[3] [4]}

Reviewer Victor Price said “Anyone who has tried to learn Scottish Gaelic will be aware of the lack of an up-to-date, practical dictionary. Mr Mark has plugged the gap triumphantly. I heartily recommend it.' ^[5]

Mark resides in the Scottish seaside town of Buckie with his wife Jean ^[6]

Works

Books

• Gaelic Verbs Glasgow University Press (Roinn nan Cànan Ceilteach Oilthigh Ghlaschu) 1986. ISBN 0903204169
• The Gaelic-English Dictionary Routledge 2002 ISBN 9780415297608 (Hardback) ISBN 9780415297615 (Paperback)
• Gaelic Verbs Systemised and Simplified Steve Savage Publishers 2006 ISBN 9781904246138

Short stories

Short stories (in Gaelic) by Colin Mark include:

• Smuaintean ann an Taigh-seinnse, (Thoughts in a Pub) Gairm 127 (1984)
• Liombo (Limbo) Gairm 133 (1985)
• Ath-thilleadh Fhearghuis (Fergus Returns) Gairm 136 (1986)
• An Ioma-shlighe (The Labyrinth) Gairm 143 (1988)
• Craobh an t-Saoghail (Tree of the world) Gairm 152 (1990)

References