Scots government 'Burned' by Gaelic speakers over twitter translation

To a haggis: the life of Scots bard Robert Burns is celebrated on January 25. Photo / Getty Images

Pass the aftersun, because there were some serious burns on Scots social media this week.

The Scottish Government was left red in the face after a translation commissioned to celebrate Burns Night was subject to ridicule by the Scots Gaelic community.

25 January is a day marked as Robert 'Rabbie' Burns' birthday. It's a day when the author of "Auld Lang Syne" and various poems celebrating "mice", "lice" and "dogs" is celebrated by Scots across the world.

A Holyrood social media account tweeted a greeting to its 5000 followers with a message in English and Gaelic.

"Happy Burns Night'' it supposedly said, on a picture of a traditional Burns supper of "haggis, neaps and tatties."

However, the gesture backfired when it was pointed out that the word "Losgadh" was not Burns' Gaelic surname, but rather the unfortunate wounds one gets from heat and fire.

"So glad the Scottish Government has a salaried Gaelic officer, who trusts Google Translate to know the difference between heat burns (losgadh) and the surname Burns (Burns)," snarked the Gaelic-speaking author Roger Hutchinson on Twitter.

That’s ok! I’m sure the the plague on Argyle street will sort it out! https://t.co/qoh85qlaVK

— Happyclapper (@Happyclapper8) January 25, 2022

Although Gaelic language experts say that some surnames can have literal translations, this cannot be said for Burns.

The mickle mistake made muckle mischief online - and was retweeted 700 times.

Another literary Scot said it was the best Burns-based blooper they'd seen since Glasgow City Council's commemorative "Plague" to mark the place where the poet stayed on a visit in 1787.

"It is just as well Burns showed more attention to detail in his works, than this official did in this tweet," Donald Cameron MSP for the Highlands and Islands told the Telegraph.

Highland and Islands are home to some of the largest Gaelic-speaking populations in Scotland.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig in Inverness is the government's agency tasked with improving the prominent and correct use of the language. A recent survey by the Bòrd showed there were 87,056 speakers of any proficiency, with the isles of Lewis and Harris being the heartland where around 70 percent of the islands' population speak Gaelic.

Southeast of the Grampians, Inverness and the Great Glen, fewer than 2 per cent of the population understand Gaelic.

The Unesco recognised language is classified as "endangered".