heritage – Duilleag 2

Cathie Laing in Conversation

North Uist resident Cathie Laing talks to Island Voices co-ordinator and fellow Aire air Sunnd participant, Gordon Wells. As with other longer conversations we’ve recorded, we’ve divided this one into two halves initially, which we present first unfiltered and unsubtitled.

For the benefit of learners or non-speakers of Gaelic we’ve also cut these recordings up into smaller chunks, complemented with Clilstore transcripts and optional subtitles (which are auto-translatable into multiple languages), following the same practice adopted for Paul McCallum and James MacLetchie.

In Part 1A Cathie explains how she can trace her ancestors back as far as 1715 through the oral history kept alive in her family tradition. Her great-grandmother had vivid tales of Bonnie Dundee and it was her grandfather who introduced her to historical figures such as Seumas a’ Ghlinne (James Stewart of the Glen) in a home without books. With Perthshire antecedents, Cathie was actually born in Ross-shire into a travelling family. When she started school she was obliged to attend for a minimum of 100 days in the year. As soon as that time was up the family would hit the road, usually around April. (Clilstore unit: https://multidict.net/cs/12571)

In Part 1B Cathie relates how the family would travel around the Highlands by horse and cart. Her father would break horses in for forestry work, and pony trekking was also popular. But with the advent of tractors horses became less plentiful, so in the mid-fifties the family started coming to Uist, which was known for good horses. She explains the different methods of transporting horses across by boat from Berneray and Eriskay, before walking them to Lochmaddy. Horse boxes came later. To an eight year-old girl it seemed a free and healthy lifestyle. (Clilstore unit: https://multidict.net/cs/12572)

In Part 1C Cathie starts to talk about her schooldays, which would begin around October when she would have some catching up to do. Over the years the periods of travelling shortened as her father recognised that way of life was passing. Age restrictions meant Cathie couldn’t go into nursing, her preferred option, on leaving school, so she got an office job instead, until marrying Alasdair, whom she met in Uist. She didn’t find Uist Gaelic particularly difficult or different in comparison with her own. In fact she liked to hear the different varieties in each of the islands. (Clilstore unit: https://multidict.net/cs/12573)

In Part 1D Cathie describes how her father worked and saved so they could move from their big winter tent into a house in Beauly, where she attended school. Even after starting work she would still need to go travelling over the summer. She enjoyed her office job, and appreciated that her employer was not concerned about paper qualifications. It was nerve-racking for her to ask for time off to travel, but they came to an amicable agreement. She lived in different worlds and different languages including English, Gaelic, and Scots. Settled in Uist for more than 50 years, she can still remember some words of Beurla Reagaird, the travelling people’s “cover tongue”. (Clilstore unit: https://multidict.net/cs/12574)

In Part 2A Cathie recalls having an inspiring teacher at school who took a positive interest in her detailed knowledge of her family tree, and encouraged her to take up reading at home. Cathie notes how she passed this passion on to her own children and grandchildren, and views their success as a legacy from this teacher. In her own reading she came to notice sometimes troubling discrepancies between written histories about travelling people and her knowledge of the oral tradition. She is still an avid reader in both English and Gaelic, particularly of Carmina Gadelica which contains contributions from her great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother. (Clilstore unit: https://multidict.net/cs/12575)

In Part 2B Cathie talks about her love of music and songs, which she was able to explore more deeply on retirement when she followed a course in Gaelic language and music at the college in Benbecula. Though not an instrumentalist herself, she appreciated the opportunity to research the stories behind some of her favourite songs. She retells in detail the life-story of Catherine Maclean and her various marriages and children in the time of Mary of Guise, as referred to in the song of Seathan Mac Righ Èireann. She remains enthralled by the stories that are captured in such songs. (Clilstore unit: https://multidict.net/cs/12576)

In Part 2C Cathie moves on to talk about her memories of how things were when she first came to live in Uist. Almost without exception, everyone spoke Gaelic, and she felt at home with the way of life, hearing the same language, stories and songs with which she was already familiar. She recalls how her grandfather had used to sing a particular song to her in her childhood, a song which he placed in Iochdar, though to her knowledge he had rarely if ever visited Uist. She was delighted many years later, when doing a home visit in Iochdar, to find out that the lady she was calling on could point her to the exact spot where the tale told in the song took place. “Every stone has a story!” (Clilstore unit: https://multidict.net/cs/12577)

In Part 2D Cathie expands on the placename theme, referring to various key locations near her home which have or had particular names that captured something of their history and significance. Linking this to the common practice of sloinntearachd – identifying community members through their genealogy – Cathie and Gordon conclude their conversation by uncovering some previously unknown mutual acquaintances and family connections, which were often disrupted by the large scale emigration from Uist of earlier generations. (Clilstore unit: https://multidict.net/cs/12578)

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Catalan Collection

Le Gordon Wells

Noèlia Díaz-Vicedo is the third member of the multilingual poetic partnership pulled together by Martin MacIntyre for his “A’ ruith eadar dà dhràgon” collection of poems in four languages, in which she provides the Catalan input alongside Ifor ap Glyn’s Welsh to complement Martin’s Gaelic and English. Noèlia is a member of the Association of Catalan Language Writers (AELC, Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana) which brings together writers from all of the Catalan speaking territories. She is, in addition, a distinguished academic (see also below) affiliated to the University of the Balearic Islands (Universitat de les Illes Balears).

While we’ve already managed to feature her two UK-based partners in our Extensions initiative, we have not yet been able to platform Noèlia in the same style, regrettably. In the meantime, while she has already provided Catalan versions of the documentaries for Ifor and Martin, we’re delighted now that she has provided the same service for our three other featured writers – Audrey West, Donald S Murray, and Christie Williamson. This means we now have five videos in total in our Catalan Selection among all our Other Tongues!

Audrey:

Clilstore transcript: https://multidict.net/cs/12484

Donald:

Clilstore transcript: https://multidict.net/cs/12485

Christie:

Clilstore transcript: https://multidict.net/cs/12483

Noèlia writes:

“The project ‘Island Voices’ is more than an educational tool or a literary collection of poetic voices. It is a necessary dialogue between cultures. It goes beyond understanding translation merely as transference between words. To translate the works of Martin McIntyre, Ifor ap Glyn, Audrey West, Christie Williamson and Donald Murray has allowed me not only to explore their processes of creativity but also to connect with their personal experiences and engage with their vision of the world. Languages are a form of communication and they allow us to approach other forms of thought. I am honoured to have had the opportunity to contribute to this wonderful project and bring these brilliant poets into Catalan.”

We’re delighted to have you in our company, Noèlia!

Noèlia’s academic bio:

Dr. Noèlia Díaz-Vicedo is a poet, academic and translator. She completed her thesis, awarded with the Premi Països Catalans by Institució Lletres Catalanes, at Queen Mary University of London on the poetry of Maria-Mercè Marçal entitled Constructing Feminine Poetics in the Works of a Late Twentieth-Century Catalan Woman Poet: Maria-Mercè Marçal published by MHRA (2014). She has translated The Body’s Reason (Raó del cos) by Maria-Mercè Marçal, translated from Catalan into English with Montserrat Abelló, Bilingual Edition, (Francis Boutle Publishers, 2014). She has also translated the books Terra de mai and Raó del cos into Castilian Diré tu cuerpo (Editorial Ultramarinos, 2020). She has also translated into English poems by Lola Nieto and Chilean poet Carmen García Palma and from English into Catalan poems by Canadian poet Peter Jaeger. She co-edited the literary journal Alba Londres. Culture in Translation (2011-2015). She has participated in the book A’ Ruith Eadar Dà Dhràgon, Corrent entre dos dracs translating Martin McIntyre’s poems into Catalan. She has published her poetry in various magazines and anthologies in Spain, Greece and USA. Her first collection of poems Bloody Roots/ Arrels sagnants (Bilingual Catalan-English) was published in 2017 by Francis Boutle Publishers. Her second collection Cercles (ex)cèntrics was published in 2023 by Edicions Tremendes. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Catalan Language and Literature and General Linguistics (University of Balearic Islands) where she researches on Contemporary Catalan and Comparative Literature.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Duncan Ban in the Park

Le Gordon Wells

The sonorous verse of Duncan Ban MacIntyre can now be heard on your phone any time you visit the Scottish Poetry Rose Garden in Glasgow’s Queen’s Park.

Friends of Queen’s Park invited Alan Riach and Allan MacDonald to mark his 300th anniversary last year, and they provided a remarkable open air music and poetry double act in the garden, presenting extracts both in the original Gaelic and in English translation.

Island Voices were on hand to film the event, and we’re delighted that visitors can now access the recording in situ through these displayed QR codes, and so get a taste again of a magical occasion.

Queen’s Park will be humming again with snippets of Moladh Beinn Dòbhrain…

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Guth Thormoid: Norman’s Voice

Le Gordon Wells

The Island Voices project is featured in the new book “Foundational approaches to Celtic Linguistics“, through a chapter on the late Norman Maclean by Gordon Wells. This volume is a first venture into current issues in Celtic linguistics for the free open access academic publisher, Language Science Press.

From the editors’ preface:

Gordon Wells’ chapter (Guth Thormoid: The “Island voice” of Norman MacLean) provides a case study that highlights the exceptional value of working closely with an experienced native speaker to not only provide linguistic data but to document vanishing cultures and values also impacted with language loss.

And here’s Gordon’s abstract:

This chapter samples and contextualises some of the multi-faceted Gaelic contributions by the multi-talented creative icon, Norman Maclean, to the Guthan nan Eilean ‘Island Voices’ online language capture and curation project. These include, in particular, Norman’s final Saoghal Thormoid ‘Norman’s World’ series of videoed conversations, recorded in April 2016 in which he spoke reflectively of his memories and impressions of bilingual life in Glasgow and the Hebrides from the middle of the Twentieth Century onwards. In addition to offering a vivid first-person voiced and experiential account of Gaelic life over a tumultuous period for the language, the Island Voices adherence to basic linguistic principles pays dividends in relation to some initially unpredicted spin-off applications, with potential for further development.

We’re delighted to see this account of our work with Norman placed online for unrestricted reading by anyone who may take an interest, and we’re very grateful to Andrew Carnie and the whole editorial team at the University of Arizona who made that possible. Mòran taing dhuibh uile!

Online publication also means, of course, that live links can be incorporated in the text, so that readers can quickly and easily sample the recordings referred to at the click of a mouse. This is no small consideration for a primarily speech-oriented project like Guthan nan Eilean!

You can freely find the article at this DOI: https://zenodo.org/records/15654881

The full Saoghal Thormoid transcripts, with description of method and a foreword by Professor Conchúr Ó Giollagáin are available in PDF format from the Island Voices Research/Reports page.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Island Voices at NATECLA 2025

Le Gordon Wells

The recently completed Island Voices project “Multilingual Memories: Birmingham 1984” was on prominent display at this year’s annual conference of NATECLA, the National Association for Teaching English and Other Community Languages to Adults, held in Birmingham on 27^th and 28^th June. Project representatives Harmesh Manghra (first on left) and Sardul Dhesi (second from right) are joined in the picture by Paul Sceeny, NATECLA co-chair, and Mary Osmaston, trustee of the association.

With QR codes incorporated in the display poster, as well as on leaflets for each of the 350 conference packs, conference participants were enabled to view any of the 22 recordings in the 13 different languages in the collection on their own devices and at their own convenience.

Over the years, NATECLA has consistently lobbied and argued for due attention to be paid to the other languages used in the UK beside English. As Industrial Language Training (ILT) practitioners in Birmingham back in the 1980s, both Harmesh and Sardul, alongside others, were involved in onsite language training in factories and other workplaces across the city. The Island Voices documentary, in tracing the life stories of ILT workers and how their careers developed and diversified, reinforces the point that multilingualism is an established fact of UK life, and always has been.

With Mary also running a workshop on using other languages in the English language classroom, it was an opportunity not to be missed to profile some of these languages in actual use through these Island Voices recordings. Many thanks to NATECLA for accommodating us!

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Ifor ap Glyn: Welshman from London

Le Gordon Wells

Select any video clip in this landscape format, or use the phone-friendly portrait layout.

Ifor ap Glyn, National Poet of Wales 2016-2022, has become the latest contributor to the Island Voices/Guthan nan Eilean Extensions project supported by CIALL. We first crossed paths when Ifor supplied the Welsh translation of our “Jamaican in Wales” documentary about Audrey West, and again when recording our “Gael in Edinburgh” videos with Martin MacIntyre, with whom Ifor had already worked as well. So, from these beginnings it was a natural progression to ask if he’d like to do a “Welshman from London” collection in similar style, and we’re delighted he agreed, also bringing with him his extensive broadcasting experience!

As with the other writers in this series, we have recordings from Ifor in three different genres, all quickly accessible via these landscape or portrait posters. Naturally, we have samples of his verse (including his Welsh rendition of one of Martin’s poems from A’ Ruith Eadar Dà Dhràgon). He has also created a short documentary with an accompanying scripted narration in both Welsh and English, which we have had additionally translated into various other languages, including Gaelic, in the now customary Island Voices fashion. In addition, he has recorded in free conversational style some of his own thoughts and memories about growing up in London and settling in Wales, paying particular attention to some of the linguistic aspects of that life journey.

We present this conversational monologue in two ways. Firstly, fluent Welsh speakers may choose to view the full version in unaided monolingual style, with timed chapter headings in the YouTube description should they wish to focus on particular topics that Ifor discusses. We also offer the same monologue in short sections with various comprehension aids for the benefit of learners or non-speakers of Welsh. This is in similar manner to our Shortcuts approach to Gaelic, with the exception that we also tag on full written translations into English, alongside subtitling and transcription options.

The monologue is broken up as follows:

Part 1: What was it like to be raised as a Welsh speaker in London?

Ifor points out that there can be many different experiences of being raised with Welsh even in Wales, where different areas have different densities of speakers. The big difference with London would be in the potential for Welsh language education anywhere in Wales, and the chance to use the language outside the family. In London, Welsh community life outside the home was centred on three different institutions: the social club, the rugby club, and the chapels. Welsh wasn’t necessarily heard much in these contexts, with even the chapels being weaker in maintaining the language than might be expected.

Wordlinked transcript (Clilstore unit)
Written translation (online PDF)

Part 2: How then was language passed on, in the Welsh-speaking society of London when you were young?

While there were various patterns of language maintenance amongst the London Welsh of Ifor’s own generation, as he illustrates with stories of his friends, the general picture was one of “slippage”. He also mentions the beneficial impact of the Welsh medium primary school in London which offers language support through various modes of delivery, although Ifor himself did not attend, perhaps because his parents were confident that they could maintain the language adequately in the home, as had been their own experience. Indeed, some of the best Welsh speakers of his own generation were not necessarily products of the school.

Wordlinked transcript (Clilstore unit)
Written translation (online PDF)

Part 3: How different were things for preceding generations in London?

Ifor points out that many Welsh-speaking Londoners of his parents’ generation had an exceptional experience of language transmission and maintenance through wartime evacuation as children to the homes of relations in Wales. However, this experience did not necessarily lead to them passing the Welsh language on to their own children in due course, and Ifor is grateful that his own parents bucked that trend. Welsh was used in his own home, though not exclusively, and Easter and summer holidays were always spent with his grandparents in Llanrwst, giving him a northwalian accent, whereas most London Welsh speakers had family connections in the west of the country. Ifor goes on to describe typical migration and occupation patterns amongst Welsh speakers of earlier generations.

Wordlinked transcript (Clilstore unit)
Written translation (online PDF)

Part 4: What’s the London Welsh community like today?

While no longer resident in London himself, Ifor detects some changes in the community patterns he experienced growing up in the city. Though migration to London is still an option for Welsh speakers, the advent of devolution of government to Wales has opened up more professional opportunities in Cardiff. He believes that growing acceptance of London’s multicultural nature has also resulted in a shift in thinking about home languages other than English. He’s thankful that Wales was easily reachable in his childhood, enabling him to experience extended use of the language beyond the home, unlike the case of some of his Asian friends. The restriction of the mother tongue to the home domain could obscure the level of bilingualism in the general population, even amongst schoolfriends, but he’s glad that there is now a wider acknowledgement of linguistic diversity in the community.

Wordlinked transcript (Clilstore unit)
Written translation (online PDF)

Part 5: Was it a big step to move back to Wales? How did that desire develop?

Ifor describes his teenage awakening of interest in Welsh, a language he’d always spoken but not learned how to write until deciding to study it for O level, and then A level after leaving school, as a university entry requirement to study Welsh and Welsh history in Wales. He then married and settled down, eventually in Caernarfon, the town with the highest density in the world (nearly 90%) of Welsh speakers. He reiterates that the density of Welsh speakers varies across the country, noting an emergent demographic challenge in the language’s stronghold areas, ironically just as legal status and rights are being underlined. Nevertheless he defines himself as optimistic, taking some comfort in historic migration patterns which ended with strong identification with Welshness among previous incomer movements, while acknowledging the importance of supportive popular will to recreate a contemporary Welsh identity.

Wordlinked transcript (Clilstore unit)
Written translation (online PDF)

Part 6: How do the Welsh and English languages co-exist in Wales?

While it’s possible in a place like Caernarfon to live a nearly monolingual life through Welsh, almost like the way many people throughout the UK, and even in Wales, inhabit an English-only universe, Ifor discusses the different perspectives on languages that living bilingually entails. For Welsh speakers, this includes simultaneously looking at English in at least three different ways: English as a Welsh language, English as an international language, and English as an oppressive imperial language. He also acknowledges that in other parts of the world English may be viewed in some contexts as a language of liberation. These sometimes conflicting conceptions serve to counter any monolithic interpretation of language use and identity. This understanding may be worth sharing across the rest of the UK.

Wordlinked transcript (Clilstore unit)
Written translation (online PDF)

Part 7: Which Welsh poetic forms appeal to you most?

To finish, Ifor discusses what drew him to Welsh poetry in particular, noting first a strong social, even political, context to its creation and performance, for example to mark significant life occasions, such as births or deaths. This association has long historical roots, but is still vibrant and extends to poetry’s place in contemporary entertainment through radio competitions and tours. He quickly outlines different genres of Welsh poetry and identifies his own generally preferred style. He finishes by introducing the figure of Taliesin as both historical poet and mythological character with shape-shifting powers. He finds a powerful symbolism in this tale of transformation as it represents the diversity of Welsh experience through history, and expresses the hope for its successful continuation.

Wordlinked transcript (Clilstore unit)
Written translation (online PDF)

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Jimí agus Pádraig updated

Le Gordon Wells

In the continuing collaboration through CIALL with Irish partners on Stòras Beò nan Gàidheal/Taisce Bheo na nGael we’re delighted to host two more recordings (Parts 3 and 4) of Jimí Chearra and Pádraig Chearra, in addition to those already posted. It’s a project which records the natural speech of Irish and Scottish Gaelic speakers in their own communities with user-friendly equipment and techniques. In an additional challenge for Scottish Gaelic speakers, the descriptions below are offered in Irish! (Clilstore transcriptions are also available via the above link.)

Part 3: Bainfidh na scéilíní grinn sa mír seo ag Jimí Chearra agus a mhac Pádraig gáirí amach: filleadh gan brabach ó Bhroomielaw na hAlban; ”gur olc an greim é greim baba” (ón Eachréidh); ”go n athródh Dia nó an deabhal” an aimsir (ón Eachréidh); postmortem ar asal na dtincéaraí; ”minic a bhí páidrín fada ag rógaire maith”; ionadh an Árainnigh a chonaic rothar; béadán Gaeilge ag seanmhná; tuthógaí go ”tuffin”’ an Bhéarla éigeantaigh; kick out a bhris clog sa scoil; ”Dismiss the case” an asail óig gan mhúnadh; telegram barrúil sreang-Bhéarla agus an posta gallda. Trácht freisin ar aontaí; ar shearrach á chloisteáil beo sula rugadh marbh é; athrúintí sa saol, borradh faoin mBéarla san áireamh.

Part 4: Scéalta áitiúla, an greann agus an ghruaim, sa mír seo ag Jimí Chearra agus a mhac Pádraig. Chaill bean a folt breá gruaige de bharr masla a chaith sí le fear siúil. Tháinig díleámh ar na Blácaigh, tiarnaí talúna, tar éis mhallacht an tsagairt i litir na n iomad clúdach. Cur síos fileata agus greannmhar ar asal, agus ar chaora strae a bhí ag Marcas Ó Céide. Rannscéal faoi phóitire a chuir luach bainbh faoin muineál i dteach an óil agus a d’éirigh as ansin. Seanchas eile ar an ól agus ar éagóir a rinneadh ar Pheadar Chois Fharraige, údar an leabhair Peadar Chois Fhairrge a chuir Seán Mac Giollarnáth, aturnae, giúistís agus athbheochantóir, in eagar. Diarmaidín Thomáis Thaidhg a dúirt gurbh é an milleán is mó a bhí ar an mBéarla aige nár airigh sé ariamh ach ag chuile bhacach é! Plé ar an Marainn Phádraig. Ag cuir láí go Beaty.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Gaelic Shorts

Le Gordon Wells

While recording natural conversational speech of fluent Gaelic speakers over the past couple of years, we have taken to also “scaffolding” these clips for the benefit of any Gaelic learners or non-speakers who wish to follow them as well. We now have a new “Shortcuts” page where these clips are collected together for ease of access!

How and why have we done this?

There is obviously a lot of talk about AI (Artificial Intelligence) these days, with plenty of excitement as well as concern over what the future holds for computer-assisted construction and deployment of “Large Language Models” (LLMs) etc, and where they might leave lesser-used languages like Gaelic. That said, the term “AI” itself lacks clear definition, and we have certainly been happy to use new technology to help capture and curate Gaelic and other languages since the very beginning of Island Voices, back in 2005!

Perhaps the most obvious example of this is our default construction of Clilstore transcripts for most of the recordings we make. Originally designed as a language learning aid (principally through its built-in dictionary look-up facility), Clilstore has proved equally valuable simply as an online platform for combining video recordings of authentic speech with verbatim transcripts. On our new “Shortcuts” page all the clips presented on YouTube are also made available on Clilstore. This will enable learners of Gaelic to match up the spoken and written word as they listen and read, and quickly check any unfamiliar vocabulary for translated meaning in an online dictionary. (Learners who find the real-time speed of fluent Gaelic speech challenging should also note the YouTube facility to slow video playback down without altering the pitch of the voice.)

Whether or not you consider Clilstore to be an example of AI, there is no doubting its place in automatic translation tools such as Google Translate. And we’ve been happy to incorporate that facility for the benefit of non-speakers of Gaelic when taking advantage of the Closed Caption (CC subtitling) option that YouTube offers. You can choose to either activate the CC button on our videos or leave it off. If you do use it, the subtitles will appear in Gaelic by default – a handy aid in itself for some – but you can also choose to get them auto-translated into other languages, including English. The results are not perfect – the software still has difficulty distinguishing between crofts and harps! – but it will give a pretty decent overall impression of the content of discussion.

As we know, there are plenty of non-speakers of Gaelic resident in the remaining Gaelic communities who are still interested in knowing what their neighbours, friends, or indeed other family members like to talk about. This kind of technology hints at new open access paths to community knowledge and local history without the need for Gaelic speakers to switch to their other language in order to pass on their own thoughts and feelings.

There’s a mix of speakers in the featured recordings. A good half have spoken Gaelic as their first language all their lives. Others learnt it after arriving in the Hebrides as young children, whether returning with family or being adopted into the community. And a couple of others, while also having a close family connection to the language, have taken the harder route to fluency, through active study as second language learners. In all cases we hope you will find they have interesting stories to tell!

You can find this shortcuts material here. Take a look and share with like-minded friends!

We are indebted to the UHI Language Sciences Institute’s CIALL project for its support over the last couple of years in enabling its production.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Caibeal agus Cladh

Le Gordon Wells

Tommy Macdonald of Howmore in South Uist delivers a Gaelic guided tour of the old chapels and graveyard, dating at least as far back as the 9th Century, and shares some stories about the burial practices which continued into living memory.

As a well-known and respected local historian Tommy has been the central linking figure over the last couple of years in creating a series of clips looking at local “taighean is tobhtaichean” (houses and ruins), recording stories associated with them, and talking to some of the people with experience of living in taighean-tughaidh (thatched houses) in particular. These have been gathered together in our special “Taighean-tughaidh Uibhist” YouTube playlist, to which this latest recording has also been added.

This recording, like the others, has been made in Tommy’s good South Uist Gaelic. But it’s definitely not an exercise in the exclusion of learners or non-speakers of the language. Same language Closed Caption (CC) subtitles are available at the click of a YouTube button, and viewers on a laptop or desktop computer will also be able to access automatic translation into English and other languages through the settings wheel.

You can also choose to slow down the video without altering the pitch of his voice through the same mechanism. And learners may further choose to follow the wordlinked transcript with the video embedded on the Clilstore platform: https://multidict.net/cs/12419.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Multilingual Memories: Birmingham 1984

Le Gordon Wells

With a multilingual trip down Memory Lane, Island Voices visits Central England, in a new contribution to the CIALL-supported “Extensions” initiative. This collection comprises a short documentary introduction – available in various community languages now spoken in the UK – plus a range of recorded conversations and interviews about the 1980s Industrial Language Training (ILT) service, each recorded in a particular language, but made accessible for non-speakers or learners of that language through YouTube subtitling and/or a supporting Clilstore transcript.

Scripted Documentary

The documentary uses a scripted narrative to follow three Birmingham ILT workers as they meet together for the first time in 40 years in their old workplace. The film introduces various aspects of the ILT programme, from onsite teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) to training and advice in Equal Opportunities and Anti-Racism, as well as innovative support for Community Languages. Team members also visit other key locations and organisations, such as the office of NATECLA, the National Association for the Teaching of English and other Community Languages to Adults, and recall the BBC “Hindi Urdu Bol Chaal Club” in a Soho Road restaurant. Multiple versions of the film are available in English, Gaelic, Jamaican, Welsh, and nine of the South Asian languages spoken most widely in the UK by census results.

Here’s the English version:

And here’s the Clilstore English transcript, with the video embedded, incorporating one-click access to online dictionary support for any unfamiliar vocabulary: https://multidict.net/cs/12354

To see the video narrated in another language, click on the landscape poster (or phone-friendly portrait option) to choose your own preferred version of the documentary. Or choose from the table below for the equivalent Clilstore unit.

Bangla	Gaelic	Gujarati	Hindi
Jamaican	Malayalam	Nepali	Punjabi
Tamil	Telugu	Urdu	Welsh

Free Conversation

The interviews and conversations are accessible through the same landscape or portrait links, or directly through the bold blue titles below, and they comprise live and unscripted samples of authentic speech. YouTube subtitles are available through the Closed Caption (CC) button, and viewers on a laptop or desktop computer should also be able to get these auto-translated into the language of their choice through the Settings Wheel. Every film (except the first short introduction and the 3-way English discussion) is also accompanied by a Clilstore transcript. Links to rough written English translations are also available via the video description and reproduced below. In some cases where reference is made to related postgraduate study, links are also given to participants’ own papers from the time to give a sense of contemporary research and debate about then dominant issues from a practitioner perspective.

Three Short Introductions

The opening conversational clip quickly introduces the three former members of Birmingham Industrial Language Training Services featured in the documentary, as they speak Punjabi or Hindi to briefly outline their ILT experience and say where it eventually led them. Subtitles in both these languages are available, including for auto-translation if necessary.

Nazir ul Haq

Speaking in Urdu at some length, Nazir ul Haq, last leader of the Birmingham ILT team of the mid-1980s before its absorption into the college, offers memories and reflections – judiciously supplemented with quotations from well-known Urdu poets – on the work of the local unit, as well as the national service, during that time. This clip is an amalgamation of a series of short recordings that Nazir made over a number of days, as detailed with links below, in which, alongside critical analysis, he also creates a humane picture of the team’s mission and working ethos, with poignant reminiscences and tributes to those no longer with us.

00:09 Introduction
02:04 ILT 1980s role
06:16 Memory and reminiscence
09:53 Personal journey
14:57 Equal Opportunities: appreciation of colleagues and contributions
19:35 Summary critique of ILT approach to racism awareness and anti-racism

Wordlinked transcript (Clilstore unit)
Written translation (online PDF)

Nazir also mentions his PhD-level postgraduate studies at Birmingham University during the same period, and his continuing association with the university after the closure of ILT. For an example of his work in the area of diaspora formation with specific reference to the Kashmiri community you can read his paper presented some years later at a conference in Budapest: Diaspora Formation and Ethnic National Mobilisation of Kashmiris in Britain: A Reflective Case Study.

Sardul Dhesi

Speaking Punjabi, Sardul Dhesi, retired Deputy Principal of South and City College Birmingham, gives a summary account of his 48-year Further Education career in the city, including his time with Birmingham ILT in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His time with ILT was a seminal period for him, including a one-year secondment to get a Master’s degree in Race and Education, from which he never looked back. Also important to him were his trade union links, with particular regard to equality initiatives. Over his long subsequent career, he occupied increasingly senior positions in what has become the biggest college in the West Midlands.

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Written translation (online PDF)

For more specific detail on Sardul’s work on and research into Trade Union links to ILT you can read his essay on Trade Unions and Racial Inequalities: An examination of the role of ILTS in removing the barriers, written as part of his M.Soc.Sc course at Birmingham University during his 1985-86 secondment, together with the appendix containing a selection of contemporary ILT and TUC materials.

Harmesh Manghra

Speaking Hindi, Harmesh Manghra, retired Inspector of Education, recounts the various stages of his career in some detail, including his time with Birmingham ILT in the early 1980s. He starts with the multilingual education he received in India before arriving in the UK, when job opportunities were initially limited despite his qualifications. But his time with ILT provided a springboard into a varied and stimulating career across various educational sectors. Even in retirement he remains committed to easing newcomers’ passage through educational opportunities.

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Written translation (online PDF)

Gordon Wells

Speaking Gaelic, Gordon Wells, researcher with the CIALL project, outlines his career path, including his time with Birmingham ILT in the 1980s and what he learned from that experience for use in later years, including with Island Voices. It was the rising interest in “Mother Tongue” maintenance that inspired him to start learning Gaelic, and his experience working on the BBC’s “Hindi Urdu Bol Chaal” series that developed his interest in recording speech in particular. This was reinforced by the ILT emphasis on close community connection with the day-to-day concerns of working people.

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Gordon’s research topic for his 1987 dissertation for the MSc in Applied Linguistics at Edinburgh University, while on secondment from ILT, was on Concepts of “Mother Tongue” and “Native Speaker” in Relation to the Teaching of Languages to Adults. This paper, later cited in Professor Alan Davies’ 1991 book “The Native Speaker in Applied Linguistics”, anticipated by some years a now longstanding debate on the question of “native” vis-à-vis “non-native” English speaking teachers.

Suman Watts

Suman Watts came into ILT from a broadcasting background on local radio. She briefly explains in Hindi that she put these skills to good use in helping prepare audio-visual teaching materials. In her later career she helped not only English learners, but also learners of community languages like Hindi and Urdu, within the context of the issues and principles that informed the ILT ethos.

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Written translation (online PDF)

Muhammad Idrish

Speaking Bangla, Muhammad Idrish, who worked at the neighbouring Asian Resource Centre in the 1980s, offers succinct memories of friends and colleagues in the Birmingham Industrial Language Training team (as well as the Dudley team), and their contribution to the anti-racism movement in the community, including the NALGO-supported nationwide Muhammad Idrish Defence Campaign.

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Harmesh Manghra and Sardul Dhesi

In this longer conversational extract Harmesh and Sardul, speaking Punjabi, recall shifts in focus of the ILT service at national and regional levels from language teaching, through cultural and racism awareness training, to structural analysis of social problems. Their career development paths took them on to West Midlands-wide initiatives with an emphasis on greater community engagement by colleges, opening local centres and providing appropriate facilities. Statistics now show far greater proportions of Black and Asian staff and students engaged in Further Education.

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Harmesh Manghra, Sardul Dhesi, and Gordon Wells

This is an extended three-way conversation in English between Sardul, Harmesh, and Gordon about the ILT legacy, with a particular focus on language support in relation to both ESOL and Community Languages:

00:06 First reminiscences and appreciations
The three recall how ILT launched them into their professional careers under the guidance of Clarice Brierley, then leader of a dynamic team.
04:12 Bilingualism, ESOL, and Community Languages
Harmesh and Sardul were among the first bilingual ESOL teachers whose skills in other languages were recognised and increasingly valued, when Mother Tongue maintenance was also beginning to be raised as an issue, and NATESLA changed its name to NATECLA and established a national base in the college.
10:05 Materials development
The local authority’s supportive approach to staff development was instrumental in enabling team members to develop new skills and ideas, including Gordon’s role in the innovative BBC Hindi Urdu Bol Chaal project.
13:12 Community context
The ILT approach to ESOL and Community Languages was strong on addressing language learning in the grounded reality of the learners’ own situation, so community linkage was essential. The team members discuss how this guiding principle can be equally applied in other language contexts, for example with Gaelic in Scotland or many endangered languages in India.
16:05 Confidence issues
Team members share stories from personal or family experience of assimilative social pressures to suppress mother tongue use – whether Punjabi or Gaelic – and a Punjabi summer school initiative in the college is noted.
19:28 Final reflections
Lastly, each member reinforces the learning and confidence-building benefits of their early involvement in ILT, whether in relation to language skills and use, subsequent career paths, or social justice concerns, noting also how some issues first tackled 40 years ago, for example around workplace learning, remain prevalent today.

Linguistic Diversity

In conclusion, we may note that the year 1984 is now further back in the past than it was then still in the future when the dying George Orwell was putting the final touches to his doom-laden “Nineteen Eighty-Four” novel in a writer’s hideaway on the Hebridean Isle of Jura. Central to the workings of the totalitarian society he was predicting was “Newspeak” – a reduced and distorted officially approved form of language with a simplified grammar and reduced vocabulary, intended to promote social conformism and inhibit critical thinking.

This project is a new contribution from those we might now literally call “Old Speakers”(!), which looks back at the linguistic reality of the actual 1984 of urban England through the eyes of ILT staff and associates who were there at the time, with the benefit of their now 40 years of hindsight. If Orwell could have come back to visit us in the 1984 of real history he might well have been first shocked, then perhaps relieved on reflection, to find ample evidence of significantly increased linguistic diversity compared to the England he knew, at least at grassroots community level. It’s a confounding contrast, rooted in lived community reality, to the uniform and restrictive Newspeak monolingualism against which he had imaginatively warned.

We are deeply indebted to all the contributors who have made this collection possible. In addition to those appearing onscreen, we must also note particularly the crucial assistance of Professor Udaya Narayana Singh, a longterm partner in Mediating Multilingualism, in co-ordinating the South Asian language translation and transcription work with his team of collaborators. In a previous “Talking Points with Norman Maclean” contribution he references the concept of “jugaaR” to illustrate a South Asian propensity for inclusive linguistic accommodation. And in a more recent lecture for Bhasha Mela he similarly contrasts the Orwellian vision of 1984 with the historical facts of interlingual coexistence in South Asia, thus providing an alternative optimistic vision and rationale for maintaining cultural diversity. With that in mind, we also thank and salute Audrey West, another of our Talking Points collaborators and Extensions pioneers, for her continuing determined local promotion of the Jamaican language. We are also delighted that Magaidh Smith consented to take part in true vernacular Gaelic style, and we welcome the fresh Welsh voice of long-settled Grimsay resident, Rhodri Evans. In the face of encroaching Anglophone monoculture, every similar contribution underlines the value of ongoing linguistic diversity.

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean