Jamaican language

Welsh Connections

Island Voices’ collection of Welsh recordings continues to grow as the Extensions “ripple effect” makes itself increasingly felt.

We already had Welsh versions as integral parts of the Audrey West and Martin MacIntyre packages – for obvious reasons! – with Ifor ap Glyn providing the voiceover on both occasions. We’re delighted to announce that Ifor has now gone on to provide us with the same service for both Christie Williamson and Donald S Murray as well.

Clilstore wordlinked transcript: https://multidict.net/cs/12343

Clilstore wordlinked transcript: https://multidict.net/cs/12342

These additions will bump the total number of films in our Other Tongues Welsh Selection up to five – with more to come!

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Audrey and the Dragon

Le Gordon Wells

Leaflets16to9

It was a stormy night, with serious flooding to the south and Met Office warnings to avoid driving, but even so there was a sturdy local attendance for this fascinating double bill at Barmouth’s Dragon Theatre on November 23rd. Tayo Aluko had driven up from Cornwall in the morning to be ready to perform his one-man play “Just an Ordinary Lawyer” in the evening slot at 7.30pm. This was preceded at 5pm by the multilingual local launch and discussion of the Island Voices video, “Jamiekan ina Wielz” featuring Audrey West.

In addition to Jamaican and Gaelic, this video is currently also available online in Welsh, English, and Portuguese, with the prospect of other languages to follow in line with our “Other Tongues” and “Extensions” initiatives. We didn’t get a chance to sample all of these on the night, but we were pleased to include Welsh, in addition to Jamaican itself, through the skilful chairing of panel presentations and wider discussion by Ifor ap Glyn (National Poet of Wales 2016-2022), who had himself supplied the Welsh translation and narration of the film.

With contributions also from Rita Stringer at the Diversity Project of the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, and from Island Voices’ co-ordinator Gordon Wells, the discussion was wide-ranging, touching on what we mean by “Black history” or “Welsh history”, or indeed “everybody’s history”, as well as languages and linguistics (particularly in relation to multilingualism in present-day society). Audrey herself talked freely about her personal, professional, and artistic journey up to today, and was happy to answer questions from the audience about the Jamaican language, for example about the origin of words like “pikni”.

It was a full hour and a half of viewing and talking in total. This short video gives a taste of some of the topics covered as well as snippets from the video in question in Welsh, Gaelic, and Jamaican.

The multilingualism poses something of a challenge for YouTube’s subtitling services! But auto-generated English titles are enabled, as well as Welsh and Gaelic transcriptions in appropriate places. (For non-speakers of these two languages you can get auto-translations through YouTube’s settings wheel.)

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Jamiekan Vorzhan

Le Gordon Wells

Kadeyne Marshall “Norman luk api pan fiim tuu piej . Di nyuuz bou di wok dem ina Lochboisdale riili gud, an elp buus op kanfidens ina wan komyuuniti we a chrai aksep se nyuu teknaliji a kom bout. Di regila advataisment dem an komyuuniti fiicha mek evribadi memba di sorvis dem we de bout an mek dem tankful se dem liv de.” (Jamiekan)

“Gu dearbh, tha coltas toilichte air Tormod air an dà dhuilleag aige. ’S e naidheachd air leth a th’ ann cuideachd mu na h-obraichean ann an Loch Baghasdail, agus cuiridh sin ri misneachd ann an coimhearsnachd a tha airson buannachd fhaighinn a-mach às an teicneòlas ùr. Bidh sanasan agus sgeulachdan bhon choimhearsnachd a’ toirt gu aire a h-uile duine na seirbheisean a tha ri fhaighinn, agus na h-adhbharan eile a th’ aca airson fuireach an seo.” (Gàidhlig)

“Norman is indeed looking happy in his two-page spread. The news about the jobs in Lochboisdale is excellent, and helps to boost confidence in a community wishing to embrace the potential of new technology. Regular advertisements and community features remind everyone of the services that are available and why they appreciate living here.” (English)

Kadeyne Marshall’s narration last year of Di Nyuuzpiepa was the third Jamaican version of an Island Voices film, and complements Hugh Campbell’s Gaelic Jorni and Dijitaizieshan Senta, all provided through the Jamaican Language Unit of the University of the West Indies, thanks to Audrey West‘s inspired introduction. Following the 2022 signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of the Highlands and Islands, we hope to see further collaborative work developing out of these small but concrete initial steps with the Jamaican Language Unit and their media channel Braadkyaas Jamiekan.

Followers of Island Voices who have sampled our Talking Points page will also be familiar with the voice of Dr Joseph Farquharson, the Jamaican Language Unit co-ordinator, discussing – in English – various sociolinguistic points arising from the Normal Maclean Saoghal Thormoid recordings with academic and community partners. As part of the JLU 20^th anniversary celebrations, you can hear him here – in Jamaican – explain more about the work of the unit. It’s a fascinating story of language study and linguistically-informed language activism from another island context.

Island Voices co-ordinator Gordon Wells was particularly interested to hear to the name of Robert Le Page mentioned – a relatively unsung but key sociolinguistic pioneer who headed the department at York University where Gordon’s own linguistic career began. Saoghal beag…

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean