Tog Blog

Stòras Beò: Calum

CAF1 Calum Alasdair Fraser, from Tolastadh a’ Chaolais, talks to Maggie Smith about his family connections and upbringing on the west side of Lewis.

In his childhood he spent a lot of time outdoors. Though still young himself, he remembers the sound of weaving from many houses – a sound that is no longer heard. After leaving school he tried various jobs in different locations. Now he works on Gaelic issues with An Lanntair in Stornoway.

He talks about how he values the Gaelic language and its close connection to where he lives, even though it wasn’t his home language growing up. He also talks about his musical activities, and his interest in maintaining local interest in Gaelic, relating it to a changed way of life that still has close connections to previous generations.

A full transcript with the video embedded can be viewed on the Clilstore platform here: https://multidict.net/cs/9331

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Bhidio ùr mun taghadh

Le Oifigear Gàidhlig

Tha Pàrlamaid na h-Alba air bhidio ùr a dhèanamh mun taghadh leis an ainm “Carson a bhòtadh tu ann an taghadh Pàrlamaid na h-Alba”. Seo e: Tha sinn an dòchas gun còrd e ruibh agus tha sinn ag obair air bhidio eile le fios mun t-siostam bhòtaidh an-dràsta. Cùm sùil air blog agus Twitter na … Leugh an corr de

Tadhail air Blog Pàrlamaid na h-Alba

Dr Pàdraig MacAoidh

Le comanngaidhligghlaschu

**‘It was lovely to hear the Gaelic.’ Nàdar de, agus sgrìobhadh ann an Lockdown**

Bidh an Dr Pàdraig MacAoidh a’ tighinn a thadhail oirnn oidhche Dhiardaoin. Tha sinn a’ dèanamh fiughar mhòr ri bhith a’ cluinntinn o Phàdraig agus tha sinn gu mòr an dòchas gun urrainn dhuibh a bhith cuide ruinn. Chithear ceangal Zoom gu h-ìosal.

Àm:	7.30f, Diardaoin 22ᵐʰ dhan Ghiblean
Àite:	Coinneamh tro mheadhan Zoom. Facal-faire: ri thighinn
Cànan:	Gàidhlig

Our next meeting (in Gaelic) will be held this coming Thursday at 7.30. We look forward to welcoming Dr Pàdraig MacAoidh to Comann Gàidhlig Ghlaschu. We hope to see you there and a Zoom link can be found below.

When:	7.30pm, Thursday 22^nd April
Where:	Via Zoom meeting. Password: will be posted before the event
Language:	Gaelic

Tadhail air Comann Gàidhlig Ghlaschu

Ath-bheothachadh rèile anns an Ear-thuath #gàidhlig #gaelic @CNERail

Le alasdairmaccaluim

Tha iomairt ùr air tòiseachadh airson ath-bheothachadh rèile ann an Siorrachd Obar Dheathainn: an Iomairt Rèile an Ear-thuath.

Chan eil teagamh sam bith ann nach e Ear-thuath na h-Alba an t-àite ann an Alba far a bheil na beàrnan as motha ann an lìonra na h-Alba.

Ged is e Obar Dheathain an treas cathair-bhaile as motha ann an Alba, chan eil ach dà stèisean rèile ann: Obar Dheathain fhèin agus Deis (Dyce) a tha a’ faisg air a’ phort-adhair.

Agus ann an Siorrachd Obar Dheathain, chaidh an lionra rèile a sgrios gu mòr sna 1960an le tòrr bhailtean mòra agus bailtean dùtchail nach eil air am frithealadh le trèanaichean tuilleadh.

Ma tha thu airson faicinn cho dona ’s a bha na geàrraidhean, seo mapa seo de na rathaidean-iarainn san sgìre ann an 1867:

By Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26541769

Seo mar a tha an sgìre an-diugh:

Seo Schd Obar Dheathain an-diugh – dìreach loidhne Inbhir Nis-Obar Dheathain agus loidhne Glaschu/Dùn Èideann-Obar Dheathain air fhàgail

Tha an iomairt seo ag iarraidh an ana-cheartais seo a chur ceart le loidhnichean ùra do Cheann Phàdraig, Baile nam Frisealach (taobh Eilean) agus gu Beanncharaidh.

Seo molaidhean na h-iomairt:

Seo molaidhean na buidhne bhon làraich-lìn aca

Ged is iomairt ùr a tha seo, tha iad air tòiseachadh ann an dòigh gu math làidir is pròifeiseanta le tòrr obair coiteachaidh a’ dol air adhart le tagraichean airson taghadh Pàrlamaid na h-Alba.

Ma tha thu airson taic a chumail ris an iomairt chudromaich seo, soidhnig an athchuinge.

Gur math a thèid leis an iomairt seo. An dòchas nach bi e ro fhada mus faic sinn soidhnichean mar seo a dh’aithghearr!

Alasdair

Tadhail air Trèanaichean, tramaichean is tràilidhean

Gaelic Word of the Week blog – Butterfly – dealan-dè

Le Oifigear Gàidhlig

Each week we publish the text of our Gaelic Word of the Week podcast here with added facts, figures and photos for Gaelic learners who want to learn a little about the language and about the Scottish Parliament – Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. This week our work is butterfly – dealan-dè. It is now Spring – an … Leugh an corr de

Tadhail air Blog Pàrlamaid na h-Alba

Gaelic Word of the Week blog – Easter – a’ Chàisg

Le Oifigear Gàidhlig

Each week we publish the text of our Gaelic Word of the Week podcast here with added facts, figures and photos for Gaelic learners who want to learn a little about the language and about the Scottish Parliament – Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. This week we are looking at Easter – A’ Chaisg. It is currently the Scottish … Leugh an corr de

Tadhail air Blog Pàrlamaid na h-Alba

Gaelic Word of the Week blog – lockdown – Glasadh-sìos

Le Oifigear Gàidhlig

Each week we publish the text of our Gaelic Word of the Week podcast here with added facts, figures and photos for Gaelic learners who want to learn a little about the language and about the Scottish Parliament – Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. This week we are looking at the Lockdown – an Glasadh-sìos. Its roughly a … Leugh an corr de

Tadhail air Blog Pàrlamaid na h-Alba

Guth nan Siarach

Le Gordon Wells

“Guth nan Siarach” (or “Voice of the Westside”) is the name of a new Gaelic community group in Lewis, set up in response to the 2020 publication of the Soillse research book, “The Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community”.

Members of this group recently attended an online Soillse workshop on “New Insights on the Vernacular Gaelic Communities in the Islands”, led by Professor Conchúr Ó Giollagáin. It was a refreshing opportunity for community members to take part in discussion with interested academics from a range of universities, both within the Soillse network and from outwith Scotland.

Some days after the event, Guth nan Siarach members met again on Zoom to record their thoughts, questions, and ideas after hearing Prof Ó Giollagáin’s presentation and taking part in the subsequent discussion. We’re very grateful at Guthan nan Eilean that Jane, Maggie, Christine, Catriona, and Calum were willing to share their thoughts with us.

“Mother tongue” issues are often very close to the heart, and it can take confidence, courage, and no little skill to talk about them openly and with consideration, especially when the language in question has been on the receiving end of prolonged disadvantageous treatment. It’s a privilege to hear the group talk among themselves about issues of concern. We look forward to hearing more in the near future!

We recommend finding the time to watch the full discussion. The contributions are varied, thoughtful, and expressed in good Lewis Gaelic. And thanks to the Gaelic Speech Recognition research team, we’ve added CC Gaelic subtitling, which you can turn on or off as you please – and which will also enable Google translation into other languages:

But if your time is short, you can get a taste of the meeting from these “criomagan”. (CC subtitling also available on this clip.)

And here’s Prof Ó Giollagáin’s presentation:

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Google learns Gaelic

Le Gordon Wells

Five years ago Island Voices posted about “Google Gaelic“, in wake of the excitement over the recent addition of Scottish Gaelic to the list of languages supported by Google Translate. The move, while welcomed in some quarters, was not an uncontroversial one, with many people voicing fears over how it could be easily misused, for example to the detriment of people working in translation services.

The pitfalls inherent in using Google Translate, in particular to try to generate well-formed Gaelic from English input, are still very much there. However, here’s a good news story relating to translation from Gaelic into English. Our five-year old post gave a sample of English text generated by processing the Gaelic voiceover script for our peatcutting documentary through Google Translate. Five years later we’ve just done the same thing again.

You can compare the two texts here, with 2016 in the left column, and 2021 in the right. The later one is still by no means perfect, but it’s still clearly an improvement on the first version. Google is “learning”, and Island Voices welcomes that, particularly in light of the recent adoption of optional CC subtitles on our Series 1 and Series 2 films, meaning the original Gaelic can be machine translated into scores of other languages at the click of a mouse…

Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean

Gaelic Word of the Week – British Sign Language – Cànan Soidhnidh Bhreatainn

Le Oifigear Gàidhlig

Each week we publish the text of our Gaelic Word of the Week podcast here with added facts, figures and photos for Gaelic learners who want to learn a little about the language and about the Scottish Parliament – Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. This week we are looking at British Sign language. Sign Language Week will be taking … Leugh an corr de

Tadhail air Blog Pàrlamaid na h-Alba