Trusaiche blogaichean
Le Steaphan
Powered by WPeMatico
Bidh an t-Oll. Wilson MacLeòid a’ tighinn a thadhail air a’ Chomann oidhche Dhiardaoin sa tighinn (10mh dhan Dùbhlachd). Is ann am Beurla a bhios an t-Oll. MacLeòid a’ bruidhinn air a’ cheann a chithear gu h-àrd. Tha sinn a’ dèanamh fiughar mhòir ri bhith cuir fàilte air Wilson agus tha sinn gu mòr an dòchas gun urrainn dhuibh a bhith cuide ruinn air-loidhne air Zoom.
| Àm: | 7.30f, Diardaoin 10ᵐʰ dhan Dùbhlachd |
| Àite: | Coinneamh tro mheadhan Zoom. Innsidh sinn a, facal-faire an-seo son choinneamh. |
| Cànan: | Beurla |
We are very much looking forward to welcoming Professor Wilson McLeod this Thursday evening and hope you can come and join us on Zoom. Professor McLeod’s talk will be in English on the topic outlined above. Hope to see you all there!
| When: | 7.30pm, Thursday 10th December |
| Where: | Via Zoom meeting. Password: we’ll add it before the meeting. |
| Language: | English |
Tadhail air Comann Gàidhlig Ghlaschu
Powered by WPeMatico
Le Gordon Wells
Μια ταινία μικρού μήκους για το κέντρο ημέρας Craigard στο Lochmaddy, στα Δυτικά Νησιά της Σκωτίας. Πρόκειται για ένα μέρος, όπου πολλά άτομα περνούν δημιουργικά και ευχάριστα το χρόνο τους.
Originally made in 2006, our Craigard documentary is now re-published with a commentary in Greek, as part our “Other Tongues” initiative, in which our films are shared with other languages around the world. It’s a particular pleasure to see our first ever documentary, and still one of our favourites, brought back to life in this way!
As usual, a wordlinked Clilstore transcript – with the film embedded – is also available. You can find it here: https://multidict.net/cs/9062
Our narrator this time is Valentini Litsiou of C.V.T. Georgiki Anaptixi – an early partner with Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in one of the follow-up initiatives to the POOLS project out of which Island Voices/Guthan nan Eilean was born. So it seemed particularly appropriate to “go back to the beginning” when Valentini selected “Craigard” as the film she would like to translate and narrate.
Valentini still works for the same group, offering support in public relations, and has been involved in various other European projects. She’s always enjoyed this work because of the opportunities it’s offered to meet people of other cultures, who speak other languages, and who have other ways of thinking.
She also has a wide range of domestic interests, but is not enjoying this period of COVID-19 restrictions. Luckily for us, it didn’t stop her from making this excellent new contribution to Island Voices in double quick time! Perhaps the earlier experience of POOLS-related recording work made it an easy decision for her to get involved again?
Or maybe she’s just a natural star – witness her contributions in “Mi piace questo binario!”, also recently dusted off and re-presented…
Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean
Powered by WPeMatico
Le Gordon Wells
Twitter hashtags do not normally attract much attention from Island Voices, far less participation or amplification. Firestorms and pile-ons are not our normal digital habitat. Rather, our natural inclination is more towards common sense than confected indignation or online mass hysteria. But every now and then, one catches the eye – #GaelicMafia being a case in point. The phrase has been around for a long time, a dismissive and derogatory shorthand conveniently covering up the user-accuser’s unwillingness or inability to actually name any names in their imagined shadowy conspiracy of mad Gaelic zealots plotting the appropriation of rights and resources way beyond their proper station.
Well, it cropped up again recently, though perhaps without the effect the original twitterer intended, prompting an avalanche of ironic, sardonic, even scornful #GaelicMafia tweets in response. Of course, negative feelings towards Gaelic may spring from a range of sources in any individual’s mind, one of which is no doubt the monolingual’s insecurity in the face of clearly communicative expression beyond their own comprehension. One “convenient” way of suppressing this fear is to let oneself believe that it’s actually the Gaelic speaker’s world view which is the defective one, reflecting a “narrow”, “inward-looking”, or “retrospective” mindset, by contrast with the modern outlook that the English language supposedly supremely affords in comparison with any other language in the world today – a view which conveniently neglects to acknowledge that every Gaelic speaker is bilingual, and so possessed of all the advantages that English (or perhaps another language) bestows, and with plenty more besides.
It’s this additionality that balanced bilingualism, or indeed multilingualism, confers that Island Voices has been promoting from the start. A project founded upon transnational European co-operation is never going to accept a characterisation of its linguistic roots as somehow blinkered or introspective, or that it is motivated by selfish concerns for “cosa nostra” alone. Island Voices would not even have started, with its roots going back to the POOLS project of 2005-2007, without the support of European funding and partners from many different language backgrounds. We hope our response has been, and continues to be, appropriately reciprocal too, for example through our Other Tongues initiative – which actually extends way beyond European borders.
And so it is that an exception has been made, and we have allowed ourselves our own contribution to the hashtag of the day with a gentle reminder that other worlds beyond the English-only one continue to grow and develop. “Mi piace questo binario!” was first created over ten years ago, as part of the POOLS-CX project – a rough and ready multilingual creation, with English “flashcards” interspersed. Here it is again, this time with the English replaced by Gaelic. There cannot be any Gaelic Mafia without Guthan nan Eilean as a fully signed up member!
Prego!
Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean
Powered by WPeMatico
Le lasairdhubh
Check this out! Ciara Ní É from What the Focal just posted an interview with Eoin P. Ó Murchú about the difference between Gaelic (Scottish Gaelic, Gàidhlig na h-Alba, Gaeilge na hAlban) and Irish (Irish Gaelic, Gàidhlig na h-Èireann, Gaeilge na hÉireann). Eoin translated my Gaelic novel, Air Cuan Dubh Drilseach, into Irish, and here he talks about the difference between the two languages and how he approached the translation:
Tadhail air Air Cuan Dubh Drilseach
Powered by WPeMatico
Le lasairdhubh
Stair an aistriúcháin Ghaeilge le Eoin P. Ó Murchú
Thart ar 10 mbliana ó shin bheartaigh mé Gaeilge na hAlban a fhoghlaim. Ós rud é go bhfuil an dá Ghaeilge cosúil go maith le chéile, shíl mé go mbeadh sé éasca go leor. Thug mé m‘aghaidh ar Shabhal Mòr Ostaig ar an Eilean Sgiathanach. Tar éis dom eitilt ó Bhleá Cliath go Glaschú, dul ar thraein go Mallaig, bád farantóireachta go dtí an t-oileán agus léimt ar bhus chomh fada leis an gColáiste féin thuig mé go mb’fhéidir nach aon turas éasca a bhí i ndán dom!
Tadhail air Air Cuan Dubh Drilseach
Powered by WPeMatico
Tadhail air Ghetto na Gàidhlig – Bella Caledonia
Powered by WPeMatico
Le Gordon Wells
Mary Robertson is another well-known Benbecula resident, here talking to fellow Baoghlach Archie Campbell for the Stòras Beò nan Gàidheal series of recordings capturing natural conversations between fluent Hebridean speakers of Gaelic.
In the first part, Mary talks about her family and her memories of her early schooldays in Torlum. Her father was a gamekeeper for the South Uist estate. Leaving home at 15 to get further training at Duncraig Castle was a shock. She describes the daily routine there. After that she worked in Edinburgh for two years before moving to Fort William to do hotel work, where she found more of an island community.
A wordlinked transcript alongside the embedded video is available here: http://multidict.net/cs/8252
In the second part, Mary describes returning to Benbecula after losing her husband in an industrial accident, and the changes she noticed, particularly with the increased army presence and the work available through public schemes. She found work in the newly opened Sgoil Lìonacleit, where she continued till retirement. She is also involved with various charities and community groups, and her church involvement has entailed trips abroad to various countries. Her Gaelic interest also took her to Canada. She still dances and enjoys walking in various parts of the Highlands.
A wordlinked transcript alongside the embedded video is available here: http://multidict.net/cs/8253
Tadhail air Island Voices – Guthan nan Eilean
Powered by WPeMatico
Tadhail air Ghetto na Gàidhlig – Bella Caledonia
Powered by WPeMatico
Air ais anns na 1940an, bha fear ann an Lunnainn air an robh Claude Lane. Bha factoraidh charbadan dealanach aige a bhiodh a’ dèanamh milk floats.
Bha e uamhasach dèidheil air tramaichean agus bhris e a chridhe mar a bhathar a’ dùnadh siostam thramaichean Lunnainn mean air mhean.
Ach bha aisling aig Claude: bha e airson slighe-trama a thogail dha fhèin.
Thoisich e le loidhne bheag taobh a-staigh an fhactaraidh aige ann am Barnet, Lunnainn. Cha robh rùm gu leòr ann airson tramaichean àbhaisteach is mar sin, thog e tramaichean beaga le gèidse 15″.
An uair sin, cheannaich e trac a b’ urrainn dha gluasad gu diofar fhèisean agus làithean fèille gus tursan trama goirid a thoirt do chloinn. Bha seo gu math soirbheachail ach cha robh sin math gu leòr do Chlaude: bha e airson loidhne mhaireannach a thogail.
Dh’fhosgail e slighe-trama ghoirid ri taobh na mara ann an Hastings ann an 1951 – bha meanbh-rathad iarainn ann uair a bha air dùnadh agus chaidh na tramaichean nan àite. Bha na tràmaichean seo na bu mhòtha – gèidse 2′. Cha do mhair an loidhne seo ro fhada, ge-tà oir cha robh a’ chomhairle ro thaiceil.
An uair sin, ghluais e an slighe-trama gu Rhyl sa Chuimrigh far an robh e stèidhichte ann am fèill-spòrs fad beagan bhliadhnaichean.
An uair sin, chaidh e gu Eastbourne far an do thog e loidhne mu mhìle a dh’fhaide ri taobh na tràighe. Thog e diofar thramaichean le coltas tramaichean ainmeil bho slighean tramaichean mòra – Boat car Blackpool mar-eisimpleir.
Bha loidhne Eastbourne gu math soirbheachail ach ann am meadhan nan 1960an, dh’fhàs e follaiseach gum biodh obair leasachaidh a’ tachairt faisg air an slighe-trama le rathaidean ùra agus gun cuireadh seo bacadh air an loidhne tràma. Nuair a tòisich cùisean a’ dol ceàrr ann an Eastbourne, cho-dhùin e gun robh e ag iarraidh loidhne trama a thogal a bhiodh leis fhèin an àite a bhith air lios bhon chomhairle.
Bha grunn rathaidean-iarainn fhathast a’ dùnadh ann am meadhan nan 1960an mar phàirt de gheàrraidhean Beeching (Tuiteam gun Èirigh air is Leac air a’ Bheul!) agus chuir Claude roimhe fear de na loidhnichean ath-fhosgladh do luchd-turais mar slighe trama.
Thagh e an loidhne gu Seaton air costa ear-thuath Devon. Bha an loidhne a’ ceangal Seaton air a’ chosta le Colyford agus Colyton, a’ ruith tron Axe Valley.
‘S e baile snog do luchd-turais a bh’ ann agus bha i a’ ruith tro theàrmainn nàdar àlainn cuideachd is mar sin, bha Claude den bheachd gum biodh an loidhne gu math freagarrach do luchd-turais. Bha e ag iarraidh tramaichean nas motha a chleachdadh is thagh e gèidse 2’9″ gus am b’ urrainn barrachd dhaoine a dhol orra.
Dhùin an rathad-iarainn ann an 1966 agus dh’fhosgail an t-slighe trama anns an Lùnastal 1970. Chaochail Claude gu h-obann ann an 1971 gu mì-fhortanach, ach chaidh an obair a chrìochnachadh le daoine eile.
Tha an loidhne a-nis 3 mìle a dh’fhaide agus bidh mu 80,000 duine a’ dol air na tramaichean a h-uile bliadhna. Bhiodh Claude uamhasach toilichte le seo, chanainn!
Chan e a-mhàin gu bheil an loidhne tarraingeach, tha na tramaichean air an loidhne uamhasach snog cuideachd. Tha trama stèidhichte air tramaichean Ghlaschu agus trama stèidhichte air trama Lunnainn mar eisimpleir agus tòrr a bharrachd eile.
Feumaidh mi a dhol ann latha dè na làithean nuair a bhios apocalypse nan zombie (suidheachadh a’ chorònabhìoras!) rud beag nas fheàrr!
Alasdair
Air m’ipod: Metallica Garage Inc (Às dèidh bhliadhnaichean de cheòl fìor dhona, rinn iad clàr de chovers metailt is punc ann an 1998, a’ gabhail a-steach So What! leis an Anti Nowhere League).
Tadhail air Trèanaichean, tramaichean is tràilidhean
Powered by WPeMatico