History of immigration between Ulster and Caithness

[Blackrose87]

I saw this article on the BBC website today about the use of Gaelic in Caithness.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...lands-17515935

At the bottom I noticed;

"In 1707 a presbytery reported to the General Assembly Committee for the Highland Libraries that "there are seven parishes in Caithness, where the Irish (Gaelic) language is used, viz. Thurso, Halkirg, Rhae, Lathrone, Ffar, Week, Duirness."

So they must have been quite a bit of immigration from Ireland to Caithness.
This could possibly explain in the similarities in the accents, especially since I noticed it most in Thurso.

[MacSpadger]

I saw this article on the BBC website today about the use of Gaelic in Caithness.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...lands-17515935

At the bottom I noticed;

"In 1707 a presbytery reported to the General Assembly Committee for the Highland Libraries that "there are seven parishes in Caithness, where the Irish (Gaelic) language is used, viz. Thurso, Halkirg, Rhae, Lathrone, Ffar, Week, Duirness."

So they must have been quite a bit of immigration from Ireland to Caithness.
This could possibly explain in the similarities in the accents, especially since I noticed it most in Thurso.

Throughout the 1700's and up to the Romantic "Celtic" era, the Scots Gaelic tongue was referred to as Irish for mainly political reasons. During this time concerted efforts were being made to eradicate the Gaelic language and the land cleared of Gaels. The use of the word "Irish" or even "Erse" had nothing to do with the actual Irish. Wikipedia sums it up quite well;

From around the early 16th century, Scots language speakers gave the Gaelic language the name Erse (meaning Irish in Scots), and thereafter it was invariably the collection of Middle English dialects spoken within the Kingdom of Scotland, that they referred to as Scottis (see Scots language). This in itself was ironic, as it was at this time that Gaelic was developing its distinct and characteristic Scottish forms of the modern period.[17]

Scottish Gaelic was called "Erse" partly because educated Gaelic speakers in Ireland and Scotland all used the literary dialect (sometimes called Classical Gaelic) so that there was little or no difference in usage. When Classical Gaelic stopped being used in schools in both countries, colloquial usage began to predominate, and the languages diverged.

Victor Edward Durkacz's book The Decline of the Celtic Languages goes into this in further detail.

[Blackrose87]

Thanks MacSpadger!
I had actually heard of Gaelic being called Erse, but I didn't realise it's meaning in Scots. Very interesting stuff.

[chrisupyonder]

This may be of interest.
http://www.caithness.org/history/his...ness/index.htm
Having travelled all over the UK including Ulster, during my work as a computer engineer (now retired) I find the Caithness accent unique. It does not even sound what most people take as Scottish: Ie. Glasgow or Edinburgh, and to me, nothing like Ulster Irish.. We moved to Caithness about 15 years ago and I still cannot understand some of the old farmers. Old Norse (Norn) as well as English and Gaelic were spoken up here and I think the accent is a mixture of these 3 languages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norn_language

Chris.

[Blackrose87]

This may be of interest.
http://www.caithness.org/history/his...ness/index.htm
Having travelled all over the UK including Ulster, during my work as a computer engineer (now retired) I find the Caithness accent unique. It does not even sound what most people take as Scottish: Ie. Glasgow or Edinburgh, and to me, nothing like Ulster Irish.. We moved to Caithness about 15 years ago and I still cannot understand some of the old farmers. Old Norse (Norn) as well as English and Gaelic were spoken up here and I think the accent is a mixture of these 3 languages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norn_language

Chris.

Thank you for the links, I'll have a look through them.
I did notice that the accent is very different to other parts of Scotland.
And I suppose the same can be said of the north of Ireland. My accent (from Derry) is completely different to say a Belfast or Enniskillen accent, even though they are not that far from each other.

I felt that the Thurso accent sounded strangely like the Ballymena accent, and both of these are quite distinct and not like their surrounding areas.
Maybe I'm wrong about it, as I can't see any evidence why it would be. I guess I should get my hearing checked

[Blackrose87]

Actually found this website through my uni.
If you listen to the Wick sound file,

http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/dialects/nis.html

and then either the Ballymena or Ballymoney one,

http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/dialects/ni.html

I think they sound very similar. I couldn't find a male voice for a better comparison.