The Mythological Language called Canadian Gaelic

[Chas]

this page has been renamed to "Canadian Gaelic" in accordance with Wikipedia article naming conventions. Currently there are four articles which exist on Wikipedia that describe European languages with Canadian dialects: French, English, Ukrainian and Gaelic. The titles of the first three articles are Canadian French, Canadian English, and Canadian Ukrainian.

Regards

Chas

[Nathan]

Regards

Chas

It's logical but still misleading. I think Canadian English AND Canadian French are more different from their homelands than Gaidhlig. It's also confusing because we have "Irish Gaelic" "Manx Gaelic" and "Scottish Gaelic" and so following that convention "Canadian Gaelic" sounds like an other Language.

I also think the Wikipedia convention breaks down when you scratch the surface. We couldn't accurately describe a single dialect called "British English". To my ears, the posh London accent is as different from Liverpool or Glasgow as it is from Australia. Similarly, the English in say Nothern Peninsula Newfoundland is closer to British Isles dialects than it is to Vancover, BC.

I know it's all nomenclature and there's no perfect system. But if you speak about "Canadian Gaelic" in Canada, most people will say, "What's that?"

I've seen people talk about it on other threads and online as if it's another Celtic language, so I wanted to clarify this for the Rabble.

Reading down a little further in the article I was slagging, I came across this:

Phonology
l̪ˠ→ w
The most common Canadian Gaelic shibboleth, where broad /l̪ˠ/is pronounced as [w]. This form was well-known in Western Scotland where it was called the glug Eigeach ("Eigg cluck"), for its putative use among speakers from the Isle of Eigg.[11]

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/canadia...#ixzz2PKj9XEl8

[Chas]

I would change it for you if I could, Nathan, but once Wikipedia have a convention like this, it is in place till the end of time.

Regards

Chas

[Nathan]

I would change it for you if I could, Nathan, but once Wikipedia have a convention like this, it is in place till the end of time.

Regards

Chas

Thanks Chas, that's very kind and I think you're probably 100% correct that it's there to stay. Just thought the xmarkers could use some clarity.

[Nathan]

So I came across this excellent site from BBC called Beag Air Bheag (little by little) which provides free online resources to learn some Gàidhlig.

In addition to the basic conversational/Grammatical stuff: "i's mise Seumas, Ciammar a tha sibh...", there's a section that teaches 5 Gàidhlig songs. Interesting stuff. The fifth song is one of Cape Breton's most famous songs. It's called 'Illean Bithibh Sunndach which translates as Boys be in good spirits and it's all about young men leaving Scotland for Cape Breton and trying to look on the bright side of what was a very sad thing.

While I was very impressed that BBC Alba decided to include a Gàidhlig song from Cape Breton on their site, I was surprised to see how much they altered the lyrics. They didn't just make some grammatical adjustments, though those are there, they changed the whole meaning of the verses.

Compare:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/alba/foghlam/be...05/index.shtml

with

http://www.beatoninstitutemusic.ca/g...-sunndach.html

Perhaps they didn't like the references to getting drunk at a pub in Tobermorry or the dairy cows being milked by young maidens... Or maybe they didn't like that place names were transliterated rather than translated - Nòbha Scòtia rather than Alba Nuadh.

There are some examples of words that are lenited in one version and not in the other as well (eg. ri tighinn versus ri thighinn in the chorus).

Anyway, it's a great song and it's nice that it's included on the BBC site even if it is altered to suit their educational purposes.