Outlander Gaelic

[OC Richard]

All I can say about the Outlander Gaelic is that I, with my rudimentary first-year University Gaelic, can often follow what is being said fairly well.

I was astounded that the producers had the courage to have long scenes in which all, or nearly all, the conversation is in Gaelic, and without subtitles!

Scots may not realize that the Disney/Pixar movie Brave was shown in some theatres in the US with subtitles. This amazed me, as (to me) the English was plain as day. Likewise, the first Mad Max movie is still shown on US TV with Mel Gibson's voice dubbed with an American voice actor.

This being the case, I imagine it was a hard sell to the American producers, to have all the Gaelic dialogue without subtitles in Outlander. It makes perfect sense, because the whole point is that this woman is in an alien place. The audience is seeing it through her eyes, and since she doesn't have subtitles neither do we.

[freep]

One of the things I liked best about "The Thirteenth Warrior" was the way they dealt with the Arab learning Norse. At first sitting round the fire, all that is heard is Norse. As time passes the an Arabic (actually English) word or two creeps in. As the journey progresses more and more is understandable until (as I recall) one of the Norsemen makes a rude comment about our Arab hero who curses him back in accented though fluent Norse. Well done directors John McTiernan and Michael Crichton.