Outlander Gaelic

[Cavalry Scout]

A hypothetical story.

Suppose someone, obviously from their name not of US descent, living in Chicago let's say, claimed to have recovered a moribund dialect of Western Apache on the basis of a single(!) contact. We cannot tell how idiosyncratic this contact may be but our hero recognises his speech as one of 200 such dialects that he somehow knows once existed. He has no recognised linguistic credentials or contact with academic or other agencies involved in Native American language preservation and indeed despises the main such agencies (possibly because they commented adversely on his theories). A Scottish film company is conned into choosing him as language coach for a "cowboys 'n Indians" series they are producing.

Maybe you have to live in Scotland to see the funny side of this. Since the storyline is part fantasy, maybe it all makes sense.

Alan

Alan, You make some excellent points, which I think this article in 'The Scotsman' highlights:

http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/peo...lect-1-3865026

Do you perhaps know how scholars of Scots Gaelic view his work?

They also use another Scots Gaelic coach on Outlander; Carol Ann Crawford.

http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.c...eaches-4865537

All the best,
Mark

[neloon]

Alan, You make some excellent points, which I think this article in 'The Scotsman' highlights:

http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/peo...lect-1-3865026

Do you perhaps know how scholars of Scots Gaelic view his work?

They also use another Scots Gaelic coach on Outlander; Carol Ann Crawford.

http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.c...eaches-4865537

All the best,
Mark

Sorry, Mark, I missed your post and, for some reason, when it was transmitted to my personal mail, it went into spam!
I think the guy is viewed as a bit of a crank and doesn't seem to have any contact with university researchers or the School of Scottish Studies or Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.
Carol Ann Crawford is a long-standing actress/voice coach for non-Gaelic Scots accents and her ability is quite well demonstrated in the video clip even though she's a little bit rude about the Aberdeen(shire) accent. I wasn't aware that she had done anything with Gaelic.
You might be interested in this link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1682371.stm

Alan

[freep]

So then, is the Gaelic spoken in Outlander regardless of the coaches, utter crap, a fair attempt or pretty good?

I don't know who here is a Gaelic speaker but I'd think it very good to have any that are to weigh in.

[neloon]

So then, is the Gaelic spoken in Outlander regardless of the coaches, utter crap, a fair attempt or pretty good?

No idea - we've not seen it in UK, possibly for political reasons - but I believe it may be available on Amazon somehow. I've not heard anyone claim to have watched it.
Alan

[freep]

You've not seen it?

Hm.

Read any of the books?

[figheadair]

You've not seen it?

Hm.

Read any of the books?

I've not seen the series or read the books either. Nor I'm betting, has Jock. The series is not available on terrestrial TV here and dare I suggest, that the books are written primarily for an American audience.

[Cavalry Scout]

Outlander is available on Amazon UK, including the TV series. It's getting overwhelmingly positive reviews there.

-Mark-

[kiltedcontractor]

I must apologize. I did not mean to indicate that outlander has many inaccuracies. There are some minor questione re:costuming(from what ive read), ive also seen discussions that indicate a woman would never get away with some of Claire s antics. The slight shifting of witch trial dates (about 20 yrs as i understand it) is a minor infraction. Some other fictional/historical shows are abusive to history . I see that as a trend to make story lines. As much as i love Viking series, they are offenders. Rollo and Ragnar are around 100 yrs apart. There are more , this is not the forum.

[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.