Outlander Gaelic

[neloon]

freep,
I think you have the general picture. I will try to answer some of your questions.
First, what is a dialect? Is it defined by pronunciation, or vocabulary, or grammar. How many use it? A lot has to do with some degree of geographic separation. Gaelic pronunciation varies considerably - Lewis is particularly different from the rest, but Deeside, isolated by the Grampians, seems also to have had definable characteristics. Vocabulary varies principally in relation to borrowed words and that will depend on what the external contact was e.g. via cattle drovers or by visiting East coast fishing boats. The Gaelic of today has to cope with modern terminology so some people will say "na computairean" and others "na computers", but unnecessary English borrowings are increasingly prevalent - "seomar" has widely been replaced by "rum" (room). Teenagers on Lewis will commonly say "rialaidh math" (really good) instead of "gle mhath".
Nowadays, there are really no dialects of Gaelic so there is no question of mutual non-intelligibility and even Irish Gaelic is quite easily understood by Scots Gaelic speakers. In the past, Gaelic was not much written down and orthography was very variable but is now reasonably standardised
http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/...tions-En-e.pdf
So we cannot possibly say that there have been 200 dialects of Gaelic since the language has had to absorb from Pictish, Norse, Scots etc. and these historical developments have simply produced an evolving continuum with little point in recognising arbitrary divisions. Placename studies underline some of these points.

I think I should stop now!
Alan

[The Q]

freep,
I think you have the general picture. I will try to answer some of your questions.
First, what is a dialect? Is it defined by pronunciation, or vocabulary, or grammar. How many use it? A lot has to do with some degree of geographic separation. Gaelic pronunciation varies considerably - Lewis is particularly different from the rest, but Deeside, isolated by the Grampians, seems also to have had definable characteristics. Vocabulary varies principally in relation to borrowed words and that will depend on what the external contact was e.g. via cattle drovers or by visiting East coast fishing boats. The Gaelic of today has to cope with modern terminology so some people will say "na computairean" and others "na computers", but unnecessary English borrowings are increasingly prevalent - "seomar" has widely been replaced by "rum" (room). Teenagers on Lewis will commonly say "rialaidh math" (really good) instead of "gle mhath".
Nowadays, there are really no dialects of Gaelic so there is no question of mutual non-intelligibility and even Irish Gaelic is quite easily understood by Scots Gaelic speakers. In the past, Gaelic was not much written down and orthography was very variable but is now reasonably standardised
http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/...tions-En-e.pdf
So we cannot possibly say that there have been 200 dialects of Gaelic since the language has had to absorb from Pictish, Norse, Scots etc. and these historical developments have simply produced an evolving continuum with little point in recognising arbitrary divisions. Placename studies underline some of these points.

I think I should stop now!
Alan

I thought you were getting going quite nicely....

[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-

[freep]

Who here has at least seen a bit of the tv show or read a bit of the books, then?

[kiltedcontractor]

I watch with my wife. She has read all the books. We actually look foward to it. I realize that the story is fictional but i do not think that gives them the right to take so many liberties with historical accuracy. We watch for entertainment value not history lesson. It has caused us to research things we might not have otherwise.