Singing Against the Silence

[Nathan]

This short Gaelic film about the Nova Scotia Gaels today has English subtitles and is really worth watching. If you're of Highland extraction, this might give you a window into the world of your ancestors and the pressure they faced to assimilate to English. It also talks about the threats to indigenous and heritage languages and cultures more broadly. There are also some nice shots of kilts and tartans in this film. If you have a few minutes to spare, you won't be sorry you did.

[GMan]

That is always a nice bit of a clip.

[Nathan]

That is always a nice bit of a clip.

It really is, Glen. I think they did a good job telling our story. The situation is critical but all is not yet lost. It's nice to hear the fluent children speaking and singing.

[GMan]

Very true. Hope is still in my vocabulary.

[CeilidhDoc]

Thank you so much for posting this link Nathan.

Your signature quote from The Canadian Boat Song sums up the sentiments from this film in some ways but this film takes it that step further into the here and now.

I don't live in Canada, only spent 6 months in Scotland, and never started studying Gaelic until a couple of months ago mostly because I have never been anywhere where I heard it openly spoken other than very briefly on Skye. It is quite inspirational to see the way the community is responding in Nova Scotia. I only wish it was easier to find someone to learn it with that was fluent in my area.

One thing I did notice though with my very limited exposure is that it seems there is a significant accent difference between the Scottish Gaelic spoken in Nova Scotia and that from the Western Isles. I am still very much an outsider so perhaps I am wrong with that, but to my ear it was rather distinct.

This film is short but very well done and brings up a lot of emotions that are hard to put into words. I am happy to know that there are recuperating vestiges of Gaelic in Canada. While many Scots moved to the Appalachian areas of the USA, in all places I have been where the ancestry is strongly Scottish, you would have a very tough time finding a single person who spoke Gaelic at all. This is certainly true in the areas where my ancestors settled and I honestly don't even know how many generations my family would have to go back to find the last person who spoke the language. Probably quite a few.

You guys are really doing a great job in Canada given the circumstances.

Slàinte!

[Nathan]

Thank you so much for posting this link Nathan.

Your signature quote from The Canadian Boat Song sums up the sentiments from this film in some ways but this film takes it that step further into the here and now.

I don't live in Canada, only spent 6 months in Scotland, and never started studying Gaelic until a couple of months ago mostly because I have never been anywhere where I heard it openly spoken other than very briefly on Skye. It is quite inspirational to see the way the community is responding in Nova Scotia. I only wish it was easier to find someone to learn it with that was fluent in my area.

One thing I did notice though with my very limited exposure is that it seems there is a significant accent difference between the Scottish Gaelic spoken in Nova Scotia and that from the Western Isles. I am still very much an outsider so perhaps I am wrong with that, but to my ear it was rather distinct.

This film is short but very well done and brings up a lot of emotions that are hard to put into words. I am happy to know that there are recuperating vestiges of Gaelic in Canada. While many Scots moved to the Appalachian areas of the USA, in all places I have been where the ancestry is strongly Scottish, you would have a very tough time finding a single person who spoke Gaelic at all. This is certainly true in the areas where my ancestors settled and I honestly don't even know how many generations my family would have to go back to find the last person who spoke the language. Probably quite a few.

You guys are really doing a great job in Canada given the circumstances.

Slàinte!

There are a variety of accents in Cape Breton and a variety in the Western Isles. Some of them are the same. People from around Iona/Little Narrows/Barra Glen, Cape Breton speak Barra Gaelic, people from the North Shore tend to speak a Lewis Gaelic. There are people (like Goraidh Domhnaillach in the video) who speak an Eigg dialect which has been lost in Scotland.

[CeilidhDoc]

Nathan--

Out of curiosity, do you happen to know of any recordings of the music of Màiri Bheag NicCarthaigh, who is interviewed in the film? I actually quite liked her Gaelic mouth harp fusion song that was featured in the film but can't seem to find any recordings of her music anywhere. I also noted that the accent over the "a" in her last name as listed in the film is in the wrong direction for modern Scottish Gaelic but would be proper in modern Irish. I found it interesting that this was retained as that fada was removed from Scottish Gaelic some time ago when it was standardized in Scotland. Is this just a holdover from older spellings of the name? Or is there something more to that?

Slàinte

[Nathan]

Nathan--

Out of curiosity, do you happen to know of any recordings of the music of Màiri Bheag NicCarthaigh, who is interviewed in the film? I actually quite liked her Gaelic mouth harp fusion song that was featured in the film but can't seem to find any recordings of her music anywhere. I also noted that the accent over the "a" in her last name as listed in the film is in the wrong direction for modern Scottish Gaelic but would be proper in modern Irish. I found it interesting that this was retained as that fada was removed from Scottish Gaelic some time ago when it was standardized in Scotland. Is this just a holdover from older spellings of the name? Or is there something more to that?

Slàinte

I don't know her stuff. Nova Scotia by and large didn't adopt the orthographic "modernization" that Scots Gaelic went through a few decades back. The accents in the different directions make different sounds and therefore many thought it odd for Scots accents to all lean in one direction and Irish to all lean in the other.