Outlander Gaelic

[freep]

You need to read between some lines here
Alan

What precisely are we to read between which lines?

[neloon]

What precisely are we to read between which lines?

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

[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?

[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]

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.

I did not mean to imply you did. I'm curious as to what you did catch. Finding historical inaccuracies or continuity flaws (When the armistice is announced Claire is standing outside and given a bottle of white wine. The next shot shows her with a bottle of red wine) or those things that make me wonder what the actual history says about it.

I like Vikings (even though "viking" is a verb and not a noun. One isn't a Viking, one goes viking i.e. raiding). I'm willing to give them a bit of leeway as for the first season I fact checked and while Ragar did not do everything they portray in the movie, someone in Norse history did. Much like the setup for the Lindesfarne raid--by the era depicted in the show, the existence of England was well known to the Norse, it was just a tough slog to get over there. As to Rollo, I'd always assumed he was a fictional character like Floki et al. I know how the real Ragnar allegedly died and I'm curious as to when we're going to get to that. I've not checked them lately and the raid on Paris didn't seem quite right to me. I'll check again, maybe soon. ;)

Oh, and viking is properly pronounced "wicking." At least in Swedish and Norwegian. As I recall from that trip the Danes say, "Meh, have some schnapps!"