Can Seo - Scottish Gaelic for beginners

I was delighted earlier today to discover that a 20 part BBC TV series called Can Seo, from 1979, has been uploaded to YouTube. Translated, 'can seo' means 'say this', with the purpose of the series being to help people to learn Scottish Gaelic, known in the language as 'Gàidhlig' (as opposed to Irish Gaelic, or 'Gaeilge'). When I lived in Bristol in the 1990s, this was the series that got me started with learning the lingo myself.

If you have ancestors who once spoke Gaelic in Scotland, you might wish to dip in for an episode or two to sample the delights. I should add that, as well as being an easy to follow series, it is now somewhat wonderfully dated! The accompanying text book is freely available online at https://www.scribd.com/document/225854344/Leabhar-na-Can-Seo-anns-a-Ghaidhlig.

Presented here is the first episode (also available at https://youtu.be/EBVb1zbe32k):

Further episodes are available on YouTube via the Pàrlamaid na Gàidhlig account at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPCJ0SZ3GmB8s7A80YghCVw - and you'll also find episodes of another series called Speaking Our Language, presented by a former boss of mine at Scottish Televison, Rhoda MacDonald.

Enjoy!

Chris

For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

My Donegal ancestor had a rude possession...!

With my wife and kids over in Ireland for a few days, I've taken the oportunity to have a short break of my own and to do the one thing that working genealogists rarely get a chance to do - some of my own family history research.

A recent connection formed via Ancestry DNA (https://www.ancestry.co.uk/dna/) has allowed to me to make progress on one of my ancestral lines from Donegal, the Holmes family from Raphoe. Over the last two days I have made all sorts of discoveries, including the fact that my four times great grandfather fought with the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula Wars (and quite possibly two brothers). Of course, being Irish, it isn't the great and the good that impresses me, it is the weird, the wacky, the bizarre and the craic, and my Holmes lot haven't failed to live up to that!

One of my favourite things is language, and its evolution across time, and in doing some research using FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk), I made a fairly shocking discovery - in 1888, my three times great grandfather, John Holmes, was the very proud owner of errrr...  a fully licensed 'slut'.

With apologies to the delicate of breath here - allow me to explain! It turns out that according to a dog license register on FindmyPast, John had obtained a license for a dog, and under the column for the dog's sex, were two options - 'dog' and 'slut'. Naturally, I had to look it up. From Wikipedia: "In the nineteenth century, the word was used as a euphemism in place of "bitch" in the sense of a female dog."

Not exactly the most politically correct use of language, but certainly a very real and contemporary one. Have you ever come across something in a record that has made you do a double take?!

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Genealogy, A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

The Yorkshire Dialect Society

I've just discovered the website of The Yorkshire Dialect Society at www.yorkshiredialectsociety.org.uk which is the oldest dialect society in Britain. It's a fun read, not only on the arrival of the different waves of Germanic dialects in England (via the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and later the Normans), but specifically on the Viking based dialect that established in Yorkshire. There's an interesting piece on how English dialects have evolved across the land over the last few centuries, including the following bit on rhoticity (pronunciation of an 'r' after vowels) which amused me:

Until about 1700, most English speakers (whatever their dialect) pronounced the letter R very clearly in words where it followed a vowel such as in “farmer” and “carter”. After 1700, this custom died out quite rapidly and is now virtually unknown in Standard English, It survives, however, in the dialects of the West Country, parts of Lancashire and small pockets of Yorkshire. It is also a standard feature of the English spoken in Scotland, Ireland, and of course, North America. Nobody is quite sure why it disappeared from Standard English, but its loss was certainly noticed at the time. Some eighteenth-century folk complained about “R-dropping” the way people complain about “H-dropping” today!

There are some fascinating explanations about dialect changes and 'vowel shift' on the site, including the fact that in times past people went to sea in 'boots' and wore 'boats' on their feet! The page on the Yorkshire dialect is equally of interest, noting how there are in fact several regional dialects (Yorkshire is only slighly smaller than Northern Ireland after all, so only to be expected), despite the prevalence of a media stereotype Yorkshire accent found commonly on TV and radio.

Also fun is the page with audio recordings of the dialect at www.yorkshiredialectsociety.org.uk/listen/, including a recording of poem on having to keep quiet because there's a "babby i’ t’hahse"

The website is well worth a visit, and there's also a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/YorkshireDialectSociety.

Incidentally, the following blog post may be of interest also, on an Anglo-Saxon August, part of an Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem known as the Menologium from the 10th century describing the months of the year - see http://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/an-anglo-saxon-august.html. Just a wee bit different to how we speak today...

(With thanks to @1_gillian via Twitter)

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Chinese cemeteries and capital cities

I'm a wee bit behind on blogging about my current trip to Canada, so a quick progress report on my visit last weekend to the capital of British Columbia, Victoria, located on Vancouver Island.

Following the two events I spoke at in Parksville (see http://www.britishgenes.blogspot.ca/2016/04/thanks-to-qualicum-beach-fhs-for-two.html), I had a short period of R&R in Victoria, as a guest of Pat and Al Hocker. I had previously met Pat on a couple of occasions in Portugal, where she had attended the Lost Cousins hosted Genealogy in the Sunshine events at Rocha Brava, in 2014 and 2015, although this was the first time I met her husband Al, a former surgeon. At almost 80 years old, he was not only the fittest men I've ever met for his age (he goes out and rows his boat every day when I'm still contemplating getting up!), but most certainly one of the wisest - an absolute gent from Kentucky, who also just happened to introduce me to bourbon for the first time. Both made a great couple, and were the perfect hosts, so thanks for a great time!

Pat kindly took me on a tour of Victoria and the south end of Vancouver Island on Monday. Our first stop was the Chinese Cemetery, an extraordinarily tranquil location where many early Chinese settlers (including many who came for the gold rush and to construct the railways) were eventually interred on a temporary basis, prior to their bones being eventually repatriated to China. I love seeing how different cultures inter their deceased, and this cemetery was one which used feng shui in terms of its layout.

We then visited Victoria, and took some time to tour around the BC provincial legislature. We managed to  sit in on the chamber in session for 10 minutes, listening to the politicians from each side shouting at each other! It was interesting to see how similar the layout to the chamber was to that of Westminster, though some what more modern, with desks for the MLAs. I couldn't take pics during the session, so here are a few from outside - the building itself is just over a hundred years old.

We then stopped for coffee in the city centre, before making the decision to visit the Royal British Columbia Museum, one of the city's museums.

Of particular interest to me here was the section on the huge variety of languages of the First Nations in the region, where I also learned about something I'd never heard of before, despite several visits to Canada - the policy of 'residential schools', to which children were removed from their First Nations parents (often by the police) and given an education in English. This appears to have been a policy that has caused much division and resentment, and one for which the Canadian government recently apologised (the last such school was apparently closed in 1986).

What I found fascinating and tragic about this story was just how familiar it was - I'd previously heard of similar tales from visits to Australia, and even closer to home, where it was not much different to the story of how the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) tried to stop the use of Gaelic in the Highlands of Scotland, which led to so much damage to the survival of the language and to the culture. Whilst as genealogists we cannot judge the actions of the past from the present perspective, we can certainly observe the patterns of past policies, and this is one that I'm certainly beginning to realise seems to have been applied equally across much of the former British empire. Thankfully, as with Gaelic, efforts are being made to now preserve the surviving languages and dialects in BC, which can only be a good thing.

After Victoria, it was then a trip inland by plane to Vernon, where I gave four talks on various Scottish and Irish subjects to the society there, which I will blog about in due course. As venues go though, it had one major asset that made the heart glow - a full size replica Spitfire on top of the building. Now that's style...!

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Google Translate adds Scottish Gaelic

If you have any family history records or texts written in Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig), and haven't a clue what they say, then help is finally at hand from Google Translate (https://translate.google.co.uk), which has finally added the language to its site.

Having had a wee play with it earlier, it's definitely not bad, though it does at times recognise some Gaelic words as being Irish, returning that as the language be default - not surprising though, as many words are the same in each language.

There's a bit more on the story, including details of 12 other languages to be added (Luxembourgish - who knew?!) at www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/google-translate-to-add-13-new-languages-including-gaelic-1-4033752.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Learning Ulster Irish

A quick plug for something that may be of interest for those with roots from the north of Ireland/Northern Ireland. About twenty years ago I bought a language course that teaches folk how to speak in Ulster Irish, the dialect of Irish Gaelic spoken today still predominantly in Donegal, and until recently, in other parts of the north, such as in the Glens of Antrim etc. Ulster Irish is a dialect of the language spoken on the island, but also has a lot in common with Scottish Gaelic - the two Gaelic dialects/languages are very closely related indeed.

The course is called Now You're Talking, with a structure based on the Welsh series of the same name, and the Scottish Gaelic series Speaking Our Language, both of which had accompanying TV series (Speaking Our Language went on for years, and by a bizarre coincidence, I later worked for the main presenter of that series for three years at STV, Rhoda MacDonald!). I discovered a couple of days ago that the Ulster based version of the Now You're Talking TV series, co-produced by BBC Northern Ireland and RTE, is now available on YouTube. Here's the first episode (marvel at the dated music and graphics!), presented by Deirbhile Ní Churraighín (https://youtu.be/7nz--LpYC30):

NB: Editions of Speaking Our Language and the Welsh based Now You're Talking are also available on YouTube. The series programmes can be watched at leisure, as they are not grammar heavy, they merely present certain basic everyday conversation situations and useful phrases. Each programme, set in a different location in the north of Ireland, also has interesting features such as placename discussions, local history and more.

To purchase the book accompanying the Irish series, visit Amazon or other online book retailers.

Enjoy!

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Scottish and Irish linguistic connections talk at PRONI

Coming next week at PRONI (www.proni.gov.uk) in Belfast:

PRONI invites you to a lunchtime talk on

Linguistic Connections between Ireland and Scotland

by Professor Mícheál Ó Mainnín

1.00pm-2.00pm, Wednesday 11 February 2015

Everyone Welcome

Admission is FREE, booking is essential

Please contact PRONI to secure your place:

E: proni@dcalni.gov.uk

T: 028 90534800

Lecture Theatre, Public Record Office, 2 Titanic Boulevard, Belfast, BT3 9HQ

The Heritage Cafe at PRONI will be open from 9.00am to 4.00pm

PRONI is approximately 1½ miles from Belfast City Hall

By bus, please take the Metro 26 route

(With thanks to PRONI - and please record this one for your YouTube channel!!)

Chris

For details on my range of genealogy guide books please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. To commission me for genealogical research, please visit my research site at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk.

Dictionary of the Scots Language revamp

I noticed earlier today that the Dictionary of the Scots Language (Dictionar o the Scots Leid) website has recently had a revamp at www.dsl.ac.uk.

The site is one of the real workhorses of Scottish history research, allowing you in a single database to look up Scots words from two sources - the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, for words from the 12th century-1700 (Older Scots), and The Scottish National Dictionary for more recent vocabulary (Modern Scots) from 1700-2005. The Scots tongue, although related to English, is a historically separate Germanic language with many regional dialects across Scotland (and closely linked historically with Northumbrian dialects in England), and which was also taken over to Ireland in the Plantations, where its local variant today is known as 'Ulster Scots' or 'Ullans' (Ulster Lallans). In the part of East Antrim where I was raised I was regularly chastised as a boy for being a wee hallion! It is a completely different language to the various tongues of Gaelic found in Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

Earlier today I had a query from a student asking what the words 'dyet' and 'compear' mean, two very common words often found in kirk session records and other documentary sources. A 'dyet' or 'diet' is a session of a court, whilst 'to compear' means 'to appear in court as a party to a cause' i.e. as a witness. The DSL is the first port of call in such situations, and is completely free to access. You'll also find a history of the language on the site, well worth a read.

One of my all time favourite finds in this dictionary was an explanation for the word 'football' which kept popping up in some 18th century weaver's incorporation records from Perth that I was transcribing. Several entries noted those wishing to join the incorporation being asked to pay both for their entry money and their 'football'. I had no idea why Perth was so apparently sport conscious, but it soon turned out that they weren't. A football was in fact 'a sum of money paid by a married entrant member of a merchant guild on behalf of his wife to allow her to share in the benefits of the common fund'.

If you're pre-1855 with your research and now heading deeper into the juicy Scottish stuff, make sure you bookmark the DSL!"

Chris

Stuck for a Christmas gift?! I have a series of genealogy books available in the UK, Australia and Canada, on Scottish, Irish and British based subject areas. Further details at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. Santa approves!

PRONI hosted talks in Belfast for June

From the latest newsletter from PRONI in Belfast (www.proni.gov.uk), details on events coming soon in June:

TALK: The Hidden History of Protestants and the Irish Language
Thursday 11th June, 1pm to 2pm

Linda Ervine, Irish Language Development Officer at East Belfast Mission, will be in PRONI to deliver a talk that will look directly at the historical links between Protestants and the Irish Language.

http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/exhibitions_talks_and_events/talks_and_events/hidden_histories.htm


LUNCHTIME POETRY: War Words: poetry inspired by the First and Second World Wars
Monday 30 June, 1pm to 2pm

PRONI is pleased to announce details of a special poetry reading on the theme of war. The First and Second World Wars inspired gifted writers from Wilfred Owen to Timothy Corsellis to commit to paper their personal wartime narratives. These texts, often graphic and harrowing, have gone on to become parts of the world's cultural fabric. Join us to hear two locally-based writers who have been similarly inspired.

http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/exhibitions_talks_and_events/talks_and_events/war_words.htm

(With thanks to Garth Stewart at PRONI)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

What about the Scots language in the 2011 census?

There's an interesting post on the Bella Caledonia website by Michael Hance, Director of the Scots Language Centre, about the recent 2011 census results published in Scotland on identity, ethnicity and language (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/2011-scottish-census-results-on.html). When announced the NRS discussed the use of language in the country, including Gaelic, but apparently omitted to publicise any findings about Scotland's other language - Scots - despite there also being a question on the use of it in the home in the census.

The full post is at http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2013/10/02/the-missing/

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, starts Nov 13th - see http://pharostutors.com.

Amhrán na gCupán - When I'm gone (as Gaeilge)

This just blew me away - it's not genealogy, but in the heritage and culture category, so gets an honourable mention! It's a song in Irish Gaelic recorded in Colaisde Lurgan, Co. Galway, and it is just beautifully done, because it treats the language as if it is still here, and not something to be revered from antiquity.

It doesn't matter if you have no Gaelic, this is just an experience - sit back and enjoy, then get a few plastic cups and have a go yerself...!

(Lyrics are at http://songsinirish.com/pop/amhran-na-gcupan.html!)

(With thanks to Ali MacDonald)

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. My Scottish land and church records ebooks are available at http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html, whilst my next Pharos Scottish course, Scottish Research Online, starts Sep 4th - see http://pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Time to smash a few brick walls...!

Ireland's forgotten English dialects

I love a good story about dialects and forgotten languages, but this one just came from nowhere! Ireland has been invaded, colonised, and done over by just about nation within boat range - but one of the things brought in by every successive invasion has been cultural change.

We often read about the Irish language, and the different dialects of Gaelic across the island. Ulster Gaelic is very different to that much further south, for example, almost Scottish Gaelic in character. One of the fave books on my shelf is Athchló Uladh which has many stories from the northern Antrim island of Rathlin reprinted within it (Sgealtan Rachreann) in both Rathlin Gaelic and a more conventional Irish - the Gaelic I've spent some time trying to understand is that from Scotland, so I find the Rathlin text much easier to read. Then there's the movement in the north that you might have heard of to promote the use of the Ulster dialect of the Scots language, which is not a variant of English, but a separate Germanic language very closely related to English, taken to Ulster during the Plantations.

But how many have you heard of Yola or Fingalian?! Yola is a medieval dialect of English taken to Wexford in the 12th century by Anglo-Normans and used there until the 19th century. Fingalian is a separate medieval dialect of English used near Dublin. Romanticism and politics have a lot to answer for - your ancestor may well not have been a Gaelic or modern English speaker at all!

Do have a look at the following article in The Journal about Ireland's forgotten medieval English dialects, and listen to the songs written in Yola and sung in the YouTube clip on the site - absolutely fascinating stuff - it's available at www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-yola-and-fingalian-%E2%80%93-the-forgotten-ancient-english-dialects-of-ireland-985649-Jul2013.

And remember, family history is about working out what your ancestors did actually do in the past, not what the broad sweep of history says they did - and if anyone can find a Yola speaking ancestor, do let me know!

By the way - about twenty years ago I remember reading a study, possibly a census report, that showed that neither Gaelic or Scots was the second most spoken language in Northern Ireland back then. It was actually one of the Chinese languages... God only knows where its speakers' politics lay though! :)

(With thanks to @IrishRootsMag)

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. My Scottish land and church records ebooks are available at http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html, whilst my next Pharos Scottish course, Scottish Research Online, starts Sep 4th - see http://pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Time to smash a few brick walls...!