Jurnaa Gaelagh
We’re “sharing Gaelic voices” again, this time quite literally!
Thanks to Culture Vannin and the fine narrative tones of James Harrison, Guthan nan Eilean now offers you the previously missing Manx version of “A Gaelic Journey – from Benbecula to Ranafast”, the story of a Hebridean trip to Donegal with Archie and Neil Campbell, focussed on capturing Gaelic voices. (We already have versions in other languages on our Gaelic Journeys page.)
This one short 10-minute film gives you the opportunity to hear all three Gaelics, as they are spoken now in the twenty-first century. The narration is in Manx, but there are also conversations in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic with onscreen dual language subtitling in Manx and Irish or Scottish Gaelic. You can also access the full transcript on Clilstore (with online dictionary linkage) in this unit – http://multidict.net/cs/5562.
Enjoy this pan-Gaelic production, propitiously launched on Latha Buidhe Bealltainn!
(And if that’s whetted your appetite for multilingualism, try the same film here again – in Basque!)
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Island Voices Videos
Island Voices - Guthan nan Eilean 
Why does the Manx spoken now, sound so different to the Manx I heard as a child? Or am I remembering it incorrectly?
Interesting question! Without knowing the specifics, it is generally recognised that languages do change over time. I would guess that change is more noticeable if you go a long time without using it at all and then come back to it?
Thank you Gordon.
I can remember my parents friends and their chat. And when they spoke English their accents were very Manx. I have some Manx speakers on tape, and they sound completely different to the Manx people I hear nowadays. The Manx voices in those days seemed, to me anyway, higher pitched somehow, and more singsong, though not as much as Welsh, which I love listening too. And the Manx were slower speakers.
Nowadays, there seems to be more hesitation in the spoken language, I notice erm and um a lot. Maybe people are less confident speaking it? I could be mishearing though.
You have Manx speakers on tape? Wow, I wonder when from! Willing to share?? Culture Vannin might be very interested in that…
Culture Vannin already have them, as far as I know. At least, I bought them from the Lexicon bookshop, so I presume someone has them.
Aah, I misunderstood you to mean you had tapes you’d made yourself. Sorry, rewind! 🙂
Gura mie ayd. I suppose languages change but today there are a growing amount of very fluent speakers of the language. Accents change too and although I’m Manx myself I don’t sound like my grandparents and certainly don’t speak with the same Manx accent as them. Manx is stronger than it has been in the best part of 100 years and that’s something to be encouraged by.
Thanks for the input, Adrian. I’m sure your own part in the “encouraging” has been significant!
Most definitely!