About

This website hosts pages of links to video and other materials in the Guthan nan Eilean/Island Voices Series, and carries news about the project. It is also a means of communicating ideas and suggestions from local and remote users, who may be speakers, teachers or learners of English or Gaelic, or other languages. Comments are invited on any of the posts, and will be moderated before publication.

Over 150 videos in English and Gaelic can be accessed by clicking on any of the Series One, Series Two Outdoors, Generations, or Enterprise plus Extras tabs at the top of the page. These pages also give links to full transcripts for each clip, formatted as “Clilstore” units (thereby also granting one-click online dictionary access), as well as to catalogues for each collection which list topic, level, and language content of the films. The Playlists tab gives access to “feature-length” compilations.

Users are invited to browse through the pages, and pick on anything that engages their interest. The documentary clips give a plain language introduction to a topic or event. These are complemented with more challenging authentic speech interviews with actively involved community members, which will give the viewer a closer and more personal insight into the subject at hand.

This project remains work in progress, as the homepage blog continues to record ongoing activity in the community that relates to the language work presented in the core videos, and adds to it. Users are invited to browse through past posts to learn about the history of the project, and see examples of more work by learners and other community members. Alternatively, you can view selections of this work gathered together thematically in the pages titled Bonnie Prince Charlie, The Great War, Gaelic Journeys, Storytellers, Norman Maclean, Magaidh Smith, and Stòras Beò. And comments and suggestions are always welcome!

Learners of English and Gaelic gathered for a cèilidh at community-owned Grogarry Lodge in South Uist, organised by Cothrom’s Language and Culture group. An early example (2011) of the project’s engagement with multilingualism!

And if you want to dig deeper into some of the community and linguistic issues that surround the project, take a look at the Research/Reports page, which gathers together a range of associated research projects, reports, and articles, or Talking Points or Aire air Sunnd, where you can listen to related discussions between linguists and community language speakers.

The project is fundamentally bi- or multi-lingual and aims to collect slices of life and work in the Hebrides. The work is islands-based, and has included provision for training for tutors and others, with a view to encouraging further community-based recording. The Other Tongues page now affords the opportunity to add other languages to the original mix. If you would like to try your hand at this kind of work and want some help getting started you can phone or text Gordon Wells on 07879 644984

Over the years since its inception, the project has worked in partnership with a range of institutions and community groups, including Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Cothrom, Am Pàipear, Soillse, and others. It now works closely with CIALL.

Tha a’ phròiseict seo airson an dà chuid luchd-ionnsachaidh na Gàidhlig agus luchd-ionnsachaidh na Beurla. Ann a bhith ag obair le dà chànan còmhla chaidh againn air stòras nas motha a thogail airson gach fear dhiubh na bhiodh againn ann am Beurla no Gàidhlig nam biomaid ag obair ann an aon chànan a-mhàin.

Ma tha beachd sam bith aig luchd-teagaisg no luchd-ionnsachaidh airson cuspair eile a thoirt a-steach dhan phròiseict nach leig sibh fios thugainn?