Scots and Scottish Gaelic forever

[Astronuc]

How the English Failed to Stamp Out the Scots Language​

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/scots-language

Scots arrived in what is now Scotland sometime around the sixth century. Before then, Scotland wasn’t called Scotland, and wasn’t unified in any real way, least of all linguistically. It was less a kingdom than an area encompassing several different kingdoms, each of which would have thought itself sovereign—the Picts, the Gaels, the Britons, even some Norsemen. In the northern reaches, including the island chains of the Orkneys and the Shetlands, a version of Norwegian was spoken. In the west, it was a Gaelic language, related to Irish Gaelic. In the southwest, the people spoke a Brythonic language, in the same family as Welsh. The northeasterners spoke Pictish, which is one of the great mysterious extinct languages of Europe; nobody really knows anything about what it was.

The Anglian people, who were Germanic, started moving northward through England from the end of the Roman Empire’s influence in England in the fourth century. By the sixth, they started moving up through the northern reaches of England and into the southern parts of Scotland. Scotland and England always had a pretty firm border, with some forbidding hills and land separating the two parts of the island. But the Anglians came through, and as they had in England, began to spread a version of their own Germanic language throughout southern Scotland.

I have a fair amount of Scottish (and Irish) ancestors (Skye, Hebrides, Argyll/Inverness and Sligo), as well as southern English (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorest, Wiltshire, Hampshire/Isle of Wight, and London/Middlesex) on my mother's side and mostly Lancashire/Yorkshire and Scottish/Irish on my father's side. Still tracing links to the past.

 

[jedishrfu]

My family has roots from Scotland to Ireland found in the name Ardle named from Glen Ardle and the River Ardle in Scotland. They apparently moved to Ireland following the War during the Mary Queen of Scots events.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-mary-queen-scots-and-elizabeth-i-180970960/

 

[PeroK]

You wanted the words they'd known and used, forgotten in the far-off youngness of their lives, Scots words to tell to your heart, how they wrung it and held it, the toil of their days and unendingly their fight. And the next minute that passed from you, you were English, back to the English words so sharp and clean and true - for a while, for a while, till they slid so smooth from your throat you knew they could never say anything that was worth the saying at all."

 

[Oldman too]

gie tent

Ah wis at ma gran’s, we wir watchin Star Trek,
Ah dinnae mind much o the plot,
Whit cooried doon in ma heid yon nicht,
Wis a word frae Engineer Scott.

 

[Astronuc]

I 'translate' for my wife when we travel to N. England, or listen to N. English (Lancashire/Yorkshire/Durham/Northumberland/Cumbria) or Scots-English.

 

[jedishrfu]

There's an old movie you both might like called "I Know Where I'm Going" about a young woman who plans out her whole life and is getting married to the wealthiest man in England staring Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey circa 1945.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Know_Where_I'm_Going!

They speak a fair amount of Scottish Gaelic, and showcase some Scottish culture, and mythology too.

 

[jedishrfu]

gie tent

Ah wis at ma gran’s, we wir watchin Star Trek,
Ah dinnae mind much o the plot,
Whit cooried doon in ma heid yon nicht,
Wis a word frae Engineer Scott.

The full poem is here:

https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/aitken100/gregor-steele/

 

[Oldman too]

I 'translate' for my wife when we travel to N. England, or listen to N. English (Lancashire/Yorkshire/Durham/Northumberland/Cumbria) Scots-English.

I mainly rely on https://dsl.ac.uk/ , Ironically my wife who is a local native is very connected by face book to a large group of Scots. I learn a lot about my own history through hers.

 

[Oldman too]

There's an old movie you both might like called "I Know Where I'm Going" about a young woman who plans out her whole life and is getting married to the wealthiest man in England staring Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey circa 1945.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Know_Where_I'm_Going!

They speak a fair amount of Scottish Gaelic, and showcase some Scottish culture, and mythology too.

This is new to me, you can be sure the wife and I will be watching it very soon, Thanks!

 

[Oldman too]

On Cèilidhs, This looks a whole lot like a local celebration (of natives).

 

[PeroK]

There's an old movie you both might like called "I Know Where I'm Going" about a young woman who plans out her whole life and is getting married to the wealthiest man in England staring Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey circa 1945.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Know_Where_I'm_Going!

They speak a fair amount of Scottish Gaelic, and showcase some Scottish culture, and mythology too.

The filmmaker Michael Powell loved Scotland. He also made The Edge of the World, a film about the evacuation of St Kilda, one of the remotest Hebridean Islands. It's an extraordinary film:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028818/

 

[Astronuc]

The Edge of the World, a film about the evacuation of St Kilda, one of the remotest Hebridean Islands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Kilda,_Scotland
The islands are a breeding ground for many important seabird species including northern gannets, Atlantic puffins, and northern fulmars. The St Kilda wren and St Kilda field mouse are endemic subspecies.

Edit/update:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirta
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hirta-island-ghost-town
https://www.abandonedspaces.com/towns/hirta-island-of-the-st-kilda.html

The island chain was created long ago by a volcanic eruption, and Hirta Island is what is left of the old volcano. Its topography is dramatic, with high slopes plunging steeply down to the ocean waves. Due to the rugged terrain, the island can only be accessed at one point, where a small bay has naturally formed over the years. It can take up to 18 hours to reach Hirta by boat from the mainland, and from the Isle of Skye around 3 to 4 hours, a journey that is dependent on weather and tides. It is not unheard of for the boat to have to turn back if the sea gets too rough, even during the summer. The turbulent sea makes St. Kilda inaccessible for much of the year. (AbandonedSpaces)

From Wikipedia - "the highest summit in the island, Conachair, forms a precipice 430 m high (1,410 ft). St Kilda is probably the core of a Tertiary volcano, but, besides volcanic rocks, it contains hills of sandstone in which the stratification is distinct."

https://geographical.co.uk/places/item/3805-spotlight-on-st-kilda-those-who-leave-and-those-who-stay
https://www.thewilderplaces.com/destination/st-kilda/day-trip-st-kilda-must-next-visit-scotland/
https://ultimatehistoryproject.com/st-kilda-the-back-of-beyond.html

The most remote island is Rona (the North island being larger than the South island)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Rona
"More isolated than St Kilda, it is the most remote island in the British Isles ever to have been inhabited on a long-term basis. It is also the closest neighbour to the Faroe Islands. Because of the island's remote location and small area, it is omitted from many maps of the United Kingdom."

Part of my ancestry is from Uist and Lewis & Harris. Apparently, on those island, at least 60% speak Gaelic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Hebrides

 

[pbuk]

The most remote island is Rona (the North island being larger than the South island)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Rona
"More isolated than St Kilda, it is the most remote island in the British Isles ever to have been inhabited on a long-term basis. It is also the closest neighbour to the Faroe Islands. Because of the island's remote location and small area, it is omitted from many maps of the United Kingdom."

To avoid any confusion, Rona is not connected with St Kilda in any way (other than also being a formerly inhabited island group off the west coast of Scotland).

 

[Astronuc]

To avoid any confusion, Rona is not connected with St Kilda in any way (other than also being a formerly inhabited island group off the west coast of Scotland).

Good point. North Rona Island is about 137 mi (221 km) to the NE from St. Kilda Islands

The Flannan Isles are 48 mi (77.4 km) NE from St. Kilda, and they are closer to (20 mi (32 km) from) the Isle of Lewis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannan_Isles


Interestingly, despite being remote, and uninhabited, most of the time in St. Kilda and all the time in Flannan except for visits to maintain the lighthouse, they both have postal codes:
St Kilda World Heritage Site, Western Isles St Kilda G76 9ER, UK
North Rona HS2 0XF, UK

 

[Mark44]

I 'translate' for my wife when we travel to N. England, or listen to N. English (Lancashire/Yorkshire/Durham/Northumberland/Cumbria) or Scots-English.

My wife and I have watched a fair number of series on Acorn, with plots set in Ireland or Scotland or the north of England. I think I can understand better than she can, but we often run the subtitles just to help out.

It's a pain, though, when the subtitles are white characters against a very light background.

 

[Astronuc]

It's a pain, though, when the subtitles are white characters against a very light background.

My wife was complaining about that last night. A documentary was being filmed on a beach with white sand and the subtitles were in a white font such that it impossible to read. Similar experience in documentary about desert areas, except in the Australian outback were the sand is reddish-brown.

 

[pbuk]

Interestingly, despite being remote, and uninhabited, most of the time in St. Kilda and all the time in Flannan except for visits to maintain the lighthouse, they both have postal codes:
St Kilda World Heritage Site, Western Isles St Kilda G76 9ER, UK
North Rona HS2 0XF, UK

Er, no.

G76 9ER is the postcode for the National Museum of Rural Life between Glasgow and East Kilbride, about 200 miles away. Not sure where you have picked up that that postcode is associated with St Kilda, I believe the islands are managed by Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba (or Historic Environment Scotland for anyone that thinks Scottish Gaelic is a quaint curiosity rather than a living language with statutory status) which is based in Edinburgh.

HS2 0XF may be goegraphically the closest postcode to North Rona, but it is actually the postcode for a few houses at the northern tip of Lewis, 60 miles away. Like St Kilda the islands of Rona have been uninhabited since before postcodes were invented.