Guth nan SiarachGoogle learns GaelicCeangal Caraibianach

“Guth nan Siarach” (or “Voice of the Westsiders”) is the name of a new Gaelic community group in Lewis, set up in response to the 2020 publication of the Soillse research book, “The Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community”.

Members of this group recently attended an online Soillse workshop on “New Insights on the Vernacular Gaelic Communities in the Islands”, led by Professor Conchúr Ó Giollagáin. It was a refreshing opportunity for community members to take part in discussion with interested academics from a range of universities, both within the Soillse network and from outwith Scotland.

Some days after the event, Guth nan Siarach members met again on Zoom to record their thoughts, questions, and ideas after hearing Prof Ó Giollagáin’s presentation and taking part in the subsequent discussion. We’re very grateful at Guthan nan Eilean that Jane, Maggie, Christine, Catriona, and Calum were willing to share their thoughts with us.

“Mother tongue” issues are often very close to the heart, and it can take confidence, courage, and no little skill to talk about them openly and with consideration, especially when the language in question has been on the receiving end of prolonged disadvantageous treatment. It’s a privilege to hear the group talk among themselves about issues of concern. We look forward to hearing more in the near future!

We recommend finding the time to watch the full discussion. The contributions are varied, thoughtful, and expressed in good Lewis Gaelic. And thanks to the Gaelic Speech Recognition research team, we’ve added CC Gaelic subtitling, which you can turn on or off as you please – and which will also enable Google translation into other languages:

But if your time is short, you can get a taste of the meeting from these “criomagan”. (CC subtitling also available on this clip.)

And here’s Prof Ó Giollagáin’s presentation:

Five years ago Island Voices posted about “Google Gaelic“, in wake of the excitement over the recent addition of Scottish Gaelic to the list of languages supported by Google Translate. The move, while welcomed in some quarters, was not an uncontroversial one, with many people voicing fears over how it could be easily misused, for example to the detriment of people working in translation services.

The pitfalls inherent in using Google Translate, in particular to try to generate well-formed Gaelic from English input, are still very much there. However, here’s a good news story relating to translation from Gaelic into English. Our five-year old post gave a sample of English text generated by processing the Gaelic voiceover script for our peatcutting documentary through Google Translate. Five years later we’ve just done the same thing again.

You can compare the two texts here, with 2016 in the left column, and 2021 in the right. The later one is still by no means perfect, but it’s still clearly an improvement on the first version. Google is “learning”, and Island Voices welcomes that, particularly in light of the recent adoption of optional CC subtitles on our Series 1 and Series 2 films, meaning the original Gaelic can be machine translated into scores of other languages at the click of a mouse…

Abair latha inntinneach a bh’ ann anns an “Taigh-tasgaidh Digiteach” (Digital Museum) air 21/02/21 – Latha Eadar-nàiseanta nan Cànan Màthaireil. A’ tòiseachadh ann am Bangladesh – far an do rugadh an iomairt airson cànain ar màthairean a chomharrachadh air làtha sònraichte air an son – bha 4 seiseanan eadar-dhealaichte air an cumail fhad ’s a bha a’ ghrian a’ gluasad chun an Iar, le Gàidhlig air a comharrachadh ann an Seisean 3 cuide ri Jamaican.

Gàidhlig cuide ri Jamaican? Seadh, agus le deagh adhbhar. Bha na bha aig an neach-teagasg cànain Audrey West ri ràdh mu dheidhinn dì-meas agus dà-chànanas fìor inntinneach, a’ leantail air òraid ghoirid leis an àrd-ollamh Conchúr Ó Giollagáin air Staing na Gàidhlig, agus còmhradh eadar Gordon Wells agus Jibunnessa Abdullah air Guthan nan Eilean. An uair sin bha òran Gàidhlig ann le Meg Hyland – ‘Air Tir an Raoir, air Muir a Nochd’ – a chòrd ris a h-uile duine, air a leantail le beagan deasbad, mus tàinig an tachartas gu crìoch le Yvonne Blake a’ toirt dhuinn “Colonization in Reverse” leis a’ bhàrd ainmeil Louise Bennett Coverley.

Chaidh an seisean air fad a chlàradh air Zoom, agus ‘s urrainnear fhaicinn saor an asgaidh (an dèidh clàradh) tron cheangal seo: https://tinyurl.com/HebrideanCaribbean.

Clàr-ama:

Thathas an dòchas gun tèid ceanglaichean a bharrachd a thogail eadar “muinntir nan Eilean” agus an cànain air an dà thaobh dhen Chuain sna h-amannan ri teachd!