Category: Audio

Robert Burns on Benbecula

~ Gordon Wells ~ 3 Comments

As rumours circulate that Prestwick Airport is to be renamed “Robert Burns International Airport” the Island Voices project expands its linguistic scope still further, placing local recitations of two of Scotland’s national bard’s most famous poems on the online Clilstore platform. Clicking on any word will take you directly to a choice of Scots, rather than English, dictionaries.

It’s true that the Hebrides are traditionally much more closely associated with Gaelic than with Scots, but here’s another reminder that people are much more mobile these days – even if they do still like to hold on to speech patterns acquired in younger days…

Dumfries-born Denis Johnston addresses the haggis, while simultaneously wielding the knife here, serving up a tasty verbal hors d’ oeuvre: http://multidict.net/cs/1454

And Rob Keltie, in a prodigious feat of memory, takes his audience through the very substantial main course with a dash of Doric seasoning, delivering Tam O Shanter in inimitable style here: http://multidict.net/cs/1451

Clilstore remains “work in progress”, being taken forward by a multinational partnership through the TOOLS project, in which Sabhal Mòr Ostaig plays a key part. Comments and suggestions for improvement are always welcome!

Catching up with Clilstore

~ Gordon Wells ~ 1 Comment

The fourth meeting of the European TOOLS project has taken place in Evora, Portugal, following on directly from the 2013 Eurocall conference. At the heart of the project is the development of the innovative “Clilstore” software package.  In these short conversations Gordon Wells invited the project co-ordinator, Kent Andersen, and the program developer, Caoimhìn Ò Donnaile, to outline briefly how the project has developed and explain how it can help language learners and teachers. Kent speaks in English, and Caoimhìn in Gaelic.

Here’s Kent:

Here’s Caoimhìn:

The idea for Clilstore itself developed out of discussions and developments initiated in the “POOLS-T” project. You can hear Kent and Caoimhìn talking about that project three years ago in this Island Voices post.

In Russian, with Love

~ Gordon Wells ~ 2 Comments

LyublyuThe Island Voices Facebook page took flight recently when we posted this picture of this stunningly simple but beautiful piece of “environmental art”. Carefully constructed out of scallop shells, the enormous lettering spells out дианочка я тебя люблю (Diana, I love you) on a patch of green at Poll nan Crann in Benbecula, conveniently under the flight path of outgoing or incoming aircraft.

If you haven’t already visited, please take a look at our Facebook page to see the excited discussion that ensued as folk tried to figure out the story behind the mystery message. In the end it turns out to be a heart-warming testament to the strength of a mother’s love. And it broke all viewing records for posts on the Facebook page…

DithisRonJPGWe followed it up a few days later with this somewhat cornier picture of our own, depicting a “cross-cultural romance” between two seals.

The challenge to readers (and/or listeners…) was to figure out the name of the Gaelic-speaking seal. In the multi-media spirit of the Island VOICES project we even provided a link to let non-readers hear a synthesised pronunciation of шесии лексии via Google Translate – http://alturl.com/qqnnt. It took about a day before Jamie Wallace came up with the answer – Seasaidh Leagsaidh! If you like language games like this, why not follow the Facebook page with a “like”? There could be more to come…

Island Voices at Nunton Steadings

~ Gordon Wells ~ 2 Comments

NuntonAn Radio, the new Uist community radio station, is in the process of re-developing the historic Nunton Steadings as a community resource. And as part of their summer programme they are featuring the Island Voices Series Two Outdoors playlists (in both English and Gaelic) in the building’s main hall.

Locals and visitors alike are invited in to view the clips on screen, and sample some of the wide range of Uist outdoor activities – some of them very traditional, some of them much less so….

In these short interviews Local Development Officer Neil Campbell explains more in both languages about current activities and future plans.

Listen here to Neil’s English interview:

Listen here to Neil’s Gaelic interview:

Gaelic in Uist and New Media: Research Report

~ Gordon Wells ~ 2 Comments

Seo Gordon Wells a’ bruidhinn mu dheidhinn pròiseact rannsachaidh a chaidh a dhèanamh ann an Uibhist

The second Soillse Small Research Fund project conducted in Uist is now complete. The title is “Gaelic Digital Literacies in a Bilingual Community: a Sampling of Practices and Preferences”. The report is now freely available online either through this link or on the Soillse site. The link has also been added to the Guthan nan Eilean Research page, where the preceding report can also be found. It has been written with online “readers” in mind, and includes live links to samples of community members’ work in the footnotes. It can, of course, be printed off for reading on paper, but this will not afford the same “multimodal” opportunities for sampling video and audio work.

Trilingual Trip

~ Gordon Wells ~ 4 Comments

The recent short visit by the Guthan nan Eilean/Island Voices project to Ireland generated quite a range of recordings in various formats and genres – and in three different languages!

This online table brings them all together for ease of reference, with live clickable links to take you to the clip of your choice on the appropriate platform. That could be YouTube for video, or Ipadio for audio – or it could also be Clilstore if you want access to a wordlinked transcript while you watch and/or listen.

Clilstore is a learner-friendly platform being developed by Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in partnership with other institutions in the “TOOLS” project. It’s still work in progress, so if learners or teachers have comments to make on how it could be improved please feed them back to us!

Tommy agus Am Prionnsa

~ Gordon Wells ~ Leave a comment

Tommy DòmhnallachTha Tommy Dòmhnallach a’ bruidhinn ri Gordon Wells mun obair rannsachaidh a tha e a’ dèanamh airson Stòras Uibhist. Mar a tha fhios aig mòran bha Am Prionnsa Teàrlach an seo ann an Uibhist is Beinn na Faoghla fad treiseag mus do theich e dhan Eilean Sgitheanach le cuideachadh Flòraidh NicDhòmhnaill. Tha Tommy airson sgeulachdan is òrain mu dheidhinn àite sam bith san robh am prionnsa a chruinneachadh, a dh’fhaodadh a dhol air làrach-lìn ùr a bhios tlachdmhor do luchd-turais, a bharrachd air muinntir na sgìre fhèin. Nach cuir sibh fios thuige ma tha sgeul agaibh fhèin ri innse!

Èistibh an seo:

(English explanation here on the Am Pàipear “Guthan: Voices” page.)

Màiri Innes on Na h-Eileanaich

~ Gordon Wells ~ 1 Comment

Màiri talks to Gordon Wells in English and Gaelic about the local group “Na h-Eileanaich”.

She describes how they all met as youngsters through the local music summer school in South Uist, Fèis Tìr a’ Mhurain, progressing on to playing at the Hebridean Celtic Festival in Stornoway, and then to recording their own EP as well as featuring as the regular House Band at the monthly Taigh Ciùil at Taigh Chearsabhagh in North Uist.

Listen to the interview here, with a taste of Màiri’s guitar skills thrown in for good measure:

Here’s a YouTube slideshow the band put together with some of their foot-tapping music.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoSaCBPiPxU?rel=0]

If you want to find out more about them here’s their Facebook page, and a link to their EP.