Many have welcomed the recent addition of Scottish Gaelic to the number of languages served by Google’s automatic “Translate” tool. Many have also expressed concern at the way it may be misused, particularly when it comes to translating cheaply – and frequently badly – from English to Gaelic. As an experiment at Island Voices, we’ve taken one of our popular Gaelic videos in Series Two Outdoors and run the transcript from Clilstore through the Gaelic to English facility on Google. Here’s the result.
“I Archie Campbell. Here in Benbecula myself and my neighbor Donald Innes spent a day early summer on the heath the peat. We start with skinning with spades. This leaves mud peat is ready for harvesting. I cut off a piece with the first spade. Then I begin with the treisgeir.
It is the work of Donald being below the dumping of peats. They lie on the ground for a while to dry. As we move forward towards the marks left on the roof by the treisgeir. After a while we become accustomed to the work, and we will cut and build faster and faster.
After working hard all the morning comes the time to relax, with food and drink. It is a good time is also news. Not just hard work only in the peat. You can also talk to.
The evening to try Donald cut, and I myself will throw the peats. When we come to the end of the mud we were skinning in the morning is not the end of the work at all. That is just the first stage ready. Now we need the second piece removed. The triopsa, rather than stretching them on the ground I will make them garden. The holes in the garden which allows the wind to blow through the turf drying.
At the end of the first day I Donald how small or rùghain stacks with the peats lays on the ground – again to dry. I come back after two weeks for more work like this. With the first day we finished the building back to the house.
After two weeks on the peats slightly dry, and I have come back for more rùghain made. The peats much water is lost now, and they are easier to handle. At this stage no need for the peats in the garden moved, but even with that much work to do in building rùghain with the peats were lying on the ground. The next step will be bringing them home. Need for tractor.
Between all anything, it is a time of year for fuel to take home. But on a cold winter later in the year I think it was a good time to earn it.”
If you struggle with Gaelic, you can judge for yourself how much or how little that helps with understanding the piece. You can even compare it with our own English version of the same video clip.
Clilstore aims to help you with individual words you might not know. It’s up to you to figure out how they fit into the piece as a whole. Clearly, Google Translate does a less than perfect job of fitting all the words together, but you may feel that it helps a bit. If that’s the case, all you need to do with any of the Clilstore transcripts on this site is simply copy and paste them into Google Translate, and see where it takes you. Good luck!
Professor Conchúr Ó Giollagáin of the University of the Highlands and Islands, and the Soillse inter-university research network, adds another perspective: “Guthan nan Eilean may also be seen as creative initial steps in an emerging agenda of documentation of natural language… The project demonstrates how the community of speakers can take a pro-active and productive role… in this vital task.”
Tha Gordon Wells a’ bruidhinn ri Gòrdan eile an seo – Gòrdan Camshron, a tha na neach-rannsachaidh aig 
