Tobar an Dualchais website adds interactive map

The Tobar an Dualchais / A Kist o' Riches website has been updated to include an interactive map, that now allows you to target specific areas where your family may have come from to find traditional songs and conversations from times past, in both the Gaelic and Scots languages. 

The site is freely available at https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk. 

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available -Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. To purchase in the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

The Scots and Gaelic languages gain official status in Scotland

A major development has just happened concerning Scotland's indigenous languages, Gaelic (Gàidhlig)  and Scots. As an Ulsterman with a Scots background, and as a speaker of Scottish Gaelic, I was properly impressed by the dignity and unanimity of our parliamentary representatives in Holyrood this afternoon at the third and final debate stage of the Scottish Languages Bill (https://www.parliament.scot/bills-and-laws/bills/s6/scottish-languages-bill). The final bill, as passed, is available to read at https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/legislation/bills/s6-bills/scottish-languages-bill/stage-3/spbill39bs062025.pdf and gives both languages official status in Scotland.

Its new measures include:

• introducing educational standards for Gaelic and Scots
• establishing Gaelic and Scots as official languages
• supporting the creation of areas of linguistic significance in Gaelic communities so that ministers can better target policies to support the language’s growth
• enabling parents in every part of Scotland to apply for Gaelic nursery and early years places for their children
• ensuring that more qualifications are available in Gaelic
• introducing targets on the number of people speaking and learning Gaelic 

(Source: Scottish Government https://www.gov.scot/news/scottish-languages-bill-passed/)

About three quarters of the Bill covers Gaelic, and a quarter Scots. 

As well as establishing Gaelic as an offical language of Scotland, the new bill extends current provisions for Gaelic, including the ability for local authorities to create areas of linguistic significance (with parliamentary oversight), which can apply to areas where there is a population of whom at least 20% have Gaelic language skills, or where the area is historically connected with the use of Gaelic, or is an area is one in which teaching and learning by means of the Gaelic language is provided, or if the area is one in which significant activity relating to the Gaelic language or Gaelic culture takes place. To an extent the measure is a nod towards the concept of Irish 'gaeltachts', where the Irish language is given special status in Ireland. There is also a requirement for our Government to have a national Gaelic strategy. Scottish Ministers may give guidance to relevant public authorities relating to Gaelic language plans (how about a Gaelic Language Plan at the NRS?!). There are also significant amendments to the 1980 Education (Scotland) Act with regards to Gaelic education provision.

As someone who has just passed a year long Gaelic immersion course at the University of Glasgow, and well supportive of the language, I am equally as proud of the fact that Scots is finally to be recognised as an official leid of Scotland. For many years it has been ludicrous that the only place in the world where the language had any legal status was my home country of Northern Ireland, where the Ulster dialect of Scots has a degree of legal protection, alongside the Irish language. Whilst the Bill is weaker on its commitment to the Scots language - something which was clear in the debate today also - it has its foot on the ladder at long last, and is long overdue. It is not bad English, or 'slang' - it's a centuries old Germanic language which has been compromised by its proximity to English, but which has survived.  

If you're a die-hard bore of a monoglot English speaker who can only say how "the money can be spent better elsewhere", all I can say to you is either "thalla gu Hiort" or "awa' an' boil yer heid"! Scotland is the sum of its parts, and none are more integral to its very soul than Gaelic and Scots. 

It's a good day for Scotland, its history, its culture, its languages, its soul - and its future.

Chris 

Order Researching Ancestral Crisis in Ireland in the UK at https://bit.ly/4jJWSEh. Also available - Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page.

Two more Scottish languages: The Cant and Beurla Reagaird

Did your Scottish ancestors speak English?

You'll often hear talk of the Scots language and Gàidhlig (Gaelic) as Scotland's main local languages after English, but there are others, in particular The Cant used by Scottish Travellers before, and Beurla Reagaird, the hybrid Gaelic and Cant language used by Travellers in the Western Isles, which is now almost extinct. 

According to a Wikipedia entry on the subject (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beurla_Reagaird), although Beurla is used in Gaelic to mean the English language today, it actually originally meant 'speech' or 'jargon' (from Old Irish bél, meaning mouth, +re suffix - se). The following link on Facebook shows a fascinating video on TikTok from a Scottish member of the Gypsy community, called Samantha, who explains the background to both languages, where they were spoken, and their origins. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/ScottishGaelicDuo/permalink/1257966891559245/?app=fbl

I've also found a video in three parts on YouTube, recorded in 2009, providing some beginners' Beurla Reagaird! The vocab discussed is listed in the description below the video. The video also includes a brief bit of chat about Travellers use of Gaelic in the Western Isles, and differences with 'standard' Gaelic (examples given include alternatives in pronunciation for 'latha math' and 'mathair'). See embedded below, and also at https://youtu.be/iI_kDvPCmwk?si=1Ha8vAdfF04lbZVo

This is the first part, with the two further parts as linked to below:

• https://youtu.be/HV9hHcRSomo?si=O0cdxUt0x17zorqw
• https://youtu.be/fP7OhPQix08?si=A7znY1tumtDP_i83

I'm not aware of any local projects in Scotland dealing with local Traveller family history, but there is the Romany and Traveller Family History Society (http://rtfhs.org.uk) which may be able to assist. 

And I would of course be interested to know of any projects or groups in Scotland!

Update: After a Gaelic class in Partick yesterday I went for a few drinks with some of my fellow learners, and in discussing Beurla Reagaird one of them told me about a relative of his who had married a 'ceàrd' in Lewis. It looks like 'ceàrd' and 'ceàrdan' (also 'ceàrdannan) colloquially means 'traveller' and 'travellers' in Gaelic, also translated by the Essential Gaelic Dictionary as 'tinker', but apparently they were separate to gypsy travellers, and were itinerant metal workers until the earlier 20th century. The Gaelic word 'ceàrdach' also means a craftshop, workshop, forge, smithy or smiddy. I've found a bit more about it at https://strathnaver.wixsite.com/back-to-the-future/ceardannan. 

Another friend from Lewis has since indicated to me that many of the community are now settled, and historically had made their way as hawkers in the community selling items such as pales.

Scotland has many communities, all of them equally worthy of remembrance in our family histories.

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

The Bible has been translated into Doric

If you're from the north-east of Scotland, and in need of a little religious instruction, help is at hand in the form of a new edition of the entire Bible translated into the Scots dialect of Doric for the very first time!

The translation has taken retired Aberdeenshire solicitor and church elder Gordon Hay some 17 years to complete, with the New Testament initially published in Doric in 2012 (http://www.doricbible.com), and the Aul' Testament to be published imminently.

For more about the new translation, including its formal launch this evening at Longside Parish Church at 7.30pm, visit https://doricboard.com/news/launch-of-the-doric-aul-testament-by-gordon-m-hay/ and https://www.northern-scot.co.uk/news/aul-and-new-testaments-translated-into-doric-317885/.

Chris 

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Scots language and culture courses

The following free courses may be of interest from the Open University in Scotland:

Scots language and culture courses – parts 1 and 2

This course teaches aspects of Scots, one of the three indigenous languages spoken in Scotland alongside English and Scottish Gaelic.

This is not a conventional language course – it teaches the Scots language through the culture where it is spoken, underlining the role of Scots in Scottish culture and society – past and present.

The course is written for a broad audience ranging from Scots speakers, to people who want to find out about and learn some Scots, as well as teachers and other educators. 

Part 1, taught at Higher Education introductory level, focuses on aspects of the Scots language in areas such as education, work, politics as well as food and drink and popular culture. 

Part 2 is aimed at Higher Education intermediate level and teaches elements of the Scots language through exploring topics such as migration, history, religion, literature, grammar and standardisation.

This course is produced by The Open University in Scotland, the Open University’s School of Languages and Applied Linguistics, and Education Scotland.

For further details, and to sign up, visit https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/course/index.php?categoryid=382

Chris

My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.