by Emily McEwan | Apr 17, 2015 | All Posts, Government, Linguistics, Nova Scotia, Religion
As I discussed in Part One of this list, Gaels in Scotland and Nova Scotia don’t tend to know a lot about each other, unless they’ve actually visited each other’s home turf. There are a lot of similarities between Gaelic in Nova Scotia and Scotland, but also some...
by Emily McEwan | Apr 12, 2015 | All Posts, Linguistics, Nova Scotia, Songs
Gaels in Scotland and Nova Scotia don’t tend to know a lot about each other. When they actually visit each other’s home turf, they find many similarities, but also a few surprises. So in a spirit of education and understanding, I’ve created a list of the top ten...
by Emily McEwan | Mar 28, 2015 | All Posts, Awareness, Language Learners, Linguistics, Minority Languages
One of the challenges of working with Gaelic is that most people in the world know almost nothing about it. So, this blog post is aimed at people who may have only recently realized that Gaelic is a Thing. Why go back to square one? Regular blog readers may know these...
by Emily McEwan | Mar 20, 2015 | All Posts, Language Learners, Nova Scotia, Religion
When I used to lecture to university students about oral tradition and memory, I would repeat a line from the textbook about how much non-literate people memorize, and how little we literate folks memorize by comparison. But then I would quote the lyrics of a Britney...
by Emily McEwan | Mar 13, 2015 | All Posts, Design, Nova Scotia
In Nova Scotia, you might have noticed that we have a Gaelic flag. The Gaelic Council of Nova Scotia, in cooperation with the Nova Scotia Office of Gaelic Affairs, developed and presented a new Gaelic symbol and flag on behalf of the Gaelic community in 2008. ...
by Emily McEwan | Mar 6, 2015 | All Posts, Linguistics, Minority Languages
A few years ago, someone criticized my work, saying that Gaelic language revitalization wasn’t rocket science. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, because she was right. Language revitalization isn’t rocket science — it’s far more difficult. Rocket science, or any...
by Emily McEwan | Feb 27, 2015 | All Posts, Awareness, Design, Songs
In 2012, I got tired of my plain silver laptop computer, and I soon found out that there are a lot of great laptop decals out there (why don’t more people dress up their technology with beautiful design?). The first one to grab my eye was a design of Snow White...
by Emily McEwan | Feb 20, 2015 | All Posts, Linguistics, Media, Minority Languages
Is there a topic that you know a lot about, but that most people can only seem to grasp through stereotypes and misconceptions? A situation where no matter how hard you try, you cannot debunk people’s wrong-headed ideas? Scottish Gaelic language and culture is like...
by Emily McEwan | Jun 5, 2013 | All Posts, Awareness, Nova Scotia, Religion
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, May is Gaelic Awareness Month in Nova Scotia. In May 2013, Sgoil Ghàidhlig an Àrd-Bhaile, the Halifax Gaelic Society, worked together with the Halifax Public Libraries to plan a series of free public workshops on various aspects of Gaelic...
by Emily McEwan | May 24, 2013 | All Posts, Awareness, Government, Nova Scotia
The month of May in Nova Scotia is Gaelic Awareness Month, or Mìos na Gàidhlig. For me, every day is Gaelic day, but if you speak Gaelic and live in Halifax, let me tell you that May is still one heck of a busy month! “Tha sinn cho busy,” as they say in...
