Top 10 Differences Between Gaelic in Nova Scotia and Scotland – Part One
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 differences between Gaelic in Nova Scotia and Scotland, from a Nova Scotian perspective. Here is the first half of the list, Part One:
10) Nova Scotians pronounce it “Gae-lic,” not “Gah-lic”
And we can ice skate, too.
When we’re talking about the Scottish Gaelic language — in English — we pronounce it Gay-lic, not Gah-lic. No, it’s not a mistake. No, “Gay-lic” doesn’t mean “Irish” in Canada. And no, we don’t care if it means “Irish” in Scotland. You say it your way, and we say it our way. You know perfectly well what we’re talking about from the context, anyway.
Don’t take my word for it that Nova Scotians pronounce it this way — hear it from the mouths of Gaelic teacher Hector MacNeil and Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond.
I’ve even had a couple of trollish comments about this pronunciation on my YouTube channel. But now that you know, please understand that it’s annoying when Scots — or Americans, or Australians — try to Gaelsplain to Nova Scotians that we’re “saying it wrong.” Pro tip: The more rude you are about trying to correct our pronunciation, the less likely you are to be invited to visit!
9) Our flag
We have a Gaelic flag, which is different from the provincial flag of Nova Scotia. This makes perfect sense in the Canadian context, as I wrote about in a previous post; the Mi’kmaq have a flag, the francophone Acadians have a flag, and in fact the francophone community of each Canadian province has its own flag.
The Nova Scotia Gaelic flag displayed by Nova Scotian travelers at the Canadian Pavilion, Expo 2010, in Shanghai, China
8) Milling frolics
A milling frolic is a social event that was born of necessity, and is carried on today for enjoyment. After wool cloth is woven on a loom, it is necessary to shrink the cloth in order to make it warmer and more watertight. In the Scottish Highlands, cleansing and shrinking the newly-woven cloth was done by hand in local communities. It was a social event of shared labour, made enjoyable by singing songs which maintained the work rhythm, preserved traditions, and encouraged original compositions with jokes about local events and personalities.
Nowadays the real milling is done in factories, but the milling frolic has continued as a social event in Nova Scotia Gaelic communities. This contrasts with Scotland, where you might see a milling frolic performed on a stage or as a historical re-enactment, but not as a social event in the village or church hall.
Milling frolics involve special work songs which are known as “milling songs” in Nova Scotia (and “waulking songs” in Scotland). Some milling songs are shared with Gaelic Scotland, but quite a few were indigenously composed in Nova Scotia. There is a good but short collection of these songs on a Memorial University folklore website.
Luathadh ann an Hogomah – Milling frolic in Whycocomagh in 2013
In Cape Breton, annual milling frolics are now held in multiple communities including Whycocomagh, Mabou, Christmas Island (at Fèis an Eilein), Johnstown, and others. A web search at the beginning of the summer season will usually find the community festival dates and locations. In Halifax, milling frolics are held irregularly at least a couple of times per year, and are usually announced on the e-mail list of Sgoil Ghàidhlig an Àrd-Bhaile, the Gaelic Language Society of Halifax (check their website to sign up for the list). To give you an idea of what a milling is like, here is a video of a milling frolic in Whycocomagh, Cape Breton Island, in 2009 on YouTube (different from the one pictured above).
Participating in a milling frolic is a great motivation for learning Gaelic songs, and a great way to meet other Gaelic speakers and enjoy the culture.
7) Butter-churning
Nations and ethnic groups will often choose a “golden age” to highlight in their history, which exemplifies their values or goals for the present. For some Nova Scotia Gaels, it’s the 19th century, when Gaelic culture was stamped out in industrializing mainland Nova Scotia and consolidated as a thriving community language in rural areas. The rural folkways of the 19th century, including spinning, weaving, and butter-churning, are used as a part of Gaelic language instruction and practice at the Highland Village Museum in Iona, Cape Breton and by some Gàihdlig aig Baile language instructors.
A meta churn – a butter churn with a painting of a butter churn on it.
6) Gaelic in schools
We don’t have Gaelic-medium education in Nova Scotia, nor Gaelic-medium childcare or preschool, unlike many areas of Scotland. (Personally I would very much like to see Gaelic-medium childcare and preschool here.)
We do have French-medium schools of two different kinds, French immersion and ethnic Acadian, so English-speaking children of both francophone and non-francophone heritage do have the opportunity to become bilingual through the schools, and French-speaking children have the right to be educated in their mother tongue.
We also have wonderful “Gaelic for learners” type school programs in certain schools in certain areas, including Halifax, Pictou County, Antigonish County, and the counties of Cape Breton Island. These programs offer basic Gaelic language and Gaelic culture and history, and they are popular with students and parents alike. (More on those programs in a future blog post.)
Students taking Gaelic language and culture courses at Citadel High, Halifax. Source: Gaelic Affairs 2012 Gaelic Calendar
Image Source: Gaelic Affairs 2012 Gaelic calendar.
That’s differences #10 through #6 on my list. Stay tuned for differences #5 through #1 in the next post, Top 10 Differences between Gaelic in Nova Scotia and Scotland (Part 2)!
Fìor mhath Emily! I’ve picked up on you saying Gaylick before – in jest – but I appreciate that’s what it’s called in Nova Scotia and that’s cool. I think the reason people in Scotland react so badly to that pronunciation is because people in Scotland who are ignorant of the language or anti-Gaelic tend to pronounce it that way. That isn’t the case in NS where there is one pronunciation.
When people ask me whether to say Gahlick or Gaylick, I usually say – “say Gahlick for Scottish Gaelic and don’t say Gaylick at all” as Irish speakers in my experience tend to strongly prefer Irish rather than Gaelic for the language. In my experience Gaelic tends to be used for Irish mainly by Americans and by some unionists.
Tapa leat! It is interesting of course because my grandfather always insisted: Gaelic (as in Gael) was a good pronunciation. Of course in Northern Irish it sounds more like that. He served with many Nova Scotian volunteers in the Argylls 1914-1919. He used to also say “The Scots and the Irish are the same people except half of them don’t know and the other half don’t want to know.” He had a saying ..let’s see if I can reproduce it….Erinn Mathair agus Alba a Mhic (Mother Ireland and Scotland the Son). He was a Gael from the north. Of course, he could not read or write Gaelic but he recognized that it was a langauge spoken in Ireland as well and of course many people called his language Erse. People like him were called Teuchters or Tough Highlanders I suppose more or less “Hicks.”
Ciamar a tha sibh, i am not that knowledgeable regarding gaelic no matter how you prounounce it. Despite having a promising start in the fair city of Perth, I was quickly repatriated by my loving Irish parents who both spoke Irish. So I was brought up on a mixed diet of Irish and English.in Donegal. When i reached middle age I found I had become a civil servant and a published writer in the Irish language, so I took advantage of my improved status and accepted a Government sponsored course at Sabhail Mor Ostaig .
Any way all i wanted to say was check out http://www.focloir.ie which has a proununciation facility for Irish. Enter the word Gaelic in the search box and sample the differences from Ulster (which includes Donegal ) Connacht( which includes Galway) and Mumhan (Munster, which includes Kerry) . My point being that, if we can tolerate that degree of difference in a country a mere 300 miles long -don’t worry about little differences in a language which has a geographic spread of 3000.. Is mise, Padraig O Gallachoir.
Bravo on the pronunciation of Gaelic both here and in Scotland. My own experience was a little off-putting my first exposure to Sabhal Mor Ostaig a few years ago. I was told “Gaelic is Irish and in case I didn’t notice I was in Scotland not Ireland”. I wonder if Scots say I am learning Francais instead of using the word French. Just wondering….
I have read the main artical and the reply thread with interest, particularly as I am now acquainted with all 3 Gaelic/ Ghalic speaking areas of Scotland Ireland and Nova Scotia and because I have close friends and family who speak and teach the various forms.
I am a Scot whose Roots are Hebridean at varying stages on both paternal and maternal sides, and whose immediate maternal side (MacArthurs from Mull Colonsay and Iona), are native Hebridean Ghalic Speakers. I also have friends who are Highland Gaelic teachers and also Nova Scotian Speakers; I also have In-Laws who are Irish Gaelic Teachers.
As an individual; part of my own upbringing was on the Isle of Skye 1967-69, where I was taught the language, in primary school. Sadly I have largely lost what I was taught. –
Even at this early stage within the School GREAT emphasis was put on the difference pronunciations between the Scots and Irish forms of the language ( which are so clearly from the same source). It is therefore NO SURPRISE to read that this emphasis was still being reinforced at the College on Skye.
This marked differential puzzled me as a young inquisitive fellow and I asked my mother; who was a native speaker if she could understand the language if it were spoken to her by people from other Islands as well as Irish People. (Her Gaelic originated from HARRIS prior to living on Mull and Skye)
She replied that she would understand Highland and Island Gaelic but would only get the gist of the Irish conversation but not the specific content.
As I had an significantly Older uncle from Donegal who was married to my Maternal Aunt, I posed the same question to him. He was not a speaker himself but his immediate family were and he replied in the same vein, that the Irish Speakers said they understood the gist but not the specifics.
Add to the equation the establishment of a mixed Ghaelic /Gaelic speaking population in Nova Scotia , Cape Breton and Newfoundland and it is inevitable that the language is going to re-establish it’s roots and morph back towards its common core. Thankfully the Irish re-established the emphasis on their language at the Establishment of the Free State and it was actively taught in Schools, and continues to be.
My own exposure to being taught in school was an active move by the then governing powers to try and reverse the trend of the culture withering in the Highlands and Islands, so Gaelic Tuition, Piping Tuition and knowledge of weaving were also being taught.
Given the context of the artical and my own experiences I recall that Although my maternal grandfather was taught to speak the language and to read it through the medium of a Gaelic Bible, he was not schooled in the Language. This was also an experience that my mother had too.
Thankfully the establishment of the main schools in Ireland Scotland and Nova Scotia, notwithstanding that there may be others I am unaware of; mean that the language and it’s Gramatical form(s) are hopefully strengthening the Aural Tradition, and moving it forward and away from these differentials which are there to stay and just need to be accepted by the “others”
When a lad I asked my Aunt in Scotland; teach me some Gaelic. It is pronounced Gah-lic dear. Later Ceap Breatuinners corrected me; It’s Gae-lic. My friend approached an Irish teacher with an interest to enroll. The prof got on a ten hands high horse and brow beat him for saying Gae-lic. He didn’t take the class. Later I met a native speaker from Donegal; she called it Gae-lic. I’ve heard this discussion for half a century and I’m weary of it. Is it not sad that so much time is wasted on it and so many friendly ears are turned away? The English say “al-you-minium” but I don’t hear anyone correcting them!
A very interesting and informative article. I am a Scottish Gael and therefore pronounce ‘Gàidhlig’ the way I would say it when speaking my own mother toungue, but having lived in Canada and a number of other places around the world, I am very much aware that the word ‘Gaelic’ or ‘Gàidhlig’ is pronounced differently by others and that confusion arises at times between ‘Gaelige’ ‘Gàidhlig’ and ‘Gaelic’. What matters most is that people make an effort to speak the actual language, whether that be Scottish or Irish, and that they familiarise themselves with the customs and traditions of the respective people whose language they have chosen to keep alive. Knowledge of correct pronunciation, from whichever area one is attached to will, I’m sure, come with time.
lochaber dialect, which only survived in nova scotia used the gaylic pronounciation. the influence of lochaber dialect was all over guysborough county(where it has died out) and cape breton. yes it is insulting to be corrected all the time , especially by people who know only that one word.
Irish speakers don’t call the language Gaelic when speaking Irish. Scottish Gaelic speakers don’t call it Gaelic when speaking Scottish Gaelic. You are fussing about what people call it when speaking English. Why the fuss? English speakers have their own names for languages they do not speak.
Having been taught to sing in Gàidhlig- almost exclusively by native speakers from the Islands and highlands (in both Còisir Ghàidhlig Bhancoubhair and Còisir Gàidhlig Bhioctòiria) the pronunciation of the word Gàidhlig for the language was deeply inculcated in me. ‘Gaelic’ meant the Irish language.
I love the traditional music and the language- and one cannot sing the music without the language. Out of respect and a wish to preserve both the language and the music, I work hard to use the language properly. Nova Scotia is working hard to preserve its Gaelic heritage, and if they say ‘Gaelic”, so be it and good on them! But please don’t consider those of us who’ve learned it the other way to be pretentious or contentious or to be causing a ‘fuss’.
Wasn’t the pronunciation Gaelic found in Kintyre when Gaelic was spoken there? I recall meeting someone with Southern Gaelic in Scotland years ago, and he pronounced with a decidedly ‘ay’ sounding vowel.The Gaelic varieties are all great and ought to be so celebrated.
“Gay-lick” IS the proper English pronunciation. “Gah-lik” is a lately borrowed pronunciation designed to mimic the way “Gàidhlig” is pronounced by speakers of Gàidhlig. It became fashionable in some circles of speakers and learners and has spread. Somempeople think it makes them sound more knowledegable and authentic than others, and the rest just don’t know any better.
I think you are correct that it was originally a borrowed pronunciation, a codeswitch veering into a loanword. Now it is fully assimilated into English by a fairly large group of speakers, so I prefer to think of it as a kind of linguistic variation. Variation is found in all natural human languages and can be due to geography and ideology. The end result is that some people say a word one way, and some say it another way. Substantial numbers of people say “Gay-lik” and substantial numbers of people say “Gah-lic.” As Gaelic users, though, we should treat each other the way that we want to be treated.
Moran Taing, Great comments, a most interesting read and I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and PEI last year and did engage in many “mother tongue” conversations. What surprised me was the quality and clarity of the Gaelic and the pronunciation I found similar to North Uist. There is also distinct and very noticeable difference in the spoken word between Benbecula, North Uist, Lewis and Harris etc.
I was born in Cape Breton. My family emigrated to Detroit when I was 3, but there was and is a large thriving community of Cape Bretoners, Nova Scotiasn, and their extended families there.
As best I recall, no one ever said (or says) gah-lik. Gay-lik is so natural to me that I sometimes stumble, now that I live in BC and sing with Guth nan Eilean, the Victoria Gaelic Choir. I’m the only member with a direct Nova Scotia connection, and it’s true that gah-lik is the standard pronunciation in English for most of our members.
I very much like the “linguistic variation” mindset. No one’s yelled at me so far. Maybe it helped that I found a choral version of Alistair the Ridge’s Cumha Cheap Breatuinn (better known down home as “Chì Mi Bhuam,” a genuine Canadian song in Gaelic (however pronounced).
The topic of the English pronunciation and usage of the English word “Gaelic” has sparked a lot of comment here. As a Gaelic teacher, the question is unavoidable and confusing for learners, so I address it early in the course. I have students with Scottish ancestry/origin, Nova Scotia, and neither. I tell them that I am entirely unconcerned which pronunciation they use for the English word, and that I will use one or the other pronunciation depending on context. But I want them to understand and have some perspective on the modern conventions and varying political correctnesses connected with the word “Gaelic.” I share with them my own intentional, informal experimentation with the word and pronunciation /gay-lik/ while traveling in Ireland and Scotland. Once in Connemara, I was corrected by an Irish speaker who told me that if I said Gaelic, they would assume I was speaking about something Scottish, and I must use the word “Irish” only. Once in Donegal, an older man was pleased to hear me refer to “Gaelic” (when speaking English). He told me that when he was young, they said “Gaelic” to mean “the Irish language” and he found saying “Irish” a bit contrived, and excluding the common bond with the Isle of Man and Scotland. On trials of the pronunciation /gay-lik/ in Scotland, I was told once by a non-Gaelic speaker that if I pronounced it thus, they would assume I was speaking about something Irish, and I must use the pronunciation /gah-lik/ only, to avoid confusion. And, of course, in the Isle of Man, similar to modern Ireland, Gaelic is “Manx” in English. It would seem that in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, there has been a collective disowning of the English word “Gaelic” or the English pronunciation /gay-lik/ in the instance of Scotland. That hasn’t happened in Canadian English, and it’s hard to imagine why it would. However, as soon as you leave those political spheres and speak of Gaelic to someone not from those communities, you need to switch back to standard English in order to be understood. As someone pointed out above, the Scottish example in a modern context is the equivalent of traveling abroad and asking “Do you speak French?” and receiving the response “No, I speak Français”. I view the Scottish /gah-lik/ pronunciation as a point of pride on the part of the Scottish person to show to others that they know the name of the language in that language itself, Gàidhlig. In that sense, it is a similar political sentiment to the switch in Ireland from “Gaelic” to “Irish” as the acceptable term.
However, there is some history to the pronunciation /gah-lik/ in Scots English, so it’s not only a modern expression of political or cultural identity. The Dictionary of the Scottish Language (i.e. Scots) gives the following in its entry for Gaelic. “The orig. Gael. pronunciation ′gɑ:lɪk has always prevailed in the Highl. and was current in Lowland usage in the second half of the 18th cent., as the spellings show. The pronunciation ′ge:lɪk thereafter supervened in the Lowlands, prob. under the influence of Gael and the spelling Gaelic, but there is a growing tendency in Scot. to revert to ′gɑ:lɪk, the original.” The DSL also has a reference to “Scottis” referring to “Gaelic”, “Inglis” referring to “Scots/Lallans”, and “Soudron/Southron” for “English language”. Later of course those words are assigned differently, so that “Inglis” was used only for “English” and “Scottis” referring to “Scots/Lallans”, with “Erse” (Irish) referring to “Gaelic” for a period. So, it’s clear than the conventions have changed greatly over time and location.
When learning a language you want to have a standard pronunciation, but also be aware that there are other dialects. I run into this problem with Cantonese Chinese and as you folk are based in Canada, you will be aware that Quebec French is not quite the same as Parisian French, in the same way that Kiwi English is not the same as BBC English (or maybe I should say Received or Southern English, as there are so many folk speaking all sorts of English on the BBC when they are being interviewed.)
When I used to get together with a Gaelic learning group on a Friday night I was told that Stornaway folk were all over the Gaelic radio.
My Syrian Arabic teacher used to tell me that Syrian Arabic was the version to learn, and that Quranic Arabic was antiquated, but there is a Pan Arabic.
It gets confusing if you do not have a standard of a language you wish to acquire, and it is frustrating being told that a word they use in Singaporean Mandarin is different from the word they use in Taiwan, and I am not meaning the difference between Traditional and Simplified Chinese characters. At least you do not have that problem in Gaelic, although there was a bit of a reform a while ago when some diacritics were dropped. Different languages have their reforms, e.g. Malay/Indonesian back in the 1980’s and the Dutch have had spelling reforms. After Brexit, I wonder if the English will have a spelling reform to make themselves unique, but we in NZ can at least spell “autumn”!
Very interesting discussion. I found the same “issue” with Spanish languague. Spain thinking that they own the language and Spaniards think respectively about the Spanish spoken in the other 20 Spanish-speaking countries. They prefer to say that they speak Castilian. Languages are live and change with the relationship between, people, traditions, technology. Tomatoes/tomatos. Linguistics are fascinating, understanding the what, why, how,and where of language variations.
It is a great shame that you do not as yet have Gàidhlig medium pre-school or infant or high schools in Mova Scotia when there is clearly so much enthusiasm for it.
I truly hope that the government of Nova Scotia introduces Gaelic medium education on all levels in the very near future and appeal to them to do so.
Oh, old Gaylick / Gahlick controversy. By the way, the word controversy is also pronounced differently in North America and Scotland. So, I was speaking to Murdina MacLeod the other day, who lives in North Carolina, and her father immigrated to New York in 1924 from Lewis. She said that her father used the pronunciation Gaylick, my aunt was from the same village in Lewis as Murdina’s father and she also said Gaylick at times. She was not only a native Gaelic speaker, but she had a university degree in Gaelic. Since I now live in Nova Scotia, when I go to Scotland, I sometimes slip and say Gaylick. Well I am often immediately corrected. When someone does this, I say: “Eil Gàdhlig agad?” They invariably say: “Oh, I don’t speak Gahlick, I just know how to pronounce it.
Lmao at the comments.
My granda was Irish, and spoke Gaelic. He taught me Gaelic and we’d have conversations in his tongue. I’d always watch the Gaelic shows as a kid, growing up in Scotland. I understood both.
All my life I’ve heard everyone who speaks Scottish Gaelic say Gaelic, not gahlic. That seems to be a newer thing. If you ask them if they speak Gaelic they’ll say yes.
All over government and northern areas there’s promotion of Gaelic and everyone pronounces it Gaelic.
The arguements here are absolutely mental.
Anyway, we make the distinction by called it Irish and Gaelic.
My Irish pals always go on about having to leave Irish. They never say Gaelic.