Taing mhór to Àdhamh for posting the translation of the Outlander article published in Gàidhlig in The Scotsman on his Facebook page. Also, many thanks to Seonaidh Caimbeul for the English translation of the article that he wrote. I’m pleased to see that at least some of the words I picked out from the Gàidhlig version turned out to be correct!

Headline

Togaibh gu daingeann i ’s bithibh rith’ bàidheil, Hi ho ro togaibh i, suas le Outlànder . . .

Quote from lyrics of well known song encouraging people to speak Gaelic but in this instance the word ‘Gàidhlig’ is replaced with ‘Outlander’.

Raise her up determinedly and be kind to her, Hi ho ro, raise her up, vive Outlander.

Caption

In the new television series Irish actress Caitríona Balfe plays Claire Randall and Sam Heughan from New Galloway plays Jamie Fraser.

Text

Do you dig Outlander? [‘dig’ in English comes from Gaelic ‘tuig’, to understand] Gaelic is used as the language of the heroes in a new television series of that name. Millions will hear our language representing heroic ideals in a way that is especially attractive, even sexy.

The story moves from 20th century England to Scotland in the 18th century where Claire Randall, a nurse from London, meets a young Gael, Jamie Fraser.

Sam Heughan, from New Galloway, near Dumfries, was chosen to play Seumas: news that pleased Diana Gabaldon, author of the seven books on which the series is based. The books are extremely popular, with around 25 million sales to date. Thousands follow her on Facebook, where she wrote women will find Sam hot.

That seems to be true enough, judging by the warm response to a recent clip promoting the the series on YouTube in which Sam speaks some Gaelic or, as they say, Outlander. Some viewers even say that hearing Sam speak Gaelic makes them drop their drawers!

However, (over the years) some people have been too willing to compare Gaelic to artificial languages, such as Klingon, which were deliberately created for television. Might they say that again now, especially given that the script was written by Ronald D Moore who was previously involved with Star Trek?

Àdhamh Ó Broin from Cowal, who is busy coaching Sam and the other actors, has no such concerns.

“Gaelic is a living language and that’s completely different. This series will give a high profile to Gaelic all around the world.”

Most of the work on the series is carried on in a former warehouse in Cumbernauld although different locations throughout the country are used which illustrate the natural beauty of Scotland.

The series will be shown in the US by the Starz network and is expected to be available on Sky before the end of 2014.

–
Seonaidh Caimbeul

You can find my original blog post about the Scotsman article here.