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June 10, 2008
Three-year Gaelic project coming to
an end
CHRIS SHANNON , The Cape Breton Post
NORTH
SHORE — A three-year project to aid the development of
Gaelic learners is finally nearing an end.
A website is expected to go live on the Internet later this
month and will feature video and audio recordings of the
province’s Gaelic tradition-bearers in their own homes,
speaking about everyday life.
The Gaelic
Council of Nova Scotia organized the project with the help
of the Nova Scotia Highland Village and with the technical
expertise of Cape Breton University.
Known as the Cainnt mo Mhàthar (My Mother’s Language)
project, the collection now boasts more than 40 hours of
material. As well, the Highland Village in Iona recently
donated two additional compilations of song and conversation
recordings.
These
recordings will provide an invaluable resource for Gaelic
learners and educators alike, said project co-ordinator
Shannon MacDonald, a staffer with the Gaelic Council.
“These recordings were super important to try to capture the
little nuances, the rhythms and the little subtleties that
are definitely obvious from one community to the next,”
MacDonald said.
“Even five
minutes down the road from where I’m living, it changes
again and then Cape North, Bay St. Lawrence, there were
different dialects all around the island.
“We’re finding most students want to learn the language of
their grandparents. Being from the North Shore I wanted to
be able to speak like the people of North Shore, not
necessarily like the people of Antigonish or Mabou, for
example.”
She said
34 Gaelic dialects remain in Nova Scotia, with most of those
located in Cape Breton.
In some cases, there is only one person left in a community
who knows how to speak their dialect fluently, MacDonald
added.
“As the
last person on the Earth with that dialect, to record them
will provide good learning resources. The video also allows
you to see the body language and the mouth actually moving.
If you can see the way something is being pronounced, it
really helps with understanding.”
In the first couple of years staff at the council tracked
down Gaelic speakers in all four Cape Breton counties. Those
recordings feature individuals and pairs speaking on a
variety of everyday topics including folklore, childcare,
baking, chores, music, clothing and the weather.
The use of the new digitization lab and music performance
analysis room at the Centre for Cape Breton Studies at CBU
since early April has assisted in fast-tracking the project
to the Internet.
The
centre’s director, Richard MacKinnon, said the Cainnt mo
Mhàthar project is consistent with the centre’s mandate “to
support worthwhile community based initiatives, particularly
those involved with the safeguarding of intangible cultural
heritage.”
MacDonald
said it’s a sizable contribution from the university in
helping set up the online audio and video clips.
“There were a lot of fishermen, people who were cutting wood
in the forests and farmers, and so on, so we have a lot of
that vocabulary coming out as well, which, to our knowledge,
is the first time it has really been captured for Cape
Breton,” she said.
The site
will also feature portraits of participants by Cape Breton
native Ryan MacDonald.
Photography from the project will also be on exhibit during
this year’s Celtic Colours International Festival in
October.
The Department of Canadian Heritage and the provincial
Office of Gaelic Affairs announced earlier this year that
more than $45,000 in combined funding would be provided for
this final phase of the project.
To view
the website, see
www.cainntmomhathar.com
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Above photo:
Margaree (by Victor Maurice Faubert)
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