|
Colonsay Gaelic
Historically, Gaelic has been the language of everyday communication on Colonsay since the first Celtic settlers arrived from Ireland over 1500 years ago. As recently as the 1970s, Gaelic was still spoken by the majority of islanders, but increasingly over the past 50 years the young people have preferred to speak English, and incomers to the island have no longer had to learn Gaelic in order to communicate, as was once the case. Nowadays there are about 25 fluent speakers out of a population of around 100, plus about half-a-dozen brave souls who are actively learning the language and about the same number who, having grown up in a Gaelic-speaking community, are able to understand the language but not speak it. There are of course many times that number of Colonsay exiles on the mainland and overseas who can speak Colonsay Gaelic fluently although they may not always have the opportunity to do so.
Colonsay like all the islands of the Hebrides has its own particular form of Gaelic, which fits into the "family" of southern, or Argyll, dialects. Argyll Gaelic, though much in decline in the past century, has many features of both vocabulary and pronunciation which distinguish it from more northerly dialects such as those of Lewis and Skye.
Colonsay Gaelic, as one might expect, shows many similarities to the Gaelic spoken in Islay, its closest neighbour. However, Colonsay's isolated position, and its links with other islands, notably Mull to the north, have meant that the Colonsay dialect has more of a Hebridean "feel" to it than Islay. Like Islay it makes much use of the glottal stop, that catch in the throat which is familiar to English speakers in the Glasgow or Cockney pronunciation of words like "bottle" or "city". In Colonsay and Islay Gaelic however, it occurs mainly when the letters 'l', 'n' or 'r' appear in the middle of a word, as in the Gaelic name of the island, Colbhasa (sometimes spelt without the silent "bh"), which is pronounced "Co'-la-sa".
Another prominent feature of Colonsay Gaelic is that in certain cases, especially when preceded or followed by a nasal consonant ('n' or 'm'), the letter 'a' is pronounced as if it was an 'e'. Thus the Gaelic word "math", meaning "good", is pronounced "meh". This characteristic has led to much leg-pulling of Colbhasachs over the years at the hands of other Gaels who accuse them of sounding like sheep, and the fact that the word for a dead sheep - "closach" - sounds very like the word "Colbhasach", meaning a Colonsay person, has not helped the situation. In fact Colonsay Gaelic does not go as far in this respect as Islay, but a discerning ear may pick up the pronunciation of common expressions such as "slàinte mhath" (good health) and "oidhche mhath" (good night), while the placename Balavetchy (between Kiloran Farm and the bay) is a phonetic transcription of Bail' a' Mhaide as heard with a Colonsay pronunciation.
On an exceptionally clear day the distant hills of Donegal can be seen from Colonsay - as St Columba discovered to his cost, ....but that is another story. It is therefore not altogether surprising that Colonsay Gaelic includes some expressions which are more reminiscent of Irish than of Scots Gaelic. An example is the phrase "gu robh math agad" (literally "may good be with you"), which is used for "thank you", or the word "cosmhail", meaning "similar".
Being such a small and remote island, Colonsay has not figured prominently in the history of Gaelic literature. But in the late nineteenth century, when it was decided to establish a Chair of Celtic at Edinburgh University - the first of its kind anywhere in the world - it was a Colonsay man, Donald Mackinnon, who was elected as the first Professor. Mackinnon's own Gaelic output was mainly in the form of articles and essays, some of them about Colonsay, but he was also a great collector of Gaelic literature, an apologist for the Gaelic cause, and above all an assiduous and inspirational teacher. He died at Balnahard in 1914.
More recently, Colonsay's own publishing firm, House of Lochar, has produced a slim volume of Gaelic poems by Donald MacNeill, who farmed at Garvard for many years and died in 1995. Entitled Moch is Anmoch ("early and late"), a quotation from one of the poems, it includes English translations by the writer of this article. Other pieces of Gaelic song and story from Colonsay were collected by the late Alasdair McAllister, and it is hoped that they can also be published as a companion volume.
For those whose appetite for Gaelic may have been whetted by reading this, there are courses held on Colonsay, usually in the spring and autumn, catering for complete beginners and those who have got beyond the beginners' stage. For more details, visit: www.colonsay.org.uk/courses . Although the future of Gaelic as a living language on Colonsay looks uncertain, there is a growing recognition that it is a vital component in the island's heritage, and has helped to make Colonsay the very special place it is today.
Alastair MacNeill Scouller
|
