Poetry Scotland Language/Dialect Map

Scots

Those who admired David Purdie's translation of the Gododdyn from Old Welsh into Scots will be
pleased to hear that there are plans afoot to publish his Scots version The Godothin as a book.

Gaelic Poetry News

Rody Gorman, editor of An Guth, is looking at poems for the second issue of the new all
Gaelic magazine. Scottish or Irish Gaelic acceptable. E-mail Rody at anguth@onetel.net.uk

The recent publication of the Leabhar Mòr has at least taught most literate Scots that Leabhar
means book and is pronounced to rhyme with eeyore.

Isnt it time more of us got to grips with our own ancient literary tongue? Even a little knowledge
of Gaelic opens up all sorts of insights into one's Scottish English - so let¹s see a few more
writers take the plunge...

Maoilios Caimbeul's new all Gaelic diehard is out (morocco spine, no English included and at no
cost to the government) and it is due to be followed by a book by Rob MacIllechiar and another
by Rody Gorman himself. These two writers are both currently at Sabhal Mòr (yes that means big
something - big barn! It is of course Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic College on Skye). With their
Gaelic books and more from Christopher Whyte in the pipeline, we are have a very strong Gaelic list indeed.

Myles (Maoilios) is from Gairloch. diehard is undoubtedly the best known local publisher in Gairloch,
having published and distributed 500 copies of Ian Blake's first poetry book Aultgrishan, copies of
two of his pamphlets, and a small edition of a reprint of a Gairloch local history book, and now
Myles' book of Gaelic poetry Saoghal Ùr.

Here's an easy way for non Gaels to tell Scottish and Irish Gaelic apart. In Scottish Gaelic the (grave)
accents point to Ireland, while in Irish Gaelic the (acute) accents point to Scotland. Older publications
of Scottish Gaelic have accents pointing both ways, but this convention has been altered recently.
Additionally, accents are now put on capital letters, no doubt because this is feasible in computer
typesetting whereas it wasn't feasible in letterpress.

Meanwhile those of you who do write Gaelic - get your poems in to Rody for An Guth.

This list isn't exclusive. PS is so dynamic that the list would change quite frequently.

Languages		Poets
English: too numerous to list. English language writers are invited to ‘locate’ themselves more exactly for this map.
	Dialects
	Shetlandic	Christine de Luca
	Orcadian	George Mackay Brown
	Cornish	Les Merton
Scots:
	Dialects
	Doric	Sheena Blackhall
	Fife	Andrew McNeil
	Edinburgh	Sandie Craigie
		Nick E. Melville
	Glasgow	Tom Leonard
	Borders	John Murray
	Other	John Drosten
		Rab Swannock Fulton
		Ken Angus
Celtic languages
(Scottish) Gaelic		Derick Thomson
		Rody Gorman
		Christopher Whyte
		Maoilis Caimbeul
		Murdo Stal MacDonald
		Niall Gordan
		Meg Bateman
		Angus Peter Campbell
		Rob MacIlleChiar
		Aonghas MacNeacail
		(and others)
Cornish (Kernewek)		Pol Hodges
Irish Gaelic		Rody Gorman
Manx Gaelic		Rody Gorman
Welsh		David Annwn
Other languages
French		Alain Suied
		Morelle Smith
		Claire Malroux
		Alter Karer

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