The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [295]
Immersions, tours, books, classes. Affiliated somehow with Sabhal Mor.
Gaelic Summer School at the Gaelic College P.O. Box 9
Baddeck, Nova Scotia BOE 1BO Canada
They do week-long intensives in the summer (for all levels of students) that are quite reasonable. For tuition, room, and board for a week it’s $425.00 Canadian. (MLF)
Sabhal Mor Ostaig
Teangue, Sleat Isle of Skye Scotland, IV44 8RQ E-mail: oifis@smo.uhi.ac.uk www.smo.uhi.ac.uk
Sabhal Mor is the Gaelic College on Sleat. They offer business, computer, and management classes all in Gaidhlig, as well as immersions, classes, and other events for the learner. I’d give my eyeteeth to study there for a quarter. Abair Sin! (Michelle LaFrance, Slighe Nan Gaidheal)
SCOTTISH/CELTIC/GAELIC WEB SITES, LISTSERVES, AND E-MAIL ADDRESSES OF INTEREST3
www.ceantar.org has links to various Gaelic organizations (Irish, Scottish, Manx) and the North American Assn. of Celtic Language Teachers.
UNC at Chapel Hill: sunsite.unc.edu:80/gaelic.
Six Celtic languages represented. Discussion of language and culture. (Sandra Parshall)
Bay Area Scottish Gaelic Learner’s Association: E-mail: scotgaelic@earthlink.net.
Additionally, there are two Internet lists that are pretty good for the learner. You’ll see other lists that are more high-profile, but that aren’t as accommodating for beginners.
GAIDHLIG-B
To register, send an e-mail
to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.HEA.IE with “SUBSCRIBE GAIDHLIG-B [full-name]” as the subject header (do not include quotes in header).
GAIDHLIG 4U
Send an e-mail to: Majordomo@lists.sonic.net with “subscribe gaidhlig 4U [e-mail address]” as the subject (do not include quotes). (Michelle LaFrance)
1 ’I’m told that Gaidhlig cursing depends much more on colorful expression and imaginative relationships than on “bad language”—i.e., swear words—as such.
2 NB: for the sake of clarity, I’ve divided Michelle’s very extensive list among the various classifications of the appendix. Her contributions are initialed.
3 Please note that Web sites do change, add links, or disappear now and then; I can’t guarantee that these sites will be in existence, or in the form described, by the time this book is published.
APPENDIX III
POEMS AND
QUOTATIONS
One of the aspects of eighteenth-century literature and letters that I particularly enjoy is the frequent and easy use of quotes and classical allusion. In the eighteenth century, an educated man (or woman; there were not a few) would have been familiar with the best-known of the classical writers, and it was common to employ both specific references and less direct allusion, both as a means of establishing one’s social credentials, and—I suspect—for fun.
One of the small advantages of writing historical fiction from a well-documented period is the ability to use elements of the style of that period in the narration of the book. When it’s well done, this gives the story a pervasive atmosphere that adds to the overall impression of authenticity. (When it’s not well done, the less said, the better. This is one of those stylistic tricks that can backfire, if the writer doesn’t have a firm grip on it.)
This particular technique is most obvious in books set during the Civil War. I’ve seldom seen a popular book of this kind that didn’t employ some form of the courtly, formal, Bible-cadenced language seen in nineteenth-century documents (My husband calls it the “PBS Voice-over Effect”). In fact, the audience for Civil War material is so used to this style that it would be difficult to produce a popular mainstream book set in this period that did not use such language, and have it be well accepted.
Since the Outlander books are told primarily from the point of view of Claire Beauchamp Randall, the prevailing idiom is not eighteenth-century Scots, but World War II—vintage British English—articulate, educated, but slangy and humorous, spiced with casual profanity. However, those sections of the later books that are told, for example, from the point of view of Jamie Fraser or Lord