Re: Free stuff for Celtic mandolin Learners
Originally Posted by
Sue Rieter
John, thanks for posting this. My maternal Grandmother came from the Shetlands via Edinburgh in 1917. She died when I was quite young. My oldest cousin recalls asking her to speak in the Gaelic, and my Grandfather (who was French Canadian) discouraging it, as it made her homesick. Now that I've taken up the mandolin, I've been thinking of trying to get in touch with this Celtic heritage, and your beginner stuff looks like a good place to start.
That's puzzling, as the Shetland Islands were never a Gaelic-speaking region. Perhaps your grandmother moved to the Shetlands from another area, or perhaps she was speaking in Shetland dialect. Throughout recorded history, Scotland had many cultures and languages in various regions, including: English, Old Norse, and other Germanic languages; a Celtic language related to Welsh; Pictish, which perhaps fits into the related-to-Welsh category; and Gaelic brought in by the Scotti, Irish people, and spoken mainly in the Highlands and Western Isles. Now, people speak "Scots" or "Scottish English", with different dialects of Scots Gaelic being spoken in a few regions. The Norse dominated the Shetlands for hundreds of years. Today, as I understand, Shetland language is an English dialect with elements of Norse. Some Scot can correct me if I'm wrong on any of this. Anyway, you have a mystery to solve. (Great fiddlers up there -- Aly Bain being only one.)
Here's what Wikipedia has to say:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_dialect
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
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