This and that - Reading Gaelic
Aaaaand ....
I've finished printing out a copy of Aladin (in Gaelic). With a plastic laminated cover that has a really neat picture on it.
The text was published in serial form around 1902 in the Canadian Gaelic language newspaper Mac-Talla. I found these online at SMO as pdf and transcribed them in to Wordpad documents. The past week or so, I've been converting the individual chapters into Word documents, formatted into two columns landscape and then moving the sections so that I had pages in the order 8-1, 2-7, 6-3, 4-5. When printed on two pieces of paper and folded in half, they arrange in book order.
I had considered adding illustrations and binding the sections in old-fashion sewn book form but ... well ... typos. So, I'm going with my original, lazy idea of plastic comb binding the sections (there's a comb binder at the hs library that I can use). I'll read through the comb copy, editing the typos and adding fadas (accent marks) ... but I'm not sure yet if I'll update the spelling. Have to see how much I can understand. I'll fix the saved text as I go and add in the (19) illustrations at the appropriate point in the book copy.
What really excites me about this is - the illustrations are from Dalziel's Illustrated Arabian Nights (published around 1900), which does not have the text separated into chapters. I had to scan through the Gaelic text in order to identify the scene depicted, and my understanding of the language was such that I started doing it without thinking twice, just as if it had been in English. Well, not exactly English, but still... When I noticed what I was doing, I was impressed.
Which brings up another thing I've noticed, when I simply read a story in Gaelic (Alice in Wonderland atm), without worrying about the grammar or exact meaning of the words (read for enjoyment), I tend to understand the story far FAR better than I do when I read for comprehension - paying attention to such things as grammar and vocabulary. It occurs to me that I do something like that when I read English-language novels as well - especially historical novels like Jane Austen. I enjoy Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, but only if I have time to sit down and lose myself in the book - sustaining the illusion, I call it. As long as I don't worry about exactly how things work, or why all the manners and social machinations are necessary, I can accept it. If I stop to analyze exactly why and what and how ... I stop reading and put the book away.
Which is why I hated English literature classes. I suspect that those analytical-type classes that dissect each novel looking for the soul of literature are one of the reasons why readers were decreasing in number even before the Internet addiction took over our society. (fwiw, such analysis of literature is about as useful as a necropsy intent on isolating the soul of the individual. There are some things that analysis will not ever be able to discover.)
I've finished printing out a copy of Aladin (in Gaelic). With a plastic laminated cover that has a really neat picture on it.
The text was published in serial form around 1902 in the Canadian Gaelic language newspaper Mac-Talla. I found these online at SMO as pdf and transcribed them in to Wordpad documents. The past week or so, I've been converting the individual chapters into Word documents, formatted into two columns landscape and then moving the sections so that I had pages in the order 8-1, 2-7, 6-3, 4-5. When printed on two pieces of paper and folded in half, they arrange in book order.
I had considered adding illustrations and binding the sections in old-fashion sewn book form but ... well ... typos. So, I'm going with my original, lazy idea of plastic comb binding the sections (there's a comb binder at the hs library that I can use). I'll read through the comb copy, editing the typos and adding fadas (accent marks) ... but I'm not sure yet if I'll update the spelling. Have to see how much I can understand. I'll fix the saved text as I go and add in the (19) illustrations at the appropriate point in the book copy.
What really excites me about this is - the illustrations are from Dalziel's Illustrated Arabian Nights (published around 1900), which does not have the text separated into chapters. I had to scan through the Gaelic text in order to identify the scene depicted, and my understanding of the language was such that I started doing it without thinking twice, just as if it had been in English. Well, not exactly English, but still... When I noticed what I was doing, I was impressed.
Which brings up another thing I've noticed, when I simply read a story in Gaelic (Alice in Wonderland atm), without worrying about the grammar or exact meaning of the words (read for enjoyment), I tend to understand the story far FAR better than I do when I read for comprehension - paying attention to such things as grammar and vocabulary. It occurs to me that I do something like that when I read English-language novels as well - especially historical novels like Jane Austen. I enjoy Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, but only if I have time to sit down and lose myself in the book - sustaining the illusion, I call it. As long as I don't worry about exactly how things work, or why all the manners and social machinations are necessary, I can accept it. If I stop to analyze exactly why and what and how ... I stop reading and put the book away.
Which is why I hated English literature classes. I suspect that those analytical-type classes that dissect each novel looking for the soul of literature are one of the reasons why readers were decreasing in number even before the Internet addiction took over our society. (fwiw, such analysis of literature is about as useful as a necropsy intent on isolating the soul of the individual. There are some things that analysis will not ever be able to discover.)