Blas na Gàidhlig: The Practical Guide to Scottish Gaelic Pronunciation - Hardcover

Bauer, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1907165002 ISBN 13: 9781907165009

Publisher: Akerbeltz, 2011

This book tackles the thorny issue of Scottish Gaelic pronunciation in an engaging and clear manner without loosing track of the bigger picture and the fine detail. It was written with three main reader groups in mind:

• Adult learners of Gaelic (from total beginner up to highly advanced learners who want to improve their pronunciation and comprehension skills)
• Teachers and tutors of Gaelic who wish to become more effective in teaching pronunciation to adult learners of the language
• Native speakers of the language who wish to gain a better understanding of how their language works.

It assumes no prior knowledge and takes the reader on a complete journey through the marvels of the Gaelic sound system. It comes with over 120 sets of exercises, numerous sound files that can be accessed via the publisher's website, both technical and entertaining illustrations and a recipe for some Christmas baking.

No single solution will ever exist which will solve all the problems facing the learners of Gaelic when it comes to pronunciation but, without doubt, this book will help learners and teachers of the language take a large step forwards.

Review:

A truly brilliant book on what - until now - has been a difficult topic for learners and teachers alike. Michael Bauer has taken what is a very complex subject - the pronunciation of Scottish Gaelic - and presented it in a lively, witty and informative way. With this authoritative book, even those with little or no knowledge of concepts such as the Phonetic Alphabet will discover exactly why the sounds work the way they do. It will help learners unlock that elusive door to understanding and speaking the language well. And it will be invaluable for Gaelic teachers who have become accustomed to a feeling of dread in response to that inevitable question regarding some matter of pronunciation - "But why?" Ishbel Murray, Gaelic Immersion Course Teacher, Stow College Glasgow

About the Author:

Michael Bauer was born into a trilingual family in 1974. He has had first-hand experience of the linguistic struggles encountered in a setting where one of the home languages was not the community language as well. His first encounter with a Celtic language, Irish, led to a long-standing fascination with Goidelic languages.

At Edinburgh University he focussed on phonology, language acquisition and modern Gaelic and graduated in 2002 with a degree in Linguistics and Celtic Studies. His career in language teaching goes back a long time. Although he started in the academic arena, he made a conscious decision to abandon an academic career in favour of improving the teaching of Gaelic pronunciation - and the necessary resources - to adult learners.

The first development was a Gaelic resource website but in light of the encouraging feedback from many users and learners in the global learners' community about the site, he embarked on the 8-year journey of producing this book. Since those early days, he has focussed on honing his methods and materials to suit adult learners and today is called upon frequently to help both groups and individuals who are struggling with the sounds of Gaelic.

He lives in Glasgow and, as part of the portfolio of his Gaelic language services company, teaches pronunciation through workshops all over Scotland and abroad.

• Publisher: Akerbeltz
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1907165002
• ISBN 13: 9781907165009
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 592