Gaelic (Scots)
From about 1840 when organised European settlement of New Zealand began,
the westernmost Celtic fringe peoples of the British Isles, that is,
those of Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, Cornwall, Wales and the Isle
of Man, contributed in varying proportions to the immigrant population
of New Zealand. To date, quantitative analysis of these British
immigrants is confined to three national groups: the Irish, according to
county of origin; the Scots, also according to county of origin, but
with no clear distinction made between the two cultural regions: the
Lowlands, characterised linguistically by various dialects of English,
and the Highlands where the Scots Gaelic language predominated; the
Cornish, Welsh and Manx, although similarly identified by county of
origin, lumped with the English simply as 'English and Welsh'.
While the Irish were
most numerous of the Celtic immigrant peoples, little seems to be known
of the prevalence of the Irish Gaelic language, or of any printed texts
they may have brought with them. The Scottish Highlanders, who spoke
another distinctive form of Gaelic, emigrated to New Zealand in
significantly fewer numbers than the Irish and constituted only about
one-fifth of the total Scots immigrant population. One of the particular
difficulties in considering the print culture of the Celtic peoples in
New Zealand is their heavy reliance on traditional processes of oral
transmission, especially in relation to the Gaelic cultures of both
Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. Nevertheless, a surprising variety
of printed matter in Scots Gaelic is extant in parts of New Zealand.
The oldest appears to
be of a religious nature in the form of Bibles (both Old and New
Testaments combined), New Testaments, Psalms and Paraphrases, hymnbooks,
catechisms, variously published by the Edinburgh Bible Society, the
National Bible Society of Scotland and the British and Foreign Bible
Society. Almost without exception these texts were published in the 19th
century and appear to have been brought with Gaelic-speaking immigrants
between the mid 19th century and early 20th century. Both the Otago
Settlers Museum, Dunedin, and the House of Memories, Waipu, Northland,
hold examples.
The intentional
translation from English into Gaelic of such texts reflects the Church
of Scotland missionary activities among the Gaelic speakers. Possession
of a Gaelic Bible ( biobull ) served as a
talisman and, together with two other elements of domestic Highland
culture—bagpipes ( piob mhor ) and
locally-distilled whisky ( uisge beatha
)—not infrequently adorned the kitchen table simultaneously.
In a culture dominated by oral traditions a Bible may have been the only
printed domestic Gaelic text.
Other religious texts
include those probably held and used by ministers and officers of the
church: McLauchlan (1873), commonly called John Knox's Liturgy, which
was translated directly into Gaelic from the 1567 Latin text, and
MacDhomnuill's (1804) Confession of Faith seem central to the
propagation of Presbyterianism in New Zealand. Less doctrinal titles
include the writings of Boston (1887), Dyer (1884) and Guthrie (1845),
held in the residual collection of the Dunedin-based Gaelic Society of
New Zealand.
In their religious
worship Dunedin's Gaelic speakers, in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, were able to link religious instruction with the maintenance
of their language, at least with MacLeoid's Friend of
the Gael (1867) and Book of the Hills, Old
and New (1898).
Other than the Gaelic
Society's monthly meetings, opportunities to sustain the language were
limited. Oral Scots Gaelic, along with many other minority immigrant
languages confronted by an anglophone cultural hegemony, declined within
a generation. Gaelic societies attempted to retain the language,
particularly in song. At the 1899 Annual Gathering of the Gaelic Society
of New Zealand, chief John MacKenzie reported a renaissance in the
language. The Highlanders of Dunedin and their colonial-born children
had no excuse to neglect their language, its literature and music when
such resources as the recently imported Gaelic song books A Choisir Chiuil , the Celtic
Monthly and Mactalla newspapers, the use
of a large Gaelic library, and the privilege of hearing a Gaelic sermon
every month, were available.
That library included
fiction titles in Gaelic published in Scotland: Mac-Dhomnhuill (n.d.);
MacCormaig (1908); Le K.W.G. (1911); Mhic Pharlain (1912), and
collections of Gaelic poems and songs from the Highlands: Blair (1882),
Morrison (1889), Maceacharn (1904, 1910), MacFadyen (1890), MacPhaidein
(1890, 1921), together with MacLeoid (1916), MacDhomhnuill (1920) and
MhicDhughaill (1936) representing the outer Hebridean Isle of Lewis. All
are Scottish publications whereas MacGregor (1897), honorary Bard to the
Clan MacGregor, was published in London. Robertson (1927) is the only
New Zealand publication. Although principally in English, it does,
however, include six Gaelic poems written by Robertson, sometime bard to
the Gaelic Society. McLauchlan's (1902) collection of Ossian's poems was
previously privately owned in South Canterbury.
The Society's choir
still performs from the A Choisir Chiuil song
books. However, some Gaelic-language text remains enshrined in the names
of Highland bagpipe tunes, especially those of the earliest genre, ceol mor , now generally referred to as piobaireachd or, in its anglicised form, pibroch.
While these tunes continue to be published according to both their
Gaelic and English titles, few pipers have sufficient knowledge of the
language to refer to the tunes in Gaelic.
In an effort to
sustain the Gaelic language, publications in the form of grammars
emerged, mostly post-World War II, and largely in Scotland, where
Macleod (1979) reflects the use of television to regenerate the
language. Parsons (1989) was published in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The
Gaelic Society's library holds only the pre-World War II publications:
MacLaren (n.d.); Reid (1902); Calder (1923); and Mackechnie (1934); some
ten titles published post-World War II are held privately.
Dictionaries found are
likewise 20th-century publications: Dwelly (1902); McAlpine (1903);
MacLennan (1925); Renton and MacDonald (1979); Thomson (1981); Clyne
(1985, 1991); McKay (1990)—all held privately. It appears that
while Bibles and other religious materials were consigned to library and
archival repositories, publications which promoted use of the language
were retained privately.
Subscription to
newspapers permitted, and still permits, contacts with 'home'. Both the
Stornoway Gazette (published on the Hebridean
Isle of Lewis), and the Oban Times (published in
Oban, Argyllshire) contained Gaelic-language portions and were posted
from their respective places of publication to subscribers in Dunedin. A
second-generation family member now living in Christchurch maintains his
subscription to the Oban Times .
This manner of contact
was augmented by a variety of periodicals, initially those published in
Scotland. The monthly magazine of An Commun
Gaidhealach (The Gaelic Society of Scotland), variously
entitled An Deo-Greine (The Sun God), Gailig' (Gaelic) and An
Gaidheal , was a bilingual, English-Gaelic publication.
Irregular issues between vols.9 (1914) and 26 (1931) are held in the
Gaelic Society's collection; the Society also subscribed to the Scottish Highlander . There is evidence of
private subscription by the Society's members to these titles and to the
Celtic Monthly , but no copies remain.
Historic migratory and
familial connections between Nova Scotia and Waipu, in Northland, New
Zealand, are witnessed by copies of Mac-Talla , a
Gaelic language newspaper published in Sydney, Nova Scotia, for several
years. The House of Memories, Waipu, holds issues from vols.5 and 6,
dated 1897 and 1898; the Gaelic Society also subscribed.
The first New
Zealand-published periodical to include Gaelic material, albeit limited
to a page or two, began in 1912 as The New Zealand
Scot . This was succeeded by The Scottish New
Zealander , and ultimately became The New
Zealand Scotsman & Caledonian in 1927, which ran until
1933. These titles appear to have had limited circulation among members
of such culture-specific interest groups as St Andrews, Gaelic, Celtic
and Caledonian societies. Auckland Public Library holds a complete set
of issues of The New Zealand Scot and The Scottish New Zealander ; the Alexander
Turnbull Library, Wellington, holds a complete set of The New Zealand Scotsman & Caledonian and the Hocken
Library, Dunedin, a partial set.
The bilingual
Gaelic-English An Ghaidheal; Paipeir-Naidheachd agus
Leabhar-sgeoil Gaidhealach , published in Glasgow, served a
dual function as both newspaper and Gaelic schoolbook. The four volumes
(1873-76) which remain in the Gaelic Society library predate the
Society's formation in 1882, but would have helped to sustain the
language. Similarly, the quarterly issues of Guth na
Bliadhna (Wind of the Year) Books 4 (1906-07), 5 (1908) and 7
(1910), storybooks mostly in Gaelic, but with a lesser proportion in
English, provided another such resource. This title appears to have been
imported and retailed by a Timaru bookseller; the South Canterbury
region attracted a demonstrable Highland and therefore Gaelic-speaking
presence, notably in the inland Mackenzie country.
Arguably, the most
pervasive reminder of the contribution made by Gaelic speakers to the
evolving New Zealand colonial landscape is visible in geographical
terms, through such Gaelic place names as Balmoral, Benmore, Ben Nevis,
Benhar, Craigellachie, Dalmore, Dunedin, Dunoon, Duntroon, Glencoe,
Glendhu, Glenfalloch, Glenorchy, Glenquoich, Kinloch, Lochiel and
Lochindorb. Names such as these serve as a permanent memorial to the
brief currency of an immigrant minority language.