Pronunciation in this song

[Brus]

Can anyone comment on the quality of Dan Houghton's pronunciation here:

http://www.reverbnation.com/cantripband ... c-sheumais

Good? OK? I think his Gaelic is learned though his Doric is natural enough.

[Seonaidh]

I've not listened to it yet. My initial comment, however, is that I have heard native English speakers being less comprehensible to me than people speaking English who have learned the language, so the fact that somebody has "learned Gaelic" in no way means that their pronunciation will be bad - any more than that a native speaker will be spot-on with everything. And as RunRig certainly had (has) native Gaelic speakers in it, any necessary advice would be on hand anyway.

[akerbeltz]

A notch short of ghastly. A tiny one. I had to look up the lyrics to try and figure out how far off he was because I couldn't make out a word in 10.

[GunChleoc]

Better try this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EJ4CjoTpBk

They depart a bit from the traditional melody though

[Níall Beag]

Hus prnnsashun uss vurrai vaut. Iss awsawootwy adrojus.

(This is English pronounced as badly as his Gaelic. Kudos to anyone who can decode it.)

[Níall Beag]

Kathleen MacInnes would be the one to listen to (IMO).

[Brus]

A notch short of ghastly. A tiny one. I had to look up the lyrics to try and figure out how far off he was because I couldn't make out a word in 10.

Alas.

I like the band, and this is first time they've recorded with lyrics in Gaelic (as opposed to tunes with titles in Gaelic).

[akerbeltz]

Sorry about that

On a different note, there seems to be an odd pattern here that I've heard before, of non-speakers over-nasalizing when singing Gaelic. Has anyone else noticed that?

[faoileag]

I like both the Runrig and the Kathleen versions - very different.

My feeling on listening was that the Cantrip singer had tried to learn the song phonetically from listening to a recording, and was trying to make it sound as 'Gaelic' as possible, hence the exaggeration or over-use of certain features, such as nasalisation, and disregard of 'rules', like introducing a 'y' sound in broad syllables. Anything not to sound 'English'.

We are after all generally encouraged to wade in there, act confident even if wrong, rather than hesitant and audibly insecure, when in an artistic (rather than language exam) setting, especially when you suspect/hope most of your listeners won't know any better. (Like myself singing in French to mainly non-French-speakers, for example.) Under the circs and on those criteria he does well. But that doesn't make him a model for learners.

[Seonaidh]

Looks like my assumptions were wrong then! I must confess to being a tad surprised.

[Níall Beag]

of non-speakers over-nasalizing when singing Gaelic. Has anyone else noticed that?

Yup. I suspect these are people who took French in high school, and assume that speaking foreign means nasals.

[akerbeltz]

Aye, that might do it