Christian Speculative Fiction discussion

We are reading Sir Gibbie by George MacDonald during the month of December! The book is FREE for Kindle! There is no obligation to write a review.

George MacDonald's 1870s' Sir Gibbie is about a destitute Scottish orphan who overcomes amazing odds. The book has a strong Christian theme. This rag to riches tale was reportedly a favorite of C.S. Lewis's.

We will be reading two chapters a day starting December 1st with many discussion threads about each part of the book.

Because this story takes place in historic Scotland and is written by a Scot, there is some thick Scottish dialect in parts of the book. This thread can be used to post your questions about the language in general. Many members of our group are from the UK. I too lived in Scotland for 4 years and have multiple resources to help understand Scots, including ornery friends who speak it. Somebody will be able to give you an interpretation if needed.

Also, any general commits, thoughts, or questions can be posted here at any time.

I just found this on Facebook - a guy is doing a Scots-English translation of Sir Gibbie. He has quotes and such on the FB page. It might be of interest to the group given our December read.

https://www.facebook.com/Sir-Gibbie-b...

Stan wrote: "I just found this on Facebook - a guy is doing a Scots-English translation of Sir Gibbie. He has quotes and such on the FB page. It might be of interest to the group given our December read.

https..."

Awesome! This could be very helpful.

Stan wrote: "I just found this on Facebook - a guy is doing a Scots-English translation of Sir Gibbie. He has quotes and such on the FB page. It might be of interest to the group given our December read."

Thanks! Even though I got the ebook free, I took a peek at his version with the side-by-side translations of the Scottish speech. It looks like it will make it much easier to read. So, I bought the paperback. Looking forward to it!

J.F. wrote: "It looks like it will make it much easier to read. So, I bought the paperback. Looking forward to it!"

I'm glad you got the translation and are looking forward to the book!

One trick for understanding the Scots as well is to sound out the words out loud so you can hear it. The words often sound like the English words they mean but with an accent. I have found many people stumble on the strange spelling, but once it is read out loud, it is easier to understand. I don't see an Audible version, but someone should do that. It would be fun to hear!

I just discovered this Gibbie group read-I'm the translator of the new edition, so thanks for ordering, J.F! There is an Audible version read by Gordon Jack (no relation!) of which I've listened to a sample, and it sounds pretty good. He's Scottish, which means his pronunciation of the (Doric) Scots words should be accurate, which will be an aid to understanding; but at the same time his accent is mild enough, and his reading sufficiently unhurried and enunciated that non-Scots should be able to follow fairly easily. I'll also be happy to help people out with definitions of Doric (Aberdeenshire dialect) words whenever necessary.

David wrote: "I'll also be happy to help people out with definitions of Doric (Aberdeenshire dialect) words whenever necessary."

I had not realized that Scots had various dialects within it. I had understood that the highlands would have spoken Gaelic at this time, but I'm not sure. Could you expand on this? Would the Aberdeenshire dialect mostly exist in the northeastern countryside and something else exist in the west around Glasgow, such as what Robert Burns used? What other dialects are there?

Btw, glad to have you part of the discussion!

Thanks Lara! In my preface for Castle Warlock, my second GM translation (Robert Falconer is my first, and Gibbie my third) I address this issue of Scottish dialects, and yes, the Doric dialect is spoken exclusively in the North East, that is, Aberdeenshire, of which MacDonald's home town of Huntly forms a part. It's spoken in the city of Aberdeen as well, but the more pretentious educated people in GM's day and our own might think broad Scots of any form to be beneath them-there's an example of this in Sir Gibbie, during a conversation between Fergus and Donal. Gaelic is indeed spoken mostly in the highlands and islands of Scotland, and is more common the further north you go. In MacDonald's day there would have been more examples of people who spoke ONLY Gaelic and no English, but even then there would have been plenty of English speakers in the highlands. I think broad Scots is less common in the highlands, and the forms of it are milder than Doric, and in Robert Falconer there's a character from Caithness who has no Scots. In the highland story What's Mine's Mine (the only one of GM's Scottish novels not to contain Scots dialogue) the two brothers who are the main characters speak only English and Gaelic; but the Gaelic conversations are not recorded, as it would confuse the reader, and besides, I don't think GM himself spoke it-or at least not with any fluency.

Burns' Scots is different from MacDonald's, but not massively. Doric is very distinctive when spoken, and GM uses some of these distinctive features, but his written Doric is a bit more like generic Scots, and the different dialects do all have plenty of words in common anyway. The word "Scots" is used now for the language as a whole, and you might speak about Ayrshire Scots (Burns) or Glaswegian etc, but I believe originally "Scots" referred to the lowland dialect (including Burns's, if I'm not mistaken) and then you would have other dialects like Doric etc as you went further north. Aberdeenshire is my part of the world though (which was the reason I was commissioned to do the translations!) so I can speak with a little more authority on that than on other dialects of Scots.

This is very fascinating! As an American, I often forget the diversity in such a small area of the world. When I lived in Scotland, it took me about a year to really recognize the very clear difference between the Edinburgh accent and the Glaswegian accent which still exists with travel being so easy today. It makes sense that Scots would hold diversity at that time. I imagine even a subtle difference would be noticeable to those who speak it. When I traveled, I was often complimented on my "pretty southern American accent" except my accent is Floridian and not called southern in the US at all. It's subtle, but Americans can hear it easily. This makes a lot of sense to me.

David wrote: "I just discovered this Gibbie group read-I'm the translator of the new edition, so thanks for ordering, J.F!"

Thanks for writing it! I'm sorry to say I've gotten a bit distracted this month. I had two other authors looking for help, so I got to reading their works. Then I'm back to Sir Gibbie since I was very much enjoying it. I love having a paperback for one...I so miss the feel of paper. But I also love having the original text and the translation side-by-side. It undoubtedly takes me longer to read, since I read both...and I try to "hear" it as I read. I've always been enthralled by the Scottish dialect and culture, so it's fascinating to read how they would speak, but convenient to know I'm not misunderstanding through improper translations. So, thanks for that! I'm sorry I'm missing out on these discussions!

We aren't supposed to be finished until the end of the month, so feel free to jump into any conversation. I will be posting one or two more questions if I can think of good ones.

Lara wrote: "We aren't supposed to be finished until the end of the month, so feel free to jump into any conversation. I will be posting one or two more questions if I can think of good ones."

Unfortunately, I'm not quite finished the second book I'm beta reading. I'm quite far behind on Sir Gibbie. I left off on chapter 11.

J.F. wrote: "David wrote: "I just discovered this Gibbie group read-I'm the translator of the new edition, so thanks for ordering, J.F!"

Thanks for writing it! I'm sorry to say I've gotten a bit distracted thi..."

You're very welcome! I'm glad the double column format pleases you! To have just gone with a regular translation would have been a bit of a betrayal of the soul of the book, I think; so fortunately with the first translation (Robert Falconer) a few years ago, we hit upon the twin columns idea, and will be sticking with it through all 12 of the Scottish novels!