About the HDSG Audio Archive
Work on Cluas ri Claisneachd began in 2015 with the aim of making all recordings in the possession of Celtic and Gaelic at the University of Glasgow available online. This project was started by Abi Lightbody, who indexed the recordings and then worked with DASG’s Research Systems Developer Stephen Barrett to build the online archive. Eilidh Cormack joined the project in 2018 to continue development of the website and contribute to the transcription work.
The archive contains recordings made during the collection process for the Historical Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic and other recordings that were donated to Celtic and Gaelic over the years. Cluas ri Claisneachd contains 140 hours’ worth of audio files, including recordings made by Angus Martin in Argyll and A. J. Smith in Canada as well as many others. The Uist Digitisation Centre digitised these recordings for DASG and our thanks goes to them for their help in getting the archive up and running.
Our thanks go to the fieldworkers who gathered these recordings for contribution to the archive: Sister Beaton, Tony Dilworth, Nancy Dorian, Duncan MacLaren, C. I. N. MacLeod, D. M. MacQuarie, Angus Martin and A. J. Smith.
The files currently available have been fully transcribed, subtitled and have had detailed contents added to make it easier to search for specific material. This allows the user to search for a fieldworker, an informant, a place, a year, a specific kind of material (e.g., a song) as well as the title of the material (e.g., the title of the song).
When browsing, you can view all the files currently available. If you click on one of the files, you can listen to it with accompanying subtitles and view the detailed contents in the scrollbox. If you click on an item in the scrollbox, you will be taken to that item in the recording (e.g., if you click on ‘Òran an Teine’, you will be taken to the beginning of that song).
If you are looking for specific information, the informant, fieldworker, year, place and type of material (e.g., song) or the title of the material (e.g., song title) can be searched for in the archive under ‘for a recording’. If you are searching for specific words or phrases, you can search through the transcriptions under ‘for a transcription’, and you can then choose either to listen to that item (under ‘Listen’) or to skip to the phrase you are looking for in the transcriptions (under ‘Read’).
Appropriate permissions have been gathered from the fieldworkers who recorded our audio files to make them freely available online to the public. In making material available online DASG acts in good faith that our content has significant value and will contribute to the further study of the Gaelic language, linguistics and history. We do however recognise that from time to time material may be published that contains personal data or includes content that may be regarded as obscene or defamatory. If you find material on our website for which you have not given permission, or which contravenes privacy laws, is obscene / defamatory or is not covered by a limitation or exception, please contact us here. Upon receipt of a valid complaint the material will be temporarily removed from the DASG website pending an agreed solution.
