Abstract
The examination of a letter written by first Roman Catholic bishop of Prince Edward Island, the Scottish Highlander Angus Bernard MacEachern, written in 1832 to a former parishoner Angus Walker in which the bishop engages in clever code switching from English to Scottish Gaelic and back in order to deliver a message which could only be understood, if intercepted, by another bilingual Scottish Gaelic/English speaker. The paper reveals the historical setting of the 1832 letter and goes on to examine closely the passages of Scottish Gaelic: their meaning in terms of social commentary, their non-standard orthography which provide clues to mainland Scottish dialect variants evidenced by the same, and the descriptions of parishoners encrypted in the author's first language.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 14-18 |
| Journal | The Island Magazine |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue number | 62 |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2007 |
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Keywords
- Scottish Gaelic
- Scottish Gaelic nineteenth century usage in Prince Edward Island
- code switching
- encrypted messages
Cite this
MacPherson, I. S., & MacDonald, E. (2007). 'Soul and Body, Sound and Hearty': getting to know Bishop MacEachern. The Island Magazine, 1(62), 14-18.