Learn To Speak Outlander With These New Videos
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Fans of Outlander, Diana Gabaldon’s hugely popular series of novels, are already super jazzed for Ronald D. Moore’s upcoming adaptation for Starz. The time jumping romance bounces from the 1940s all the way back to the 1740s. Different times necessarily feature different manners of speech, terms, and dialects, and in order to give the series an air of authenticity, the show includes a fair amount of Gaelic. This is especially prevalent in the relationship between Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall, as the former has a number of cutsie, if dated, nicknames for his love from the future. To help fans cope with a the difficult pronunciation, the network has release a series of videos, including this latest, so you don’t sound like a total jackass when you try to imitate the onscreen couple.
One of Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) affectionate monikers for Claire (Caitriona Balfe) is Mo nighean donn, which translates to “my brown-haired lass.” That’s a mouthful, for sure, but fear not, “How to Speak Outlander” is here to help. Don’t worry if it takes you a while to get it, you’re not alone, as illustrated in this video, not many random people off the street can figure it out on their own without a tutorial.
Gaelic expert Adham O Broin introduces the video and walks you through the pronunciation. If you need some added motivation to learn, other than to avoid looking like an idiot, cast members Graham McTavish and Gary Lewis, who star as a pair of brothers named Dougal and Colum MacKenzie, will be there to mock you when you screw up. That tactic doesn’t always work for everyone, so on other side of the coin, Heughan stops buy to offer some gentle, dreamy-eyed encouragement, more of a catch-more-flies-with-honey approach.
Outlander starts in the 1940s with Claire, a happily-married World War II nurse, on vacation in Scotland with her hubby. A trek to a strange rock vaults her back into the 18th century, which as you can imagine is quite a culture shock. Once there, she is forced to wed Jamie, a sexy young outlaw warrior. Romance and danger and all manner of adventures ensue.
There’s no word on a release date for Outlander yet, but the latest rumor is that Starz is looking forward to a summer release. Four episodes are reportedly in the can, and the production will apparently return to Scotland starting in February in order to work on the more.
If you want to brush up on your Gaelic in order to prepare for the release, here are the previous two videos. Who needs Rosetta Stone, you’ll be speaking like an old-timey Scot in no time.
