Parrot Time Magazine

The Thinking of Speaking
Issue #28 July / August 2017
News Brief
by Erik Zidowecki
July / August 2017 |  asd
News Brief
Harry Potter getting
Scots translation

In the fictional world of Harry Potter, the wizarding school called Hogwarts is understood to be somewhere in the Scottish Highlands. Now, for the first time, the first book of the series will be available in a Scots translation.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is being translated by Matthew Fitt for publication in October by the Scottish imprint Itchy Coo, which is part of Black & White publishing, according to an article in The Guardian. It will be the 80th language the first book in the series has been translated into.

Though still working on the translation, Fitt and his publisher released the opening paragraph, which reads: “Mr and Mrs Dursley, o nummer fower, Privet Loan, were prood tae say that they were gey normal, thank ye awfie muckle. They were the lest fowk ye wid jalouse wid be taigled up wi onythin unco or ferlie, because they jist widnae hae onythin tae dae wi joukery packery like yon.”

From Itch Coo's site: "Itchy Coo is an imprint which publishes bestselling books in Scots for children and young people. James Robertson is our General Editor. "

"And it is an education project which works with pupils and teachers to develop their Scots reading and writing skills. Matthew Fitt is our Education programme director. "

Scots, not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic, is a dialect of English spoken by the lowland people of Scotland (approx. 1.5 million). It is descended from the language of the Angles who settled in northern Britain in the 5th century AD. Originally known as ‘Inglis’, it has been influenced by Gaelic, Norse, Latin, Dutch, Norman French, Standard French and English.

$7.6m invested in Māori
language resources

The New Zealand Parliament has added $7.6 million to be allocated to funding Maori education in the 2017 Budget, according to Online News - Rereātea.

Education Minister Nikki Kaye, accompanied by Prime Minister Bill English, spoke about what the funding will provide at Roscommon School in South Aukland:

"This funding will accelerate the design and delivery of localised curriculum resources to support te reo Māori for ākonga, kaiako and Kāhui Ako."

"It adds significantly to the $2 million already spent each year on Māori language in education curriculum resources.

"Students in Māori medium and English medium kura and schools are set to benefit from the new resources, which will be created to support students both learning te reo Māori as a subject, and studying other subjects in and through te reo.

"Improving access to quality localised curriculum resources for these children and young people is key to supporting their success in education.

"This is about enabling students to see themselves and their community within their learning environment. This is important, as evidence tells us that if a student’s identity, language and culture are supported throughout their education then they are more likely to succeed and remain engaged in their learning.

News Brief
Writer: Erik Zidowecki

All images are Copyright - CC BY-SA (Creative Commons Share Alike) by their respective owners, except for Petey, which is Public Domain (PD) or unless otherwise noted.

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