h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For the past 10 years readers and speakers of Gàidhlig (Scots Gaelic), as well as Bòrd na Gàidhlig, have been asking Bloomsbury Publishing to print a Gàidhlig version of the Harry Potter series.

Apparently a translation of the first book was begun, but for some reason it stalled. The first book was scheduled for publication in December 2006, but more recently, Bloomsbury has stated they have no plans to proceed with publication.

Qualified translators have come forward to help, but for some reason nothing is happening.

Anyone with an interest in getting this sorted out should contact Bloomsbury. You can e-mail them at [email protected]

A few reasons you can give them for why they should publish the books: We'll buy them. They would be helping preserve and revitalize the Gàidhlig language. They would be providing incentive for children who are learning Gàidhlig in school, or who hail from Gaelic-speaking areas, to read. And of course, we'll buy them. Speaking for myself, as someone who has recently started to learn the language, it will simply be great to have a well-known work of fiction available in Gàidhlig

The Harry Potter books have already been published in 67 other languages, including Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic), Basque, Welsh, and Frisian; and even in languages which have far fewer speakers than Scots Gaelic, such as Faroese, Greenlandic, and dead languages including Ancient Greek and Latin.

Thanks to the members of Fòram na Gàidhlig for some of this information.

(Cut, pasted and edited by Mr. D, the original version of the posting can be found on the LiveJournal Gàidhlig group)

*Puts the extra 'h' in the title and hopes nobody notices.*