The World in Words 20: Scottish Gaelic, Scots and the Arabic for hockey mom

A celtic cast today, topped with an Arabic primer from the campaign trail. US-based Al Jazeera TV correspondent Abderrahim Foukara talks about the challenges of translating some words and concepts of American presidential politics. Among the toughest: maverick and superdelegate (hockey mom is easy). Then it’s Scottish Gaelic: the BBC is launching is launching a new Gaelic TV service this month. We consder that and other efforts to reverse the decline of the language, and we drop in on a Gaelic class at Harvard. Finally we listen in on speakers of Scots, that much-maligned dialect that may or may not be a language. Language or not, it is hugely expressive.