Fine-grained Morphophonological Variation in Scottish Gaelic: Evidence from the Linguistic Survey of Scotland

Abstract

Descriptive accounts of Scottish Gaelic dialects (e.g. Borgstrøm 1937, Oftedal 1956, Ternes 1973) have noted significant regional variation in the surface description of nasal mutation; this paper brings previously unpublished data from archives of the Linguistic Survey of Scotland to bear on the full range of variation across Gaelic speaking Scotland. We employ data from the archives of the Linguistic Survey of Scotland to map out the actual range of variation in the nasal mutation; using Mapmaker software we focus on three graded parameters: voicing, aspiration, and nasalization. With this research we demonstrate the continuing value of “historical” data for the analysis of endangered and minority languages. As yet, no maps have been published based on this survey data.