Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T01:11:10.131Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Phonetic Structures of Scottish Gaelic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

Peter Ladefoged
Affiliation:
Phonetics Laboratory, Linguistics Department, UCLA 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543, USA
Jenny Ladefoged
Affiliation:
Phonetics Laboratory, Linguistics Department, UCLA 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543, USA
Alice Turk
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of EdinburghAdam Ferguson Building, Edinburgh EH8 9LL, Scotland
Kevin Hind
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of EdinburghAdam Ferguson Building, Edinburgh EH8 9LL, Scotland
St. John Skilton
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of EdinburghAdam Ferguson Building, Edinburgh EH8 9LL, Scotland

Extract

Scottish Gaelic is an endangered language with very few fluent speakers under 60. Recordings were collected in the neighbourhood of Greater Bernera, Lewis, from 11 native speakers. Aerodynamic and palatographic data were collected from one 70-year-old male speaker. Palatographic data made in 1955 by Frederick Macaulay, a Gaelic speaker from South Uist, provided additional information. Analysis showed that all the stops were voiceless unaspirated or aspirated, with the aspirated stops being preaspirated intervocalically. Spectra of various consonants were also determined. Vowel analyses showed the nature of the 7 long and short vowels. Special attention was paid to the back unrounded vowels. Problems of syllabicity were examined and shown to affect pitch contours.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Journal of the International Phonetic Association 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blankenship, B., Ladefoged, P., Bhaskararao, P., & Chase, N. (1993). Phonetic structures of Khonoma Angami. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman area 16, 6988.Google Scholar
Borgstrøm, C.H. (1940). A linguistic survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland: Vol 1 – The dialects of the Outer Hebrides. Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, 1 (supp.).Google Scholar
Bosch, A. (1988). VC syllable structure in Scottish Gaelic: some implications for syllable theory. Unpublished manuscript. University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Bosch, A. (1995). A gestural analysis of epenthesis in Scottish Gaelic. Paper presented at Celtic Linguistics Conference, Dublin, June 22–23, 1995.Google Scholar
Bosch, A. (1998). The syllable in Scottish Gaelic dialect studies. Scottish Gaelic Studies 18, 121.Google Scholar
Bosch, A, & de Jong, K. (1997). The prosody of Barra Gaelic epenthetic vowels. Linguistic Sciences (in press).Google Scholar
Cho, T., & Ladefoged, P. (in press). Variations and universals in VOT: evidence from 18 endangered languages. Journal of Phonetics 27, 207229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clements, G.N. (1986). Syllabification and epenthesis in the Barra dialect of Gaelic. In Bogers, K., van der Hulst, H., & Mous, M. (editors), The phonological representation of suprasegmentals (pp. 317336). Dordrecht, Holland: Foris.Google Scholar
Dorian, N.C. (1978). East Sutherland Gaelic: the dialect of the Brora, Golspie, and Embo fishing communities. Dublin: DIAS.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, J.A. (1990). Autosegmental and metrical phonology: An introduction. Oxford: Blackwells.Google Scholar
Hockett, C.F. (1955). A manual of phonology. Indiana University Publications in Linguistics and Anthropology, Memoir II. Baltimore.Google Scholar
Kenstowicz, M., & Kisseberth, C. (1979). Generative phonology: Description and theory. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, P. (1971) Preliminaries to linguistic phonetics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, P. (1995). A course in phonetics. Orlando: Harcourt Brace.Google Scholar
Mackinnon, R. (1979) Teach yourself Gaelic London: Hodder and Stoughton.Google Scholar
Maddieson, I. (1984). Patterns of sounds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ní Chasaide, A. (1979). Laterals in Gaoth-Dobhair Irish and Hiberno English. In O'Baoill, D.P. (editor), Papers in Celtic phonology (pp. 5478). Coleraine, N. Ireland: Linguistics Department, New University of Ulster.Google Scholar
Shuken, C.R. (1980). An instrumental investigation of some Scottish Gaelic consonants. Ms, University of Edinburgh, Special Collections.Google Scholar
Ternes, E. (1973). The phonemic analysis of Scottish Gaelic. Based on the dialect of Applecross, Ross-shire. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.Google Scholar