Edinburgh Research Archive logo

Edinburgh Research Archive

University of Edinburgh homecrest
View Item 
  •   ERA Home
  • Literatures, Languages, and Cultures, School of
  • Literatures, Languages, and Cultures PhD thesis collection
  • View Item
  •   ERA Home
  • Literatures, Languages, and Cultures, School of
  • Literatures, Languages, and Cultures PhD thesis collection
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Geolinguistic variation of Hebridean Gaelic: the role of nominal morphology

View/Open
Wilson2021.pdf (6.566Mb)
Date
07/12/2021
Item status
Restricted Access
Embargo end date
07/12/2022
Author
Wilson, Charles
Wilson, Teàrlach
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
This thesis investigates the geographical variation of inflectional markers used in noun phrases by speakers of Scottish Gaelic. I focus on the traditional vernacular and therefore the data represent the speech of older L1 speakers from one of the language’s heartlands: the Hebridean archipelago. I interviewed 41 speakers above the age of 50 from 18 locations on 10 islands and used dialectometric methods to analyse the data. This thesis contributes to Gaelic and linguistic research by providing: (1) an updated account of morphological and geographical variation in the traditional Gaelic vernacular; (2) further evaluation of quantitative analyses of morphology and macrolevel variation; (3) a theory of the hierarchy of inflectional markedness for Gaelic; and (4) a critical geolinguistic approach to the study of Gaelic and morphology applied to quantitative and qualitative data. The fieldwork component of this research consisted of a sociolinguistic interview, an elicitation task, and a questionnaire to collect contributors’ demographic background and linguistic attitudes. I interrogated the data with regression, cluster, and correlation analyses. The results from these analyses were visualized on maps. The results show that location is a powerful predictor of morphological variation. Locations, as a predictor, are explored through their demographic, topographic, and social context. Gaelic is a minority language under pressure from varieties of English and Scots, and therefore I also explore typological (e.g. contact-induced change) and sociolinguistic (e.g. hypercorrection) contact phenomena as explanations for morphological variation. This thesis presents evidence of considerable morphological variation within localized varieties of Gaelic. The results indicate that more northerly islands are generally more conservative in their treatment of nominal morphology, while more southerly islands are generally more innovative. These patterns correlate to some extent with the percentage of the local population that speak Gaelic, which suggests that conservative forms are supported in communities with greater densities of Gaelic speakers. Lewis is an exception in that it is the most northerly island, with some of the largest proportions of Gaelic speakers in the archipelago. Yet nominal morphology in Lewis cannot be classified as either ‘conservative’ or ‘innovative’. I argue that these patterns can be explained by segmental phonology, historical localisms, and typological phenomena (e.g. independent co-occurrence). Based on the findings from the statistical and critical analyses, I propose that: (1) typological and sociolinguistic phenomena (e.g. phonological variation and hypercorrection respectively) can account for variation; (2) variation can be explained by a hierarchy of markedness (in which more salient morphological markers are more prevalent); and (3) contact phenomena may be interacting with the hierarchy of markedness at both a linguistic and sociolinguistic level. The findings do not suggest morphosyntactic convergence from contact. Rather, much of the variation appears to be conditioned by the internal typological structures of Gaelic.
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1842/38432

http://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/1696
Collections
  • Literatures, Languages, and Cultures PhD thesis collection

Library & University Collections HomeUniversity of Edinburgh Information Services Home
Privacy & Cookies | Takedown Policy | Accessibility | Contact
Privacy & Cookies
Takedown Policy
Accessibility
Contact
feed RSS Feeds

RSS Feed not available for this page

 

 

All of ERACommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsPublication TypeSponsorSupervisorsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsPublication TypeSponsorSupervisors
LoginRegister

Library & University Collections HomeUniversity of Edinburgh Information Services Home
Privacy & Cookies | Takedown Policy | Accessibility | Contact
Privacy & Cookies
Takedown Policy
Accessibility
Contact
feed RSS Feeds

RSS Feed not available for this page