Ross, Susan (2016) The standardisation of Scottish Gaelic orthography 1750-2007: a corpus approach. PhD thesis http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7403/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The Standardisation of Scottish Gaelic Orthography 1750-2007: A Corpus Approach Susan Ross M.A., M.Litt. Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Humanities / Sgoil nan Daonnachdan College of Arts / Colaiste nan Ealan University of Glasgow / Oilthigh Ghlaschu Jan 2016 2 Abstract This thesis investigates the standardisation of Modern Scottish Gaelic orthography from the mid-eighteenth century to the twenty-first. It presents the results of the first corpus-based analysis of Modern Scottish Gaelic orthographic development combined with an analytic approach that places orthographic choices in their sociolinguistic context. The theoretical framework behind the analysis centres on discussion of how the language ideologies of the phonographic ideal, historicism, autonomy, vernacularism and the ideology of the standard itself have shaped orthographic conventions and debates. It argues that current spelling norms reflect an orthography that is the result of compromise, historical factors and pragmatic function. The research uses a digital corpus to examine how three particular features have been used over time: the dialect variation between <eu> and <ia>; variation in s + stop consonant clusters (sd/st, sg/sc, sb/sp); and the use of the grave and acute accents. Evidence is drawn from the Corpas na Gàidhlig electronic corpus created at the University of Glasgow: the sub-corpus used in this study includes 117 published texts representing a period of over 250 years from 1750 to 2007, and a total size of over four and a quarter million words. The results confirm a key period of reform between 1750 and the early nineteenth century, and thereafter a settled norm being established in the early nineteenth century. Since then, some variation has been acceptable although changes and reform of some features have centred on increasing uniformity and regularisation. 3 Table of Contents Abstract...................................................................................... 2 List of Tables................................................................................ 7 List of Figures ............................................................................... 8 Acknowledgements......................................................................... 9 Author's Declaration....................................................................... 10 Abbreviations .............................................................................. 11 1 Introduction........................................................................... 12 2 Theories of Writing and Spelling................................................... 14 2.1 The Study of Writing Systems.................................................. 14 2.1.1 Writing and Speech......................................................... 14 2.1.2 Writing is Graphic Communication....................................... 15 2.1.3 The Phonographic Ideal.................................................... 17 2.1.4 Real Writing ................................................................. 17 2.2 The Study of Orthography ...................................................... 18 2.2.1 Standardisation ............................................................. 19 2.2.2 The Sociology of Spelling .................................................. 24 2.3 The Study of Scottish Gaelic Orthography ................................... 27 2.4 Writing and Reversing Language Shift ........................................ 33 2.4.1 Reversing Language Shift (RLS)........................................... 34 2.4.2 Language Planning for Endangered Languages ......................... 34 2.4.3 Prior Ideological Clarification............................................. 35 2.4.4 How can orthography help RLS? .......................................... 36 2.4.5 How can a standard orthography hinder RLS? .......................... 37 2.5 Studies of Spelling Reforms .................................................... 38 2.5.1 Why Reforms Fail ........................................................... 40 3 Scottish Gaelic........................................................................ 42 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................... 42 3.2 Literacy in Gaelic Scotland..................................................... 45 3.2.1 Ogham........................................................................ 45 3.2.2 The Latin Alphabet and Gaelic Script ................................... 45 3.2.3 Middle Gaelic and Classical Gaelic ....................................... 47 3.2.4 The Seventeenth Century ................................................. 50 3.2.5 The Eighteenth Century ................................................... 51 3.2.6 The Nineteenth century ................................................... 54 3.2.7 The Twentieth Century .................................................... 60 3.2.8 The GOC Era................................................................. 62 4 4 Ideologies in Gaelic Spelling........................................................ 64 4.1 'Standard' Language in the Scottish Gaelic context ........................ 64 4.1.1 A Codified Prestige Standard ............................................. 67 4.1.2 Codified Conventions....................................................... 70 4.2 The Phonographic System ...................................................... 72 4.2.1 Phonography and Vernacularisation ..................................... 72 4.2.2 The Phonographic Ideal in Scottish Gaelic.............................. 73 4.2.3 Phonography as Gaelic Superiority....................................... 75 4.2.4 Phonography, Dialects and Uniformity .................................. 77 4.2.5 The Compromises of Phonography ....................................... 78 4.3 Dialects and Acceptable Variation ............................................ 78 4.3.1 The Curbing of Dialects.................................................... 79 4.3.2 Poetry and Folklore ........................................................ 81 4.3.3 Unacceptable Variation.................................................... 82 4.4 Etymology and Historicism ..................................................... 83 4.4.1 Etymological Principle ..................................................... 83 4.4.2 Etymology and Compromise............................................... 85 4.4.3 Summary ..................................................................... 86 4.5 The Fear of Illegitimacy ........................................................ 87 4.6 Summary and Conclusions ...................................................... 91 5 Methodology .......................................................................... 93 5.1 The Methodology of Corpus Linguistics....................................... 93 5.1.1 What is Corpus Linguistics?................................................ 93 5.1.2 Corpus use in Scottish Gaelic Studies.................................... 94 5.1.3 Corpus Linguistics for Analysing Orthographic Standardisation ...... 95 5.2 Corpus Documentation.......................................................... 96 5.2.1 Corpus Construction........................................................ 96 5.2.2 Corpus Description ......................................................... 98 5.3 Analysis ..........................................................................103 5.3.1 WordSmith Tools...........................................................103 5.4 Summary .........................................................................106 6 Acceptable Variation: <eu> and <ia>.............................................107 6.1 The Breaking of Long /eː/.....................................................107 6.2 <eu> and <ia> in the Literature ..............................................108 6.2.1 The Codification of <eu> .................................................108 6.2.2 Dialects and Acceptable Variation ......................................110 6.2.3 <eu> and <ia> in GOC .....................................................113 6.3 <eu> and <ia> in the Corpus ..................................................114 6.3.1 Lemma Frequency .........................................................114 5 6.3.2 ceud vs ciad ................................................................115 6.3.3 beul vs bial .................................................................120 6.3.4 sgeul vs sgial ...............................................................125 6.3.5 geur vs giar .................................................................130 6.3.6 feur vs fiar .................................................................134