The Linguistic Survey of Scotland was a long-term project at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

to cover the use of language in Scotland, including

Scottish English Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...

, Scots and

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

. The Survey began at a time when the modern subject of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

was evolving and the leaders accepted that the Survey would need to change over time to stay relevant to on-going linguistic work. The original intentions of the Survey were set out by Professor Angus McIntosh in the book ''Introduction to a Survey of Scottish Dialects''. The book argued that different methods were appropriate for different aspects of the survey. Vocabulary was collected by indirect methods such as letters to local schoolteachers, to collect material more easily where there was less chance of a mistake by a non-linguist, whereas phonology and morphology were assessed directly by trained linguists. The fieldwork for dialects of Scots and Scottish English was undertaken first. This period did not cover the Highlands or

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...

of Scotland, but it did cover a few sites in all six counties of

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, and numerous sites in the English counties of

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

and

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

. The Highlands and Islands were later studied in terms of both Scottish Gaelic, and also in mixed use of English and Gaelic (referred to as "Highland English" and "Island English"). The results from this later period of fieldwork were published in five volumes in the 1990s by Cathair Ó Dochartaigh.

Timeline of the SurveyUnless stated otherwise, list compiled from Petyt (1980), pages 94–98

* 1949: The project is instituted under the joint direction of the Heads of the Departments of English Language, Phonetics and Celtic at the University of Edinburgh. * 1951: First questionnaire with 211 questions sent out by post to collect lexical data. Of around 3000 copies sent out, 1774 produced usable data. * 1952: Publication of ''Introduction to a Survey of Scottish Dialects'' by Angus McIntosh. * 1953: Second questionnaire with 207 questions sent for lexical data. This was sent to a smaller number of schools and produced 832 returns with usable data. * 1955: Fieldwork began to collect phonological data. 250 localities were investigated with a questionnaire of 907 phonological items and 75 morphological items. Tape-recordings were taken. * 1957: Publication of ''Vowel Systems of Scots dialects'' by JC Catford. * 1965: The Survey is made into a department in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Edinburgh. * 1969: Publication of ''An areal typology of isoglosses'' by HH Speitel. This argued that "the Scottish-English border is probably one of the most striking geographical linguistic divides in the English-speaking world". * 1975–1985: Publication of the Scots sections in ''The Linguistic Atlas of Scotland'' by JY Mather and HH Speitel in three volumes. ** 1975: Publication of Volume 1 ** 1977: Publication of Volume 2 ** 1985: Publication of Volume 3 * 1994–7: Publication of ''Survey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland'' by Cathair Ó Dochartaigh in five volumes.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{cite journal , last=Speitel , first=HH , year=1969 , title=An areal typology of isoglosses , journal=Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik , volume=1 British English Dialectology Language geography Scots language Scottish Gaelic language