Mid-Minch Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig meadhan na mara) is a currently developing pan-regional form of

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 ...

, loosely based on the surviving dialects of Scottish Gaelic with considerable numbers of speakers. It has also been referred to by a number of other names, such as ''Standard Hebridean'', ''BBC Gaelic'', ''Standard Gaelic'' (') or Mixed Gaelic ('). These are mostly concentrated around the North-West Highlands and Islands, including

Wester Ross Wester Ross () is an area of the Northwest Highlands of Scotland in the council area of Highland. The area is loosely defined, and has never been used as a formal administrative region in its own right, but is generally regarded as lying to t ...

, the Outer Hebrides and Skye. As these cluster around

The Minch The Minch ( gd, An Cuan Sgitheanach, ', ', '), also called North Minch, is a strait in north-west Scotland, separating the north-west Highlands and the northern Inner Hebrides from Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides. It was known as ("Sco ...

, this variety has been dubbed ''Mid-Minch Gaelic''; compare Mid-Atlantic English. The Gaelic term ' ("Mid-sea Gaelic") is somewhat wider and can be seen to incorporate varieties of Gaelic spoken further south, such as

Tiree Tiree (; gd, Tiriodh, ) is the most westerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The low-lying island, southwest of Coll, has an area of and a population of around 650. The land is highly fertile, and crofting, alongside tourism, an ...

Coll Coll (; gd, Cola; sco, Coll)Mac an Tàilleir (2003) p. 31 is an island located west of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Coll is known for its sandy beaches, which rise to form large sand dunes, for its corncrakes, and ...

Mull Mull may refer to: Places *Isle of Mull, a Scottish island in the Inner Hebrides ** Sound of Mull, between the Isle of Mull and the rest of Scotland * Mount Mull, Antarctica *Mull Hill, Isle of Man * Mull, Arkansas, a place along Arkansas Highway ...

or Islay. As is generally the case with

dialect levelling Dialect levelling or leveling (in American English) is the process of an overall reduction in the variation or diversity of features between two or more dialects. Typically, this comes about through assimilation, mixture, and merging of certain d ...

, this process is fuelled both by the emergence of Gaelic mass-media such as and BBC Alba, Gaelic medium education, the decline of the so-called peripheral

dialects The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

(e.g. East Sutherland or Perthshire) and greater migration and urbanisation, leading to dialect mixing.

References

{{Scottish Gaelic linguistics Scottish Gaelic dialects Dialect levelling