Following the national Linguistic Survey of Scotland 1951/53, an in-depth dialect study of Galloway was appropriate as the dialect of Galloway had not been reported on in detail since McTaggart's Gallovidian Encyclopaedia of 1824. The close connection between Galloway and Ireland over centuries and particularly with the in-flow to Galloway of many Irish in the nineteenth century suggested a particular study. A questionnaire of 240 items was prepared and personally administered to 221 primary informants of 50 years and older, over the whole region and during a period of 10 months. In this thesis, 192 responses from 55 items are presented and analysed; together with appropriate Word Notes and two essays on 'Physical Communication in Galloway' and 'The Irish in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Galloway'. It was found that i) 3 rivers and 2 lines, less easily defined geographically, formed boundaries, beyond which varying numbers of words did not appear; ii) certain words were found in Wigtownshire only and others in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright only; iii) there were also certain responses to the same items which showed differentiation between Wigtownshire and the Stewartry, the two major sub-divisions of the region; iv) 61 per cent of the responses given in Wigtownshire and 59 per cent in the Stewartry have reference to Irish Word Lists.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:699860 |
| Date | January 1978 |
| Creators | Riach, William Alastair Drage |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/18567 |
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