Aberdeenshire Gaelic
Gaelic, in its Aberdeenshire form was spoken in the Braemar area of upper Deeside into the first half of the 20th century. Much research into Gaelic in the Braemar area was done by Francis Diack who recorded his findings in a combination of IPA and his own phonetic system. These findings, some of which are unpublished, have, in turn, been researched by Seumas Grant and published in an article in Scottish Gaelic Studies vol. XXIV (see refs). In his article, Grant analysis a hitherto unpublished story in Aberdeenshire Gaelic as recorded by Diack. and illustrates eleven features of Braemar dialect. In nine of these features Grant, using data from the Survey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland (see refs), shows which features of the local Gaelic are shared by other Gaelic speaking areas;
These features, as described by Grant, are illustrated in the following maps.
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The maps have been constructed by plotting the Grid References of the SGDS interviewees as a scatter graph and super-imposing them on a blank map of Scotland.
All 207 Interviewees in SGDS
The SGDS was undertaken in the mid 20th century when there were still native speakers of local Gaelic to be found in most parts of the Highlands and Islands. Two hundred and seven carefully selected Gaelic speakers were interviewed and their pronunciations of several hundreds of Gaelic words recorded using an extended form of IPA.
Feature 2: dol
Feature 2: dol
The map shows that the pronunciation of 'dol' (going) has been given as dul over much of the Northern Highlands, including Speyside and includes the north and north-west coasts
Source: SGDS vol. 5: 689
Feature 4: Mutation of 'f'
The above map show how the conditional tense has been modified, mainly in the east and south-east edges of the Highlands . The modification is mainly for the verb to start with 'v', though in some cases, particularly in Speyside, 'b' or 'p' have been used.
​Source: SGDS vol. 3: 384
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Feature 6 Conditional with final stop
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The conditional tense in Braemar Gaelic was realised with a 'final stop i.e. 'g' or 'k'. The map shows that other ending were recorded, mainly on mainland Scotland, with the -adh ending mainly on the islands but also in north Argyll and Speyside
Source: SGDS vol.3:281
Feature 11: cinnteach
Like many other examples of pronunciation in the eastern Highlands, cinnteach has been shortened to 'cinnt'
Feature1: Loss of schwa
This is the dropping of an unstressed syllable e.g. Bealtair )Ballater) is sounded as 'byaLter'. THe final 'e' in duine (man) is dropped and pronounced as duin'
The map shows the feature widespread in the Eastern Highlands
Source: SGDS vol. 3: 360
Feature 3: Slender nn
Words with nn preceded by a slender vowel e.g. seinn, sa'mhadainn,, cinn (map above) are pronounced with ng as in English sing.
Source: SGDS vol.2:167
Feature 5: Dropping -adh
Feature 6: Conditional ending
The -adh ending is dropped, in areas shown on the above map, apart from in the contitional tense, with words such as tuilleadh (recorded in SGDS as tull'.
Source: SGDS vol.2: 133
Feature 9: agaibh [aki]
In these cases, pronunciation of the final - adh changes to a final stop i.e. k or g.
Wide variations were recorded for the final vowel.
Source: SGDS vol.3: 281
IIt can be seen from the above maps that Braemar Gaelic shares the same features of all the above features, with the exception of the ending of the conditional tense, chuireadh. In this case, the affiliation is more with the Gaelic found to the west of the Great Glen.
In hisi conclusion, Grant (op.cit.) draws attention to the close association of Speyside Gaelic with that of Braemar, the two dialects being on opposite sides of the 4000' Monadh Ruadh (Cairngorms). He points out that as well as traditional clan associations on either side of this apparent mountain barrier, there are historic links using passes through the mountains, e.g. the Lairig Ghru, a pass connecting Aviemore on Speyside to Braemar via the Linn of Dee. This pass is marked on the above maps.
