Discussion
It is clear from the fore-going maps that patterns exist in the distributions of the differing pronunciations.
In his article on the 'Breaking of Long E', Kenneth Jackson (see references) identifies an outer crescentic zone where words with long E are best preseved – 'dèanadh' illustrates this zone, stretching from the south west (Islay, Jura Arran through Argyll, Perthshire, Strath Spey and across the Moray Firth to those in Easter Ross and Sutherland). Another example of this outer eastern crescent is seen in distribution of spoken words showing lack of aspiration e.g. 'cat', 'cù' and 'muc', though the crescent is broken by strong 'ch' aspiration in Strath Spey and western Perthshire. Similarly, the southern part of the crescent (Islay/Arran) does not show loss of schwa in 'bliadhna'. Since the south west area e.g. Islay, is the main area for long E preservation, it seems probable that the loss of schwa zone is not contemporary with the long E zone. There are aspects of vocabulary that also show the outer crescent e.g. the Gaelic word for 'dream' in the eastern Gaelic area is given as 'bruadar', rather than 'aisling'. Similarly, 'beartach' seems generally preferred to 'saoibhir' as the Gaelic word for 'rich'.
There are some examples of features found only in restricted areas e.g. in the south-east in Perthshire, there is the use of 'è' in place of 'a' in 'bainne', though, as noted earlier, the final syllable has been lost, making it different from the pronunciation in Barra. Loss of schwa in 'doras' and lack of either consonant or vowel lengthening or diphthongisation are found in this limited area e.g. in 'clann' and 'dall'. In the case of 'bainne in Perthshire, this may represent the outlying remainder of an earlier form of the word and may be seen as the outermost ripples of change emanating from Kenneth Jackson's 'innovative' zone (i.e. area shown for broken form of 'Seamus' in the Long E maps).
There are a number of cases where a form used in Lewis is also used in Sutherland e.g. 'abhainn', with the 'mh' pronounced as 'v'. The 'bonye' form of 'bainne' used in Lewis is also reported in Sutherland, though not on the west coast facing Lewis, suggesting that 'banye' has moved northwards along the west coast of the mainland. The use of light aspiration in 'cat' and 'cù' is common to western Lewis (including Ness) and west Sutherland, though on Lewis the 'u' is as pronounced in French 'tu'.
In some cases, therefore, a common trans-Minch factor operates whereas in other cases, such as in breaking of Long E, Lewis and Sutherland use different forms.
The area in the south west (Kintyre, Islay, Jura, Colonsay, Arran) has distinctive patterns – e.g. the Long E is mainly unbroken, as in 'deug' - but with differences within the area. Here, 'mh' and bh' both pronounced as 'v', though in Islay, the 'v' is replaced with a glottal stop. Aspiration is not recorded for 'cat' in Arran or Kintyre, but is found Jura and Islay. This difference is also seen with 'chùm' and 'dall' where the original lengthening of the consonant in Islay has been transferred to the vowel in Arran. The Gaelic word for 'dream' in Arran is 'aisling' – this use puts it outside the 'bruadar' crescent used in the rest of the Gaelic area.
Some similarity can also be seen for areas facing onto the Minch - Lewis and Sutherland have been already mentioned. An example is 'àrd' with an intruded 's', found in an area centred approximately on Canna and spreading some way up Loch Linnhe to Lochaber. 'Feadhainn', which has a multitude of pronunciations, is of the 'fjeoin' type in the north of this area, but 'feoin' to the south. In Aberfeldy (Perthshire), the pronunciation is recorded as 'feng'. 'Gheibh' is given as 'iev' here but as 'io' in most other place, Arran being a notable exception with Canna, at the centre of the area, curiously, being another!
The differences between Lewis and the southern outer Hebrides have been well documented (see references) but are illustrated by 'abhainn, 'bainne', 'chùm', 'cù1', 'feadhainn', 'gheibh', 'Inverness', 'sleamhainn'. Reasons for these differences may be due in part to the mountain barrier between Lewis and Harris but also to their different histories, with Lewis being the domain of the MacLeods of Lewis while Harris was controlled by the MacLeods of Harris. Grannd (see references) writes that, “there are several accounts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries telling that ordinary clanspeople were not, under normal circumstances, permitted to leave their own clan's land. This would certainly lead to a tendency for dialect boundaries to coincide with clan boundaries.”
For St Kilda, a distinctive feature has been the substitution of W for L, as in 'latha'. This feature (the Eigg 'cluck') is recorded as more pronounced in St Kilda than in Eigg. In some respects, St Kilda has the same forms as Lewis ('sleamhainn', 'abhainn', but in others, has the forms of Harris/Uists ('bainne', 'cù', feadhainn' 'Inverness').
