Appendix

 

For construction of distribution maps, using data from SGDS, the following procedure was used to enable a map of a distribution to fit exactly on a blank map of Scotland.

The distribution patterns were made by entering the Grid References of all 207 participants in the Survey onto a spreadsheet  - the place of up-bringing was used rather than the place of residence at the time of the Survey.  The references can then be sorted into different columns on the spreadsheet after criteria have been chosen to differentiate between the different pronunciations e.g. for the word 'cù', there will be a column for northing and another for easting for the cu version and similarly two other columns for the aspirated 'chu' version.

Using the facilities on the spreadsheet (Libre Office was used), scatter graphs can be made, with a different symbol (e.g. shape/colour) for each of the versions of pronunciation. The graphs can then be adjusted so that the scales on x and y axes are the same, thus producing a scale map of the distributions.

For the maps which have been produced, the distributions were set between the following basic Grid References:

Eastings: 000000 to 350000           Northings: 600000 to 1000000

 

This means that, for the corners of a map of Scotland to coincide with the above distributions, the corners must be as follows:

NW: 58.708ºN: 8.912º W

NE: 58.884ºN: 2.869ºW

SW: 55.132ºN: 8.279º W

SE: 55.292ºN: 2.789ºW

These can be plotted, for example, on Google Earth and a map extracted.

Both maps (i.e blank map of Scotland and the distribution chart) need to be exactly  the same size. The ratio of height to width, as can be seen from the Grid Refs, is 8 to 7, so some convenient size for of this, in terms of pixels, needs to be chosen. Height 1143 pixels by width 1000, at resolution 72 pixels/inch was chosen. This corresponds to a size of 30.23cm by 26.45 cm, when setting the scatter graph size on the spreadsheet.

On the spreadsheet, the map needs to extended to the margins of the area and the symbol key included within the map area.  The graph can then be exported from the spreadsheet and processed as a layer on a blank map of Scotland, using an image processing program such as Gimp.

 

 

Note on data used in 'Lengthening and Diphthongisation'

In the category shown as cùm:/dal:/donn: i.e. with the word in its original form in modern Scots Gaelic, two categories were taken together viz., those showing lengthening with a colon (:) and those with a voiced diacritic shown under the final consonant.  This seems justified by the editor's comment on p135 para 7.8.2 of SGDS