THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2021/2022

Information in the Degree Programme Tables may still be subject to change in response to Covid-19

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : Celtic

Undergraduate Course: Linguistics and the Gaelic Language (CELT08019)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
Taught in Gaelic?Yes
SummaryThis course will introduce students to the linguistic analysis of the Scottish Gaelic language, giving an overview of phonetics and phonology, morphology and syntax, together with consideration of key sociolinguistic principles and issues, including phenomena relating to language contact, language shift and status and corpus planning.
Course description Not entered
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesVisiting students will be expected to demonstrate a level of competency in the Gaelic language equivalent to that of Edinburgh students who have completed three semesters of Gaelic instruction at university/college level. Visiting students must also have completed an introductory course in Linguistics. Admission to this course will be based on your level of competency and will be entirely at the discretion of the Course Organiser.
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2021/22, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 33, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 5, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 158 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 40 %, Practical Exam 60 %
Additional Information (Assessment) 4 language exercises (12.5% each, 50% total)
1 review of an academic article/chapter (15%)
1 essay (25%)
Weekly multiple choice quizzes (10%)
Feedback Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet Paper Name Hours & Minutes
Resit Exam Diet (August)2:00
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to show an understanding and awareness of, and be able to discuss critically:
- Scottish Gaelic phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax

- Lexical structure and word formation in Gaelic

- Semantics and pragmatics in Gaelic

- The principal dialect divisions in Gaelic

- Social variation and register variation in Gaelic

- Contact-induced language change in Gaelic

- Language change in Gaelic connected to status and corpus planning

- The dynamics of Gaelic-English language shift
Reading List
Adger, David (2010). 'Gaelic Morphology', in The Edinburgh Companion to the Gaelic Language, ed. by Moray Watson and Michelle Macleod, 283-303. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Adger, David (2010). 'Gaelic Syntax', in The Edinburgh Companion to the Gaelic Language, ed. by Moray Watson and Michelle Macleod, 304-51. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Bateman, Meg (2010). 'Gàidhlig Ùr', in Coimhearsnachd na Gàidhlig an-diugh/Gaelic Communities Today, ed. by Gillian Munro and Iain Mac an Tàilleir, 87-98. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press.

Bosch, Anna (2010). 'Phonology in Modern Gaelic', in The Edinburgh Companion to the Gaelic Language, ed. by Moray Watson and Michelle Macleod, 262-81. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Gillies, William (1992). 'Scottish Gaelic dialect studies', in Celtic Languages, Celtic Peoples, ed. by C. J. Byrne, M. Harry and P. Ó Siadhail, 315-29. Halifax, NS: St Mary's University.

Gillies, William (2008). 'Scottish Gaelic', in The Celtic Languages, ed. by Martin J. Ball and Nicole Müller, 230-304. London: Routledge.

Dorian, Nancy (1981). Language Death: The Life Cycle of a Scottish Gaelic Dialect. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Dorian, Nancy (2010). Investigating Variation: The Effects of Social Organisation and Social Setting. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lamb, William (2008). Scottish Gaelic Speech and Writing: Register Variation in an Endangered Language. Belfast: Cló Ollscoil na Banríona.

MacAulay, Donald (1977). 'The Writing of Scottish Gaelic: Uses of Convention and Innovation'. Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 50, 81-96.

MacAulay, Donald (1982). 'Register range and choice in Scottish Gaelic'. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 35, 25-48.

MacAulay, Donald (1986). 'New Gaelic'. Scottish Language, 5, 120-25.

McEwan-Fujita, Emily (2008). 'Working at '9 to 5' Gaelic: Speakers, Contexts, and Ideologies of an Emerging Minority Language Register', in Sustaining Linguistic Diversity: Endangered and Minority Languages and Language Varieties, ed. by Kendall A. King et al., 81-93. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

McLeod, Wilson (2000). 'Official Gaelic: Problems in the Translation of Public Documents'. Scottish Language, 19, 100-16.

McLeod, Wilson (2004). 'The challenge of corpus planning in Gaelic development'. Scottish Language, 23 (2004), 68-92.

McLeod, Wilson (2009). 'Gaelic in Scotland: existential and internal sociolinguistic issues in a changing policy environment', in Sochtheangeolaíocht na Gaeilge: Léachtaí Cholm Chille XXXIX (2009), 16-61.

Ó Dochartaigh, Cathair, ed. (1997). Survey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland, 5 vols. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
Ternes, Elmar (3rd edn 1976). The Phonemic Analysis of Scottish Gaelic. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Watson, Seosamh (2010). 'Hebridean and Mainland Dialects', in The Edinburgh Companion to the Gaelic Language, ed. by Moray Watson and Michelle Macleod, 108-27. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserProf Wilson McLeod
Tel: (0131 6)50 3623
Email: w.mcleod@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Anne Kelly
Tel: (0131 6)50 4167
Email: Annie.Kelly@ed.ac.uk
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