Revisiting Hebrides English

Abstract

This paper describes a study of phonetic variation in Hebrides English, a variety of English spoken in the Scottish Hebrides island chain. Study participants included 24 English-Scottish Gaelic bilinguals, ten male and 14 female, representing a range of ages and geographic origins within the Hebrides. Three features are considered: preaspiration, preglottalization, and T-glottalling. Preaspiration, once commonplace in some varieties of Hebridean English, is now found to be abundant only among older women, suggesting that the feature is obsolescent. By contrast, preglottalization and T-glottalling, already widespread in urban varieties of Scottish English, now appear to be making inroads in Hebrides English as well. The evidence therefore suggests that Hebridean English is undergoing significant changes, though the precise trajectory or outcome of these changes remain unclear.