The Pronunciation Entries for the CSD

THE PRONUNCIATION ENTRIES FOR THE CSD1 A. J. Aitken In the Concise Scots Dictionary (CSD) we have given by phonetic transcription a representative set of pronunciations for every entry in the dictionary with the following exceptions. The exceptions, entries not accompanied by a phonetic transcription, are: 1. Those whose spelling and pronunciation agree with the same word in Standard English, e.g., certificate, or gallon in Table 1. 2. Entries whose spellings, according to the ordinary rules of general English orthography, appear unambiguously to imply their pronunciations, e.g., assedation, excresce, and gaive and gam in Table 1 (with the additional assumption that if there is no statement or implication by normal rule of English stress-position, stress is on the initial syllable, e.g., cantrip, and gallyie in Table 1). Apart from these, which, so to speak, do not need a transcription , there is another, smaller, set which strictly does, but is also left untranscribed. These are a very few words of limited currency—uncommon or ephemeral—nearly all obsolete, whose pronunciation seems likely to be difficult or impossible to ascertain. So if there is no transcription, this means either that the reader is expected to apply his knowledge of ordinary English to the spellings or that his guess is as good as mine. But nearly always it is the first of these; there are really very few of the second sort (none in Table 1 ). I described above the entries for which no transcriptions have been provided. Transcriptions are provided for entries some or all of the spellings of which seem ambiguous or misleading . Except when initial, or in a word such as coach, any ch spelling will normally trigger a transcription to disambiguate [tf] and [J] and [x]. Similarly with th (the voiceless or the voiced sound?), ou and ow, non-initial s, and so on. The form excaise will get a transcription to show that both noun and verb are pronounced [ekskez] and that there is no noun 134 A. J. Aitken135 form [**ek'skis] as might have been expected, and ewest will get a transcription to show that there is only [juist] and no [**ï:wist]. For those words that do attract transcriptions, all reasonably well evidenced forms are given, except for a few cases where there is a plethora of variant pronunciations like [TcOtJb(S)I], Tswitjp(3)l], ['skotfb(3)l], ['skotfibl], ['skod3ibl] and others (coachbell, the word for an earwig), when only a representative selection of the various forms is given. When possible, too, the different forms are approximately localised: for example, coachbell, and gaither in Table 1. TABLE 1 CSD: Sample Phonetic Entries gaither, gader &c. ['geôar, 'geöar; Sh also 'gad-; NE Kcd Ags also 'giÔ-, 'gid-] gaive (no transcription) galash, gallash [galaj] Galashiels &c. [gate'Jilz] galat ['gabt] Galatian, Galoshan [gala/an, -lojsn, go-] gall &c. [gal, gal] = gale, bog-myrtle gallant adj ['galant, *-and] v/ [galant] gad about, flirt gallant [égalant] ? = galloon, ribbon gallivaster [*galiVastor] a gadabout gallon (no transcription) gallows ['gates, -sz] galluses ['gatesiz] gallyie (no transcription) galore, gillore [gslor] galtags [?galtagz] galya [*? galaie] a safe-conduct e 16 gaseara [*'galjard, *-jart] gam (no transcription) gamaleerie [gamalin, -t??,] game, gam, gemm [gem, gem; *gam] 136The Pronunciation Entries for the CSD gamrel (no transcription) gan [gan, gan; *gen] vi = go gandiegow ['gandigAu, -go] ? a squall Forms that have been definitely attested within the present century are treated as current forms. In addition, pronunciation transcriptions are given for forms that are apparently no longer current, including forms that occurred in Early and Middle Scots but apparently not subsequently. So, in Table 1, see gallant , gallivaster, galya, gal&ard, game and gan. Forms of this sort, whose pronunciation has to be inferred by phonological reconstruction rather than known by aural observation (as recorded in SND or elsewhere) or by native speaker introspection are marked with an asterisk. Later I will explain the principles for representing the sounds of these obsolete forms. The Modern Scots vowel system used in the transcriptions and the corresponding Middle and Early Scots systems are set out here as Table 2. A. J. Aitken 137 TABLE 2 The Vowel System for Phonetic Transcriptions (Note: Only the Modern Scots system—the left...