There is nostandard variety ofScottish Gaelic; although statements below are about all or most dialects, the north-western dialects (Outer Hebrides,Skye and theNorthwest Highlands) are discussed more than others as they represent the majority of speakers.

Gaelicphonology is characterised by:

• a phoneme inventory particularly rich insonorant coronal phonemes (commonly nine in total)
• a contrasting set ofpalatalised and non-palatalised consonants
• strong initialword-stress andvowel reduction inunstressed syllables
• The presence ofpreaspiration of stops in certain contexts
• fallingintonation in most types of sentences, including questions
• lenition and extremesandhi phenomena

Due to the geographic concentration of Gaelic speakers along the western seaboard with its numerous islands, Gaelic dialectologists tend to ascribe each island its owndialect. On the mainland, no clear dialect boundaries have been established to date but the main areas are generally assumed to beArgyllshire,Perthshire,Moidart/Ardnamurchan,Wester Ross andSutherland.

Descriptions of the language have largely focused on the phonology. WelshnaturalistEdward Lhuyd published the earliest major work on Scottish Gaelic after collecting data in theScottish Highlands between 1699 and 1700, in particular data onArgyll Gaelic and the now obsolete dialects of north-eastInverness-shire.^[1]

Following a significant gap, the middle to the end of the twentieth century saw a great flurry of dialect studies in particular byScandinavian scholars, again focussing largely on phonology:

• 1937 Carl BorgstrømThe Dialect ofBarra published byNorsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
• 1938 Nils HolmerStudies on Argyllshire Gaelic published by theUniversity of Uppsala
• 1940 Carl BorgstrømThe Dialects of theOuter Hebrides published by Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
• 1941 Carl BorgstrømThe Dialects of Skye andRoss-shire published by theNorwegian University Press
• 1956 Magne OftedalThe Gaelic ofLeurbost,Isle of Lewis published by Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
• 1957 Nils HolmerThe Gaelic of Arran published by theDublin Institute for Advanced Studies
• 1962 Nils HolmerThe Gaelic ofKintyre published by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
• 1966 Gordon MacGillFhinneinGàidhlig Uibhist a Deas ("South Uist Gaelic") published by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
• 1973 Elmar TernesThe Phonemic Analysis of Scottish Gaelic (focussing onApplecross Gaelic) published by theHelmut Buske Verlag
• 1978Nancy DorianEast Sutherland Gaelic published by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
• 1989 Máirtín Ó MurchúEast Perthshire Gaelic published by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

In the period between 1950 and 1963, fieldwork was carried out to document all then remaining Gaelic dialects, culminating in the publication of the five-volumeSurvey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 1997. The survey collected data from informants as far south asArran,Cowal,Brig o' Turk, east toBlairgowrie,Braemar andGrantown-on-Spey, north-east toDunbeath andPortskerra and all areas west of these areas, includingSt Kilda.

The following is a chart of the monophthong vowel phonemes that appear in most dialects of Scottish Gaelic:

Phonologically,/a/ behaves both as a front or back vowel depending on the geographical area and vowel length.

The number of diphthongs in Scottish Gaelic depends to some extent on the dialect in question but most commonly, 9 or 10 are described:/ei,ɤi,ai,ui,iə,uə,ɛu,ɔu,au,ia/.^[3]

Stressed vowels are written as follows:

A table of vowels with pronunciations in theIPA

Spelling	Pronunciation	Scottish English [SSE] equivalents	As in
a, á	[a],[a]	cat	bata, ás
à	[aː]	father/calm	bàta, bàrr
e	[ɛ],[e]	get	le, teth
è, é	[ɛː],[eː]	wary, late/lady	gnè, dé
i	[i],[iː]	tin, sweet	sin, ith
ì, i	[iː]	evil, machine	mìn, binn
o	[ɔ],[o]	top	poca, bog
ò, o, ó	[ɔː],[oː]	jaw, boat/go	pòcaid, corr, mór
u	[u]	brute	Tur
ù, u	[uː]	brewed	tùr, cunntas

The English equivalents given are approximate, and refer most closely tothe Scottish pronunciation of Standard English. The vowel[aː] in Englishfather is back[ɑː] in Southern English. The⟨a⟩ in Englishlate in Scottish English is the pure vowel[eː] rather than the more generaldiphthong[eɪ]. The same is true for the⟨o⟩ in Englishboat,[oː] in Scottish English, instead of the diphthong[əʊ].

The language uses many vowel combinations, which can be categorised into two types, depending on the status of one or more of the written vowels in the combinations.

Category 1: vowel plus glide vowels. In this category, vowels in digraphs/trigraphs that are next to a neighbouring consonant are for all intents and purposes part of the consonant, showing the broad or slender status of the consonant.

Spelling	Pronunciation	Preceding consonant	Following consonant	As in
ai	[a]~[ɛ]; (unstressed syllables)[ɛ]~[ə]~[i]	preceded by a broad consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	(stressed syllable)caileag, ainm[ɛnɛm]; (unstressed syllables)iuchair, geamair, dùthaich
ài	[aː]	preceded by a broad consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	àite, bara-làimhe
ea	[ʲa]~[e]~[ɛ] [in part dialect variation]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant	geal; deas; bean
eà	[ʲaː]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant	ceàrr
èa	[ɛː]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a broad m, mh or p	nèamh
èa	[ia]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant other than m, mh or p	dèan
ei	[e]~[ɛ]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	eile; ainmeil
èi	[ɛː]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	sèimh
éi	[eː]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	fhéin
eo	[ʲɔ]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant	deoch
eò	[ʲɔː]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant	ceòl
eòi	[ʲɔː]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	feòil
eu	[eː]~[ia] [dialect variation, broadly speaking south versus north][a]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant	(preceding labial consonants)ceum, reubair
io	[i],[(j)ũ(ː)]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant	fios, fionn
ìo	[iː],[iə]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant	sgrìobh, mìos
iu	[(j)u]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant	piuthar, fliuch
iù	[(j)uː]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant	diùlt
iùi	[(j)uː]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	diùid
oi	[ɔ],[ɤ]	preceded by a broad consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	boireannach, goirid
òi	[ɔː]	preceded by a broad consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	òinseach
ói	[oː]	preceded by a broad consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	cóig
ui	[u],[ɯi],[uːi]; (unstressed syllables)[ə/ɨ]	preceded by a broad consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	muir, uighean, tuinn
ùi	[uː]	preceded by a broad consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	dùin
^[eː] is more common when preceding an m and in literary terms (e.g. literarytreun[t̪ʰɾeːn] 'strong';làidir being the more common term)

Category 2: 'diphthongs' and 'triphthongs'. In this category, vowels are written together to represent either a diphthong, or what was in Middle Irish a diphthong.

Spelling	Pronunciation	Preceding consonant	Following consonant	As in
ao	[ɯː]	preceded by a broad consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant	caol
ia	[iə],[ia]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant	biadh, dian
ua	[uə]	preceded by a broad consonant or Ø	followed by a broad consonant	ruadh, uabhasach

Category 2 digraphs can by followed by Category 1 glides, and thereby form trigraphs:

Spelling	Pronunciation	Preceding consonant	Following consonant	As in
aoi	[ɯː]~[ɤ]	preceded by a broad consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	caoil; gaoithe
iai	[iə],[ia]	preceded by a slender consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	Iain
uai	[uə]	preceded by a broad consonant or Ø	followed by a slender consonant	ruaidh, duais

Like the closely related languagesModern Irish andManx, Scottish Gaelic contains what are traditionally referred to as "broad" and "slender" consonants. Historically,Primitive Irish consonants preceding the front vowels/e/ and/i/ developed a[j]-like coarticulation similar to thepalatalized consonants found inRussian^[4][5] while the consonants preceding the non-front vowels/a/,/o/ and/u/ developed avelar coarticulation. While Irish distinguishes "broad" (i.e. phonetically velar or velarised consonants) and "slender" (i.e. phonetically palatal or palatalised consonants), in Scottish Gaelic velarisation is only present for/n̪ˠl̪ˠrˠ/. This means that consonants marked "broad" by the orthography are, for the most part, simply unmarked, while "slender" consonants are palatal or palatalised. In the modern languages, there is sometimes a stronger contrast from Old Gaelic in the assumed meaning of "broad" and "slender"; the phonetic distinction can be more complex than mere "velarisation"/"palatalisation". For instance, the Gaelic "slender s" is so palatalised that it has becomepostalveolar[ʃ]. The main exception to this contrast are the labials (/ppʰmfv/), which have lost their palatalised forms. The only trace of their original palatalisation is a glide found before aback vowel, e.g.beum/peːm/ ('stroke') vsbeò/pjɔː/ ('alive').Celtic linguists traditionally transcribe slender consonants with anapostrophe (or more accurately, aprime) following the consonant (e.g.⟨m′⟩) and leave broad consonants unmarked.

Consonants of Scottish Gaelic

		Labial	Coronal			Dorsal		Glottal
			Dental	Alveolar	Palatal		Velar
Plosive		p  pʰ	t̪  t̪ʰ		tʲ  tʲʰ	kʲ  kʲʰ	k  kʰ
Fricative		f  v	s̪		ʃ	ç  ʝ[a]	x  ɣ	h
Nasal		m	n̪ˠ	n	ɲ
Approximant			l̪ˠ	l	ʎ	j[a]
Rhotic	Tap			ɾɾʲ
	Trill			rˠ

The unaspirated stops in some dialects (east and south) are voiced (see below), as in Manx and Irish. In the Gaelic of Sutherland and the MacKay Country, this is the case, while in all other areas full voicing is allophonic with regional variation. Voicing additionally occurs in certain environments, such as within breath groups and following homorganic nasals (see below).^{[citation needed]} The variation suggests that the unaspirated stops at the underlying phonological level are voiced, with devoicing an allophonic variant that in some dialects has become the most common realisation. East Perthshire Gaelic reportedly lacks either a voicing or an aspiration distinction and has merged these stops. Irish dialects and Manx also have devoiced unaspirated consonants in certain environments.

Certain consonants (in particular thefricatives[hxçɣʝv] and the lenis coronals[lnɾɾʲ]) are rare in initial position except as a result of lenition.

Gaelic phonemes may have various allophones as well as dialectal or variations in pronunciation not shown in the chart above. The more common ones are:

• /tʲʰ/ as[tʃʰ] or[tɕʰ]^[7]
• /tʲ/ may also be affricated:^[8]
  • Area 1 without affrication[tʲ]
  • Area 2 with strong affrication[tʒ]
  • Area 3 with weak affrication[tᶾ]
• /ɾʲ/ as[ð] in Outer Hebrides dialects,^[7][ʒ] in southern Barra^[9] or[j] or[i̯] in Tiree^[10]
• /ɲ/ as[nʲ]^[7]

Velarised/l̪ˠ/ has 6 main realisations as shown on the map:^[7]

• Area 1, by far the most populous, has[l̪ˠ]. The area includes most of the Outer Hebrides, the Highlands and areas south of central western areas such as Kintyre, Arran, Argyll and East Perthshire.
• Area 2,Ardnamurchan,Moidart,Lochaber,South Lorn,Eigg andUpper Badenoch has[l̪ˠw] or[wl̪ˠ]. This feature is strongly associated withEigg to the point it is referred to as "glug Eigeach", the Eigg gulp.
• Area 3, betweenMull andLismore hasvocalised it:[w]
• Area 4, in the south of Mull andEasdale, has[ð] or[ðˠ]
• Area 5,Islay, has[t̪ˠ] or[t̪ˠl̪ˠ]
• Area 6,St Kilda, had[w] or[ʊ̯]

The Survey of Scottish Gaelic Dialects occasionally reports labialised forms such as[l̪ˠw] or[l̪ˠv] outside the area they predominantly appear in, for example inHarris andWester Ross.

Thefortis stops/pʰ,t̪ʰ,tʲʰ,kʲʰ,kʰ/ are voiceless and aspirated; this aspiration occurs as postaspiration in initial position and, in most dialects, aspreaspiration in medial position after stressed vowels.^[11] Similar to the manifestation of aspiration, the slender consonants have a palatal offglide when initial and a palatal onglide when medial or final.^[12]

Preaspiration varies in strength and can manifest as glottal ([ʰ] or[h]) or can vary depending on theplace of articulation of the preaspirated consonant; being[ç] before "slender" segments and[x] before "broad" ones.^[13] The occurrence of preaspiration follows a hierarchy of c > t > p; i.e. if a dialect has preaspiration with/pʰ/, it will also have it in the other places of articulation. Preaspiration manifests itself as follows:^[7]

• Area 1 as[xkxtxp] and[çkʲçtʲçp]
• Area 2 as[xkxthp] and[çkʲçtʲhp]
• Area 3 as[xkhthp] and[çkʲhtʲhp]
• Area 4 as[ʰkʰtʰp]
• Area 5 as[xk] and[çkʲ] (no preaspiration oft andp)
• Area 6 no preaspiration

Lack of preaspiration coincides with full voicing of the unaspirated stops. Area 6 dialects in effect largely retain the Middle Irish stops, as has Manx and Irish.

In some Gaelic dialects (particularly the north-west), stops at the beginning of a stressedsyllable become voiced when they follownasal consonants of the definite article, for example:taigh ('a house') is[t̪ʰɤj] butan taigh ('the house') is[ən̪ˠd̪⁽ʱ⁾ɤj]; cf. alsotombaca ('tobacco')[t̪ʰomˈbaʰkə]. In such dialects, the lenis stops/p,t,tʲ,kʲ,k/ tend to be completely nasalised, thusdoras ('a door') is[t̪ɔrəs], butan doras ('the door') is[ən̪ˠɔrəs].^[14] This is similar to eclipsis in Classical Gaelic andIrish, but not identical as it only occurs when a nasal is phonetically present whereas eclipsis in Classical Gaelic and Irish may occur in positions following a historic (but no longer present) nasal.^[15]

The voicing of voiceless aspirated stops and the nasalisation of the unaspirated (voiced) stops occurs after the prepositionan/am ('in'),an/am ('their'), the interrogative particlean and a few other such particles and occasionally, after any word ending in a nasal e.g.a bheil thu a' faighinn cus? as[ɡʱus] rather than[kʰus].

In southern Hebridean dialects, the nasal optionally drops out entirely before a consonant, including plosives.^[16]

Thelenited consonants have special pronunciations.

Lenition changes^[17]

Radical			Lenited
Broad	Slender	Orthography		Broad	Slender
[p]	[pj][b]	b	bh	[v]	[vj][b]
[kʰ]	[kʲʰ]	c	ch	[x]	[ç]
[t̪]	[tʲ]	d	dh	[ɣ]	[ʝ]
[f]	[fj][b]	f	fh	silent
[k]	[kʲ]	g	gh	[ɣ]	[ʝ]
[l̪ˠ]	[ʎ]	l†		[l̪ˠ]	[l]
[m]	[mj][b]	m	mh	[v]	[vj]
[n̪ˠ]	[ɲ]	n†		[n]
[pʰ]	[pʰj][b]	p	ph	[f]	[fj][b]
[rˠ]		r†		[ɾ]
[s̪]	[ʃ]	s	sh	[h]	[hj][b]
[t̪ʰ]	[tʲʰ]	t	th	[h]	[hj][b]

^† Lenition of initiall n r is not shown in writing. Word initially, these are always assumed to have the strong values (/(l̪ˠ)ʎn̪ˠɲrˠ/) unless they are in a leniting environment or unless they belong to a small and clearly defined group of particle (mostly the forms of the prepositionsri andle). Elsewhere, any of the realisations ofl n r may occur;[l̪ˠ] is lenitable only in Harris Gaelic which retains the fourth l-sound[l̪].

The/s̪/ is not lenited when it appears before/mpt̪k/.Lenition may be blocked whenhomorganic consonants (i.e. those made at the sameplace of articulation) clash with grammatical lenition rules. Some of these rules are active (particularly with dentals), others have become fossilised (i.e. velars and labials). For example, blocked lenition in the surnameCaimbeul ('Campbell') (vsCamshron 'Cameron') is an incident of fossilised blocked lenition; blocked lenition inair an taighsalach "on the dirty house" (vsair a'bhalachmhath 'on the good boy') is an example of the productive lenition blocking rule.

Stress is usually on the first syllable: for exampledrochaid ('a bridge')[ˈt̪rɔxɪtʲ]. Words where stress falls on another syllable are generally indicated by hyphens: these include certain adverbs such asan-diugh ('today')[əɲˈdʲu] andan-còmhnaidh ('always')[əŋˈgɔ̃ːnɪ]. In loanwords, a long vowel outside the first syllable is also indicative of stress shift, for examplebuntàta ('potato')[bən̪ˠˈt̪aːht̪ə]. Stress shift may also occur in close compound nouns or nouns with prefixes, though the stress patterns here are less predictable, for instance inbeul-aithris ('oral literature') can be both[ˈpial̪ˠaɾʲɪʃ] or[pjal̪ˠˈaɾʲɪʃ].

A distinctive characteristic of Gaelic pronunciation (also present in Scots and Scottish English dialects (cf.girl[ɡɪɾəl] andfilm[fɪləm]) is the insertion ofepenthetic vowels between certain adjacent consonants. This affects orthographic l n r when followed by orthographic b bh ch g gh m mh; and orthographic m followed by l r s ch.

tarbh ('bull') —[t̪ʰaɾav]

Alba ('Scotland') —[al̪ˠapə].

Occasionally, there are irregular occurrences of the epenthetic vowel, for example inGlaschu/kl̪ˠas̪əxu/ ('Glasgow').

There are often wide variations in vowel quality in epenthetic vowels, as illustrated by a map showing the pronunciations ofdearbh.^[8]

• Area 1[tʲɛɾav]
• Area 2[tʲaɾa(v)] with the[v] appearing in the northwestern region but not the southeastern
• Area 3[tʲɛɾɛv]
• Area 4[tʲɛɾʊ] with vocalization of the[v]
• Area 5[tʲɛɾəv] with reduction of the epenthetic vowel as in Irish

Aschwa[ə] at the end of a word isdropped when followed by a word beginning with a vowel. For example:

duine ('a man') —[ˈt̪ɯɲə]

an duine agad ('your man') —[ən̪ˠˈt̪ɯɲakət̪]

Of all the Celtic languages, lexicaltones only exist in the dialects of Lewis^[18] and Sutherland^[19] in the extreme north of the Gaelic-speaking area. Phonetically and historically, these resemble the tones of Norway, Sweden and southwestern Denmark; these languages have tonal contours typical for monosyllabic words and those for disyllabic words. In Lewis Gaelic, it is difficult to find minimal pairs. Among the rare examples are:bodh(a)[po.ə] ('underwater rock') vs.bò[poː] ('cow'), andfitheach[fi.əx] ('raven') vs.fiach[fiəx] ('debt'). Another example is the tonal difference betweenainm[ɛnɛm] andanam[anam], the latter of which has the tonal contour appropriate to a disyllable. These tonal differences are not to be found in Ireland or elsewhere in the ScottishGàidhealtachd.^[20] Furthermore, they are disappearing entirely among younger speakers even in Lewis.^[21]

The regular verbal noun suffix, written⟨(e)adh⟩, has several pronunciations.

• Area 1:[əɣ] (as expected from the spelling)
• Area 2:[ək]
• Area 3:[əv]
• Area 4: no suffix
• Area 5:[ʊ]
• Area 6 is characterized by a high level of variation both between words and adjacent informants

For some words it is possible to resolve the indeterminate area, for example with the verbsgrìobadh ("scraping"):

• Area 1:[əɣ] (as expected from the spelling)
• Area 2:[ək]
• Area 3:[əv]
• Area 4: no suffix
• Area 5:[ʊ]
• Area 6:[ə]

• A detailed pronunciation guide on Akerbeltz (IPA)
• Multimedia maps of dialectal differences in phonology based on the Scottish Gaelic Dialect Survey.

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• Celtic phonologies
• Orthography

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