Rebecca Madlener

This project investigates the meaning and structure of Scottish Gaelic landscape vocabulary, covering present-day as well as historical forms of the language. The study’s approach is informed by landscape semantics, the linguistic study of landscape vocabulary according to its meaning and application in the language and in place-names. Evidence from fieldwork with Gaelic speakers, from landscape terms applied as place-name elements, and from the meaning of landscape terms in historical texts will be combined. This will allow the study to go beyond previous research on the Gaelic landscape, which focussed largely on the linguistic forms and etymologies of place-name elements, and to go beyond previous landscape semantic research by investigating not only present-day language usage, but also historical developments. The aim is to identify categories that structure and inform Gaelic landscape vocabulary, such as distinctions based on size (e.g. mountain vs hill) or use of landscape features (e.g. ‘arable’ vs ‘non-arable’). The findings will inform place-name research, literary and etymological studies, and support public engagement with Gaelic heritage and landscape.