Abstract

This paper aims to investigate under what circumstances the preposed adjective seannand when the plain adjective aosta or sean is used with nouns to convey the meaning old in Scottish Gaelic A combined analysis of a corpus study and interviews with native speakers was applied in the research Seannis highly productive may describe traditional older types or previous roles it appears to be the default adjective for old occurring in compounds fixed expressions names etc Plain adjectives are principally used in Lewis and Harris to qualify nouns as opposed to southern dialects They are preferred when referring to biological or physical age Sean is rare in present day speech preferred in southern dialects while aosta is more typical in Lewis For certain speakers aosta refers to an older age than sean alternatively aosta conveys respect Contrastive contexts may encourage the distinction between the two adjectival types and thus the use of the plain adjective Aosta may display more poetic qualities which renders it efficient in poetic descriptions