Scottish Gaelic Studies, Vol. 18 (1998) 190

Eleven contributions (1-188) and five reviews (189-204) comprise the contents of this volume. Anna Bosch, ‘The syllable in Scottish Gaelic dialect studies’ (1-22), outlines methods used to determine syllabification in Scottish Gaelic. Beginning with Borgstrøm’s study of the dialect of Barra (1937), the first reference to a vowel-consonant structure in Scottish Gaelic ‘and perhaps the first mention of such a structure for any language’ (3), Bosch compares definitions of syllable structure in twentieth-century descriptive work on the language. While syllables and syllable structure is generally addressed, it is argued that ‘a clear definition is rarely if ever forthcoming’ (18). Close descriptive work must incorporate ‘a more principled approach to the reporting of data on syllables, syllable boundaries, and syllable structure’ (19).