Cuideachadh leis an fhaclair / Dictionary help

The Map Feature

Cause a picture is worth a thousand words

Am Faclair Beag has a map feature which will show you (as far as we can tell but more on that later) where the word is used (just click on the blue underlined word in an entry). Like this one for bainne:

bainne

With a word like bainne you can be fairly certain that any Gaelic speaker will recognise it but that's not the case for all Gaelic words. For example, you might do a search for "pert" and find that there's several options. You're then, traditionally, left guessing as to which of them are regional, over-regional or well and truly dead. This is where these maps will come in handy. They give you some rough indication of who of our voters know a word or at least recognise a word. Neat, eh? Well, we think so anyway. It's like a traditional dialect map on steroids!

1. What this isn't
2. The Colour Scheme
3. O Canada
4. Balancing Speakers
5. Why is there a pin in a loch?
6. Can I vote?

1. What this isn't
Now before we go any further, please note that the data you see on our maps is indicative only. What that means is that we can't guarantee that they give you the full picture like a (paid for) traditional dialect survey might give you where you have researchers going out with a set list of words to elicit from people. On the other hand, while our approach is shaky if there aren't many votes, it will continue to get better as more votes are collected, something you don't get in a traditional survey. So if you look up a word, find a single pin on Benbecula and then use it in your essay, we can't guarantee that all Benbecula people know it.

This also means that you shouldn't base a scientific paper on it. On the other hand, it might give you some ideas about what you could go and research further if this kind of thing fascinates you.

So, does this pin below mean that this is a rare word from the west side of Mull, left behind by St Columba?

smuilceag

No, in a word. It just means that we happen to have collected a vote from someone in that area who uses the word. The word may indeed be common across Scotland but only has a single vote just now. On the other hand, you can tell from this that there's a fair chance that at least Mull people will recognise this word (if it's a rare word). Sometimes you will have to look at more than one map to get an idea.

On the other hand, comparing these three for dha-rìreabh, a-rìreabh and da-rìreabh tells you that most likely, you're dealing with regional variation where a-rìreabh is a Northern Mainland feature, da-rìreabh South-Western and dha-rìreabh common elsewhere:

dha-rìreabh	da-rìreabh	a-rìreabh

2. The Colour Scheme
We use two different colours and two different shades to indicate native speakers (purple) vs fluent learners (orange) and active (darker shade) vs passive knowledge of a word or expression. Active means that someone will actually use the word, passive means they recognise it but don't normally use it. If you move the mouse over a pin on a map you will also get this info in a tooltip popup. Here's a table showing the pins and what they mean:

	Native Speaker, active use
	Native Speaker, passive knowledge
	Fluent Learner, active use
	Fluent Learner, passive knowledge

At the moment, we're not showing votes which indicate that people voted negatively, i.e. that they do not even recognize a word passively.

3. O Canada
For the most part, the votes are from Scotland but occasionally it pays to zoom out because by and by, we're also trying to get some Canadian votes on the map.

4. Balancing Speakers
We're trying very hard to make sure that native speaker votes outnumber leaners. Try a common word like bainne or mac and you'll get a rough idea of the balance we've got at the moment. Of course, some folk vote more than others.

A native speaker pin means just that, a native speaker. We try to make sure that if a speaker has a dialect affiliation that the pin is near to that place (for example, a Uist speaker may live in Aberdeen but their pin will be in Uist) but it does not guarantee that it's always a "local" dialect. For instance, we have a fair number of voters who speak mixed dialects, for example people who have two Gaelic speaking parents, say one from Lewis and the other from Skye. In such cases, the pin is roughly where they live.

5. Why is there a pin in the loch?
The locations are only indicative. We do this to avoid giving folk the idea that a pin, if it happened to be over a building, that a particular voter lives in that particular building. So we usually stick the pin in some place away from houses, like a river or loch in a settlement.

6. Can I vote?
If you're a native speaker or fluent learner, sure. It's really easy and quick, you can do it while using the dictionary normally - and the effects are instantaneous, the pin will appear immediately (you may have to refresh the page of course). Just get in touch with Michael on fios (at) akerbeltz (dot) org. Michael will have a quick chat with you on the phone, get you set up and explain how you vote. There's no big, searching questionnaire, all we need is a general location for where your dialect is from (if you're a native speaker) or where you live (again, just very generally). Siuthadaibh, bithibh ann no bithibh fann!

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