Edward Dwelly
Encyclopedia
Edward Dwelly was a Scottish Gaelic lexicographer. He is generally believed to have created the authoritative dictionary
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...

 in that language, and his work, although arguably never bettered in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 has been an immense influence on Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 lexicography.

Biography

Born in Southern England near Arundel
Arundel
Arundel is a market town and civil parish in the South Downs of West Sussex in the south of England. It lies south southwest of London, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Worthing east southeast, Littlehampton to the south and Bognor Regis to...

, he became interested in Scottish Gaelic, after being stationed in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 with the army and working with the Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...

. He began collecting words when he was 17 in the late 19th century. He was also a keen bagpiper
Bagpipes
Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...

.

He released the first part of his dictionary under the name of "Eoghann MacDhòmhnaill" (Ewen MacDonald) because of fears that his work would not be so well accepted if he used an obviously non-Gaelic or non-Scottish name. The first edition was published in 1911.

He did the vast majority of the work for his dictionary, not only collating the words from older dictionaries, but also collecting thousands of new words himself, both from publications, and from many trips he took around Gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland. He also illustrated, bound, printed and marketed his dictionary, with some help from his children and wife (herself a native Gaelic speaker). At times, he had to teach himself the various skills required.

In 1912, Dwelly had a book published entitled; Compendium of Notes on the Dwelly Family, it was in essence a 54 page genealogical book tracing the history of the Dwelly family from a John Duelye, 1229 to date, mainly covering Britain but with an American section, with lots of family trees and Parish Register extracts, with supporting notes.

He later gained a state pension for his work.

In later life, alienated by the attitude of some people in Scotland, both Gaels and non-speakers, he returned to England, leaving behind his great legacy, but dying in undeserved obscurity there.

In 1991, the late Dr Douglas Clyne sourced several manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland
National Library of Scotland
The National Library of Scotland is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. It is based in a collection of buildings in Edinburgh city centre. The headquarters is on George IV Bridge, between the Old Town and the university quarter...

 which were published as an "Appendix to Dwelly's dictionary"; over half of the words are from "A-D", but contained additional information which did not get published in Dwelly's lifetime.

His life has been poorly researched, but the best biography to date is by Peter Berresford Ellis
Peter Berresford Ellis
Peter Berresford Ellis is an English historian, literary biographer, and novelist who has published over 90 books to date either under his own name or his pseudonyms Peter Tremayne and Peter MacAlan. He has also published 95 short stories...

.

Edward Dwelly's dictionary

Dwelly's illustrated Scottish Gaelic dictionary, consisting of well over one thousand pages, was truly a marvellous achievement in its day, particularly in view of the difficult circumstances which he faced in preparing it. Dwelly was nonetheless eager to express his gratitude to those who assisted him. He particularly expressed his thanks to the then late King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

 for awarding him a Civil List
Civil list
-United Kingdom:In the United Kingdom, the Civil List is the name given to the annual grant that covers some expenses associated with the Sovereign performing their official duties, including those for staff salaries, State Visits, public engagements, ceremonial functions and the upkeep of the...

 Pension when only about one half of the dictionary had been published. He had wished dearly to have been able to present a copy of his completed dictionary to the King and expressed sadness at the news of the King's death.

Dwelly also expressed his particular gratitude to his wife for revising proofs and assisting in correspondence as well as advising on many of the translations in addition to many other sacrifices on her part.

Dwelly's preface is of particular interest to the student of Scottish Gaelic, since many of the difficulties which he faced then are also applicable to today's Scottish Gaelic. Scottish Gaelic speakers were generally not taught to read and write in their native language and were therefore unable to provide correct spelling, which created enormous difficulties in preparing the dictionary. Scottish Gaelic speakers were also often reluctant to engage in Scottish Gaelic conversation with students of Scottish Gaelic such as Dwelly, generally preferring to speak to him in English. Edward often had to pose as a native speaker of Scottish Gaelic in order to obtain the opportunity to further his knowledge and understanding of colloquial Scottish Gaelic.

Dwelly's dictionary contains over 70,000 entries and is widely regarded as the most comprehensive dictionary of the Scottish Gaelic language compiled to date. So far, there have been over 12 printed editions (1920, 1930, 1941, 1949, 1967, 1971, 1973, 1977, 1988, 1993 and 2011) of the dictionary by various publishers.

Digitisation of Dwelly

Making Dwelly available digitally, so it could be searched both as a Gaelic-English and an English-Gaelic dictionary was an often heard request from Gaelic speakers, learners and enthusiasts. Due to a change in copyright law and various other complications, it eventually took a German learner of Scottish Gaelic, Michael Bauer, over 10 years to complete the digitisation. It was finally launched online in co-operation with Will Robertson, a software engineer from Perthshire
Perthshire
Perthshire, officially the County of Perth , is a registration county in central Scotland. It extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south...

, in January 2009 under the name Dwelly-d (short for Dwelly digiteach "Digital Dwelly").

Their work, carried out without any outside support, was subsequently commended in a motion in the Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...

 on the 6 January 2009 and an Early Day Motion
Early day motion
An Early Day Motion , in the Westminster system, is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by Members of Parliament for debate "on an early day" . Controversial EDMs are not signed by Government Ministers, PPS or the Speaker of the House of Commons and very few are debated on the floor...

 in the Westminster Parliament on 14 January 2009.

External links

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