Dr Robert Millar

Dr Robert Millar The University of Aberdeen School of Language & Literature Reader work +44 (0)1224 273909 pref r.millar@abdn.ac.uk pref C05, Taylor Building

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Biography

Robert McColl Millar is Reader in Linguistics.  He has published widely on the interface between Gaelic and Scots in Northern Scots, lexical attrition in Modern Scots, rapid language change and its connection with attitudes in modern Scotland, language policy towards Scots, the connection between language standardisation and the development of the nation state and the sociology of language. His first book, System Collapse, System Rebirth: The Demonstrative Systems of English 900-1350 and the Birth of the Definite Article, was published by Peter Lang in 2000; his second, Language, Nation and Power, by Palgrave Macmillan in 2005; and his third, Northern and Insular Scots, by Edinburgh University Press in March 2007. His fourth, Trask's Historical Linguistics, was published in May 2007. In the late 2000s he edited Why Do Languages Change?, a book R.L. Trask had nearly completed at the time of his death in 2004. It was published by Cambridge University Press at the beginning of 2010. His Authority and Identity: a Sociolinguistic History before the Modern Age was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2010; English Historical Sociolinguistics was published by Edinburgh University Press in May 2012. Full list of his publications can be found here.

He is Chair of the Forum for Research on the Languages of Scotland and Ulster, Editor of Scottish Language and a member of the editorial board of English World-Wide. He is also series editor for a refereed online series, Publications of the Forum for Research on the Languages of Scotland and Ulster. If you would like to propose a volume, please get in touch with him at the e-mail address above.

Dr Millar would be very interested in hearing proposals for research dealing with the history and present use of the Northern and Insular Scots dialects, the early dialects of English and the continental Germanic languages, language change due to contact, language planning and policy and the linguistic ecologies of medieval Europe.

 

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Research Interests

A complete record of Millar's publications can be found here.

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Current Research

Dr Millar  has a long-standing interest in the ways in which the languages of Europe have gained full literate expression. He is also continuing work on close-relative contact, reassessing his discussion of the development of Shetland Scots.

From 2008-11 he was principal investigator for a major grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for aproject to investigate lexical change in the dialects of the Scottish fishing communities. These findings are now being analysed. Further details will be available soon.

He has also been working on the language of letters to and from convicts transported to New South Wales in the first half of the nineteenth century. The corpus is comprised of letters to and from Thomas Holden and from Richard Taylor.

In 2007 he was asked to write an introduction to a new printing of Hugh Marwick's Orkney Norn. This publication now appears to have been abandoned, so the introduction is available here.

 

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Teaching Responsibilities

Robert McColl Millar is the Convener of the Undergraduate Language and Linguistics and Co-convener of the MLitt ELATE programmes. He is also Director of Teaching and Learning for the School of Language & Literature

In Session 2012-13, he is teaching on the following courses:

Undergraduate

Level 1: English Structure and Use (Co-coordinator)

Level 2: Words and Meanings: Lexis and Semantics (Coordinator); Constructing Words and Meaning: Morphology (Coordinator); History of Language in the British Isles (Coordinator)

Level 3: Language: Variation and Change (Coordinator)

Level 4: Language Contact and Change in Language; Language--Power--People--Nation

MLitt: Describing and Teaching the Morphology and Syntax of English. 

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BAAL 2010

Language and Linguistics at Aberdeen hosted the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) annual conference in September 2010. Its theme was Applied Linguistics: Global and Local. Robert McColl Millar is the principal organiser.

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Publications

Contributions to Journals

Articles

• Millar, RM. (2012). 'The death of Orkney Norn and the genesis of Orkney Scots'. Scottish Language, vol 29, no. 2012, pp. 16-36.
• Millar, RM. (2008). 'The origins and development of Shetland dialect in light of dialect contact theories'. English World-Wide: A Journal of Varieties of English, vol 29, no. 3, pp. 237-267.
• Millar, RM. (2006). '�Burying alive”: unfocussed governmental language policy and Scots'. Language Policy, vol 5, pp. 63-86.
  [Online] DOI: 10.1007/s10993-005-5626-6

Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings

Chapters

• Millar, RM. (2012). 'Social History and the Sociology of Language'. JM Hernández-Campoy & JC Conde-Silvestre (eds), in: The Handbook Of Historical Sociolinguistics. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, UK, pp. 41-60.
• Millar, RM. (2012). 'The Problem of Reading Dialect in Semiliterate Letters: The Correspondence of the Holden Family, 1812-16 and of Richard Taylor 1840-51'. M Dossena & G Del Lungo Camiciotti (eds), in: Letter Writing in Late Modern English. John Benjamins Pub., Amsterdam, pp. 163-177.
• Millar, RM. (2012). 'Varieties of English: Scots'. A Bergs & L Brinton (eds), in: Historical Linguistics of English. vol. 2, Handbuecher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, vol. 34.2, Moutin de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 1951-1960.
• Millar, RM. (2011). 'Linguistic democracy?'. J Kirk & D O Baoill (eds), in: Sustaining Minority Language Connubities: Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland. Belfast Studies in Language, Culture and Politics, vol. 20, Clo Ollscoil na Banriona, Belfast, pp. 218-224.
• Millar, RM. (2010). 'An historical national identity? : the case of Scots'. D Watt & C Llamas (eds), in: Language and Identities : The case of Scots. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 247-256.
• Millar, RM. (2010). 'Dislocation: is it presently possible to envisage an economically based Language Policy for Scots in Scotland?’'. JM Kirk & D Ó Baóill (eds), in: Language and Economic Development: Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland. Belfast Studies in Language, Culture and Politics, vol. 19, Cló Ollscoil na Banríona, Belfast, pp. 186-195.
• Millar, RM. (2010). 'Linguistic marginality in Scotland: Scots and the Celtic languages'. RM Millar (ed.), in: Marginal Dialects : Scotland, Ireland and Beyond. Publications of the Forum for Research on the Languages of Scotland and Ulster (FRLSU), vol. 1, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, pp. 5-17.
• Millar, RM. (2009). 'The Origins of the Northern Scots Dialects'. M Dossena & R Lass (eds), in: Studies in English and European Historical Dialectology. 1 edn, Linguistic Insights. Studies in Language and Communication, Peter Lang Pub., Bern, pp. 191-208.
• Millar, RM. (2008). 'History of Morphology'. H Momma & M Matto (eds), in: Blackwell Companion to the History of the English Language. Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, United Kingdom, pp. 43-56.

Books and Reports

Books

• Millar, RM. (2012). 'English Historical Sociolinguistics'. Edinburgh University Press.
• Millar, RM. & Durham, M. (2011). 'Applied Linguistics, Global and Local: Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics, 9-11 September 2010, University of Aberdeen'. Scitsiugnil Press, London.
• Millar, RM. (2010). 'Authority and Identity: A Sociolinguistic History of Europe before the Modern Age'. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, United Kingdom.
• Millar, RM. (ed.) (2010). 'Marginal Dialects: Scotland, Ireland and Beyond'. Publications of the Forum for Research on the Languages of Scotland and Ulster (FRLSU), vol. 1, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
• Millar, RM. (ed.) (2010). 'Northern Light, Northern Words: Selected Papers from the FRLSU Conference, Kirkwall 2009'. Publications of the Forum for Research on the Languages of Scotland and Ulster (FRLSU), vol. 2, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
• Millar, RM. (2007). 'Northern and Insular Scots'. Dialects of English, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, UK.
• Millar, RM. (2007). 'Trask's Historical Linguistics'. Hodder Arnold, London, UK.
• Millar, RM. (2005). 'Language, Nation and Power'. Palgrave Macmillan.

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