Scottish Gaelic bithidh, Manx bee, Irish bíonn: a synchronic and diachronic anatomyof the 3 sg consuetudinal present/future tense in pan-Gaelic

To date, there is no linguistic map or table available that provides us with a microscopic comparative distribution of the independent form of the present indicative for the pan-Gaelic area as a whole. Quite a few such detailed tables exist for Gaelic Scotland (§5) but none for Gaelic Ireland. In addition to providing a synchronic distribution of bíonn ‘is wont to be’ for most dialects in Ireland (Appendix 1), bithidh ‘will be’ in Scotland, and bee/vees in Manx, this article further seeks to analyse on a diachronic level the evidence provided for these particular verbal forms by two of the most significantly detailed comparative monuments to Gaelic linguistic heritage: (1) Heinrich Wagner’s Linguistic atlas; (2) Cathair Ó Dochartaigh’s Survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland.