Paul Tempan
Born, raised and schooled in England, I have lived in Ireland, south and north, since 1990. Having a background in Modern Languages (German and Italian, concentrating on historical linguistics), I took a side-step into Irish Studies, undertaking a part-time Masters at QUB (2001-04). My MA dissertation dealt with some common elements in Irish mountain names, a topic which allowed me to combine passions for the landscape and for language. Subsequently worked as a Research Assistant at the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project on a project providing Irish forms of street-names. From 2007 to 2011 I undertook doctoral research with funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. My thesis entitled ‘A study of a selection of topographical elements in Irish place-names’ was submitted in January 2011. I was a Research Fellow working part-time at the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project, maintaining and editing the online database: http://www.placenamesni.org until 2013. I am no longer in academia, but continue to pursue my research into place-names independently.
My thesis built on the MA dissertation, exploring a group of elements which are known chiefly from Irish place-names and whose meaning and/or origin is obscure: trosc, collann, mala, málainn, carbad, fothair, mionnán, glinsc. I applied a similar methodology to that used successfully in England by Margaret Gelling to refine the meanings of elements found in names of landscape features. I also examined the etymology of these elements in order to understand their links with other languages, both Celtic and non-Celtic. I assisted my supervisor, Mícheál Ó Mainnín, to organise a conference on early place-names in Ireland and Scotland in September 2008, and I organised a second conference in the series in November 2009 with a number of other research students based in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England: Kelly Kilpatrick (Wadham College, Oxford), Liam Ó hAisibéil (NUI Galway), Peter McNiven (Glasgow) & Judyta Szacillo (QUB). The 2nd International Conference on the Early Medieval Toponymy of Ireland and Scotland was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Queen's University Belfast. http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofLanguagesLiteraturesandPerformingArts/Conferences/ConferencesForthcoming/ A series of my articles on place-names in Irish mountain areas was published by the magazine Walking World Ireland in 2010-12.
Research interests: Irish and British hill and mountain names; place-names in mountain/upland areas; topographical names on early maps of Ireland and regions of Ireland (mainly 16th and 17th century); close compound place-names in Irish and other Celtic languages; Kerry place-names; Ulster place-names; Brittonic influence on early Irish language; Brittonic elements in Irish place-names; street-/road-names; Irish etymology; Latin and Romance loans into Irish; personal names; surnames.
My thesis built on the MA dissertation, exploring a group of elements which are known chiefly from Irish place-names and whose meaning and/or origin is obscure: trosc, collann, mala, málainn, carbad, fothair, mionnán, glinsc. I applied a similar methodology to that used successfully in England by Margaret Gelling to refine the meanings of elements found in names of landscape features. I also examined the etymology of these elements in order to understand their links with other languages, both Celtic and non-Celtic. I assisted my supervisor, Mícheál Ó Mainnín, to organise a conference on early place-names in Ireland and Scotland in September 2008, and I organised a second conference in the series in November 2009 with a number of other research students based in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England: Kelly Kilpatrick (Wadham College, Oxford), Liam Ó hAisibéil (NUI Galway), Peter McNiven (Glasgow) & Judyta Szacillo (QUB). The 2nd International Conference on the Early Medieval Toponymy of Ireland and Scotland was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Queen's University Belfast. http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofLanguagesLiteraturesandPerformingArts/Conferences/ConferencesForthcoming/ A series of my articles on place-names in Irish mountain areas was published by the magazine Walking World Ireland in 2010-12.
Research interests: Irish and British hill and mountain names; place-names in mountain/upland areas; topographical names on early maps of Ireland and regions of Ireland (mainly 16th and 17th century); close compound place-names in Irish and other Celtic languages; Kerry place-names; Ulster place-names; Brittonic influence on early Irish language; Brittonic elements in Irish place-names; street-/road-names; Irish etymology; Latin and Romance loans into Irish; personal names; surnames.
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Lythe’s map is valuable for many reasons, most obviously because it is the earliest extant map of this part of Ulster. It reflects a completely different age from, say, John Speed’s map The province Ulster described, made four decades later in 1610. The Lythe map is post-Reformation but pre-Plantation, and this is reflected in the marking of territories. Belfast was little more than a muddy fording point on the Lagan between Carrickfergus and Bangor. Irish place-names are more in evidence than on other maps of the era. Holywood appears as Ardemaghste (< Ir. Ard Mhic Nasca); Grey Point as Roneraiagh (< Ir. Rinn Riabhach); Thornfield near Carrickfergus as Houghtonskie (< Ir. Achadh na Sceiche). The map in question comes just before a period of major change. It is also a key source for several other later maps which are better known, such as those of Mercator, Hondius, Boazio and Speed (Andrews 1993). Mercator’s Ultoniae Orientalis Pars (‘Eastern Part of Ulster’, 1595) and Speed’s The province Ulster described (1610) are derivative of the present map where they overlap. This paper discusses Lythe’s map in context and the characteristics of the 36 place-names shown. It offers new derivations and identifications for some of the more problematic names.
In contrast with this group, there is another group of names which has typically been interpreted as containing an element meaning ‘promontory’ or ‘look-out point’. These are phonetically very similar to the first group but typically have a- or ea- as the initial vowel. These include Acaill / Achill Island, Co. Mayo; Achaill / Aughils, par. Ballinvoher, Co. Kerry; An Eachla / Aghla Mountain, Co. Donegal; and Feochaill – Foughill Etra/Otra, par. Jonesborough, Co. Armagh, where the initial f- appears to be prothetic. They appear to be cognate with the ancient Celtic place-name Ocelum, which occurs both in Roman-era Britain and continental Europe.
There are several reasons, both linguistic and environmental, to be sceptical of the conventional interpretation ‘yew-wood’ with at least some of the names usually assigned to the first group. This paper takes an inter-disciplinary approach to attempt to establish whether this meaning is appropriate to these places and asks whether some are derived from acha(i)ll / ocha(i)ll, meaning ‘promontory, look-out point’, but have undergone subsequent re-interpretation. It also asks how future research could help to clarify the origin of these names.
Bán, the most common Modern Irish word for ‘white’, seems to be without cognates in Brittonic or earlier varieties of Celtic. The Welsh word bân, with the same meaning, is rare and probably a borrowing of the Irish word (GPC). Bán is used in Old Irish, for example by the poet Blathmac in the mid-8th century (DIL). It seems to have become the standard word for ‘white’ between Old Irish and Modern Irish, largely superceding fionn, ‘white’ or ‘blonde’, a word which was more in evidence in Old Irish, as find (DIL).
The conventional derivation of Ir. bán, is from an Indo-European root *bheh2- meaning ‘shine’ (EDPC, 55). The editors of LEIA give this root the forms *bhā- or *bhē and cite cognates in Germanic, i.e. Old English bónian and Modern German bohnen, both meaning ‘to polish’ (LEIA, B-13). For Matasović (EDPC) the nearest cognates are in Greek, φανερός ‘bright’, and the verb φαίνω ‘I make visible, show’. He also cites Sanskrit bhāti ‘shines’, Avestan bānu- ‘beam of light’ and a possible Armenian cognate.
But bán does not only mean the colour ‘white’. It also means ‘blank’, ‘bald’ and ‘grassy’ in reference to land. As a noun, it can also mean fallow ground (Dinneen). In fact, this seems to be the relevant sense in quite a lot of Irish place-names, such as Bántir / Banteer, Co. Cork (www.logainm.ie). This is rather puzzling if the basic meaning is ‘bright, shining’.
Thus, there are several reasons to question the conventional etymology: a) it is semantically somewhat unsatisfactory; b) the word is attributed to an Indo-European root, yet it is only known as a rare loanword in Brittonic, casting doubt over its presence in Proto-Celtic; c) the absence of italic cognates and the uncertain links with Germanic, contrasting with links to Greek and other more distantly related language groups, makes for an unusual pattern of relationships.
In this paper an alternative origin for Ir. bán is proposed as a loan from the Latin adjective vānus, which means ‘empty, vacant’, or from a cognate in a descendant Romance dialect. Loans from Latin typically entered Irish by trading contact or through the spread of Christianity by monks from Britain. However, the initial b- for Latin v- suggests a different type of contact. Latin vānus yields vano in Spanish, for instance, which is pronounced /bano/. There are also reflexes of this word in dialects of Southern France which begin with b- (FEW). Spanish vano also means ‘a space’ or ‘opening’ in an architectural context, which fits well with the senses ‘lea-land, fallow, grassy’ for bán, since this is land left empty, rather than being tilled and planted with crops. The meaning ‘white’ can be seen as a later development in Irish, since this is not attested for Latin vānus or any of the Romance descendants of this word. Thus, Ir. bán is from a dialect of Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula or in Southern France, or from an early Romance dialect spoken in the same area. Possible contexts for language contact between Latin/Romance and early Irish will be discussed. A loan is more compatible with the evidence, particularly the absence of Brittonic cognates, than a word inherited from Indo-European through Proto-Celtic.
There is no consensus regarding the etymology of sceilg (Vendryes 1974). In this paper it will be argued that sceilg is a variant of speilg, another rare element in Irish place-names with a complimentary, more northerly distribution, also denoting a rock feature, and that both are loans of Vulgar Latin speluca, a widespread variant of spelunca, meaning ‘cave’ (sometimes a hermit’s dwelling) or ‘den’. In the original conference paper it was argued that the loss of the nasal in the sound change /ŋk/ > /g/ (Latin spelunca > Old Irish sceillec (> Modern Irish sceilg)) pointed to a very early borrowing, since this sound change is regarded as complete before 400 AD (McManus 1983). However, the revised derivation from speluca, which had already lost the nasal in Vulgar Latin, makes this unnecessary. Irish sceilg, as well as speilg, seems to have undergone a semantic shift, acquiring a more general sense of ‘rock, crag’. An earlier meaning ‘cave, hermitage’, closer to that of Latin spelunca, is only evident at the hermitage sites of Sceilg Mhíchíl and Teampall na Sceilge. In the latter case, the presence of a hermit’s cave, Leaba Chaoimhín (Eng. Saint Kevin’s Bed), in the immediate vicinity is particularly relevant. The loan is still early, but not exceptionally so, and is more likely to date to the 6th or 7th century when these Irish hermitage sites were established.
A well-known geographical triad mentioned in The Metrical Dindshenchas is trí tonna h-Érenn uile, usually interpreted as “three great waves of Ireland”: Tonn Chlidna (Co. Cork), Tonn Rudraige (Co. Down), Túag Inber (Co. Derry). Despite folklore about powerful, destructive waves, observation at these locations suggests that these names simply refer to three stretches of coastline, two of them notable for beaches and sand-dunes. Furthermore, The Tuns is the English name of a hazardous sand-bank, sometimes exposed, at the mouth of the River Foyle. It will be argued that Ir. tonn and Eng. Tuns in these names are ultimately derived from a Brittonic word referring to a beach, cognate with Welsh tywyn ‘seashore, sand-dune’.
Similarly, there is a group of coastal names around N. and N.W. Ireland, anglicised as -toy, -tooey, doo-, dooey, etc. These include Ballintoy (Co. Antrim), Slievetooey (Co. Donegal), Dooagh, Doogort and Dooega on Achill Island (Co. Mayo), and various places called Dooey. Túag Inber also belongs here. Many of these names do not have an agreed origin. It is proposed that these names refer to beaches and/or sand-dunes, and that they derive from a Brittonic cognate of Welsh tywod ‘sand’, which should best be spelt tuadh/duadh in Modern Irish. When rendered in Irish with dumha ‘mound’ or dumhach ‘sand-bank’, the silent -mh- is unetymological.
This group of place-names provides important evidence for two elements which are not found in Irish dictionaries, but are they simply loanwords into Irish from Brittonic or traces of an extinct Brittonic dialect spoken in Ireland? Both elements appear to have been re-interpreted in late medieval Irish tradition, suggesting they were no longer widely understood and that the names were coined at an earlier date.
The Irish element gaoth (masc.) is found in a number of Irish place-names, principally in the northern half of Ireland. It is a homonym of gaoth (fem.) meaning 'wind'. While the word is rarely used as a common noun in Irish, it is clear from place-names that it refers originally to a water-feature, often the estuary of a river, e.g. Gaoth Dobhair (Gweedore, Co. Donegal), Gaoth Sáile (Gweesalia, Co. Mayo). The relevant names have been studied by Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig (Scathlán no. 3, 1986). No clear etymology has yet been advanced to my knowledge. A Britonnic origin for gaoth is proposed here (which also applies to the sense 'wind'), deriving it from the Celtic root *WEKT- seen in Vectis, the Celtic name for the Isle of Wight. It therefore shows the characteristic Britonnic change W- --> gw-, rather than Irish f-. It is likely to have passed through an early Britonnic form *gweith (cf. Inis Gueith, Nennius' name for the Isle of Wight) before being borrowed into Irish as gaoth. The element has several Britonnic cognates, the best attested being Breton gwazh. The basic meaning of the root appears to be 'current, movement', cf. Latin veho and vector, developing to 'wind' ('current of air') and 'river, estuary' ('(tidal) current of water').
N.B. Since presenting this paper I have revised my ideas about the roots involved. I no longer propose to derive gaoth in both senses from *WEKT-. Gaoth as a hydronymic element is more likely derived from *WĒTT-, which is widely regarded as the origin of Welsh gŵyth 'vein, seam, channel' and Breton gwazh 'stream, bog'. I still regard it as a loan from Brittonic into Irish. Ir. féith 'vein, sinew, nerve' and 'bog channel' (1 word or 2?) are usually derived from *WEIT-, possibly a variant, given the semantic similarity. Gaoth 'wind' remains problematic, but a loan from Brittonic is also possible here.
Conference programme and abstracts:
https://earlymodernirelandconference.blogspot.com/2010/07/abstracts.html
Article, published in Archaeology Ireland, summer 2019, available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26844469?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
(This version of the abstract corresponds to the paper as delivered and covers a slightly narrower range of issues from those outlined on the version published in the conference programme, as the paper had to be trimmed to fit a 20 minute slot.)
This paper aims to show how observation in the field and topographical analysis can help to ascertain a reliable interpretation and concludes that the sense ‘boulder’ is probably much more common than has heretofore been recognised. Carbad is probably one of a group of Irish words in car– denoting rock, including carraig, carn, and carrach. [At the time of the presentation I also included cairthe/coirthe, but I would now link this with Latin quadrare, 'to quarry or dress stone'.] Parallels with Continential Celtic names and other Continental European names in kar– + labial extension (karb– / karp– / kar(a)v–) referring to rock features are discussed. It is proposed that carbad can be analysed as carb– ‘rock’ + suffix –ad. The precise meaning of the suffix –ad/–aid is unclear, but it is familiar in other Irish place-name elements such as caolad, dromad, leithead, fánaid.
[This paper was prepared as part of my doctoral research. It was delivered in September 2008, but was written up with some minor modifications in early 2010, which allowed the inclusion of some references to works published during 2009. The paper was integrated into chapter 3 of my doctoral thesis, submitted in January 2011.]
In this paper, the Gaulish, British and Irish names are compared, particularly in terms of the repertoire of elements found in each set and the semantic categories represented. It is found that there is surprisingly little overlap between the Gaulish and Irish repertoires, both in terms of generic and specific elements. In general, the British names, especially the Romano-British ones, offer better parallels with the Continent.
The close compound structure, inherited from Indo-European, is taken up in Ireland, but gets heavily adapted in terms of the repertoire of elements and is steadily replaced by other structures. The strongest connections with Gaulish names are found in Ulster and North Leinster. There are areas where noun + noun compounds are scarce or absent.
The early Irish elements with non-cognate Gaulish synonyms merit further study, as a proportion of them may have non-Celtic origins.
Lythe’s map is valuable for many reasons, most obviously because it is the earliest extant map of this part of Ulster. It reflects a completely different age from, say, John Speed’s map The province Ulster described, made four decades later in 1610. The Lythe map is post-Reformation but pre-Plantation, and this is reflected in the marking of territories. Belfast was little more than a muddy fording point on the Lagan between Carrickfergus and Bangor. Irish place-names are more in evidence than on other maps of the era. Holywood appears as Ardemaghste (< Ir. Ard Mhic Nasca); Grey Point as Roneraiagh (< Ir. Rinn Riabhach); Thornfield near Carrickfergus as Houghtonskie (< Ir. Achadh na Sceiche). The map in question comes just before a period of major change. It is also a key source for several other later maps which are better known, such as those of Mercator, Hondius, Boazio and Speed (Andrews 1993). Mercator’s Ultoniae Orientalis Pars (‘Eastern Part of Ulster’, 1595) and Speed’s The province Ulster described (1610) are derivative of the present map where they overlap. This paper discusses Lythe’s map in context and the characteristics of the 36 place-names shown. It offers new derivations and identifications for some of the more problematic names.
In contrast with this group, there is another group of names which has typically been interpreted as containing an element meaning ‘promontory’ or ‘look-out point’. These are phonetically very similar to the first group but typically have a- or ea- as the initial vowel. These include Acaill / Achill Island, Co. Mayo; Achaill / Aughils, par. Ballinvoher, Co. Kerry; An Eachla / Aghla Mountain, Co. Donegal; and Feochaill – Foughill Etra/Otra, par. Jonesborough, Co. Armagh, where the initial f- appears to be prothetic. They appear to be cognate with the ancient Celtic place-name Ocelum, which occurs both in Roman-era Britain and continental Europe.
There are several reasons, both linguistic and environmental, to be sceptical of the conventional interpretation ‘yew-wood’ with at least some of the names usually assigned to the first group. This paper takes an inter-disciplinary approach to attempt to establish whether this meaning is appropriate to these places and asks whether some are derived from acha(i)ll / ocha(i)ll, meaning ‘promontory, look-out point’, but have undergone subsequent re-interpretation. It also asks how future research could help to clarify the origin of these names.
Bán, the most common Modern Irish word for ‘white’, seems to be without cognates in Brittonic or earlier varieties of Celtic. The Welsh word bân, with the same meaning, is rare and probably a borrowing of the Irish word (GPC). Bán is used in Old Irish, for example by the poet Blathmac in the mid-8th century (DIL). It seems to have become the standard word for ‘white’ between Old Irish and Modern Irish, largely superceding fionn, ‘white’ or ‘blonde’, a word which was more in evidence in Old Irish, as find (DIL).
The conventional derivation of Ir. bán, is from an Indo-European root *bheh2- meaning ‘shine’ (EDPC, 55). The editors of LEIA give this root the forms *bhā- or *bhē and cite cognates in Germanic, i.e. Old English bónian and Modern German bohnen, both meaning ‘to polish’ (LEIA, B-13). For Matasović (EDPC) the nearest cognates are in Greek, φανερός ‘bright’, and the verb φαίνω ‘I make visible, show’. He also cites Sanskrit bhāti ‘shines’, Avestan bānu- ‘beam of light’ and a possible Armenian cognate.
But bán does not only mean the colour ‘white’. It also means ‘blank’, ‘bald’ and ‘grassy’ in reference to land. As a noun, it can also mean fallow ground (Dinneen). In fact, this seems to be the relevant sense in quite a lot of Irish place-names, such as Bántir / Banteer, Co. Cork (www.logainm.ie). This is rather puzzling if the basic meaning is ‘bright, shining’.
Thus, there are several reasons to question the conventional etymology: a) it is semantically somewhat unsatisfactory; b) the word is attributed to an Indo-European root, yet it is only known as a rare loanword in Brittonic, casting doubt over its presence in Proto-Celtic; c) the absence of italic cognates and the uncertain links with Germanic, contrasting with links to Greek and other more distantly related language groups, makes for an unusual pattern of relationships.
In this paper an alternative origin for Ir. bán is proposed as a loan from the Latin adjective vānus, which means ‘empty, vacant’, or from a cognate in a descendant Romance dialect. Loans from Latin typically entered Irish by trading contact or through the spread of Christianity by monks from Britain. However, the initial b- for Latin v- suggests a different type of contact. Latin vānus yields vano in Spanish, for instance, which is pronounced /bano/. There are also reflexes of this word in dialects of Southern France which begin with b- (FEW). Spanish vano also means ‘a space’ or ‘opening’ in an architectural context, which fits well with the senses ‘lea-land, fallow, grassy’ for bán, since this is land left empty, rather than being tilled and planted with crops. The meaning ‘white’ can be seen as a later development in Irish, since this is not attested for Latin vānus or any of the Romance descendants of this word. Thus, Ir. bán is from a dialect of Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula or in Southern France, or from an early Romance dialect spoken in the same area. Possible contexts for language contact between Latin/Romance and early Irish will be discussed. A loan is more compatible with the evidence, particularly the absence of Brittonic cognates, than a word inherited from Indo-European through Proto-Celtic.
There is no consensus regarding the etymology of sceilg (Vendryes 1974). In this paper it will be argued that sceilg is a variant of speilg, another rare element in Irish place-names with a complimentary, more northerly distribution, also denoting a rock feature, and that both are loans of Vulgar Latin speluca, a widespread variant of spelunca, meaning ‘cave’ (sometimes a hermit’s dwelling) or ‘den’. In the original conference paper it was argued that the loss of the nasal in the sound change /ŋk/ > /g/ (Latin spelunca > Old Irish sceillec (> Modern Irish sceilg)) pointed to a very early borrowing, since this sound change is regarded as complete before 400 AD (McManus 1983). However, the revised derivation from speluca, which had already lost the nasal in Vulgar Latin, makes this unnecessary. Irish sceilg, as well as speilg, seems to have undergone a semantic shift, acquiring a more general sense of ‘rock, crag’. An earlier meaning ‘cave, hermitage’, closer to that of Latin spelunca, is only evident at the hermitage sites of Sceilg Mhíchíl and Teampall na Sceilge. In the latter case, the presence of a hermit’s cave, Leaba Chaoimhín (Eng. Saint Kevin’s Bed), in the immediate vicinity is particularly relevant. The loan is still early, but not exceptionally so, and is more likely to date to the 6th or 7th century when these Irish hermitage sites were established.
A well-known geographical triad mentioned in The Metrical Dindshenchas is trí tonna h-Érenn uile, usually interpreted as “three great waves of Ireland”: Tonn Chlidna (Co. Cork), Tonn Rudraige (Co. Down), Túag Inber (Co. Derry). Despite folklore about powerful, destructive waves, observation at these locations suggests that these names simply refer to three stretches of coastline, two of them notable for beaches and sand-dunes. Furthermore, The Tuns is the English name of a hazardous sand-bank, sometimes exposed, at the mouth of the River Foyle. It will be argued that Ir. tonn and Eng. Tuns in these names are ultimately derived from a Brittonic word referring to a beach, cognate with Welsh tywyn ‘seashore, sand-dune’.
Similarly, there is a group of coastal names around N. and N.W. Ireland, anglicised as -toy, -tooey, doo-, dooey, etc. These include Ballintoy (Co. Antrim), Slievetooey (Co. Donegal), Dooagh, Doogort and Dooega on Achill Island (Co. Mayo), and various places called Dooey. Túag Inber also belongs here. Many of these names do not have an agreed origin. It is proposed that these names refer to beaches and/or sand-dunes, and that they derive from a Brittonic cognate of Welsh tywod ‘sand’, which should best be spelt tuadh/duadh in Modern Irish. When rendered in Irish with dumha ‘mound’ or dumhach ‘sand-bank’, the silent -mh- is unetymological.
This group of place-names provides important evidence for two elements which are not found in Irish dictionaries, but are they simply loanwords into Irish from Brittonic or traces of an extinct Brittonic dialect spoken in Ireland? Both elements appear to have been re-interpreted in late medieval Irish tradition, suggesting they were no longer widely understood and that the names were coined at an earlier date.
The Irish element gaoth (masc.) is found in a number of Irish place-names, principally in the northern half of Ireland. It is a homonym of gaoth (fem.) meaning 'wind'. While the word is rarely used as a common noun in Irish, it is clear from place-names that it refers originally to a water-feature, often the estuary of a river, e.g. Gaoth Dobhair (Gweedore, Co. Donegal), Gaoth Sáile (Gweesalia, Co. Mayo). The relevant names have been studied by Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig (Scathlán no. 3, 1986). No clear etymology has yet been advanced to my knowledge. A Britonnic origin for gaoth is proposed here (which also applies to the sense 'wind'), deriving it from the Celtic root *WEKT- seen in Vectis, the Celtic name for the Isle of Wight. It therefore shows the characteristic Britonnic change W- --> gw-, rather than Irish f-. It is likely to have passed through an early Britonnic form *gweith (cf. Inis Gueith, Nennius' name for the Isle of Wight) before being borrowed into Irish as gaoth. The element has several Britonnic cognates, the best attested being Breton gwazh. The basic meaning of the root appears to be 'current, movement', cf. Latin veho and vector, developing to 'wind' ('current of air') and 'river, estuary' ('(tidal) current of water').
N.B. Since presenting this paper I have revised my ideas about the roots involved. I no longer propose to derive gaoth in both senses from *WEKT-. Gaoth as a hydronymic element is more likely derived from *WĒTT-, which is widely regarded as the origin of Welsh gŵyth 'vein, seam, channel' and Breton gwazh 'stream, bog'. I still regard it as a loan from Brittonic into Irish. Ir. féith 'vein, sinew, nerve' and 'bog channel' (1 word or 2?) are usually derived from *WEIT-, possibly a variant, given the semantic similarity. Gaoth 'wind' remains problematic, but a loan from Brittonic is also possible here.
Conference programme and abstracts:
https://earlymodernirelandconference.blogspot.com/2010/07/abstracts.html
Article, published in Archaeology Ireland, summer 2019, available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26844469?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
(This version of the abstract corresponds to the paper as delivered and covers a slightly narrower range of issues from those outlined on the version published in the conference programme, as the paper had to be trimmed to fit a 20 minute slot.)
This paper aims to show how observation in the field and topographical analysis can help to ascertain a reliable interpretation and concludes that the sense ‘boulder’ is probably much more common than has heretofore been recognised. Carbad is probably one of a group of Irish words in car– denoting rock, including carraig, carn, and carrach. [At the time of the presentation I also included cairthe/coirthe, but I would now link this with Latin quadrare, 'to quarry or dress stone'.] Parallels with Continential Celtic names and other Continental European names in kar– + labial extension (karb– / karp– / kar(a)v–) referring to rock features are discussed. It is proposed that carbad can be analysed as carb– ‘rock’ + suffix –ad. The precise meaning of the suffix –ad/–aid is unclear, but it is familiar in other Irish place-name elements such as caolad, dromad, leithead, fánaid.
[This paper was prepared as part of my doctoral research. It was delivered in September 2008, but was written up with some minor modifications in early 2010, which allowed the inclusion of some references to works published during 2009. The paper was integrated into chapter 3 of my doctoral thesis, submitted in January 2011.]
In this paper, the Gaulish, British and Irish names are compared, particularly in terms of the repertoire of elements found in each set and the semantic categories represented. It is found that there is surprisingly little overlap between the Gaulish and Irish repertoires, both in terms of generic and specific elements. In general, the British names, especially the Romano-British ones, offer better parallels with the Continent.
The close compound structure, inherited from Indo-European, is taken up in Ireland, but gets heavily adapted in terms of the repertoire of elements and is steadily replaced by other structures. The strongest connections with Gaulish names are found in Ulster and North Leinster. There are areas where noun + noun compounds are scarce or absent.
The early Irish elements with non-cognate Gaulish synonyms merit further study, as a proportion of them may have non-Celtic origins.
notable early Christian monastic sites, namely Sceilg Mhíchíl (Eng. ‘Skellig Michael’), a rocky island located off the coast of Co. Kerry, and Teampall na Sceilge (Eng. ‘Templenaskellig’) at Glendalough, Co. Wicklow. Both Skellig Michael and Glendalough are believed to have been founded by hermit saints in the 6th century AD.
There is no consensus regarding the etymology of sceilg (Vendryes, 1974). In this paper it will be argued that sceilg is a variant of speilg, another rare element in Irish place names with a complimentary, more northerly distribution, also denoting a rock feature, and that both are
loans of Vulgar Latin spelu(n)ca, meaning ‘cave’ (sometimes a hermit’s dwelling) or ‘den’. Irish sceilg, as well as speilg, seems to have undergone a semantic shift, acquiring a more general sense of ‘rock, crag’. An earlier meaning ‘cave, hermitage’, closer to that of Latin spelunca, is only evident at the hermitage sites of Sceilg Mhíchíl and Teampall na Sceilge. In the latter case, the presence of a hermit’s cave, Leaba Chaoimhín (Eng. ‘Saint Kevin’s Bed’), in the immediate vicinity is particularly relevant.
Conference programme and abstracts:
https://earlymodernirelandconference.blogspot.com/2010/07/abstracts.html
Article available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26844469?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
The Irish language names of features situated in the Gaeltacht, wholly or partially, have now been highlighted in bold type. Irish forms have been added for secondary peaks which do not have a separate name, e.g. Barr Trí gCom (mullach thoir thuaidh) for Baurtregaum NE Top, Cnoc na Ceachan (mullach i gcéin thoir theas) for Caha Far SE Top. More than 80 passes and other similar mountain routes have been added to the list. Numerous minor revisions, corrections and standardisations to ensure consistency of format have been carried out.
Preface to 2019 edition
A selection of mountain ranges, peninsulas, headlands and islands has now
been added to the list, with information on the geographical features themselves
and on their names. 171 new entries have been added in this edition, making
1,261 entries in total. The ranges are mainly those which were already
mentioned in the 2010 MV list of peaks. 31 existing entries have also been
significantly revised and/or expanded. The vast majority of entries in the list still relate to specific peaks, but for other features, the category of the feature has been added in brackets after the name where this is not self-evident, e.g. Slieve Aughty (range), Corraun (peninsula), etc. The title of the list has been changed to “Irish Landscape Names” to reflect the wider range of content. I hope to add a selection of significant water features, rock features, glens and passes in later updates. This document is now available as a pdf at https://mountainviews.ie/resourceitem/names/List2019/IrishLandscapeNames2019.pdf
Preface to 2010 edition
For a few years now I have had the pleasure of contributing to the Mountain Views website (www.mountainviews.ie ), particularly by compiling place-name data and information from other relevant disciplines on the names of the Irish mountains listed there. This excellent website was created as a resource for Irish hillwalkers by Simon Stewart, who also maintained it with great vision and dedication for about a decade. Over 800 members have contributed articles and photos to the website and helped with its development. It has been so successful that the running of the site and associated walking events has recently been entrusted to a committee of volunteers, though Simon still has a leading role in this. The list of mountains and hills has been expanded several times and it now comprises no less than 1,056 summits. The compilation of this data has been a community effort over a number of years. At an early stage I got involved in compiling name information, mainly from existing place-name surveys. I then also carried out some original research on names of certain peaks, and helped to establish both Irish and English forms for some hills for which information was scarce. Contributors to MV also provided useful information on names, particularly for certain minor peaks, and this was incorporated into the notes on the site.
Until now the notes on the names of the summits have only been accessible by visiting the page for each summit separately. However, enquiries and feedback over the last few years strongly suggested that there was sufficient interest to justify having the name information and other relevant data available in a single document to facilitate consultation. This document is now available as a pdf at . The headings in this list are Anglicised Name(s) (or Irish name where not available); Irish Name(s) (where available); Name Origin and Meaning; Notes about peak and name(s); Area; County; Grid Reference; Height (in metres); 1:50,000 map sheet. I should explain that the Irish name comes second only for the practical reason that this column is unfortunately blank in quite a lot of cases, especially for minor hills whose name was only known in English. We have managed to fill in more than a few of the blanks, and continue to work on completing this data.
I would be very interested to get any comments about this document. It runs to 111 pages, so I’m sure it is not completely error-free, and I’d be happy for you to report any errors or inconsistencies, either through the site or by emailing me. If you have information on names which currently lack it, that would also be most welcome.
It is also worth emphasising, for the benefit of those who are not yet familiar with Mountain Views, that it is much more than just a list of summits with comments and photos. It is more like a Facebook for Irish hillwalkers, but better (attention is focussed on the mountains rather more than on individual walkers). Do take a look. The second annual evening of talks and awards was held recently at Bewleys Hotel near Dublin, and ‘Scavenger’ walks are organised by members on an occasional basis.
Contribution of further place-name information for the second edition published in 2022.
The Peadar Joe Haughey Festival 2020 took place from Thursday 24th September to Sunday 27th September
Déardaoin 24 Meán Fómhair – Thursday 24th September, 8pm; ONLINE
Bhí Paul Tempan agus Ruairidh MacIlleathain i mbun na léachta ar na príomhchosúlachtaí idir na logainmneacha in Éirinn agus cuid de na tíortha Ceilteacha eile.
Talk via Zoom on place names in the mountain landscape of Co. Tyrone. Paul Tempan and Roddy Maclean guide us through the main similarities between place names in Ireland and some of the other Celtic nations.
Domhnach 27 Meán Fómhair – Sunday 27th September, 11am, Gortin Glen Forest Park car park.
Siúlóid treoraithe go Mullach Cairn le Paul Tempan.
Guided walk with Paul Tempan to the top of Mullaghcarn (542m).
The presentation covered the following topics:
1. The system of Irish administrative units
2. Irish language and other languages which have contributed to the stock of place-names found in Ireland.
3. Logainmneacha Bhéal Feirste — some place-names in and around Belfast
4. A sample of the earliest layer of place-names in Ulster.
5. Resources for researching place-names
1. The system of administrative units
2. Irish language and other languages which have contributed to the stock of place-names found in Ireland.
3. Logainmneacha Bhéal Feirste — Place-Names in and around Belfast
4. Resources for researching place-names
The talk covered local surnames found in Co. Down, mostly of Irish, English and Scottish origin, but mention was also made of Welsh and Manx names, as well as some from further afield. It dealt not just with origin and meaning, but also structure and typology. Readers at Carryduff Library had the chance to sign up and request information on their own surname or other names of interest.
2. Logainmneacha Bhéal Feirste — Place-Names in and around Belfast
3. Resources for researching place-names
4. Irish Mountain Names