The lost language of the landscape.

[sandbender]

This article may interest some.


I'd been aware that the Gaelic place names on OS maps would often translate into a more descriptive and often beautiful story about the place that was being named. Much more so than the English equivalent. The article talks about these and also the language used in other parts of the UK.


Enjoy.


"...a caochan, for instance, is “a slender moor-stream obscured by vegetation such that it is virtually hidden from sight”, while a feadan is “a small stream running from a moorland loch”, and a fèith is “a fine vein-like watercourse running through peat, often dry in the summer”. Other terms were striking for their visual poetry: rionnach maoim means “the shadows cast on the moorland by clouds moving across the sky on a bright and windy day”; èit refers to “the practice of placing quartz stones in streams so that they sparkle in moonlight and thereby attract salmon to them in the late summer and autumn”..."

 

[Goatboy]

Interesting stuff Sandbender,

I must say that my Gaelic is next to non existant, I know some of the hills I've climbed over the years and some of the plants like saugh (well I lived at a farm with good well water called Saughwells so I should, though I suppose that's Scots as the Gaelic is saileach). It's not the easiest language to get your head around.
Some friends sent their kids to Gaelic based schools that have been springing up around the country and their language and other skills seemed to improve well because of it.
Some place names even in English do tell stories though, like Head Wood in Dumfries-shire, the story behind it was that one of the old Dukes found out that one of his estate men had been having a dalliance with his daughter. So he ordered him dragged behind a horse 'round the estate. The point where his head became detached was everafter called Head Wood. Maybe not very poetic but a good story 'round the fire at night.

 

[boatman]

There is a trap though in some translations of alleged Celtic names that are assumed descriptive when a simple proto-English word and similar examples on the Continent are available without them having had to have been brought in by the Anglo-Saxons, see Thames for an example.

 

[Mack_ire]

I'm a member of a mapping group that are currently building a free to use for whatever purposes maps, we and you can add additional names to every node of the map, trees, mountains, buildings, rivers etc, there is a function to catalogue all these names for the same item. www.osm.org is the map website. To get back on topic it's interesting to compare the translation from Irish Gaelic to English, some areas no longer have the connection with their namesake that they were once known for.

 

[oldtimer]

I would strongly recommend Robert Macfarlane's work to visitors to this site. He cares about the same things as we do and has the gift of clear expression in his writing. Any book by Macfarlane in one hand and a glass of malt in the other beside a fire on a winter's night is close to heaven!

In the article mentioned in the OP, Macfarlane seeks contributions to his glossary- now there's a chalenge. Can we southerners emulate our cousins north of border?

 

[Macaroon]

Absolutely first rate writing; I can feel a little reading adventure approaching with all those links........Great post

 

[WoodsmanJim]

Very interesting stuff. Weirdly enough I've been reading about some Old English words today and how they've come through the history, exportation and mutation of languages to be words we know today. Thanks for the share!

James

 

[John Fenna]

Welsh place names can be enlightening as well...
Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch.
The name means: Parish [church] of [St.] Mary (Llanfair) [in] Hollow (pwll) of the White Hazel [township] (gwyn gyll) near (go ger) the rapid whirlpool (y chwyrn drobwll) [and] the parish [church] of [St.] Tysilio (Llantysilio) with a red cave ([a]g ogo[f] goch).

 

[bambodoggy]

There's road near where I live called "Sycamore Drive"......it's lined with grafted cherry trees......it irritates me every time I drive down it...not a Sycamore in sight anywhere!!! Savages!

 

[nic a char]

If you can tune into BBC Alba, they run programmes where mountains are climbed, and language experts explain the local old/new/developing/contradictory meanings of Gaelic, Norse, etc names - and the mis-spellings/contractions/alterations/confusions/disagreements/unresolved situations

 

[boatman]

Very interesting stuff. Weirdly enough I've been reading about some Old English words today and how they've come through the history, exportation and mutation of languages to be words we know today. Thanks for the share!

James

An awful lot of words we use today are English and have been for Millennia. Forget their various spellings over the centuries. To go back a short distance in time to Chaucer, called Middle English it is actually, English, with unfamiliar spellings and changes of vocabulary in part. Take his Prologue and try saying it in your normal English rather than the distorted sounds that English Literature teachers use.

Go back further pre-Conquest and a lot of the written language looks really foreign but some words and even sentences will leap out at you as just English, not Anglo-Saxon.
For example from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle- year 571 Her Cuþwulf feaht wiþ Bretwalas æt Bedcan forda or Here (as in this date) Cuthwulf fought with Britons and Welsh at Bedford. Simple?

 

[superc0ntra]

Thanks for the tip regarding Robert Macfarlane, ordered "the old ways" just now.