Advanced search
Publication Cover
WORD Volume 28, 1977 - Issue 1-2: Celtic Linguistics--1976
Submit an article Journal homepage
662
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Celtic Toponymics in Scotland

W. F. H. NicolaisenDepartment of EnglishState University of New York at BinghamtonBinghamton, New York13901
Pages 117-139 | Published online: 16 Jun 2015

  • William J. Watson, The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland (Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1926).
  • W. J. Watson, Place-Names of Ross and Cromarty (Inverness: Northern Counties Printing and Publishing, 1904).
  • Alexander Macbain, Celtic Review, I (1904-05), 90.
  • Ibid.
  • W. J. Watson, ‘The Study of Highland Place-Names,’ Celtic Review, I (1904-05), 23.
  • Ibid., pp. 22–31.
  • For example, George Chalmers, Caledonia: or, An Account, historical and topographic, of North Britain; from the most ancient to the present times: with a Dictionary of Places, Chorographical and Philological. In Four Volumes (London: T. Cadell & W. Davies), vol. I: 1807, vol. II: 1810, and vol. Ill: 1824; the promised dictionary volume was never published.
  • See, for instance, W. F. Skene, The Highlanders of Scotland, 2 vols. (London: John Murray, 1836).
  • the most extreme, but also the best and most illuminating, example is probably Sir Walter Scott's novel The Antiquary.
  • Sir John Sinclair, ed., The Statistical Account of Scotland Drawn up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes, 21 vols. (Edinburgh: William Creech, 1791-99).
  • James A. Robertson, The Gaelic Topography of Scotland and What it Proves Explained; with much Historical, Antiquarian, and Descriptive Information (Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo, 1869), p. i v.
  • Ibid., p. v.
  • Quoted by W. J. Watson, ‘The Position of Gaelic in Scotland,’ Celtic Review, X (1914-16), 71, and Celtic Place-Names, pp. ix–x.
  • Celtic Review, I (1904-05), 90; review of Watson, Ross and Cromarty.
  • Alexander Macbain, “Who were the Picts? A Criticism of the Views of Professor Rhys,” Transactions of the Inverness Scientific Society and Field Club, IV (1888-95),62.
  • Ibid.
  • Apart from Robertson (see n. 11 above), a good example of this type of work would be Alexander Mackenzie's “Local Topography,” Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, I (1871-72), 23–31, or “The Gaelic Origin of Local Names,” Transactions of the Inverness Scientific Society and Field Club, III (1883-88), 9–18; or D. Matheson's “Celtic Place Names”, ibid., 296–304. James B. Johnston's Place-Names of Scotland (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1892) also suffers from the same fault, as far as its “Gaelic” names are concerned. There are, of course, numerous other illustrations of this tendency.
  • Donald Maclean, “Donald Mackinnon, M.A., Emeritus-Professor of Celtic, University of Edinburgh,” Celtic Review, X (1914-16), 65.
  • Watson, ‘Highland Place-Names,’ p. 31.
  • Donald Lamont, ‘Professor Mackinnon,’ Celtic Review, X (1914-16), 97.
  • W. J. Watson, ‘Alexander Macbain, LL.D.,” Celtic Review, III (1906-7), 386.
  • Alexander Cameron, ‘Place-Names of Dumbarton,’ lecture delivered in 1872 or 1873; published in Reliquiae Celticae, ed. Alexander Macbain and John Kennedy, Vol. II (Inverness: Northern Counties Newspaper and Printing and Publishing, 1894), 547–560.
  • Alexander Cameron, ‘Arran Place Names,’ ibid., 561–576.
  • Mackinnon contributed seventeen articles on “Place Names and Personal Names in Argyle” to The Scotsman between November 9, 1887, and January 18, 1888. Several bibliographical references which claim that these articles began in October, 1887, and that there were eighteen of them are wrong.
  • Anthologized handily in Alex. Macbain, Place Names Highlands & Islands of Scotland, ed. William J. Watson (Stirling: Eneas Mackay, 1922).
  • P. W. Joyce, The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places, first series (Dublin: McGlashan & Gill, 1869); second series (ibid., 1875). A third volume followed in 1913.
  • The Scotsman, Nov. 25, 1887, p. 5.
  • Cameron, ‘Place-Names of Dumbarton,’ p. 548.
  • Ibid.
  • James Macdonald, Place Names in Strathbogie, with Notes Historical, Antiquarian, and Descriptive (Aberdeen: D. Wyllie & Son, 1891), p. 13.
  • Sir Herbert Eustace Maxwell, Studies in the Topography of Galloway (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1887), p. ix.
  • Sir Herbert Maxwell, Scottish Land-Names: Their Origin and Meaning (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1894), p. v.
  • Cameron, ‘Place-Names of Dumbarton,’ p. 548.
  • The Scotsman, Nov. 25, 1887, p. 5.
  • Maxwell, Topography of Galloway, 13. 36 Ibid., p. 17.
  • See p. 135 below.
  • James Macdonald, ‘On the Study of Celtic Place Names,’ Transactions of the Inverness Scientific Society and Field Club, III (1883-88), 423. Ironically, this is the same volume in which Mackenzie's and Matheson's highly etymologizing articles were published (see n. 17 above).
  • The Scotsman, Nov. 9, 1887, p. 7.
  • Cameron, ‘Place-Names of Dumbarton,’ p. 549.
  • Cameron, ‘Arran Place Names,’ p. 2.
  • The Scotsman, Nov. 17, 1887, p. 5.
  • James B. Johnston, Place-Names of Scotland (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1892); 2nd ed. (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1903); 3rd ed. (London: John Murray, 1934).
  • Skene, Highlanders, 67–76. Skene's views are discussed by Alexander Macbain, ‘Mr Skene versus Dr Skene,” Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, XXI (1896-97), 191–214.
  • JohnRhŷs, ‘The Inscriptions and Language of the Northern picts,” Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, XXVI (1891-92), 263–351, with some “Addenda and Corrigenda,” ibid., XXVII (1892-93), 411–412. While relating Pictish to Basque in this article, Rhŷs later abandons this view in “A Revised Account of the Northern Picts,” ibid., XXXII (1897-98), 324–398.
  • The non-Celtic theory was supported by MacNeill and Macalister, and the equation of Gaelic and Pictish was continued by Diack, and less radically by Fraser. Their views are neatly summarized and refuted by K. H. Jackson, “The Pictish Language,” The Problem of the Picts, ed. F. T. Wainwright (Edinburgh: Nelson, 1955), pp. 129–166.
  • Macbain, “Who Were the Picts?”, p. 89.
  • Ibid.
  • Ibid., p. 91.
  • Whitley Stokes, ‘On the Linguistic Value of the Irish Annals,’ Proceedings of the Philological Society, 1890, pp. 365–433. This article is reprinted in Beiträge zur Kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen, XVIII (1892), 56–132.
  • R. Thurneysen, Keltoromanisches (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1884), pp. 70–72.
  • Cameron, ‘Place-Names of Dumbarton,’ p. 548.
  • The Scotsman, Nov. 17, 1887, p. 5.
  • The Scotsman, Dec. 2, 1887, p. 5, and Dec. 7, 1887, p. 9.
  • Macbain, Highlands & Islands, pp. 67–118.
  • Published as “The Norse Element in the Topography of the Highland and Isles,” Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, IX (1893-94), 217–245. This article largely overlaps in wording and substance with the previous one.
  • ‘Did the Northmen Extirpate the Celtic Inhabitants of the Hebrides in the Ninth Century?’,’ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, XI (1876), 472–507.
  • “On Islay Place-Names,” ibid., XVI (1882), 241–276. Capt. Thomas acknowledges extensive help from Hector Maclean of Islay, who appears to have been the competent advisor of a number of scholars, not just in place-name studies. See J. H. Delargy, ‘Three Men of Islay,’ Scottish Studies, IV (1960), 126–133, and Mackinnon, “Hector Maclean, M.A.I.,” Celtic Monthly, I (1892-93), 105–107. Maclean (1818-93) contributed an article on “The Picts” to the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, XVI 1889-90), 228–252, in which he subscribes to the view that they were pre-Celtic.
  • Macbain, ‘Place-Names of the Hebrides,’ 70 and Mackinnon, The Scotsman, Dec. 2, 1887, p. 5.
  • Macbain, Highlands and Islands, pp. 289–292.
  • Macbain, ‘Place-Names of the Hebrides,’ p. 118.
  • George Henderson, The Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland (Glasgow: James Maclehose, 1910).
  • W. F. Skene, ‘Race and Language of the Picts,’ Archaeologia Cambrensis, 3rd series, XI (1865), facing p. 340.
  • Inquisitionum ad Capellam Domini Regis Retornatarum, quae in publicis archivis Scotiae adhuc servantur, Abbrevatio, ed. T. Thomson (London: House of Commons, 1811-16), 3 vols.
  • David Christison, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, XXVII (1892-93), 255–280.
  • Ibid., p. 255.
  • Ibid., p. 279.
  • Ibid., pp. 279–80.
  • Whereas The Place-Names of Argyll by H. Cameron Gillies (London: D. Nutt, 1906) is on most library shelves. Reviewing it, Mackinnon said: “We close the book with a profound feeling of disappointment” (Celtic Review, III [1906-7], 94); and Macbain, after dealing extensively with its many defects, ends his review on a note of despair: “They are not all that we… could point out, but, as Mercutio says, ‘Tis enough'” (Highlands & Islands, p. 357).
  • See n. 2 above.
  • On Jan. 12,1904, Watson read a summary of sections of this Preface to the Inverness Scientific Society and Field Club. His conclusions were printed under the title “Study of Scottish Place-Names” in the Transactions, VI (1899-1906), 279–280.
  • Watson, Ross and Cromarty, p. XXX.
  • See no. 5 above.
  • P. HI, quoting from “The Study of Highland Place-Names.”
  • See, for instance, Macbain, Highlands & Islands, 303–309; first published in Celtic Review, I (1904-05), 89–92.
  • Loch Lomond, on pp. 119 and 212.
  • Watson, Celtic Place-Names, p. 184.
  • Francis C. Diack did, of course, also rely heavily on the evidence of suffixes in his bid to prove that Pictish was Goidelic, but his morphological analyses in this respect seldom inspire confidence. See Revue Celtique, XXXVIII (1920-21), 109–132; XXXIX (1922), 125–174; and XLI (1924), 107–148.
  • William J. Watson, ‘Place-Names of Strathdearn,’ Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, XXX (1919-22), 101–121; “The Place-Names of Breadalbane,” ibid., XXXIV (1927-28), 248–279; “Place-Names of Perthshire: The Lyon Basin,” ibid., XXXV (1929-30), 277–296; but also “The Celts in Britain,” ibid., XXXVI (1931-33), 241–264, and “The Celts (British and Gael) in Dumfriesshire and Galloway,” Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History & Antiquarian Society., 3rd series, XI (1923-24), 119–148.
  • K. H. Jackson, ‘Edinburgh and the Anglian Occupation of the Lothian,’ The Anglo-Saxons, Studies… Presented to Bruce Dickins, ed. Peter Clemoes (London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1959), pp. 35–42.
  • K. H. Jackson, ‘The British Language during the Period of the English Settlements,’ Studies in Early British History, ed. N. K. Chadwick (Cambridge: University Press, 1954), pp. 61–82; “The Britons in Southern Scotland,” Antiquity, XXIX (1955), 77–88; “The Sources for the Life of St. Kentigern,” Studies in the Early British Church, ed. N. K. Chadwick (Cambridge: University Press, 1958), pp. 273–357; “On the Northern British Section in Nennius,” Celt and Saxon, ed. N. K. Chadwick (Cambridge: University Press, 1963), pp. 20–62; “Angles and Britons in Northumbria and Cumbria,” Angles and Britons, ed. H. Lewis (Cardiff: Univ. of Wales Press, 1963), pp. 60–84.
  • See n. 46 above.
  • Jackson, ‘Pictish Language,’ pp. 147 and 150.
  • W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘P-Celtic Place-Names in Scotland,’ Studia Celtica, VII (1972), 1–11.
  • W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘Place-Names of the Dundee Region,’ Dundee and District ed. S. J. Jones Dundee, British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1968), 144–152.
  • K. H. Jackson, Language and History in Early Britain (Edinburgh: University Press, 1953).
  • Kenneth Jackson, The Gaelic Notes in the Book of Deer (Cambridge: University Press, 1972).
  • Carl HJ. Borgstrøm, The Dialects of the Outer Hebrides, Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, Suppl. Bind I (Oslo, 1940); The Dialects of Skye and Ross-shire, ibid., II (Oslo, 1941); Magne Oftedal. The Gaelic of Leurbost, Isle of Lewis, ibid., IV (Oslo, 1956), with a most informative offshoot in his article “The Village Names of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides,” Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, XVII (1954), 363–409; Nils M. Holmer, The Gaelic of Arran (Dublin: Institute for Advanced Studies, 1957); and The Gaelic of Kintyre (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1962).
  • W. J. N. Liddall, ‘Kinross-shire Place Names,’ Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, XIV (1887-88), 158.
  • Christison, p. 256 (see n. 65 above).
  • W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘The Collection and Transcription of Scottish Place-Names,’ Atti e Memorie del VII Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Onomastiche (Florence, 1961), IV (Florence: Istituto di Glottologia, 1963), 105–114.
  • W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘Scottish Place-Names: 24. Slew- and sliabh,” Scottish Studies, IX (1965), 91–106. This article develops in detail ideas suggested by John MacQueen, “Welsh and Gaelic in Galloway,” Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History & Antiquarian Society, 3rd series, XXXII (1953-54), 77–92, esp. 90–91.
  • Most Gaelic toponymie generics seem to have been used throughout the many centuries in which speakers of Gaelic created place-names in Scotland. MacQueen, “Welsh and Gaelic,” p. 90, suggests a further early element: Gaelic carraig ‘rock, cliff'.
  • John MacQueen, ‘Kirk- and Kil- in Galloway Place-Names,’ Archivum Linguisti- cum, VIII (1956), 135–149, and W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘Norse Place-Names in Southwest Scotland,’ Scottish Studies, IV (1960), 49–70, esp. 61–66.
  • W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘Gaelic Place-Names in Southern Scotland,’ Studia Celtica, V (1970), 15–35.
  • See W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘Gaelic Place-Names,’ An Historical Atlas of Scotland c. 400-c. 1600, ed. Peter McNeill and Ranald Nicholson (St. Andrews: Atlas Committee of the Conference of Scottish Medievalists, 1975), pp. 4–5, and Maps 4a-4d (pp. 108–109).
  • W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘The Semantic Structure of Scottish Hydronymy,’ Scottish Studies, I (1957), 211–240, and “The Historical Stratification of Scottish Hydronymy,” Sixth International Congress of Onomastic Sciences (Munich: 1958), Reports, III (Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1961), 561–571.
  • Despite Watson, Celtic Place-Names, p. 408. See Jackson, “Pictish Language,” pp. 149, n. 3; Jackson, Book of Deer, p. 115, n. 3; and Nicolaisen, Dundee and District, pp. 146–148.
  • W. E. H. Nicolaisen, ‘Scottish Place-Names: 31. Falkirk,’ Scottish Studies, XIII (1969), 47–59. An older, now unacceptable, etymology is promoted by P. Miller, “Notes on the Derivation and Meaning of the Place-Name of Falkirk, as Ascertained from Charters and Other Historical Documents,” Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, XXVII (1892-93), 58–65.
  • Nicolaisen, ‘Norse Place-Names’ (see n. 94 above).
  • W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘Scottish Place-Names: 28. Old English wie in Scottish Place-Names,” Scottish Studies, XI (1967), 75–84, esp. 80 and 83.
  • Nicolaisen, ‘Gaelic Place-Names,’ p. 32.
  • W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘Place Names in Bilingual Communities,’ Names, XXIII (1975), 167–174.
  • W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘Scottish Place-Names: 10. The Type 'Burn of—’ in Scottish Hydronymy,” Scottish Studies, III (1959), 92–102; ‘15. Names Containing the Preposition of;’ ibid., IV (1960), 190–205; and ‘25. ‘Hill of—’ and ‘Loch of—8’,” ibid., IX (1965), 175–182.
  • Nicolaisen, ‘P-Celtic Place-Names’ (see n. 84 above).
  • W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘Anglo-Saxons and Celts in the Scottish Border Counties,’ Scottish Studies, VII (1964), 141–171.
  • W. F. H. Nicolaisen, ‘Die alteuropäischen Gewässernamen der britischen Hauptinsel,’ Beiträge zur Namenforschung, VIII (1957), 211–268, and “Great Britain and Old Europe,” Namn och Bygd, LIX (1971), 85–105.
  • John MacQueen, ‘The Gaelic Speakers of Galloway and Carrick,’ Scottish Studies, XVII (1973), 17–33.
  • Ian A. Fraser, “Place Names from Oral Tradition—An Informant's Repertoire,” Scottish Studies, XIV (1970), 192–197, and “The Place-Names of Illeray,” Scottish Studies, XVII (1973), 155–163.
  • Aidan Macdonald, ‘Annat in Scotland: A Provisional Review,’ Scottish Studies, XVII (1973), 135–146.
  • See, for example, William M. Alexander, The Place-Names of Aberdeen shire (Aberdeen: Third Spalding Club, 1952), a study which also owes much to Diack; Angus Macdonald, The Place-Names of West Lothian (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1941); and Sir Herbert Maxwell, The Place Names of Calloway (Glasgow: Jackson, Wylie, 1930). There are others.
  • See now also W. F. H. Nicolaisen, Scottish Place-Names: Their Study and Significance (London: B. T. Bats ford, 1976), published several months after this article had been completed.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Order Reprints Request Corporate Permissions

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

Request Academic Permissions

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.

Related research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.