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Home , Emeritus, Scottish Gaelic

584 Celtic

IV. SCOTTISH STUDIES

By DERICK S. THOMSON, Emeritus ofCeltic, University ofGlasgow

There were two notable lexicographical publications in I991. The first related to one of the most famous landmarks in Gaelic lexicography, Edward Dwelly's Illustrated Gaelic-English Dictionary. Dwelly had continued his collection after the dictionary was finally published in I9I I, and in I99I his notes were finally published in Appendix to Dwelly's Gaelic-English Dictionary, ed. Douglas Clyne (mainly) and , , Gairm, viii+ I34 pp. Additional lexical information is especially concentrated on the early letters of the alphabet, showing the reaction of correspondents to the early publication in parts. Valuable detail is given of usage in places (e.. ) where Gaelic is now in terminal decline. A different sort oflandmark is provided by A. V. Cox, Bn' nam Facal, Univ. of Glasgow, Dept of Celtic, 442 pp. This is the first Gaelic-to• Gaelic dictionary to be published. It was basically intended for school use, but will have a much wider relevance. It includes between nine and ten thousand head-words, with full grammatical description and a good range of examples of usage. Dialectal alternatives, with cross-references, are included. E. Meel<, 'Language and style in the Scottish Gaelic (I767-I8o7)', Scottish , 9, I990: I-I6, gives a lively and succinct account of this historic translation, showing how it relates to the earlier Gaelic literary language and to vernacular Gaelic, and noting how its richness subsequently influenced Gaelic discourse and writing. He cites e.g. parallel versions from translation in Kirk's Bible of I69o and the Gaelic Old Testament of I80I .James Gleasure, 'The evolution of the present/future tense in ', SGS, I6, I 990: I 8 I-89, examines divergences between Scottish Gaelic and Irish, concluding that while Sc. G. innovates in its largely effective merging of present and future tenses, it has also 'preserved the shape of the original verb'. His paper suggests that there is much linguistic ground of a similar nature to be explored. Bruce Walker.' in Vernacular Buildings, I3, I989:47-6I, edits notes made by Ake Campbell and , on such topics as , blackhouscs, crucks, and outbuildings; Gaelic terminology for the survey, made in I948, was noted down by Calum Maclean. Camp• bell, Compendium, I 202-09, has a generally accurate summary of Scottish Gaelic phonology and , though it is cavalier in its use of accents. Scottish Gaelic Studies Richard A. V. Cox, 'The origin and relative chronology of shader- in the ', SGS, 16:95-II3, suggests that these Hebridean names derive from O.N. stitr rather than setr, but that the Norse word may well have been used in the more general sense of 'seat, residence' rather than the more specific sense of ''. He gives a listing of these shader-names with suggested . Donald MacKillop, 'Rocks, , shoals and islands in the Sounds of Harris and and around the island of ', TGSI, 56:428-502, gives a valuable listing of these names, many of them unmapped and in danger of being completely lost. Although some of the etymologies are risky, there is much explanatory material in this paper that clarifies the origins of the names. John Kerr, 'The Robertsons of Errochty', ib., 382-427, discusses in the by-going some North Perthshire place-names. Eric P. Hamp, 'Varia', SGS, 16: 191-g5, gives short notes on a number of place- etymologies and lexical items. Duffy, 'The Bruce brothers and the world, 1306-29', CMCS, 2 I: ss-86, examines various connections the Bruces had with , including 's 'invasion' of I 3Is; he suggests that the Bruces' Gaelic credentials are to be taken seriously, and he developes the thesis that in the later Middle Ages the idea of a pan-Gaelic region embracing and Ireland and Man is very much a political reality. Nicholls, 'Notes on the genealogy of Clann Eoin Mhoir', West Notes and Queries, Nov. 1991: 1 1-24, uses some little-known MS sources, e.g. from Lambeth Palace Library and Trinity College Dublin, to expand and correct accounts of the descendants ofjohn (brother of Donald ) Lord ofDuniveg and of the of Antrim. An Index to Notes and Queries of the Society of West Highland and Isles Historical Research, nos 1-30, provides a valuable key to this series.John Bannerman, 'The clarsach and the clarsair', Scottish Studies, 30, 1-17, discusses the earliest references to the harp and to harpers, suggesting that clarsach always refers to a triangular stringed instrument and is a later term than cruit. Though only minimally attested before the 15th ., Bannerman surmises that it must be much older, since it had been borrowed widely into Scots; he wonders if the word originated in Scotland, though later attested in Ireland. He discusses a wide range of references to harpists, including several of the Galbraith of U~im in , and also an interesting list of harpists (from many parts ofScotland) in the Book of the Dean ofLismore. He argues that the three earliest surviving examples of the clarsach (one of them in Ireland) were all made in Scotland, probably in , and that harp-music was an important ancestor of ceo! mor, the classical pipe music developed in Scotland.