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Celtic Languages IV. SCOTTISH GAELIC STUDIES

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682 Celtic Languages IV. SCOTTISH GAELIC STUDIES By DERICK S. THOMSON, Emeritus ProftssoroJCeltic, University ofGlasgow S. Taylor, 'Some early Scottish place-names and Queen Margaret', Scottish Language, 13: I-I7, discusses Pit- names, especially in Fife, many of them with Gaelic second elements, emphasizing the acceptance of this term as a loan from Pictish to Gaelic. The popularity of Pit-/ Pett- names is linked with continuing Celtic-style church foundations, whereas Bal- and Baile- names are commoner in areas of Fife (such as St Andrews) which show stronger feudal influences, but also the continued use of Gaelic in east Fife in the I 2th c. Walter, L 'A venture, 84-86, discusses briefly some Gaelic topics including the Ossian episode and the decline of Gaelic usage. C. 6 Baoill, 'Gaelic Ichthyonymy: studying the terms used for fish in Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx', ZCP, 46: I 64--gg, has ransacked dictiona­ ries, dialect descriptions etc., to assemble his listing of terms for fish, usefully comparing the forms which have coexisted in Scottish Gaelic and Irish, and in Manx (in which fewer examples are available). It is urgently desirable that elderly Gaelic fishermen should record the usages that were traditional in their own neighbourhoods, as much of this knowledge is unlikely to survive much longer. The Proceedings of the third international conference on the languages of Scotland, Studies in Scots and Gaelic, ed. A. Fenton and D. A. MacDonald, Edinburgh, Canongate Academic, viii+ I82 pp., include a group of Gaelic-related papers, e.g. J. D. McClure on 'Literary translation between Scots and Gaelic' (106-22), K. Mackinnon on 'Gaelic language-use in the Western Isles' (I23-37), and W. Gillies on 'A Gaelic Thesaurus' ( I4g-62). In Price Vol., D. S. Thomson writes on 'Attitudes to linguistic change in Gaelic Scotland' (227-36): this is not an optimistic report, but it attempts to assess both positive and negative factors. The New English-Gaelic Dictionary, Glasgow, Gairm Publications, vii+ 24I pp., has been reissued, with small corrections and over a thousand new entries or glosses. This dictionary and Robert Owen's Modem Gaelic-English Dictionary, Glasgow, Gairm Publications, x + I 39 pp., are now the standard dictionaries for use in Scottish Education Authority schools. The most substantial volume with a strong Gaelic relevance to be considered this year is the Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland, ed. John Keay and Julia Keay, London, Harper Collins, xv + 1046 pp. This comprehensive work encompasses a wide range of topics and information (geology, localities, institutions, the law, art, music, persons of note, etc.). Apart from the editors' large input, some hundred specialists contribute, although unfortunately individual Scottish Gaelic Studies authorship of articles is not specified. Approximately 25,000 to 30,000 words are devoted to Gaelic and related topics, including language, literature, Pictish art, writers, clans, tartans, manuscripts, waulking­ songs, and historical characters. Scotland. A Concise Cultural History, ed. P. H. Scott, Edinburgh, Mainstream Publishing, 1993, 416 pp., includes a chapter (127-44) by D. Thomson on 'Gaelic literature'.]. Shaw, '"Language, music and local aesthetics". Views from Gael­ dom and beyond', Scottish Language, 11-12: 37-61, discusses relation­ ships between Gaelic oral and musical culture, citing especially the perceptions of Cape Breton Gaelic informants. Gaelic Bards and Minstrels, ed. W. Matheson and M. MacLeod, School of Scottish Studies, University ofEdinburgh, 48 pp. +two cassettes, presents 35 Gaelic songs sung by Matheson, who had used a mix of oral and published sources; MacLeod has provided the musical transcriptions and helped with the translations. In Indogermanica et Caucasica, ed. R. Bielmeier and R. Stempel, Berlin-New York, Walter de Gruyter, xvi + 56o pp., D. S. Thomson has an article on 'The blood-drinking motif in Scottish Gaelic tradition' (415-24), discussing instances referred to in Gaelic songs from the I 6th to the I 8th c., and briefly setting the motif in a wider context. The new edition of John L. Campbell's Canna, The Story of a Hebridean Island, Edinburgh, Canongate, xiv + 345 pp., has an additional appendix dealing with clearances that took place shortly after I84g. Tocher, 47, includes a number of Gaelic songs, proverbs and stories recorded over the last 40 years, including three stories from Strathar­ dle which give us a late sample (record~d 1951) of this East Perthshire Gaelic dialect. lain Dubh, ed. C. 0 Baoill, Aberdeen, An Clo Gaidhealach, go pp., is an edition often poems ascribed to the Gaelic poet lain Dubh mac lain mhicAilein (c. I665-c. I725). An attempt is made to pinpoint his connections and locations. A more detailed discussion of the variant sources would have been desirable, and also some assessment of the literary quality of the poems. The commen­ tary is in Gaelic. 0 Baoill has also edited an anthology of I 7th-c. Gaelic verse, Gair nan Clarsach, Edinburgh, Birlinn, x + 245 pp., with English translations by Meg Bateman. This collection of 43 poems includes five by lain Lorn and four by Donnchadh MacRaoiridh, and gives a good deal of historical background to the poems, together with a short glossary. A series of five articles, under the title 'Calum MacGilleathain, I 8g6--I g6 I'' Gairm, I 6 5-6g, gives a selection of the prose and verse of the Rev. Malcolm Maclean of Scarp; he was a keen promoter ofScoto-Irish relations. The influential anthology of modern Scottish Gaelic poetry, Nua-bhardachd Ghaidhlig: Modern Scottish Gaelic Poems, ed. D. MacAulay, Edinburgh, Canongate, 220 pp., has been republished, .
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