ONCE UPON A PLACE-NAME: DIVERSIFYING APPROACHES TO ONOMASTICS IN SCOTLAND (original) (raw)
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The study of place-names is an inherently multi-disciplinary activity which draws on and speaks to many other domains of research. This paper examines a category of names which can be termed ‘copied names’ or 'off-the-peg names', and which are of particular relevance to historians, archaeologists and geographers, as they tend to refer to notable buildings and public spaces. What connects them is neither their (literal) meaning nor their linguistic origin, but rather the manner in which they are copied from a site with a particular function, status or association to other sites which share, or have pretensions to sharing the same function, status or association. The name Smithfield was applied to markets in Dublin and Belfast simply because these places had an equivalent function to the meat-market of the same name in London, without regard to the derivation from Old English smēðe feld, ‘smooth field’. Owing to the divorce of etymology from ‘functional meaning’, this class of names has been prone to certain types of misunderstanding, both by toponymists and scholars of other disciplines. Some guidelines for dealing with copied names will be suggested, based on Irish models of good practice. This research was prompted by the work of Gary Dempsey on burial grounds named Bully’s Acre for an undergraduate dissertation at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. 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
Names in Multi-Lingual, Multi-Cultural and Multi-Ethnic Contact: Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Onomastic Sciences August 17-22, 2008, York University, Toronto, Canada, 2009
This paper examines the issues involved in establishing the chronology of elements referring to landscape features. Much work has been done on the Irish topographical lexicon in recent decades, notably by Prof. Liam Mac Mathúna, whose approach is rooted in word-field studies. His research has focussed on common nouns occurring in Old Irish and Middle Irish texts. This paper takes a complementary approach by asking what further light the evidence of place-names can shed on the topographical lexicon. It attempts to establish the outlines of a (largely relative) chronology, using the element sliabh as an example. It then goes on to consider some strategies which can help to refine this dating, using the elements rinn and ros from the word-field ‘promontory’. In particular, the analysis of suffixes and tautological names are discussed as resources which can help to construct a relative chronology.
Quaestio Insularis, 2021
During the fifth through eighth centuries CE, several prehistoric barrows and earthworks throughout Ireland were reopened and early medieval burials were inserted. In addition to being visible in material archaeology, processes of (re)interpreting pre-existing burial mounds via etiology, narrative construction, and identity creation operate in Latin and vernacular literature from medieval Ireland. The present paper will argue both that burial mounds themselves constitute links between worlds and faiths in an early Irish insular context, and that their literary representations occupy a lexical borderland with regards to the languages and semantic range of vocabulary used to describe them. We shall examine a number of terms for ‘burial mound’ and ‘grave’ in medieval Irish and Latin, along with the literary contexts in which they appear in order to elucidate relationships between landscape, language, and views of the past in medieval Ireland.
Gathering together can be a ceremonial reaffirmation of community across time and space, a natural and spiritual communion with the past and with the land. The process of assembly can assert ownership, celebrate, release tensions, redress grievances or give sanctuary. Bringing the extended community together on traditional land is a process whereby the place of each individual within the community and within the world is re-established and reinforced. Pictland, the kingdom of northern Scotland which flourished between the fifth and ninth centuries CE, sprang from a fusion of the indigenous tribes of the region. Its citizens probably gathered for all of the reasons just listed. The Picts left little written explanation for their choice of sites for gathering. Theirs was an oral culture that prided itself on memory skills, genealogies recited at length, and landscapes described in epic tales. Literacy was embraced only in the later stages of the Pictish kingdom, along with Christianity and the monastic tradition. 1 Although the burial of the Pictish king, Bridei mac Bili, on Iona around 593CE is indicative of Christian influence, the first verifiable acceptance of Christianity, and with it the written recording of activities, was Nechtan mac Derile's proclamation of compliance with the Roman Church in 710. 2 Applying a multidisciplinary approach to the search for assembly sites in the Pictish region has yielded a clearer picture than relying on history or archaeology alone. Examining archaeological, historical and onomastic data together allows us to build on current theories by highlighting hitherto neglected aspects of Pictish culture. In recent years the field of onomastics has illuminated the Picts' shared cultural heritage with the wider Celtic milieu whilst highlighting the indigenous marks left in the placename record. So while nemeton links the Picts with Celtic-speakers across Europe, pett (a parcel of land) sets them apart. The placename sites, unless accompanied by documentary and/or material evidence, were relatively neglected as sites of interest by researchers until recent years when onomastics proved a rich vein for investigating some of the sacred and celebratory functions of the Pictish community. The combination of the study of the etymological derivation of placenames with their topographical study can aid in revealing elements of sacred and administrative importance within the landscape. Pinpointing these sites of assembly is a beginning, for as Barry Raftery pointed out, 'the complexity of religious beliefs and practices often defies easy reconstruction from material remains … [as] archaeology tends to uncover only the end-products of … ritual activities …'. 3
The Cailleach in Place-Names and Place-Lore
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 14, 2020
The principal aim of this article is to refine our understanding of the Gaelic place-name element cailleach. This will be done primarily through analysis of a cluster of cailleach-names and associated place-lore from one area of the island of Muile/Mull in the Inner Hebrides. The main geographical area of focus is small but its namescape is dynamic and the analysis has implications for our understanding of this place-name element furth of the island and, indeed, furth of Scotland. The evidence lies in a range of published and unpublished textual and oral sources; in place-names, place-lore, linguistics and song. It will be argued that, when considered together, these sources provide evidence of a dynamic namescape which has been shaped by its associated place-lore and which has, in turn, fed the creative imaginations of local place-name users. It is argued that the namescape of north-west Muile/Mull is a microcosm of dynamism in language and lore. Furthermore, the argument has implications for our understanding of other place-name elements, including the Gaelic elements coileach, achlais and dròbh (also drògh).
Names and Tales: On Folklore and Place Names
Folklore, 2019
Names, like stories, are linguistic performances; so the twin disciplines of folkloristics and place-name studies can learn from each other's methods. Some names offer straightforward evidence for traditional culture, but others are rhetorical, not literal. Allusions to goblins, giants, and the Devil derive from playful storytelling rather than supernatural belief, while names of landmarks are used as pegs on which to hang local legends. The rules for coining names have varied through time and often use special linguistic markers to highlight moral or imaginative content. As we move into a more semiotically aware onomastics, we find ourselves interpreting names from a realm of popular idiom and allusion which is already familiar from folklore.
Вопросы Ономастики, 2018
Review of the book: Lloyd, S. (2017). The Arthurian Place Names of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. xii + 242 p. The article reviews Scott Lloyd's survey of Arthurian place names in Wales, and the background to this material in the literature and scholarship of the modern and medieval periods. The reviewer presents an overview of Lloyd's scope and methodology, situating it within the context of current trends in the wider fi eld of Celtic studies. Lloyd's survey shows that Arthurian toponymics is a modern as much as a medieval problem. The mutual infl uence between the map-makers on one hand, and the scholars and storytellers on the other, is best regarded as a dynamic work-in-progress, rather than a passive snapshot of timeless folk tradition. Lloyd's most signifi cant discovery is the relative fl uidity of Arthurian toponymics, with many of the place names in question fi rst appearing on the cartographic or literary record no earlier than the 19 th century. The case of the common Welsh place name Arthur's Quoits or Coetan Arthur is considered, and Lloyd's implication of a 17 th century origin for this form is critically discussed. Attention is drawn to the alternating currents of scepticism and reconstructionism that have defi ned Arthurian scholarship and literature from the Tudor period onwards. The author then offers some concluding thoughts on Arthur's "ontological ambiguity," and the powerful stimulus this seems to have exerted on topographical and historiographical speculation, both modern and medieval. K e y w o r d s: Celtic languages, Welsh place names, historical toponymics, Arthurian historiography, ethnotoponymy, topographic legend.
'Mo Rùn am Fearann' – 'My Love is the Land': Gaelic Landscapes of the 18th and 19th Centuries
The period of the 18th and 19th centuries was one of great change in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Improvement, the Jacobite Rebellions, and the Clearances transformed its communities and landscapes. These events have rightly been a focus of research. However, archaeological approaches have often sought simply to illustrate these processes, rather than create new narratives about life in the past. The resulting picture of the period can over-emphasise economic change whilst failing to reflect the richness and variety of everyday life. This thesis aims to suggest a new approach to the place and period, one which addresses matters often ignored in previous work. Whilst it has an archaeological sensibility, it draws on ideas from outside archaeology, such as landscape theory and on Gaelic oral tradition, an underused resource, to create a novel and broad-based approach to the period. An important part of the method is a synchronic approach that seeks to reconstruct the experience of the landscape at very particular times, engaging fully with the everyday experience of landscape rather than grand historical narratives. Two Hebridean case studies are utilised: Hiort (St Kilda) and Loch Aoineart, South Uist. Thematic discussions drawn from these landscapes are intended as critical assessments of the efficacy of the approach, as well as new narratives about life in the past in themselves. The thesis concludes by comparing the two case studies, reflecting on the merits of the approach, discussing recurrent themes in the work, and considering its wider context and implications. It is concluded that taking a novel approach to the case study landscapes can create narratives that often contrast or expand upon those produced by previous scholars, allow for a more detailed consideration of everyday life in the period, and open up new areas for archaeological enquiry. The extensive and critical use of evidence from Gaelic oral tradition is highlighted as crucial in understanding life and society in the period. The thesis questions the utility of grand historical narratives as a framework for archaeological study of post-medieval Gaeldom and suggests that our understanding of the past is best served by approaching the evidence in ways which allows for many different voices and stories from the past to emerge.