Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/254

 

A substitution of close o for a is general in Northern Gaelic in such words as eallach ‘yollach,’ geall, seall, steall, dreall, greallag, sgeallag, and recalls the liking remarked in Sutherland for the same o before l. In other cases also, but without giving any great distinction of dialect, o (open, however) occurs for a, as feabhas, seabhag, treabh, treabhaire (houses), dreathan-donn, sreathart. ‘Feobhas’ for feabhas seems to be universal. Seagal generally has close o. Leabhar (book) and leabhar (wide) usually have o, but open in some districts and close in others. What happens in these—feabhas, seabhag, etc.—and other instances is that ea in place of getting the single sound of e gets that of o or yo. Feabhas instead of being ‘fe-as’ is ‘fyo-as.’ So lèabag (flounder), in some places liabag, is ‘lèbag’ in Arran, etc. and ‘lyòbag’ in West Ross, in Sutherland ‘lyóbag.’ Seòmar (chamber), which is ‘shòmar’ in most places, ought strictly to be sèamar, and is ‘shèmar’ in Perthshire and in Lewis.  INNIS IN PLACE-NAMES

the two Gaelic words for ‘island,’ innis and eilean, the former is native (Welsh ynys), the latter is borrowed from Norse ey-land, appearing in Irish as oilean, and in early Irish as ailén. The two words must have had a struggle for existence which would be interesting to trace. The result of it was a victory for the foreigner. The only word for island now and for centuries, in common speech, is eilean. Its native rival, however, entered on a new phase of activity in the sense of river-meadow, the Scots ‘haugh,’ and as such it forms an important element in our place-names. Very few islands round our coasts contain innis, Inch—Inchkeith, Inchmay, Inchcolm, Inchaddon, and some small isles in lakes,