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Semantic Distribution in Gaelic Dialects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Myles Dillon
Myles Dillon*
Affiliation:
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
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Extract

It is a matter of frequent occurrence that words etymologically identical appear in varying forms in a given language. The pairs person: parson, royal : regal, shirt: skirt are familiar examples in English. In the first and third there is a clear difference of meaning, while in the second the distinction is rather one of style. The source of these doublets is different in each case. In the first a sound-change which has resulted in the modern standard English pronunciation of clerk, Berkeley, Hertford affected likewise person. But the change was not completed. The changed form, now written parson, has been retained only for the incumbent of a parish, while the common form person serves the other meanings. In the second we have an instance of learned borrowing, while the third presents Scandinavian and English forms side by side, with a notable differentiation of meaning. The first of these three types is of peculiar interest, for the language, in such cases, has added to its vocabulary from within its own resources, not by means of suffix or composition, but out of the working of phonology. It is as though the speakers saw an opportunity, and availed themselves of it.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 29 , Issue 3: July-September , September 1953 , pp. 322 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © 1953 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 See H. C. Wyld, History of modern colloquial English 212 ff. (Oxford, 1936).

2 W. von Wartburg, Problèmes et méthodes de la linguistique 24 (Paris, 1946).

3 BAL 48.8 (1951).

4 T. F. O'Rahilly, Irish dialects past and present 32 (Dublin, 1932).

5 Ib. 194, where O'Rahilly says that the change to ia is more frequent in the northern dialects.

6 Teud is therefore a learned form.

7 The Irish deór serves both meanings.

8 See R.I.A. dictionary F 24 (Dublin, 1950); O'Rahilly, Irish dialects 36.

9 For many of these examples, and some which follow, I am indebted to my friend Angus Matheson of the University of Glasgow.

10 Eriu 8-10, 14 (Dublin, 1916-46).

11 These verbal nouns are also allowed forms in -údh and should be kept apart.

12 It may be observed that the conditions under which the variant form with ά arises are not clear. Most words do not show it; e.g. annró, bó, bróg, brón, gó, ól, trócaire. But beside dóibh ‘to them’, dáibh is common in verse.

13 Angus Mcintosh has told me of the analogous semantic development of English buxom (cf. G biegsam).

14 See C. H. Borgstrøm, Dialects of the Outer Hebrides 141 (Oslo, 1940).

15 The word is discussed by O'Rahilly, Celtica 1.160 (1946). His etymology is, of course, not affected by my observations.

16 Farquhar Macintosh, a former student of mine in Edinburgh, has kindly sent me the following note :

Eathar was used to mean ‘a pail, a bowl, a basin’ in my own village of Elgol by two [sisters] now dead, Margaret MacKinnon, died c. 1950, age 82 years, and Kate MacKinnon, died 1952, age 88 years. ...

Mr. Lachlan Robertson, a colleague of mine in Glasgow Academy, who also comes from Elgol, confirms the use of eathar in the sense I have indicated. He also heard it from the two sisters I have mentioned. My father's cousin, John F. Macintosh, who is now about 70 years of age and who is also a native of Elgol, tells me that he often heard his mother use eathar in the sense of ‘container’, more specifically to mean ‘an ewer’. ...

Angus Matheson has discovered an interesting confirmation of this use in the following stanza from a late-18th-century MS in the library of Glasgow University (MacLagan MS No. 159) : 'N oiche bha mi'n Coire-mheangain / Bu bhochd m'ainis 's mo dhoidh; / B'i mo chluasag an sneachda / 'S b'e mo bhreacan a ghaoth reot, / 'S nan tarladh orm paethe / B'e m'eithir mo bhrog 'The night that I was in Coire-mheangain, wretched was my plight: the snow was my pillow, and the freezing wind my plaid; and if thirst should come upon me, my shoe was my drinking-vessel.' (In MacLagan MS No. 166 the last line reads 'S e m'eathur mo bhrog; in MacLagan MS No. 70, B'e mo saochach mo bhrog.)

17 See A. Castro, España en su historia (Buenos Aires, 1948), reported in Nueva revista de filología hispánica 3.298-300. See also the discussion by Spitzer, ibid. 141, and Castro's reply, 149.

18 See C. Sarauw, Irsk studier 16-7 (Copenhagen, 1900); H. Pedersen, VKG 1.435 (Göttingen, 1909).

19 See Pedersen, VKG 2.471-2 (Göttingen, 1913).

20 See Thurneysen, Grammar of old Irish 103 (Dublin, 1946).

21 In Donegal, beside deichneabhar ‘decade’ (of the rosary), there is a new form deichear ‘a group of ten’ by analogy with seachtar, ochtar. In Waterford, beside deachmhadh ‘tithe’, there is a new analogical form deicheadh ‘tenth’ (Sheehan, Sean-Chaint na n Déise 123 §18 [Dublin, 1944]).

22 Analecta hibernica, No. 3 (Dublin, 1931).