Jump to content

User:Jnestorius/Irish placenames

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Irish name source language Irish name type English name source language English name type Examples
Irish Natural feature Irish Anglicisation of current Irish name Corcaigh "marsh"/→Cork
Irish Irish Folk-etymology anglicisation of current Irish name
Irish Natural feature Irish Anglicisation of other Irish name
  • Baile Átha Cliath "town of the ford of hurdles"/dubh linn "black pool"→ Dublin
  • Árainn/Inis Mór "big island"→Inishmore (Inis Mór is an invented name never used in Irish.)
  • Neidín "little nest"/Ceann Mara "head of the sea"→Kenmare
Irish Natural feature Norse Natural feature Loch Garmáin "Lake"/vex fjord "harbour"→Wexford
Norse Natural Norse Natural Fota, Blasket
Irish Natural feature English Natural feature Abhann Mór "great river"/Blackwater (cf. Avonmore)
Irish Unknown Irish Anglicisation of current Irish name Dúlrac/Dooroc "The meaning of the name seems to be irretrievably lost"[1]
Irish Natural feature English Calque of the Irish Bun na hAbhann "bottom of the river"/→Burnfoot
Irish Natural/artificial feature English Eponym
  • Sliabh Chorr na Muclach "Cornamucklagh mountain"/Anglesey Mountain — in townland of Corr na Muclach/Cornamucklagh "hill of the piggery", which in 1830s was owned by Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey[2]
Irish Natural feature English Artificial feature Bréantrá "Foul strand"/Union Hall (house named after Act of Union 1800)
Irish Calque of the English English Artificial feature Droichead Nua "new bridge"←/Newbridge
English Untranslated from English English Clause Pass-If-You-Can [3]
English Gaelicisation of same English name English Townland Giolaspar←Giltspur [4]
English Gaelicisation of other English name English Natural feature Little Sugarloaf / Giolaspar←Giltspur, from the townland to the north rented for a pair of gilt spurs per annum[3]
English translation English site:logainm.ie aistriúchán

Complex

[edit]

Townland name uniqueness

[edit]
  • Griffith ensured two townlands in the same civil parish never had the same name, if necessary adding parenthetical disambiguators.
    • He answered an EPPI question to this effect
  • Where a townland was split by a cp boundary, Griffith split into two tlds with the same name
  • What if these two ended up in the same DED? Did their names change?
  • When were islands erected into tlds?
    • This has resulted in at least one pair of same-named townlands Illaunroe in cp Killannin bar Moycullen, though different Irish names and in Gaeltacht: Oileán an Rosa/Illaunroe OSi "An t-Oileán Rua" and Na Rua-oileáin/Illaunroe OSi Na Rua-oileáin
      • S.I. 2004/872 has "Illaunroe Island [ED: Lettermore] (OS 77)" and "Illaunroe Island [ED: Lettermore] (OS 89)" with legend "The electoral division [ED] is given, and the county district [CD] when necessary, to distinguish placenames with the same spelling" although it's the OS 25-inch mapsheet that's given rather than the CD, which would be larger than the ED in any case.
    • I see that, whereas the SI lists Illaunroe under "townland", logainm now has a "townland, island or archipelago" label for them, whereas e.g. Castle Island, Skull is logainm "townland" and OS townland; maybe this is a recognition that the previous "townland" designation was incorrect?
  • Some townlands have two alternative names, e.g. Furnace or Bleankillew
    • Often one is derived from Irish (and provides the single official Irish name) while the other is of English origin [Bléan Choilleadh]
      • Counterexample: "Greenfield or Shanbally" → An Bhuaile Ghlas
      • Sometimes both are from Irish and
        • Sometimes both are translated "Dooncarton or Glengad" → "Dún Ceartáin nó Gleann an Ghad"
        • Sometimes only one is "Mulmosog or Altnagapple" → "Maol Mosóg"
    • In the townland indexes, one alias is cross-referenced to the other
    • In the townland indexes and OS maps, the "or" is typeset differently from the two aliases it separates: OS "or" is smaller, Index "or" is in italics
  • A question over interaction of alias and uniqueness:

Variant English spellings

[edit]

"Inscribing Ireland : Place-names and the author/ity of the Ordnance Survey (1824-1846)" pp.108-114:

  • original guide was to enshrine the most commonly-used spelling; but
    • sources biased towards the élite, educated, well-connected, literate rather than the demotic, local, popular, oral
    • Larcom and O'Donovan favoured national standardisation of Irish etymological elements, which meant
      • might override local Irish pronunciation variant
      • folk-etymologies and other corruptions
  • Valuation Office and census accepted, but "failing to win the favour of government departments and institutions such as the Post Office"

https://amp.irishexaminer.com/ireland/vote-needed-to-change-nra-spelling-of-towns-in-clare-386752.html 2016 N67 Ballyvaughan, Ennistymon, and Lahinch being changed to read Ballyvaghan, Ennistimon and Lehinch.

Tables

[edit]

Places with variant spellings or names
Local spelling OS spelling County Notes
Ballinacurra Ballynacorra Cork
Cahir Caher Tipperary
Monasterevin Monasterevan Kildare
Schull Skull Cork
Enniscrone Inishcrone Sligo 2018 calls for a plebiscite as Wild Atlantic Way tourism affected.[4] Approved by county council but postponed pending bill to improve the renaming process.[5]
Palmerstown Palmerston Dublin 2009 plebiscite failed to reach 50% turnout.[6] 2014 plebiscite restricted to Palmerstown Village succeeded.
Lahinch Lehinch Clare 2018 plebiscite planned, spurred by change to roadsigns in 2013.[7]
Ballyvaughan Ballyvaghan Clare [7]
Miltown Malbay Milltown Malbay Clare [7]

Miscellaneous

[edit]

Act of Explanation [17 & 18 Chas. II. c. 2.] which followed the Act of Settlement, has this [s. ccxxxiv.]

His Majestie taking notice of the barbarous and uncouth names, by which most of the towns and places in his kingdom of Ireland are called, which hath occasioned much damages to diverse of his good subjects, and are very troublesome in the use thereof, and much retards the reformation of that kingdom, for remedy thereof is pleased that it be enacted, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the lord lieutenant and council shall and may advise of, settle and direct in the passing of all letters patents in that kingdom for the future, how new and proper names more suitable to the English tongue may be inserted with an alias for all towns, lands and places in that kingdom, that shall be granted by letters patents; which new names shall thenceforth be the only names to be used, any law, statute, custom, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding.

Points from Nash 1999:[8]

  • Dublin Corporation c.1900 faced with '24 names of kings, queens and their families, 56 Lord Lieutenants, 96 nobles and other owners of property, various officials and celebrated persons' (Mac Mathuina 1992, 63)
  • Northern Ireland, the erection of bilingual signs was officially banned in 1947 was still legally prohibited until 1995
  • PW Joyce 1910 described as 'purely Celtic' placenames 'with the exception of about a thirteenth part, which are English and mostly of recent introduction'.
  • While arguing that the Ordnance Survey 'did little to repair the damage done by centuries of anglicisation' (Andrews 1997, 22), J H Andrews challenges popular simplified versions ... Placenames, he argues, were altered by English speakers through direct renaming and translation, but mostly by a process of Anglicization ... Andrews (1992) outlines five sources of toponymic change - substitution, translation, transcription from Irish-language documents, dictation and restoration - and argues that, despite recently becoming 'a metaphor symbolising all the cultural mischief done by Englishmen in Ireland' (1992, 11), translation was relatively rare. ... Irish names, Andrews argues, were not simply translated. New English names were introduced, but mostly for market towns, country houses, villages and farms newly established through plantation (Muhr 1992a, xii). ... While Andrews blames Friel for promulgating this version of placename history, it is possible to read Translations against the grain of its popular interpretation to reveal a more subtle approach than Andrews suspects. Instead, the play offers a more complex post-colonial cul- tural politics of language and location.
  • government issued circulars [1977 and 1986] and guidelines [1992] to local authorities ... development names are historically linked to the area being developed and that traditional local names are used wherever possible ... as Liam Mac Mathuina, an Irish language scholar, put it 'where cohorts of Hadleighs, Hamptons, Westburys and Westminsters team up with squads of Closes, Copses, Downes and Mewses'

Legal Irish names:

Ó Broin, Tomás (1999). "Inis Thiar: Naming and Misnaming". Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society. 51: 109–119. ISSN 0332-415X. JSTOR 25535701.

Inisheer is locally Inis Thiar but officially Inis Oirthir or Inis Oírr, which Ó Broin contends is due to a mistake by Roderic O'Flaherty in 1684.

Sources

[edit]

irishtimes 2023/05/27 The Irish used on Dublin street signs is confused. Does it matter?

Citations

[edit]
  1. ^ "Dúlrac/Dooroc". logainm.ie. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  2. ^ "Sliabh Chorr na Muclach/Anglesey Mountain". logainm.ie. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  3. ^ Tempan, Paul (February 2012). "Irish Hill and Mountain Names" (PDF). mountaineering.ie. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  4. ^ "Tale of two names: Is it Enniscrone or Inishcrone?". RTÉ.ie. 8 January 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  5. ^ Magnier, Eileen (4 September 2018). "Plebiscite on name of Sligo town may be put on hold". RTE.ie. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  6. ^ "Palmerstown - Chronology". South Dublin History. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  7. ^ a b c Deegan, Gordon (7 June 2017). "Taxpayer faces €10,000 bill to put the A back in Lahinch". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  8. ^ Nash, Catherine (1999). "Irish Placenames: Post-Colonial Locations". Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 24 (4): 457–480. doi:10.1111/j.0020-2754.1999.00457.x. JSTOR 623235.