[From Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap Bind VII 1934 pp287-292]

[This is the first section of the article of 45pages + index that comments on many of the entries in Kneen's "Place-Names" - those included here are from the introduction to Kneen's book]

REMARKS ON THE PLACE-NAMES OF THE ISLE OF MAN

by

Carl J. S. MARSTRANDER

Suppose for a moment that the Isle of Man were a completely unknown country and that, whilst sailing down the Irish Sea, we discovered it for the first time. Suppose further that we knew nothing of its population and history beyond what our eyes and ears could tell us. From the language and the place-names we should then, surely, be compelled to recognise three phases in the history of the Island, one English, another Gaelic and the third Norwegian. And to such an extent do we linguists depend on our schematic methods that we should certainly conclude that the original stratum was Norwegian and that gradually there was superimposed a Gaelic and then an English layer. The language of the Island is now English. Gaelic still lingers on, though only in scanty phrases, whilst Norwegian, as a means of communication, has totally disappeared. Moreover, all the old linguistic relics of any importance in Man are Norwegian, e. g. the runic crosses in the various parishes; further two-thirds of the names of important farms were still, in the 16th century, Norwegian, and finally the whole of the present administration is distinctly of Norwegian origin: the sheading, the parish, the treen and the House of Keys. And this impression of the primal origin of the Norwegian element is apparently confirmed by the late character of all the Gaelic place-names in the Isle. As a matter of fact there can hardly be mentioned a single place-name on Man which must necessarily be older than the battle of Clontarf, indeed very few Gaelic names can be proved to be older than the 13th or 14th century. The Celtic names in the Isle of Man are all of late types and are easily refound in Irish and Scotch-Gaelic. They centre around such words as balley "farm" (Irish baile), boayl "place" (Irish ball), thie "House" (Irish teach), eary "a shieling" (Irish airghe, but not employed in Irish place-names), kerroo "quarterland" (Irish cethrama), cashtal "castle" (Irish caistéal), keeill "church, chapel" (Irish ceall), mwyllin "mill" (Irish muileann), bwoaille "a cattle fold" (Irish buaile), faaie "a green" (Irish faithche), magher "field" (Irish machaire), pairk "pasture, field" (Irish pdirc), lheannee "meadow" (cp. Irish léana), tuar "bleach-green" (Irish tuar), thalloo "land" (Irish talam), liargagh "slope" (Irish leargach), slieau "mountain" (Irish sliabh), immur "ridge" (Irish iomaire), dreeym "ridge, hill" (Irish druim), cronk "hill" (Irish cnoc), gob "small headland" (Irish gob), krone "head" (Irish ceann), carn carnan "cairn" (Irish carn, carnan), carrick "rock'' (Irish carraig), creg "rock" (Irish craig, gen. crega), clagh "stone" (Irish cloch), logh "lake" a (Irish loch), lhing "pool" (Irish linn), reeast "waste"' (Irish riasc), curragh "marsh, mire" (Irish currach), moanee "turf" (cp. Irish moine), conney "gorse" (Irish connadh), aittin "gorse" (Irish atteann), drine "thorn" (Irish draighean), freoagh "heather" (Irish fraogh), sallagh "willow" (Irish satleach), baarney "gap" (Irish bedrna), bayr "road" (Irish bothar), bollagh "track, pass'' (Irish bealach), breid "gorge" (Irish braghaid), coan "hollow, valley" (Irish cabhdn), lag lagan "hollow" (Irish log, logan), glion "glen"? (Irish gleann), keyll "wood" (Irish corll), aah "ford" (Irish ath), strooan "stream" (Irish srothdn), purt "harbour" (Irish port) traaie "shore"(Irish, tratgh), droghad "bridge" (Irish drochad).

One does not encounter a single archaic type, in fact there is hardly a single Gaelic name which cannot be accounted for by modern Manx and Irish vocabulary.

Reasoning solely on linguistic grounds, we should conclude an original Norwegian population was conquered by Gaelic-speaking invaders from Ireland or Scotland whose Celtic idiom in time gave way to English.

We know this conception to be entirely incorrect. We that the Gaelic population is older than the Norwegian, which obtained sway over the Island at the beginning of the 9th century We further know that during the Norwegian supremacy, the Gaelic element was subdued, but after the decline of the Norwegian dominion it regained power and forced the national language into the forground again. All this is apparent from the archaelogical relics, the ogham inscriptions and Irish and Norse historical sources. But the fact that a conclusion of this erroneous character could at all seem possible, goes to show that the Celtic stratum on the Island cannot be many centuries older than the Norwegian. In reality, Manx place-names testify in the most distinct manner that the Gaelic colonisation of the Isle cannot be older than the Irish church, that indeed it was the Irish missionaries or culdees who prepared the ground for the Irish supremacy. In this respect it is significant that, apart from a few names reflecting the legend of Fionn — which do not necessarily . date back to a pre-Christian era — no single place-name of pagan character is met with in Man, e. g. no names with Lis or Dun. No Celtic monument on the Island can, with certainty, be dated before the 6th century. If the Celts had been resident in Man, say at the beginning of our era, the nomenclature would surely to this very day have preserved at any rate some traces of an earlier and more archaic type of language. For from all we know about the relations between the Celts and Norwegians in the Isle, it seems unreasonable to suppose that the Norwegian conquest completely eradicated the old Gaelic place-names.

Concerning the pre-Celtic population of Man we know nothing except what the archaeological finds reveal. Of its speech we know nothing, or more correctly we only know a single word, viz. the same Man itself. This name was inflected in Old Irish times as a theme in -n, forming its nominative in -u, consequently nom. Manu: gen. Manann. It is strange to observe how many names of islands ae : in -u (gen. -n) are to be found in regions which at the dawn of history are inhabited by Celtic tribes, compare e.g.: Eriu: gen. Erenn, Aru: gen. Arann (in Ireland and Scotland), Rechra: gen, Rechrann, Albu: gen. Alban, Clothru: gen. Clothrann, Draicriu: Draicrenn. As none of these names find an evident interpretation in Celtic, the obvious supposition is that they were taken from a pre-Celtic language which once prevailed in Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man and in which they formed a distinct type.

The Norwegian occupation of Man no doubt took place almost immediately after the devastation of St, Patrick's Isle in the year 797.

How penetrating the Norwegian colonisation was, is best seen from the fact that to this day the highest mountains of the Island bear Norwegian names such as Snaefel, North and South Barrule, Skyel, Greeba, and further that river-names such as Laxey, Ramsay, Neb and Corna, names of promontories such as Bradda, Howe and Langnes, and names of islands such as the Calf are all Norwegian. Finally a long series of Norwegian farm-names shows that originally the whole of the land must have been in Norwegian hands. But this question having been treated elsewhere in this journal, it can be passed over here, where we shall concern ourselves mainly with the Gaelic material.

Mr. J. J. Kneen's book The Place-names of the Isle of Man with their Origin and History, Douglas 1925-29, signifies a very welcome and very important event in Celtic toponymical studies. It is indeed the first serious attempt to bring about a complete and scientifically arranged collection of the available material. Valuable seem to me in the first place the copious references to sources, the constant quota- tion of old spellings and present pronunciations, and last but not least Mr. W. Cubbon's admirable maps of treens. During visits to the Isle of Man in the summers of 1929 and 1930, I had an opportunity of noting the modern pronunciation of a number of Manx place-names. I venture to give them here in conjunction with my remarks on Kneen's book. If in what follows I often disagree with Mr. Kneen, this does not imply any disparagement of his work, which I, for one, esteem very highly. I might perhaps have wished that in his analysis of the linguistic forms he had paid stricter attention to the phonetics of the Gaelic languages; further that the situation of the localities had always been indicated, as also their nature (whether mountain, common, quarter- land, intake, farm, croft or the like). It should also have been expressly stated in what cases the phonetic transcripts are based on spoken forms personally noticed, and in what cases they are due to an arbitrary reconstruction by the author himself in conformity with the written forms. This latter would seem to be the case at any rate in a few instances. I also take this opportunity of correcting, once for all, the frequent reference "ca. 1376. Chron. Mann." to "14th cent. Limites seu Diuisiones Terrarum Monachorum".

But all these objections are of a trivial nature and do not alter the fact that Celtic studies owe a great debt of gratitude to Mr.Kneen for his able, conscientious and unselfish work. The persons quoted below, are:
Christian Thomas, in Ramsey, deceased 1930
Crebbin Br.: Crebbin of Bradda Village, about 80 years old;
Kelly Harry, in Cregneish, now 81 years of age.
Kennah Edward, bred on Balley Clery near Grenaby (Malew).
Quane William, in Peel, now 83 years of age.
Taggart Thomas, at Grenaby (Malew), 87 years of age.
Woodworth Joseph, in Port-Erin, deceased 1931, at the age of 78.

The number VI refers to Vol. VI of this journal [this article is in Norwegian - probably why seldom mentioned in later studies though Wm Cubbon flagged it].

Kneen p.

X.Snaefell is doubtless a strange name for the Isle of Man. There is a mountain of the same name on Iceland. But it should also be remembered that there is a Sliabh Sneachta in Inishowen, Co. Donegal. It is quite possible that this was also the a pre-Norse name of Snaefell, which in that case is nothing but the Norwegian translation of the old name.

XIII Starvey (German) is not =Irish scairbheach (a derivative of scarbh "rocky seabed or shore", which by the way has been borrowed from Norw. skarv). Initial sc- was retained in Manx. Besides, re the spirant -bh- could not result in Manx -v-.

The story told by Kneen about the popular etymology of Baldwin as having arisen from the exclamation Boayl dooin "the place for us", uttered by the Norwegians when overlooking the vale from the summit of the hill, is like a passage from the Middle-Irish tract Coir Anmann or from the Dinnsenchas, cp. Coir Anm. §§ 40. 41-70. 77: 146 220. 251. I have taken down a similar story from Christian, explaining the surname Kerruish as "the four naked" from four Norwegian sailors who were wrecked at Port Mooar and, from the shore, wit- nessed the destruction of their ship. It is interesting to notice that in both instances, the story is associated with the Norwegians, a circumstance that goes to show that this style of popular etymology is old and has sprung from the same original source as the Coir Anmann.

XIV As to the origin and the age of the terms sheading, skyll, - skeerey, balley and treen, see Vol. VI, p. 290 ff., 290, 308 f., 295 ff.

The s- of skyil arose in the connection skeerey keetlle (Lonan) and is, in consequence, different from that of Scramman, Scregganagh.

XVI The runic monuments do not prove that the Gaelic language was wiped out entirely in the Isle of Man, but only that the language of the ruling class was Norwegian. In my opinion, the Gaelic langu- age was at no period entirely exterminated.

The statement that the Manx-Gaelic is "still spoken by a few hundred persons" is erroneous, even for the year 1925, when the first part of Kneen's book appeared. As far as I know, there is at present only one person left who could properly be described as a native speaker.

XVII, 1. II infra, for Arg read "Erg from Irish airghe". The explanation of Blockeary is impossible, the accent being on the second syllable .

XVIII Kneen's and Ekwall's explanation of Toftar Asmund is correct and is supported by such English-Scand. names as Gil-Cambon, Brigget-Thorfin. But no place-name in Man has a prefixed by. All the instances mentioned by Kneen should be explained differently, cp. Vol. VI, p. 124 f.

XIX The explanation of Leodan, on the Calf, is correct; in fact gion is pronounced lo'dn by Kelly and Woodworth. The latter also said en glodn of the same locality.

XX Manx Crappan, Knappan, Crammag, Nappin, Nab no doubt, like Irish cnap(dn) hail from. Norwegian, cp. Vol. VI, p. 44. 108. 239. 245.

MAN

On the origin of the name, see VI 42 f. The Norw. Mon: gen. Manar presupposes an Old Manx inflexion nom. Manu: acc. dat. Manu (gen. Manann) as in Old Irish. From the dative Manu, Monu sprung the nominative Mon, cp. faru, foru: nom. fer. Later Monu as dative was superseded by Mon as foru by for. Thus the Norwegian form ' gives quite an interesting contribution to the history of Manx inflexion ' in the early 9th century, showing the same archaic type met with in the Old Irish sources.