v1.0
Published 01/10/24
Borgh m.
No gender has been established on the basis of the use of the article (as no examples occur), but, given the inflection in the genitive (Bhuirgh) and the radical plural (Na Buirgh, see below), Borgh was most probably treated as a masculine o-stem noun. NB Lenition in specific adjectives following Old Norse loan-names in place-names such as Borgh Mhòr and Borgh Bheag is probably indicative of dative usage not gender (Cox 2002a, 55).
[ˈb̥ɔɾ͡ɔɣ], (len.) gen. Bhuirgh [ˈvuɾ͡ʲuj], [ˈvu̟ɾ͡ʲu̟j]. McDonald (2009, 344) derives EG borg, SG borgh and Mx burrow from ON borg f. ‘fort; rampart; burial structure; hill like a fort’ (NO). However, borg on the one hand and borgh and burrow on the other appear to have different origins.
Zimmer (1888, 279: borg), Craigie (1894, 156: idem) and Bugge (1912, 296: borg, borgg) derive EG borg(g)
Also found in the metathesised form brog, broc (eDIL˄, s.v. borg).
m. ‘fort; (fortified) town, city; castle’ (eDIL˄) from ON borg. Marstrander (1915a, 121) points out, however, that ON borg has a final fricative [ɣ], not a plosive [ɡ] as in EG borg(g), which he suggests derives from MLat. burgus m.
Marstrander adds that the derivation is also supported by the masculine gender of the loan-word, but gender correlation does not always occur between donor and borrowing languages.
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De Vries (1962, 50) supports Zimmer etc., although he notes, without explaining why, that Marstrander disagrees.
Alexander Cameron (in MacBain 1894a, 620) equates SG borg ‘village’ with ON borg and Eng. burgh, borough. SG borg appears in Shaw (1780: borg ‘village’), Armstrong (1825: †borg m. ‘tower; village; house’, with a cross-reference to †burg m. ‘idem’) and HSS (1828: borg m. ‘village’
HSS ascribes borg to usage in Sutherland, ?cf. Allt a’ Bhurg (see below), which lies just on the Caithness side of the border with Sutherland, and the Sutherland river name SG Borgaidh (see below).
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Noting ‘[s]everal places in the Hebrides [are] so called’; ?see borgh, below.
and burg m. ‘idem’). While HSS names O’Brien’s dictionary (1768) as its source for the form burg, it in fact occurs in O’Reilly’s dictionary ([1817], 1864).
O’Brien (1832) gives only burgaire ‘burgess, citizen’.
SG borg, burg is attested in a number of place-names: (Argyllshire: Islay) OS 1843–82 Am Bùrg
Ultimately derived from ON borg by Macniven (2006, 318; 2013, 88).
(sic) (with the genitive form in nearby Geòdh’ a’ Bhuirg and Réidh a’ Bhuirg) NR190649; (Arg.: Mull) Dùn Bhuirg (with the genitive normalised as a radical form in Buirg) NM422262, and Burg (cf. Ard Dubh Bhurg) NM380457; (Arg.: Iona) Culbuirg (cf. Dùn Cùl Bhuirg and Gleann Cùl Bhurg) NM270240; (Caithness) Allt a’ Bhurg ND068187; and in the river names SG (Sutherland) Borgaidh (Eng. Borgie) NC675594;
Eng. Borgie is given as SG Borgaidh by Watson (in Dwelly 1911), Eng. River Borgie as SG Abhainn Bhor̅(a)gaidh by Robertson (in King 2019, 96), and Eng. Borgie as SG Borghaidh by Taylor (2011, s.v. Borgie: ‘fort river’), who takes it as an Old Norse loan-name, as does Mackay (1897, 88: Borgie < ON borg ‘fortification’).
(Caithness) Borgaidh (Eng. Borgie) ND260546; and (Moray) *Burgaidh (Eng. Burgie) NJ092593 – for *Burgaidh, ?cf. SG (Strathspey) dorg for dorgh, s.v. (D (ii) (3)).
On the other hand, ON borg yields Mx burrow, borrow and SG borgh. Mx burrow, borrow is obsolescent but is well attested as a Manx word in the sense ‘mound, hill’ in place-names, e.g. Mx Burroo Shoggyll ‘the hill of (the) rye’ (Eng. Bhurrough Sougle) (PNIM VI, 162). In discussing the Manx place-name Burroo [boru] (Eng. The Barrow or The Burrow), Marstrander (1932, 84) suggests the name derives from OMx *Borga, but ON borg (with final -[ɣ]) would yield Mx [boru] regularly given vocalisation of final Mx -[v] (for earlier -[ɣ], as in SG Borbh (see below; cf. PNIM VI, 515).
SG borgh is attested in place-names with reference to forts, but probably only as a loan-name (i.e. a borrowed place-name):
Stewart (2004, 408) states ‘esp[ecially] in place-names’; Ó Muirithe (2010, 18) ‘only in place-names’. Cox (2022, 545–46) claims ON borg occurs as a loan-word in the name SG Na Buirgh in Harris, with a fort at NG032940, but it could be argued that Na Buirgh is simply a Gaelic pluralisation of an Old Norse loan-name Borgh (< ON *Borg nom./acc.), which survives as the generic in two Gaelic creations, Borgh Mhòr and Borgh Bheag, referred to collectively in Gaelic as Na Buirgh, consisting of the Gaelic plural article and plural inflection of Borgh as a masculine o-stem noun; cf. Eng. The Cairngorms, an English pluralisation of SG (sing.) An Càrn Gorm.
SG Borgh in Lewis (NB408560), Harris (NG033947), Bernera (Harris, NF905804), Benbecula (NF773505) and Barra (NF655013), but SG Borbh in Skye (NG443480, ?and NG343525) and Sutherland (NC725640). The final velar fricative [ɣ] is retained Gaelic dialects in the Western Isles, but becomes [v] in those in Skye and Sutherland, while the same strategy of fronting the fricative is found in English reflexes (Borve) of Gaelic forms throughout the area, although Borve Castle (Farr Castle) in Sutherland was once known as The House of Burro, which suggests the fricative in this case may have been vocalised, at least in English. For the distribution of [ɣ] ~ [v], cf. dorgh, q.v.
‘Dùn Bhuirg’s on fire’ (or ‘Dùn Bhuirgh’s on fire’ or ‘Dùn Bhuilg’s on fire’) is a motif in fairy stories located in Lewis, Uist, Barra and Mull (Cox 2022, 923–24; e.g. Mac Iomhair 1910; Carmichael-Watson˄ CW111/79, CW119/42, 45, 53; Radio nan Gàidheal, Facal Oirbh: 10 Gearran 2009˄; Thomas 1890, 374; Robson 2004, 18–20; NicAoidh 2015, 36–37).
Dwelly (1911) cross-references SG brog with borg and brugh. For brog, cf. EG brog, broc for borg (see above). SG brugh, however, is a separate word.
Although Shaw seems to confuse them, apparently equating brug (sic) with brugh.
SG brugh derives from OG mruiġ, which yields EG bruiġ, bruġ (gen. broġa, braġa, gen. pl. broġ, braġ, bruġ) ‘land, cultivated land, holding; region, district, border; (farm-)house, abode, hall, mansion, castle’ (eDIL˄), albeit that it has been conflated to some extent in modern Scottish Gaelic in form and meaning with EG bruiḋen f. ‘hostel; large banqueting-hall; house, mansion; also of a similar hall in the Otherworld’ (eDIL˄): so SG (Dwelly) brugh (gen. bruighne, pl. bruighnean) ‘large house; village; tower; fortified town; fairy hillock; tumulus; cave; house half under the surface; fort’, and †bruigheann (gen. bruighinn and bruighne, pl. bruighnean) ‘palace, royal residence; fairy hill’.
For the possibility of ON borg being substituted with a reflex of EG bruiġ via folk etymology in the Lewis settlement name Bradhagair, see Cox 2022, 551–56.
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Forms related to SG brugh include bruighe ‘farmer, farm’ (Shaw), brughaidhe ‘farmer, burgher’ (ibid.) and bruidheadh ‘burgomaster’ (HSS) (cf. Lhuyd 1707, Scottish Appendix: bruigheadh ‘idem’); but Eng. burgher or Scots burgar, burger was also borrowed into Scottish Gaelic, hence SG burgair m. ‘burgess, citizen’ (Armstrong), burgaire (Shaw), while HSS cross-references burgaire (ascribed to Lhuyd 1707) with bùirdeiseach ‘freeman; merchant etc.’ (< OScots burges, < MEng. idem (DOST˄)). The formation of SG and Ir. burgair and burgaire from MEng. or OScots using native suffixes would presumably have been facilitated by the pre-existence of Ir. and SG borg, burg.
MEng. burch, burh yields OScots burch, burgh and, via metathesis, bruch, broch and brouch ‘borough; town’ (DOST˄, s.vv.). A parallel for the development of OScots burch > bruch etc. is found in the development of MEng. borgh, borh > OScots borch, borgh and, via metathesis, broch, brogh ‘pledge, surety’ (ibid.), but there may have been an influence on the development of OScots broch in the sense ‘fort’ from early SG brugh.
Burghead has the Scots aliases The Broch and Brochheid; in Scottish Gaelic it is Am Broch, a loan-name from Scots (Taylor 2011, s.v. Burghead). Fraserburgh is also known locally as The Broch, but in this case SG A’ Bhruach (‘the bank’) appears to be a loan-shift (ibid., s.v. Fraserburgh).