v1.0
Published 01/10/24
buna-bhuachaill m. [ˈb̥ũnə ˌvuəxiʎ̪], gen. idem, or buna-bhuachaille -[ə], ‘great northern diver, loon, Gavia immer’ consists of a compound, the generic element of which is SG buachaill, buachaille m. ‘herdsman, cowherd; shepherd’ (perhaps referring to the bird’s peripatetic nature), lenited when following the primarily stressed adjectival element. The adjectival element occurs in a variety of guises: (A) muir-, mur(a)-, (gen.) -mara; (B) bur(a)-, buru-, burr(a)-; (C) fur(a)-; (D) muna-, mona-; (E) bun(a)-, bunna-, bonna-. Assumed or proposed etymologies for the adjectival element include SG muir m./f. ‘the sea or deep’ (Swainson 1886, 213–14; Graham 1890, 158); [Ice.] buna f. ‘a stream of purling water’ (Henderson 1910, 129
But which McDonald (2009, 347; 2015, 123) considers uncertain.
); and SG bun m. ‘base, bottom’ in the sense ‘bottom of the sea’ (Graham ibid., 232, 252), or used adjectivally in the sense ‘dumpy’ to describe the bird’s shape (Lockwood 1984, 37). On the face of it, SG muir-bhuachaill(e) in the sense ‘sea-shepherd’ seems the most likely original form, with initial m- [m] via lenited mh- [ṽ] yielding bh- [v] (hence b- [b̥] via back-formation) or f- [f] via fortition,
And/or after the radical masculine article, where am m- [ə m] might be interpreted as [ə mb] am b- (for nasalised stops, see for example Oftedal 1956, 166–67; Watson 2022, 53–58).
and with final -r alternating with -rr, -n or -nn. The variety of forms is essentially the result of phonemic interchange, although some forms may have been motivated by association, e.g. with SG bun (as above), SG bonn m. ‘base, bottom’, and possibly munadh, monadh m. ‘mountain’ and fara- ‘hyper, outer, false’.
A. Forms with initial muir-, mur(a)- or final -mara
A1.
(i) muir-bhuachaill (Dwelly 1911; Cunningham 1990, 29; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: South Uist) and muir bhuachaille (Gordon 1923, 91) and muir-bhuachaille (Wentworth 2003, s.v. diver, great northern: Gairloch: ‘this may be a learnt form or one borrowed from another dialect’), with the original palatal -r of the initial adjectival element retained.
(ii) mur-bhuachaill (Dwelly), mur bhuachaill (Swainson 1886, 213–14), and murbhuachile (Shaw 1780), mur-bhuachaille (Pennant 1774 I, 227: Gigha; Graham ibid., 232: ‘on the mainland’, 252: Lochgilphead), with the quality of -r adapted to non-palatal bh-; cf. mar bhuachleach (Cameron 1894, 316), for murbhuach’leach ‘full of great northern divers’, a syncopated form of mur-bhuachaill + the adjectival suffix -ach (Watson 1932, 185, 371).
The form mar bhuachleach occurs in ‘Moladh Chinntire’, a poem by Uilleam MacMhurchaidh/William MacMurchy (c. 1700–1778) of Kintyre (Black 2023, 93–98) transcribed from the Turner MS in Cameron 1894, 315–17: 316:
A creaguibh truideach, crottach, calmnach,
mar bhuachleach scarbhnach a caluibh
Geadhach, lachach, do gach seorsa
doranach, ronanach, ealach.
[‘Its cliffs full of starlings, curlews and doves, | its havens full of great northern divers and cormorants, | of geese and ducks of every sort, | of otters, seals and swans.’]
It also occurs in a part of the same poem found on a detached leaf of the MS (ibid.):
A Creaga Truideach Crot’chach Calmnach
Murbhuach’leach Sgarbhnach a Calaidh
Geadhach lachach do gach Seorse
Doranach Ronanach Ealach
and this is essentially the version standardised in Watson 1932, 185, and Black 2023, 95:
A creaga truideach crotach calmnach,
Murbhuach’leach sgarbhnach a calaidh,
Gèadhach lachach de gach seòrsa,
Dobhranach rònanach ealach.
Ó Baoill (1978, 167) claims that ‘[t]he spelling mar bhuachleach shows that the stress here was on the second element of the compound.’ This seems unlikely given the compound’s adjective + generic syntax: the odd spelling may simply be the result of a slip in concentration in drafting or copying, taking mur- for the preposition mar.
A2.
(Showing an epenthetic vowel in writing)
(i) mura-bhuachaill (McAlpine 1832: Islay; Dwelly); mhara bhuachaille (sic) (Graham ibid., 158: ‘the fanciful name given him by the Highlanders’).
(ii) murabhuchaille (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: Lewis), with the diphthong reduced to a monophthong with stress reduction.
(iii) murabhlach (ibid.: Kintyre), with further reduction due to syncope and with metathesis.
A3.
(With the adjectival element following in the genitive)
buachaill-mara (ibid.: Islay).
B. Forms with initial bur(a)-, buru-, burr(a)-
B1.
bur-bhuachaill (HSS 1828; Dwelly).
B2.
(Showing an epenthetic vowel in writing)
(i) bura-bhuachaill (McAlpine 1832; Dwelly), bura-bhuachaille (CG VI, 26; McDonald 1972, 53: South Uist) and burabhuachaille (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: [bu̟ɾəvu̟əxilʹə], Islay).
(ii) burubhuchaille (ibid.: [bu̟ɾu̟vu̟xilʹə], Lewis), with the diphthong reduced to a monophthong with stress reduction; cf. [ˈbuR͡uvəxɪL´] (Donald Macaulay, Bernera, Lewis, in Ó Baoill 1978, 167).
(iii) burubhuilleach (ibid.: [bu̟ɾu̟vu̟lʹɑx], Lewis), with metathesis.
B3.
(With unlenited -rr)
(i) burr-bhochaille (Wentworth ibid.: Gairloch), burrabhuachaill (MacPherson 1945, 35: North Uist) and burrabhuchaill (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄).
(ii) burr-ghochaille (Wentworth ibid.: Gairloch), with [v] > [ɣ], ?under the influence of the following [x].
(iii) burra-bhùb (ibid.: Tiree), an alternative or nickname with b consonance.
C. Forms with initial fur(a)-
fur-bhuachaill (Dwelly) and fura-bhuachaille (AFB˄).
D. Forms with initial muna-, mona-
(i) muna-bhuachaill (Forbes), munabhuachaille (MacFarlane 1815: ‘Allan-hawk,
‘The Arctic skua; the great northern diver; the red-throated diver; the little auk’ (SND˄).
cormorant’) and muna-bhuachaille (McDonald: South Uist).
(ii) mona-bhuachail (Armstrong 1825) and mona-bhuachaill (Dwelly).
E. Forms with initial bun(a)-, bunna-, bonna-
E1.
bun-bhuachaill (Forbes; Dwelly) and bun-bhuachaille (CG VI, 26; Graham ibid., 252).
E2.
(Showing an epenthetic vowel in writing)
(i) buna-bhuachaille (CG VI, 26; AFB˄: Harris, North Uist, South Uist, Boisdale (Cape Breton), Skye, Raasay, Tiree, Colonsay; McDonald: South Uist; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: Skye, Raasay) and bunabhuachaille (ibid.: North Uist, Tiree, Skye).
(ii) bunabhuchaille (ibid.: [bu̟ṉəvu̜xilʹə], Harris), with the diphthong reduced to a monophthong with stress reduction; cf. bunivochil (Martin 1703, 158).
(iii) bunna-bhuachaill (Forbes; Dwelly), bunnabhuachuille (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: South Uist), bonna-bhuchaile (ibid.: Harris) and bonnivochil (Martin ibid., 72), with bunn-, bonn- (?< bonn m. ‘bottom, base’) perhaps substituting bun m. in the sense ‘base’.
Dinneen (1947) compares Ir. murdhubhchaill ‘cormorant’ with murbhuachaile ‘diver’, listed in O’Reilly’s (1817) Irish dictionary, but murbhuachaile is most probably adopted from Shaw’s (1780) own SG murbhuachaile ‘diver’, just as O’Reilly’s munabhuachaille ‘cormorant’ (so also Scharff 1915b, 112) is most probably adopted from MacFarlane’s (1815) own SG munabhuachaille ‘Allan-hawk, cormorant’; both are likely to be ghost words in Irish. Ó Baoill (1978, 168–69) lists Dinneen’s murdhubhchaill along with a number of similar forms from Donegal:
(1) murúchaill [moˑruːxiL´] ‘scald-crow [i.e. hooded crow]’ (Quiggin 1906, 154 §481: Mín an Bhainne, Glenties), which shows first-syllable stress, although the long post-stress vowel may either
(2) be shortened: muruchaill [ˈmo̤ruxəL´] ‘puffin’ (Ó Baoill ibid.: Ros Goill), or
(3a) attract primary stress: murúchaill [mo̤ˈru:xïL´] ‘cormorant’ (Ó hEochaidh and Ó Catháin 1970, 263: Teileann) and murúchail (?leg. murúchaill) [mo̤ʀˈuːxəl´] (?leg. -[L´]) ‘diver’ (LASID IV, p. 116 Item 830: Aranmore) and
(3b) with an alternative ending: murúchan [murˈλhan] ‘black-throated diver’ (Hamilton 1974, 304), also ‘cormorant’ (Ó hEochaidh and Ó Catháin 1970, 263), for which Ó Baoill compares EG murḋúchu (< muir ‘sea’ + dúchann ‘chant, song, melody), later murḋúchann, ‘?mermaid, siren’ (eDIL˄); and, finally,
(4) with the apparently folk etymologically driven spelling: murdhubhchaill ‘cormorant’ (Dinneen 1947: Rosses) and ‘a shore bird’ (Mhac Meanman 1940, 128: Kingarrow (cited in Ó Baoill ibid.)), for which Ó Baoill compares Ir. cailleach dhubh ‘cormorant’; and
(5) the possibly comparable Ulster-Scots molrooken ‘the great crested grebe, Podiceps cristatus’ (Patterson 1880: Antrim and Down; so also Macafee 1996: ‘unknown origin’, who adds the variant mirokey).
The relationshp between SG mur-bhuachaill etc. and these Irish forms is unclear. It may simply be that a borrowed SG mur-bhuachaill was conflated in Irish with Ir. murdhúch (an apocopated form of EG murḋúcha
Cf. (Galway) murdhúcha [sic] /mu:ru:x/ ‘mermaid’, also múrdhuach and múrdhach (Ó Curnáin 2007, 117 §1.49, and 167 §(ix)).
), cf. Ó Dónaill’s (1977) listings of Ir. murúch ‘mermaid’ and murúchaill ‘1. cormorant; 2. = murúch’. While the Irish forms in the main denote diving birds, the sense ‘scald-crow’ under (1) and the spelling murdhubhchaill under (4) may also suggest that a folk etymological connection with the adjective dubh ‘black’ was also in circulation (cf. also Ir. duibhéan ‘cormorant’ < dubh + éan ‘bird’).