v1.0
Published 01/10/24
cachaileith f. [ˈkʰaxəlaj], gen. idem, ‘gate; gateway’ is derived by MacMillan (in Christiansen 1938, 5, 23) from ON garðr m. ‘dyke, fence; farmyard; farm’ + hlíð f. ‘hillside’; so also McDonald (2009, 356: cachalaidh
After MacMillan’s form cachalaidh, which McDonald takes to be a place-name.
). Christiansen (ibid.), on the other hand, suspects the first element is ON gata f. ‘path, way (between two fields)’. Neither etymology seems likely phonetically.
HSS (1828) takes the Scottish Gaelic word to be a compound of SG cadha ‘pass’ (or rather a composition form ca- (< EG cáe, caí, coí etc.)) + cliath (so also Cox 2002a, 197),
Besides the form cadha-chliath, Alexander Carmichael (in Napier 1884 V, 215) cites cliath na cadha ‘the wattle of the gorge or pass’, but the latter may be his own formation in explanation of the former. MacBain (1911) translates cadha-chliath as ‘hurdle-pass’, but this would be ‘pass-hurdle’ as the adjectival element of a closed compound would be in initial position.
and Ó Maolalaigh (forthcoming) suggests that an initial *cadhachliath might yield *cachaliath via metathesis. MacBain (1911), on the other hand, proposes a derivation from co + cliath ‘co-hurdle’, i.e. EG *coṁchlíath,
For the loss of the nasal fricative, cf. EG coṁthinól > SG coitheanal ‘congregation’.
and this is pursued in the following.
Ó Maolalaigh (forthcoming) details further etymologies, along with references additional to those below.
A number of forms are found: (A) an initial-syllable stressed SG *cochliath yields *cachliath *[ˈkʰaxliə], with a ~ o alternation, also cachliadh *[ˈkʰaxliəɣ] (Armstrong 1825; MacLennan 1925), with a closing velar fricative, and cachliag *[ˈkʰaxliəɡ̊] (Dwelly 1911; MacBain 1911), with fortition of the final fricative,
Cf. SG bualag for bualadh ‘striking’, e.g. SGDS Item 133, Points 30, 60, 65, 73–74, 76, 78–79, 82, 99–103, 116, 130, 157–168, 172–175, 177.
which in turn yields (B) *cachleath *[ˈkʰaxla] (MacEachen 1842: cachle), with reduction of the diphthong in unstressed position,
Cf. the Lewis place-names Siadar [ˈʃiad̪̥əɾ] NB389547/382536 < ON *Sætr ‘(the) sheiling’ (Cox 2022, 877–88) and Thàiseadar [ˈhaː ̩ʃad̪̥əɾ] NB392250 < ON *Há-sætr ‘(the) high sheiling’ (ibid. 933–34).
or, with a velarised lateral, *cachlath [ˈkʰaxɫ̪ɑ] (Shaw 1780; Ó Murchú 1989, s.v. cachlaith: /kɑxɫɑ/), which yields (C) *cachaileath [ˈkʰaxəla], with stressless epenthesis (Lhuyd 1700, 163 and 165, Items 3: kàchyla, and 82: kiàchyla [sic], Argyll; Dieckhoff 1932, s.v. cachalath: [kaKəla], Glengarry; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: [kɑxəlɑ], Tiree, cachila, Brae Lochaber; Wentworth 2003, s.v. gate, gateway: [kʰɑxəl’ɑ], Gairloch), or, with a velarised lateral, cachalath [ˈkʰaxəɫ̪a] (AFB˄, s.v. cachala: /kaxəLa/, Harris, Tiree; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: idem, Harris). (D) *cachleith *[ˈkʰaxlaj] (HSS 1828: ca’chleith) and, with a velarised lateral, cachlaidh *[ˈkʰaxɫ̪aj] (MacFarlane 1815; HSS 1828; MacLeod and Dewar 1833; MacEachen 1842), and cachaileith [ˈkʰaxəlaj] (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: [kɑxəlɑi] [sic], Lewis, Cape Breton;
Professor Seòsamh Watson (pers. comm.) notes, ‘The spelling cachaileith indicates the version of the word as I heard it in Cape Breton by a speaker of Harris descent. It was my strong impression in his case that there was secondary stress on the syllable leith.’
HSS 1828; MacLeod and Dewar 1833; MacEachen 1842; MacLennan 1925) and, with a velarised lateral, cachalaidh *[ˈkʰaxəɫ̪aj] (Christiansen 1938, 5, 23; AFB˄: /kaxəLaj/, North Uist, Tiree) may represent oblique forms of *cachleadh *[ˈkʰaxlaɣ], *cachladh *[ˈkʰaxɫ̪aɣ], *cachaileadh *[ˈkʰaxəlaɣ] and *cachaladh *[ˈkʰaxəɫ̪aɣ] with closing final fricatives,
Cf. SG fastadh [ˈfas̪t̪aɣ] ‘employing’, gen. fastaidh [ˈfas̪t̪aj] (cf. fastaidh vb., s.v.).
but in some dialects the open vowel of (C) is further reduced, yielding (E) *cachaile [ˈkʰaxələ] (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: [kɑxələ], Islay; AFB˄, s.v. cachaileith: /kaxələ/, passim), or lost altogether through apocope, yielding (F) cachail *[ˈkʰaxəl] (cf. the ?normalised oblique form in LASID IV, 219, Item 182: cachail [kaxɪl], Mid-Argyll). Suffixed forms are also found: (G) cachailean [ˈkʰaxəlan] (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: [kɑxəlɑ̃ṉ], Skye; AFB˄: /kaxəlan/, Skye, Lewis), with -an; (H) cachailear [ˈkʰaxəlɛɾ] (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: [kɑxəlɛɾ], Skye; AFB˄: /kaxələr/, Skye) and, without epenthesis and with a velarised lateral, cachlair (Mac Farlan 1795), with -ar; (I) cachaileid [ˈkʰaxəlɛd̥ʲ] (AFB˄: /kaxəlɛdʲ/, Spean Bridge), with -id; and (J) *cachalach [ˈkʰaxəɫ̪əx], with a velarised lateral (LASID IV, 203, Item 123: [ˈkaxəɫəχ], Arran), with -ach, although *cachalach may simply be a normalised oblique case form of cachalath (C) as a guttural stem.
SG cabhann m. ‘wicket, bar-gate; gateway’ may provide an instance of a similar use of the prefix co-: SG cabhann (AFB˄; MacDonald 1946, 17) or cabharn (MacDonald ibid.), with nn > rn,
Cf. SG (Sutherland) abharn for abhainn ‘river’ (Robertson 1907b, 111).
also cabharnach (McAlpine 1832; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925; AFB˄) and cabharnaidh (AFB˄; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: Coigach), appears to derive from a closed compound of co + bann ‘tie’; cf. Shaw’s (1780) SG cabhanshail ‘prop or beam of a house’ (?i.e. cabhann + sail ‘beam’, i.e. ‘connecting-beam’), but which may have been adopted from Lhuyd’s (1707) Ir. cabhanshail ‘prop or stay of a building, wind-beam’.
SG cabhann certainly appears to have nothing to do with Ir. cabhán ‘hollow, cavity’ (< EG coḃḟán ‘slope, hollow’ (< coṁ- + fán ‘slope’)).