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Published 01/10/24
cambar m. [ˈkʰãũmb̥əɾ],
AFB˄: /kãũmbər/.
also cambair [ˈkʰãũmb̥əɾʲ],
Final SG -[ɾ] in unstressed syllables is frequently palatalised in the dialects of the Western Isles, cf. SGDS Items 670 piuthar (Pts 6–7, 14–19, 28–30), 730 saighdear (Pts 1–5, 7– 13, 17–30), 851/2 tobar (Pts 1–9, 25, 17–18, 28–30).
gen. cambair, is defined as ‘a burial mound, place of burial’ by Alexander Carmichael (CG VI, 30: cambar, campar), and derived by Angus Matheson (ibid.) from ON kambr m. ‘comb, crest, ridge of hills’. Carmichael details the word’s occurrence in the place-names of three locations.
A. Bernera, Harris
‘[A]bout a hundred yards from [the former church] Cill Àisinn is An Cambar, a burial ground still in use ... Some knolls nearby are called Na Cambair Bheaga “the little mounds”’ (≈CG VI, 30). OS 1843–82 gives Cill Aiseam NF928826 with its own graveyard immediately beside it; another burial ground is located at NF932828, about 490m (1600ft) from Cill Aiseam. For An Cambar, cf. the place-names (OS 1843–82) Allt Camber NF931826, Port a’ Camber NF934822 and Massacamber NF939826, which are presumably anglicised forms of SG (with or without the article) Allt (a’) Chambair, Port (a’) Chambair and Màs (a’) Chambair ‘the stream—, the landing-place— and the base of (the) Cambar’, although MacGillEathain’s (1988, 39) form Port a’ Chambair and AFB˄’s Màs a’ Chambair confirm use of the article.
B. St Kilda
Carmichael (≈ibid.) writes ‘[a] burial place in St Kilda is also called An Cambar; its situation is ... above the stormy exposed bay of the island’, appending the rhyme (which he says is known elsewhere, in the islands and on the mainland): Tobar Childa Chalda | Allta Chamar nan Lobhar ‘the well of—,
For Carmichael’s Tobar Childa Chalda, see Cox 2007c, 21–22; 2022, 579–80 fn 207.
| the stream of the Camar (“burial place”) of the lepers’.
Martin Martin (1698, 116–17) says that leprosy broke out among the population of St Kilda c. 1684, and that there were current cases during his own visit to the island. This leprosy was probably lepra tuberculosa, according to MacDonald (1886, 161).
Carmichael explains that ‘[b]oth in Bernera and St Kilda there is a well near the graveyard called Tobar a’ Chambair “the well of the burial mound” ’, but the form Camar is not explained.
In addition to Tou-bir-nimbeuy (SG Tobar nam Buaidh ‘the well of the virtues’), Martin Martin (1698, 87–88) mentions St Kilder’s well (i.e. Carmichael’s Tobar Childa Chalda) and ‘another well within half a mile of [the main village], named after one Conirdan, an hundred paces above the sea’; of these wells, Macaulay (1764, 93) notes that ‘the most remarkable is that near the Camper’. Whether or not Conirdan is or contains an adulterated form of cambar or similar is impossible to determine. (Macaulay translates (p. 28) Camper as ‘the crooked landing-place’, (p. 93) the Camper as ‘crooked bay’, presumably on the basis of SG cam ‘bent, crooked’; the name is given as the Campar on p. 118.)
The St Kilda place-name is normally used with the article: don Chambair [‘to the—’] (NicFhionghuin 1987b, 138), mullach Chambair, rèidhlean a’ Chambair [‘the summit of—, the plain of the—’] (NicFhionghuin 1987a, 17, 19) and creagan cas a’ Chambair [‘the steep crags of the—’] (MacFhearghuis 1995, 50).
John Matheson’s 1928 map of St Kilda includes The Cambir and Geo Chaimbir.
C. Ness, Lewis
Carmichael (≈ibid.) continues, ‘[t]here is a place in Ness, Lewis, called An Cambar: air a’ Chambar ‘at Cambar’; an old Lewis song says, ‘Chì mi uam an Cambar thallad “I can see An Cambar yonder” ’, although the traditional spelling is with -mp- rather than -mb-,
E.g. àirigh a’ Champair lit. ‘the sheiling of An Campar’ (Mac-an-Rabhd 1954, 178).
despite the pronunciation, cf. nMO: [ŋ͐ha͠u̇mb̬ər], SSSA PN1966-010-SideB: from approx. 22.40 minutes [ˈkʰãũmb̥əɾʲ]. OS1843–82 locates Campar Mor [sic] at NB538594 and Campar Béag [sic]
With SG mòr ‘large’ and beag ‘little’, respectively, but onomastically here in the sense ‘greater’ and ‘lesser’.
to the north-west at NB525610; ECC, 407, places An Campar Mòr in between those points at NB53236021.
On the basis that SG cambar goes back in some capacity to ON kambr in the sense ‘comb or crest (of hills)’, the term appears to denote, in Bernera, the two hills (OS 1843–82: Sand Hill and Moor Hill) to the north-east and north of the map’s Allt Camber; in St Kilda, the series of steep crags forming a long promontory crest or ridge running north-west from NA081000 to NA075011; and, in Ness, the series of low hills forming a crest or ridge running north-west from NB538594. (Carmichael’s sense ‘burial mound’ may be the result of transference of onomastic meaning (Cox 2002a, 45–46; 2022, 33–36) or his own interpretation.) A number of scenarios have been or might be considered:
1. SG cambar is a loan-word from ON kambr. As mentioned above, this is Angus Matheson’s view; it is also MacIver’s (1934, 46–47, 74
(Bernera) massa-camber < ON cambr [sic], Port a chamber < ON kamber [sic] and (Ness) Campar from ON kambr.
) and McDonald’s (2009, 369
McDonald conflates cambar with SG camp ‘overhang’ (s.v.) and campar ‘hindrance, annoyance etc.’ (s.v.).
); ?cf. Lambay (Monro 1549 [1774, 42, No. 195]), for SG *Lambaigh (a name apparently now lost), < CSc. *Lamb-ø̨y ‘(the) lamb-island’, although post-stress ON -mb otherwise gives EG [mb] > [mm] > SG [m]: OWNorn *glǫmbar (ON klǫmbr ‘smith’s vice’, in which final -r is part of the stem) > SG glomair [ˈɡ̊ɫ̪ɔ̃məɾʲ], ON *Lamb-sætr ‘(the) lamb-sheiling’ > SG *Laidhmiseadar [ˈɫ̪ãĩmə ˌ ʃad̪̥əɾ], with lengthening before preconsonantal m followed by stressless epenthesis (Cox 2022, 253–54, 779–80). Citing CSc. kambr, Coates (1990, 115) finds the derivation implausible. However, although Old Norse loan-words are often borrowed in an oblique case, given vowel epenthesis before the Old Norse nominative singular ending -r, either in Gaelic or, assuming a relatively late borrowing, in Old Norse or Old West Norn itself, the derivation cannot be dismissed out-of-hand.
2. Taylor (1968, 126) seems to imply that the St Kilda place-name The Cambir [sic] is derived from an Old Norse place-name *Kambr; even if this were likely to be the case, the same questions would apply as under (1.).
3. SG cambar is a loan-word from ON kambar ‘(the) hills’, pl. of kambr, used in Gaelic as a grammatically singular or collective appellative, but there do not seem to be any other examples of such a development, especially one occurring across several islands.
4. SG cambar goes back to *campbheur, consisting of SG camp, a loan-word from ON kamp, acc. of kampr m. ‘overhang’ (s.v. camp) + SG beur ‘point, pinnacle’, as suggested by Coates (1990, 115) for St Kilda.
Coates opines that the usual current English form, (The) Cambir, suggests a Gaelic *An Caimbir, but this is not supported by Gaelic usage.
However, the likely pronunciation of (St Kilda) cambar argues for an etymon in kamb- rather than kamp-;
In support, Coates cites the (North Tolsta, Lewis) place-name Sròn a’ Champair NB563473 (cf. OS 1843–82 idem, Geodha Champair NB562472 and Sgeir a Champair NB562473 ‘the promontory, cove and skerry of the—’), but this is for Srò(i)n a’ Chambair: SSSA PN1967-002-SideA, from approx. 13.30 minutes: [̩ ̩s̪ɾõˑɲ ə ˈxãumb̥əɾʲ]. MacIver (1934, 16) writes Sròn a Champair, but derives the specific from ON kambr. Cf. OS 1843–82 Lòn a’ Champair NG444582 ‘the pool of the—’ in Skye, although the pronunciation is unknown. (The Old Norse loan-name SG Campaigh [ˈkʰãũm̥paj] NB142426 probably derives from ON *Kamp-ø̨y ‘(the) overhang-island’, with the stem-form of ON kampr, s.v. camp (Cox 2002a, 198). Macaulay (1972, 330), possibly on the suggestion of Hermann Pálsson (p. 329), gives a derivation with ON kamb- ‘comb, crest’, but this does not seem to suit phonetically.)
final -bheur, the lenited form of SG beur [b̥eːɾ], [b̥iaɾ],
A nominal use of SG beur, a by-form of bèarr, beàrr (EG berr ‘short’) (MacBain 1911).
would be expected to cause regressive palatalisation of the medial consonantal cluster, and the long vowel of beur would be expected to yield [a] rather than [ə] in the final, unstressed syllable.
5. SG cambar is a loan-blend of ON kamb acc., or Scots (Shetland) kamb ‘a sharp-crested mountain ridge (now only as a place-name)’ (< ON kambr) (Jakobsen 1928; 1936, 64; SND˄, s.v. kame), + the Scottish Gaelic collective suffix -ar -[əɾ] (Thurneysen 1975, 170 §265 (a)), cf. SG Crochar ‘place of the gallows’ in Urquhart, Salachar ‘place of willows’ (-[aɾ]) in Applecross (Watson 1904, xxxvii, 117, 205), glasar ‘green place’ and (plur.) gleadhairean ‘slopes’, iolairean ‘ledges’ and gortairean ‘enclosures’ in Lewis (Cox 2002a, 60).
The first and last scenarios (1. and 5.) seem the most likely, with the principle of Occum’s razor favouring the former.
MacIver (1934, 23) lists Tom a Chamba [sic] in Borve, Lewis, whose specific he derives from ON kambr, but we should probably read *Tom a’ Chama, cf. (Borve) OS 1843–82 Càm, ECC 283 An Camadh NB44805213, also (North Tolsta) OS 1843–82 Camadh NB544473, both locations with a stream in a steep gully, although MacIver (ibid., 16) gives the latter as A Chamach [sic], which he also derives from ON kambr; but such names may simply contain SG camadh in the sense ‘bow, curve’ and/or camach ‘bowed or curved place’ (< SG cam ‘bent’).