v1.0
Published 01/10/24
dorgh m. [ˈd̪̥ɔɾ͡ɔɣ],
Cf. (Barra) [d̥ɔ-rɔɣ] (Borgstrøm 1937, 84), (Benbecula) [ḍoͅroͅɣ̮] (LASID IV, 238, Item 1116), (Lewis) [d̬[ɔrɔ]ɣ] (Borgstrøm 1940, 30), /dɔrɔ̀ɣ/ (Oftedal 1956, 70), [ḍɔrɔḫ] (LASID IV, 257, Item 1116), (Skye, Wester Ross) [d̬[ɔrɔ]v] (Borgstrøm 1941, 61, 75), (Wester Ross) [dəroͅ] (LASID IV, 201, Item 275).
gen. duirgh [ˈd̪̥ɯ̟ɾ͡ʲɯ̟j], ‘trailing line for fishing’ is derived regularly from ON dorg f. ‘idem’.
See Craigie (1894, 163: dorbh), Mackay (1897, 93: dorgh < Ice. dorga [sic]), Henderson (1910, 121: dorgha, drogha), MacBain (1911: dorbh, dorgh, drogha), Bugge (1912, 293: dorgh, droga [leg. drogha]), Borgstrøm (1937, 84), Christiansen (1938, 4, 8), Borgstrøm (1940, 30; 1941, 61, 75), Oftedal (1956, 70), de Vries (1962), McDonald (1972, South Uist, whose editor compares Far. dorg), Oftedal (1983, 155), Thomson (1983d, 90), Stewart (2004, 409: drògha [sic]) and McDonald (2009, 349: drogha, dorgh, dorgach [see under Derivatives, below]’).
Irish and Manx forms (see below) are also derived from ON dorg.
(Irish) Craigie (1894, 163), MacBain (1911, s.v. drogha), Bugge (1912, 293), Sommerfelt (1949, 233; 1962, 76), Greene (1976, 79), Mac Mathúna (2001, 76) and McDonald (2009, 349), while Marstrander (1915a, 64: dorga [leg. dorgha], 93, 94: dorga [leg. dorgha], 112, 116 fn 1), eDIL˄ (s.v. doruba), Schulze-Thulin (1996, 104) and Kelly (2000, 297) cite Early Gaelic (rather Early Modern Irish) forms; (Manx) Bugge (1912, 293), Marstrander (1932, 49, 265) and McDonald (2009, 349).
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In his digest of nautical terms, Smyth (≈1867) lists dorra ‘from the Gaelic dorga [sic] “a crab-net”’, but the word is really an alternative spelling of Scots dorra, darro [′dɔro], [′dɑro], [′daro] (SND˄), also from ON dorg; for the meaning, cf. ibid., sense 1. †(4): ‘a net fixed to a hoop of wood or iron, used for catching crabs; the garbage of fish, etc. being thrown into the bottom of it for attracting them’).
A number of Scottish Gaelic forms occur:
For A–C, below, see also SGDS Items 336–337.
A. SG dorgh [ˈd̪̥ɔɾ͡ɔɣ], dorgha [ˈd̪̥ɔɾ͡ɔɣə]
(i) dorgh: HSS (1828: ‘hand line’, Hebrides); McAlpine (1832: [dŏrgh’] ‘idem’, Lewis); Mackay (1897, 93: ‘idem’, Sutherland); MacBain (1911, s.v. dorbh: ‘idem’); Dwelly (1911: ‘idem; †mason’s line’); Bugge (1912, 293: ‘hand line’); Borgstrøm (1937, 84: [d̥ɔ-rɔɣ] ‘fishing line’, Barra); Christiansen (1938, 4, 8: pl. duirgh ‘hand line’, Lewis); Borgstrøm (1940, 30: [d̬[ɔrɔ]ɣ] ‘fishing line’, Lewis); Oftedal (1956, 70: /dɔrɔ̀ɣ/ ‘idem’, Lewis); LASID (IV, 238, Item 1116: [ḍoͅroͅɣ̮] ‘idem’, Benbecula; p. 257, Item 1116: [ḍɔrɔḫ] ‘idem’, Lewis; p. 201, Item 275: [dəroͅ] ‘idem’, Wester Ross); Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄ (Gairloch, ‘not a common word in Glendale’: Skye, ‘hand line’: Barra, South Uist, Lewis, ‘?frame for fishing line’: Harris,); AFB˄ (‘hand line and jig’, north and west coast and Hebrides);
(ii) dorgha, with a final vowel: MacDomhnuill (1741, 51: ‘fishing line’, Argyll); Henderson (1910, 121: ‘hand line’); McDonald (1972: ‘idem’, South Uist); Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: ‘heavy-quality line for ground fishing’, Harris).
B. SG dorbh [ˈd̪̥ɔɾ͡ɔv]
(with [ɣ] ~ [v] alternation, found in Skye and Raasay and parts of Wester Ross)
MacBain (1911: ‘hand line’); Dwelly (1911, s.v. dorgh); Borgstrøm (1941, 61: [d̬[ɔrɔ]v] ‘fishing line’, Skye, p. 75: [idem] ‘hand line’, Wester Ross); Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄ ([d̪ɔɾɔv] ‘fishing tackle’, Raasay); cf. LASID (IV, 201, Item 275: [dəroͅ] ‘fishing line’, Wester Ross).
C. SG drogh [d̪̥ɾo], drogha [d̪̥ɾo-ə]
(found in Islay and Argyll)
(i) drogh: MacDomhnuill (1741, 51: ‘fishing line’, Argyll); Armstrong (1825: ‘idem’, after MacDomhnuill); ?McAlpine (1832, s.v. dorgh: ‘hand-line drogh’ [sic], Islay); Bugge (1912, 293: drogh ‘hand line’, after MacDomhnuill [but misspelt droga]); Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄ ([d̪ɾo] ‘idem’, Islay);
(ii) drogha, with a final vowel: Shaw (1780: fisher’s line); Mac Farlan (1795: ‘long line’); MacFarlane (1815: ‘idem’); HSS (1828: ‘hand line’); McAlpine (1832: ‘idem’, Islay); Henderson (1910, 121: ‘idem’); MacBain (1911: ‘idem’);
(iii) in addition to drogha, Dwelly (1911, s.v. dorgh) lists the spellings drobha and dro.
D. SG dorg *[ˈd̪̥ɔɾɒɡ̊]
(i) dorga(dh): Shaw (1780: dorga ‘fishing net’); Armstrong (1825: dorgadh ‘idem’, after Shaw, ‘fishing line’); HSS (1828: dorga ‘fishing net’, after O’Reilly 1817); Dwelly (1911: dorga, with a cross-reference to dorgh): Shaw’s dorga ‘fishing net’ may simply be in error for dorgha, following as it does immediately upon his entry for dorga ‘despicable’, but it is possibly, perhaps more likely, a calque from Irish (see below), although from what source is unknown: O’Reilly’s Irish dictionary lists dorga ‘fishing net’, but O’Brien’s (1768) does not; cf. SG (Strathspey) dorg, under (ii);
(ii) dorg (dorga): AFB˄ lists dorga /dɔrɔgə/ ‘hand line’ (Skye, Strathspey), for which its editor Michael Bauer provides the following sources (pers. comm.): (1) Ir. (Rosguill) dorga (Lúcás 1986: ‘ripper (line, hook and sinker)’): however, it is probably unsafe to assume direct influence between Donegal and Skye and/or Strathspey (for Irish reflexes, see below). (2) SG (Skye) <dorrag>: an interview carried out in 2009 under the auspices of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Arizona, with an informant from Skye (Conversation 1: MF & JN) contains the form <dorrag>, which Bauer considers to be a bad spelling of SG dorg /dɔRag/ (sic), with stressed epenthesis (svarabhakti). However, the forms <dorrag>, <doraidh>, <dairidh> and <dol(l)aidh> are all postulated during the interview and it is clear the word is imperfectly recalled.
Conversation 1: MF & JN, (the syntactical analysis of the original has been omitted) at
[Para. 96] [Interviewer] Bh’ e … dè ’n t-ainm a th’ agad air a’ rud beag, bheil ’ios agad, air am pios beag fiodh le, em, loidhne timcheall air? ‘It was …what is the name that you have for the small thing, you know, for the small piece of wood with, em, a line around it?’
[97] [Interviewee] Oh aye, ’n e dorrag dorrag (dorc?) [sic] ‘Oh yes, is it dorrag dorrag (dorc)?’ [sic]
[98] [Interviewer] Dè rud? ‘What thing?’
[99] [Interviewee] Dorrag dorrag … ’n e dorrag a chanas iad ...? ‘Dorrag, dorrag, is it dorrag that they say?’
[100] [Interviewer] …’N e dorrag a … chan … chan eil cuimhne a’msa air a’ facal d— … doraidh … dairidh … facal beag … ‘… Is it dorrag that … not … I don’t remember the word d— … doraidh … dairidh … a small word …’
[101] [Interviewee] Oh aye … chuala mi dolaidh … ‘Oh yes … I heard dolaidh ...’
[102] [Interviewer] ’N e dollaidh a bh’ ann? ‘Was it dollaidh?’
[103] [Interviewee] Chuala mi ’m facal sin, aye. ‘I heard that word, yes.’
(3) SG (Strathspey) dorg: Lhuyd’s c. 1700 translation of John Ray’s 1675 Dictionarolium Trilingue lists (Lhuyd 1700, 123, VII 13) dorac ‘bait’. Lhuyd’s informant was probably Robert Stewart of Strathspey, and Lhuyd’s form might indeed represent SG (Strathspey) dorg *[ˈd̪̥ɔɾɒɡ̊], with fortition, for (Hebridean) dorgh: for the orthographic representation of the epenthetic vowel, cf. (p. 171, XXI 4) dorach (for SG dorch ‘darkness’, cf. SGDS Item 335 dorchadas: Points 181 [ˈd̥ɔrɒx] and 185 [ˈd̥ɒrëx]); for the use of <c> to represent unstressed final -g, cf. (p. 123, VII 27) etag (for SG èiteag ‘quill’), spalak (for SG spalag ‘idem’, ?< Scots spale + SG -ag) and (p. 128, VIII 98) fearac (for SG fiarag ‘weasal’, cf. Armstrong 1825: iarag); and for the development of rgh to rg in the local dialect, cf. SGDS Item 410 Fearghas: Point 188 [fäɹäɡ̊ɤ̈s], and perhaps also the Moray river name SG *Burgaidh (Eng. Burgie) NJ092593, if from ON borg (with [ɣ]) ‘fort, hill’ (s.v. Borgh) + SG -idh. Assuming the word existed locally, dorg would seem a more likely form than dorga, due to the general loss of final vowels in the Gaelic of Strathspey (MacGregor 1997, 504–05; Grant 2000, 74) and in neighbouring dialects (Clement and Watson 1982, 400).
The principal Scottish Gaelic forms above are mirrored in Irish and Manx: for SG (A) dorgh, dorgha and (B) dorbh, cf. Ir. dorgha, generally written dorugha and, with gh > bh, dorubha, which yield dorú with contraction;
For the contraction, cf. O’Rahilly 1976, 67–68. Lhuyd (1707) lists doradh and dorubha, the latter with a cross-refernce to doradh. With palatalised endings, cf. doruighe (Dinneen 1947: Munster) and dorumha (ibid.: pronounced ‘driffe’, Inishmaan) and contracted doraí (also written dorae, doraé), e.g. (Munster) [dorī], [dɑrī] and [dorī] Marstrander (1915a, 93, 116 fn 1).
for (C) drogh, drogha, cf. Ir. drogha and, with o ~ u alternation, drugha and drubha, which yield dró, drú with contraction;
E.g. (Donegal) [droːwə] and [droː] (Wagner 1979, 225), (Co. Mayo) /druː/ (Mhac an Fhailigh 1980, 38), (Co. Waterford) [dro] (Breatnach 1984, 158).
and for (D) dorg, cf. Ir. dorg, dorga, also written dorag, doraga and doruga,
E.g. (Donegal) [dɔrəg] (Sommerfelt 1949, 233), [dɔrəgə] (Quiggin 1906, 139), [idem] (Wagner 1979, 225).
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For limited discussion of Irish forms, see O’Rahilly (1976, 71, 99–100, 241).
and Mx darrag.
[darag] (Broderick II, 118).
Labialisation (SG dorgh > (B) dorbh, Ir. dorugha > dorubha
For gh > bh, see Ó Maolalaigh 2006a, 57.
) and fortition (SG dorgh > (D) dorg, Ir. dorugha > doraga) no doubt developed independently in Scottish Gaelic and Irish. However, the development of SG dorgh > (C) drogh, drogha, on the one hand, and Ir. dorgha > drogha, dró, on the other, must have different causes. The loss of the original first-syllable vowel in Ir. dorgha > drogha, dró in Connacht and Southern Irish is the result of the weakening of the first syllable following the shift of stress to the second syllable (O’Rahilly 1976, 86, 99–100). No such stress shift, however, took place in Scottish Gaelic and, although influence from Connacht and Southern Irish forms cannot be ruled out entirely, the development of SG dorgh > drogh, dorgha in Islay and Argyll may simply be the result of conflation with SG dragh ‘fishing line’, q.v.
Derivatives: a verbal noun meaning ‘fishing with a trailing line’, corresponding to SG iasgach ‘fishing’, breacach ‘trout fishing’ and creagach ‘rock fishing’, occurs in the forms SG dorghach m.,
HSS (1828); CG (II, 311: doraghadh [leg. doraghach], dorathach); Bugge (1912, 293: misspelt dorgach); Christiansen (1938, 4, 8: (len. gen.) dhorghaich, Lewis); LASID (IV, 271, under Vocabulary: (len.) [ɣɔroͅ.x], Wester Ross); Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄ (Killearn); AFB˄ (/dɔrɔ.əx/, north and west coast and Hebrides). See also SGDS Item 338.
dorghachd,
AFB˄ (/dɔrɔ.əxg/, Barra, Lewis).
(with bh for gh) darbhach,
Grannd (2013, s.v. ‘fish with hand-line’: [darbhach], i.e. with medial [v], North Sutherland).
droghach,
AFB˄ (/dro.əx/, Coll, Argyll).
and droghadh.
Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄ ([d̪ɾo̜˖ʔəɣ], North Argyll).
Note also the adjective dorghach.
HSS (1828); AFB˄ (/dɔrɔ.əx/, north and west coast down to Ardnamurchan, Skye, Raasay, Lewis).
Further, SG dorgh occurs (with the adjectives beag ‘little’ and mòr ‘large’) in the open compounds dorgh-beag m. and dorgh-mòr m. (AFB˄), and (with dragh ‘line’) in the closed compound dorgh-dhragh ‘line used in hand line fishing’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: Lewis; AFB˄: idem).
Lhuyd’s (≈1707) entry for palmaire reads ‘ainm an neithe bhios a laimh an sdiurthóra ag sdiuradh agus ag dorghadh a luinge “a rudder”’ (the name of the thing in the hand of the steerer steering and ?guiding his boat ‘a rudder’), but dorghadh is likely to be a typesetting error for Ir. diorghadh ‘directing, guiding’.