ONlwSG

v1.0
Published 01/10/24

gab m. [ɡ̊ab̥], gen. gaib [ɡ̊ɛb̥], in the sense ‘tattling mouth’ is derived by MacBain (1911) from ON gabb nt. ‘mockery’; so also MacLennan (1925) and Stewart (2004, 410). McDonald (2009, 355) considers this unlikely, perhaps tacitly favouring an Old English source after Meyer, see (A), below. SG gab and a number of phonetically and/or semantically similar forms are discussed below.

A. EG gib-gab, EG gic-goc
Meyer (1891, 461) suggests that EG gib-gab 

MS readings in Byrne 1908, 72: gib-gab, giba-gapa, gipa-gapa; in Schoen 2015, 93, line 398 + fn: idem.

‘gossip’ and gic-goc 

MS readings in Byrne 1908, 72: gíc-goc, gic-gog; in Schoen 2015, 93, line 396: gicgoc.

‘gibberish’ derive from Old Norse, but later (1912–19: V (1914), §78, pp. 630–31) that gib-gab derives from Old English, comparing Scots and northern English giff-gaff ‘give and take; interchange of remarks, promiscuous talk’, describing gic-goc as a similar word, without further explanation. Marstrander (1916, 383–84) concurs with Meyer’s Old English derivation of gib-gab, but compares gic-goc with Norw. gigga ‘to stagger’ and gogga (gugga) ‘to mumble’ (see also Marstrander 1915a, 10–11). Kelly (2007, 98–99), however, takes both gib-gab and gic-goc to be native Early Gaelic onomatopoeic expressions imitative of babbling and stuttering speech, respectively.

For EG gib-gab (-/b/) Kelly compares modern Ir. giob-geab ‘chit-chat’.

Dinneen 1947: geab ‘chat’, giob geab ‘idem’; Ó Dónaill 1977: giob-geab ‘chit-chat’. Cf. Ir. (Galway) gib ‘loud talkative mouth’, gibide ‘mouth, gob’, gibín geaibín ‘chatterbox’, gibireacht and gibstaireacht ‘chatter’ (Ó Curnáin 2007 IV, 2270).

For EG gic-goc (-/ɡ/) he compares a number of similar onomatopoeic words or phrases: Ir. gíog ‘squeak, chirp’, giog ‘a very slight sound’, 

?Leg. gíog, ?the same word as the preceding. Dinneen (1947) lists gíog f. ‘squeak, a slender sound’ followed by giog f. ‘a very slight sound’; Ó Dónaill (1977) lists only gíog f. ‘cheep, chirp, squeak’.

gíoglach ‘squealing (of mice)’, gíog guag ‘a silly prater’ and gíoc-bíoc! ‘peep-bo!’. However, we might also consider whether gib-gab is related to EG gop (-/b/) ‘muzzle, snout, beak’ (Ir. and SG gob) and gic-goc to EG *goc (-/ɡ/) ‘cluck, cackle’ (Ir. and SG gog), with ablaut in the first element of each reduplicative compound, cf. SG friog-frag (cf. MacDonald 1946, 15), stioram-staram (cf. Murchison 1960, 29, 197) and diog-deag (Wentworth 2003: [̩ d̥’ik ˈd̥’ɑk]), all expressions with the sense ‘pitter-patter’.

EG gib-gab and gic-goc are found in the same passage of the 10/11th-century tale ‘Airec Menman Uraird maic Coisse’ (Byrne 1908, 72; Schoen 2015, 93). In order to emphasise the positive nature of the diplomatic negotiation that has taken place between Cenél Eoġain and Doṁnall the king, a list of impossible actions (implying what the negotiation was certainly not like) prefaces a description of what it actually was like: 

The following text, with textual emendations incorporated, is taken from Schoen’s edition. The loose translation is the present author’s own.

The phrase nirba gicgoc Gallgaidel certainly seems to refer to the implied difficult nature of the language spoken by those of Norse-Gaelic descent, hence Kelly’s translation ‘it was not the stuttering of the Norse-Irish’. However, there seems to be no justification for taking the sense of gic-goc as anything other than ‘chatter’ and by extension ‘language, dialect or brogue’. Kelly also claims that nirba gipa gapa na cendaigi 

Ibid.: ‘it was not the babbling of the merchants’.

‘doubtless refers to foreign traders conducting their business in languages other than Irish’, but, while the phrase might indeed refer to foreign traders, from the context it seems neither obligatory nor necessary to do so.

Meyer (1912–19: V (1914), §78, pp. 630–31) also assumes the passage refers to foreign traders (by virtue of his deriving gib-gab from Old English); McDonald (2015b) does not.

B. SG geob m. [ɡ̊ʲob̥]/geop m. [ɡ̊ʲɔʰp] ~ geòb m. [ɡ̊ʲoːb̥]/geòp m. [ɡ̊ʲɔːʰp]
Forms with either short or long vowels and forms in either final -/b/ or -/p/ are found:
(i) geob: M^cAlpine 1832: [gyȯb] ‘gaping mouth, little mouth’ (also geob vb and geobail m. ‘gape, gaping’); MacEachen 1842: geobraich f. ‘idle talk’; McDonald 1972: geobadaich ‘prattle’;
(ii) geop: MacDonald 1946, 29: gip-geop ‘two or more persons carrying on a very voluble conversation’; CG VI, 81: geop ‘gossip’ (also geopach adj., geopadh sb.); 

CG VI’s editor Angus Matheson adds the phrase ʼs ann aca bha ghip-gheop [‘they had a real natter’], comparing ON geip nt. ‘idle talk, nonsense’, although ON ei represents a diphthong and would be expected to yield a long vowel in Gaelic.

Wentworth 2003, s.v. blether: geop [ɡ̊’ɛ̯ɔhp]; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh: geop ‘blethers, yap’ (Strathglass), ‘gossip, small talk’ (Skye);
(iii) geòb: HSS 1828: ‘wry mouth’ (also geòb vb, geòbadh m., geòbach 

Assigned to ‘common speech’ and Lhuyd (althouh the Lhuyd reference has not been traced).

adj.); MacEachen 1842: ‘wry mouth’ (also geòb vb and geòbach adj.); MacBain 1911: ‘wry mouth’ (< Eng. gape); MacLennan 1925: ‘gaping mouth, wry mouth’ (also geòb vb, geòbail m. ‘gape, gaping’, geòbaire m. ‘babbler’ and geòbraich f. ‘idle talk’); Dieckhoff 1932: [gˈjèòb] ‘wry mouth’; McDonald 1972: geòbadh ‘partial opening’, geòbag ‘little aperture’; Wentworth 2003, s.vv. gap, hole, gash: [ɡ̊’e̯oːb̥]; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh: geòbadh ‘slight opening’ (Lewis) (also ag còmhradh is a’ geòbraich [‘talking and chatting’] (Lewis), s.v. cnatan thobhtaichean;
(iv) geòp: HSS 1828: geòpraich ‘torrent of idle talk’; MacBain 1911: geòpraich ‘idem’ (comparing geòb); MacLennan 1925: geòp m. ‘fast talk, mostly unintelligible’, geòpraich f. ‘torrent of idle talk’; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh: geòpail ‘(of fish) gasping for breath’ (Tiree).

Although senses relating specifically to ‘chattering’ may in part be related to Ir. geab and EG gib-gab (A), the phonetic and semantic variation in the above forms suggests they may in part also be the result of conflation with borrowings from both Scots or Eng. yap ‘to chatter, nag etc.’ and Scots or Eng. gape ‘to open one’s mouth wide’.

C. SG gab m. [ɡ̊ab̥]
(E.g. MacFarlane 1815: gabaire ‘tattler’, gabaireachd ‘tattling’; Armstrong 1825: gab m. (more frequently written gob) ‘bill, beak; mouth’ (also gabach adj., gabachd f., gabair m., gabaireachd f.); HSS 1828: gabair, gabaireachd, see under gob-.)

Although ON gabb might formally be expected to yield SG gab, the sense ‘tattling mouth’ (MacBain 1911; so Dwelly 1911 and MacLennan 1925) may be the result of conflation between SG gab in the sense ‘mouth’ (as a by-form of SG gob, with a ~ o alternation) and a borrowing from Scots gab ‘tittle-tattle’.

Scots gab in the senses ‘mouth; tongue’ is itself taken to be a variant of Scots gob, from Ir. and SG gob (SND^˄). For Easter Ross, Watson (2022, 210) records SG gab ‘mouth’ (with voiceless stops) and (in English/Scots orthography) gabby ‘kiss’ (with voiced stops). Watson compares SG gab ‘mouth’ with Scots gab ‘mouth’ (but see above); gabby ‘kiss’ is likely to be an extended sense of Scots gabbie, a diminutive form of Scots gab ‘mouth’ (SND^˄, s.v. ¹gab I n. 2. (1)).

D. SG cab m. [kʰab̥]
(E.g. MacDomhnuill 1741: ‘quart’; Shaw 1780: ‘mouth; head; gap’; MacFarlane 1815: ‘mouth’ (also cab, cabaich ‘to indent’); Armstrong 1825: ‘mouth, mouth ill set with teeth; head; gap; measure = 2 Scots pints’ (also cab ‘to indent, notch; break land’, cabaich ‘to notch, indent, blunt’, cabach ‘long-toothed, ugly-mouthed; notched, indented, full of gaps; toothless; babbling, garrulous’, cabachadh ‘indenting, notching’, cabadh ‘idem’, cabag ‘toothless female; loquacious female; strumpet’, cabaire ‘tattler, gabbler; toothless fellow’, cabaireachd ‘habit of tattling or prating’.

In addition to SG cabaireachd, cabrachd ‘chattering’, Easter Ross has cabaid ‘idle chatter’ (Watson 2022, 132).

)

SG cab ‘gap, indentation; mouth’ (Ir. idem) is derived by MacBain (1911) from Eng. gap ‘breach etc.’ and gab ‘boast etc.’ EG cab (-/b/) has the senses ‘mouth; muzzle’ (eDIL^˄) and is possibly onomatopoeic (Vendryes 1996), if not a variant of EG gop ‘muzzle, snout, beak’, perhaps under the influence of EG clap (E). In addition, Ir. cab has the senses ‘opening; lip’ (e.g. Ó Dónaill 1977), while SG cab has the senses ‘gap; head (e.g. Shaw 1780); quart (MacDomhnuill 1741)’. If the senses ‘opening, gap’ are not extensions of ‘mouth’, they may be from Eng. gap (< ON gap nt.); the sense ‘head’ is likely to be from Scots/Eng. cap (< Lat. cappa); the sense ‘quart’, if not from MScots cap ‘bowl, dish; measure’ (< MEng. cop), may be from Eng. cab ‘a measure of capacity’ (OED^˄, s.v. kab, < Heb. קַב; cf. 2 Kings 6: 25).

E. SG clab m. [kʰɫ̪ɑb̥]
(E.g. MacDomhnuill 1741, 96: clabir ‘mill-clapper’; Shaw 1780: clab ‘open mouth; lip’ (also clabach ‘thick-lipped, wide-mouthed’, clabaire ‘a babbling fellow’); Mac Farlan 1795: clab ‘open mouth’ (also clabach ‘thick-mouthed’, clabaire ‘babbler’, clabar ‘noisy woman’); Armstrong 1825: clab ‘wide mouth, gaping mouth, thick-lipped mouth; lip; garrulous mouth’ (also clabach ‘thick-lipped; garrulous; open-mouthed, wide-mouthed’, clabag ‘garrulous female; thick-lipped female; scoff’, clabair ‘garrulous fellow, prater’, clabaireachd ‘babbling, tattling, the habit or vice of tattling’, clabar ‘mill-clapper’.)

SG and Ir. clab ‘open mouth’ go back to EG clap (-/b/) ‘a contemptuous term for a mouth’, which may also be onomatopoeic, although it may owe something to MEng. clappen ‘to clap’, cf. Eng. clap ‘(mill) clapper’ (OED^˄), ‘half-door, trap-door, the shutter of an unglazed window in a barn or stable’ (EDDo^˄, s.v. clap (17)), and MScots clap ‘mill clapper; uvula’ (DOST^˄).