v1.0
Published 01/10/24
hamhn m. [hãũn] ‘harbour, haven’, along with its variants, is ultimately from ON hǫfn f. ‘idem’. The Old Norse loan-word is obsolete in Gaelic, but is attested in place-names:
A. SG abhann, abhainn
(Islay and Kintyre)
(i) Port na h-Abhann ‘the harbour of the harbour’ NR166521 (Islay; Eng. Portnahaven), now generally Port na h-Abhainn(e) [pʿɔrht nɑ ˈhɛvinjə], [pʿɔrht nɑ ˈhɑvinjə] (Holmer 1938, 116), with SG port ‘landing place; harbour’ (< Lat. portus), with the specific adapted by folk etymology to SG abhainn ‘river’: the genitive feminine Gaelic article na prefixes h- to a following vowel and here accommodates and preserves the original aspirate in ON hǫfn;
(ii) Àbhainn *[ˈaːiɲ], (Arran) /ɛːvin′/ (Holmer 1957, 49) ‘(the) harbour’ NR725043 (an alias of SG Sannda (Eng. Sanda, Sanda Island), off the south coast of Kintyre), with lengthening of the stressed vowel, which may have paralleled a similar development in SG abhainn ‘river’ to *à’ainn in the local Gaelic dialect (Cox 2010b, 73–85, esp. 76ff.).
B. SG hamhn (hann)
(Inner Hebrides and more southerly Outer Hebrides)
(i) Na Hamhn (Na Hann) [nə ˈhãũn] ‘the harbour’ NF790120 (Eriskay)
Cited by Goodrich-Freer (1897, 67: SG hawn < ON höfn, hafn; Henderson (1910, 148: SG thamhn < ON hafn; Fr Allan McDonald (1972: hann ‘bay’, which his editor John Lorne Campbell derives from ON hafn); and Roderick McDonald (2009, 360: thamhn, hawn < ON hafn). Henderson, followed by Roderick McDonald, also cites SG (len. gen.) Thamnabhaigh (see under (C.), below), but this is an Old Norse loan-name rather than an Old Norse loan-word in Gaelic.
and NM342474 (Mull), with vocalisation in Gaelic of the original Old Norse fricative f [ṽ]: the plural Gaelic article na prefixes h- to a following vowel and here accommodates and preserves the original aspirate in ON hǫfn;
(ii) Na Hamhnan *[nə ˈhãũnən] ‘the harbours’ NM355170 (Mull), with the addition of a Gaelic plural ending, reflecting the use of the Gaelic plural article.
Cf. the loan-name SG Tamhnaraigh [ˈt̪ʰãũnə ˌɾaj] < CSc. *Hafnarø̨y ‘(the) island of the harbour’ (Cox 2022, 925–28).
C. SG tamn
(more northerly Outer Hebrides)
(i) An Tamn [əᵰ̪ ˈt̪ʰãm͡ãn], [ə ˈᵰ̪t̪hãm͡ãn] ‘the harbour’ NA730460 (The Flannan Isles) and NB123413 (Flodaigh, off Bernera, Lewis), with original initial h- taken to represent the lenited form of SG t-, preceded by the Gaelic article;
(ii) An Tamn a-Sear [ə ˌᵰ̪t̪hãm͡ãnə ˈʃɛɾ] NB011198 and An Tamn a-Siar [ə ˌᵰ̪t̪hãm͡ãnə ˈʃiəɾ] NB006200 (Uig, Lewis), with the adverbs (a-)sear and (a-)siar used adjectively in the sense ‘in the east, eastern; in the west, western’, respectively (EG s-air ‘to the east’ and s-iar ‘to the west’); and
(iii) Geodh’ an Tamna ‘the cove of the harbour’ NB002331 (Mangerstadh, Lewis), with genitive of the specific; cf. Sgeir an Tamna ‘the skerry of—’ and Rubh’ an Tamna ‘the promontory of the harbour’ at the same location.
Cf. the loan-name SG Tamnabhagh [ˈt̪ʰãm͡ãnə ˌvaɣ] < OWNorn *Hamnarvág acc. ‘(the) bay of the harbour’ (Cox 2022, 925–28).
ON /fn/ became /mn/ by assimilation by about 1200 within the East Norwegian area, including Trøndelag (the Trondheim area) (Iversen 1973, 36; Seip 1955, 77–78).
For the modern Norwegian reflexes of ON fn and their distribution, see Chapman 1962, 70–71, 188, and Indrebø 1951, 132–33.
As reflexes of ON hǫfn, then, SG (A.) abha(i)nn and (B.) hamhn appear to be relatively early, while SG (C.) tamn appears to be relatively late (Cox 2008d; 2010b, ibid.).
The development of [ṽn] > [mn] here is considered to have been an Old Norse phenomenon. For discussion of the sporadic development of mh > m in Gaelic itself, see Ó Maolalaigh 2003, 120–30.