v1.0
Published 01/10/24
poile m. ‘while, period of time’. Christiansen (1938, 4, 13) claims that pilla in the phrase an deidh pilla ar an dol a mach sin
‘After a while on that tack/in that fashion’, from South Lochs in Lewis and written in an unconventional orthography.
corresponds phonetically with ON bil nt. in the sense ‘time, moment’ (Norw. bel, bil); cf. Ice. bil n. ‘moment, twinkling of an eye’ (Cleasby 1874). Given pilla’s absence from standard lexical works, McDonald (2009, 342) considers the loan uncertain.
This word occurs in two main forms: (1) poile [ˈpʰɤlə] [ˈpʰələ] is found in Gairloch, Harris, North and South Uist;
(Gairloch) poile m. [pʰɤl’ə] (Wentworth 2003: also poileán (leg. poilean), with the diminutive suffix -an); (Harris and North Uist) poile (Moireasdan 1977, 83); (Lochaber, South Uist and Benbecula) poile (MacGill-Eain 2005, 115: gheibh thu poile eile sa phrìosan). Further, for both poille in ‘Saoghal Thormoid: Tuesday – Education’˄ (in the video for which (the same) Tormod MacGill-Eain (at c. 23.45 mins˄) says (RC) [ˈpʰələ], although the subtitles give poille) and (North Uist) peile [pɤlə] in Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄ leg. poile also.
(2) polla [ˈpʰoɫ̪ə], var. pulla [ˈpʰuɫ̪ə], is found in Lewis, Harris, Skye and North Uist.
Lewis (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: polla [poɫə]), Harris and Skye (AFB˄: pulla /puLə/) and North Uist (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄: pulla); cf. polla /pɔLə/ (AFB˄).
Christiansen’s (Lewis) pilla might represent polla, possibly poile.
ON bil would formally yield SG [b̥il], although alternation between initial b- and p- does occur in Gaelic (as Christiansen points out), especially in Lewis, e.g. briosgaid ‘biscuit’, briogais ‘trousers’, bris ‘to break’, bruich ‘to boil, cook’ and bucaid ‘bucket’ all have initial [pʰ] /p/ (rather than [b̥] /b/) (Oftedal 1956, 104; Cox 2017, 68); nevertheless, ON bil seems unlikely to yield [ˈpʰələ] or [ˈpʰoɫ̪ə]/[ˈpʰuɫ̪ə].
Warrack (1911) lists Scots pile in the sense ‘small quantity’, cf. (SND˄) 1pile, also pil, pyll, pyl(e) ‘a single small blade of grass; a grain of corn etc., a leaf of tea etc.’, but neither [pəil] (SND˄) nor [pīl, pɪ̄l]
Also [päil] through anglicisation.
(Jakobsen 1928, s.v. pil ‘bit, particle, trifle’) are likely to yield SG poile or polla/pulla.
An alternative source that might be considered is Scots 1speel [spil, spel] in the sense ‘a period of time of indefinite length’ etc. (SND˄), cf. Eng. spell in the senses ‘a continuous course or period of some work, occupation, or employment; a turn or bout at something; a period or space of time of indefinite length; a period having a certain character or spent in a particular way’ (OED˄, 3spell). It would be difficult, however, to argue a case for a development of initial sp- > p- in Gaelic.
The doublet (EG bech >) SG beach ‘bee (> bee; wasp)’ > speach ‘wasp’ (Gleasure 1973) is hardly comparable.
A more likely source may be Scots pull in the sense ‘turn, bout, go, a spell at something’, perhaps in a fishing context, cf. ‘act of pulling at an oar or pair of oars; a spell or stint of rowing’ (OED˄, s.v. pull, 9(d)). A loan from Scots pull (without l-vocalisation in a Hebridean context (Macafee and Aitken˄, §6.23)) might well yield SG poile [ˈpʰələ] and polla/pulla [ˈpʰoɫ̪ə]/[ˈpʰuɫ̪ə], with dialectal vascillation between (phonemically) palatal /l´/ and non-palatal /ʟ/, and with concomitant palatalisation from an original back vowel to /ə/ before the former and variation between rounded /o/ and unrounded /u/ before the latter. If so, the semantic development would seem to be ‘turn → spell → period of time’.
Note that SG poile and polla/pulla are distinct from poidhle m. [ˈpʰəilə]
AFB˄: /pɤilə/.
‘pile, heap’, a loan from Scots pile (Eng. pile) ‘heap’ etc. However, in the sense ‘many, a lot’, poidhle seems frequent in Cape Breton and is perhaps a loan from Canadian Eng. pile used in that sense (see Faclan bhon t-Sluagh˄, s.v. poidhle
For poile in MacNeil 1987, 226 (Bha a’ mhuc cho reamhar ’s bha poile do bhloineag ann), leg. poidhle (confirmed by MacNeil’s editor John Shaw, pers. comm.).
).