ONlwSG

Show / Hide all footnotes

alc f. [ɑɫ̪̥k], gen. ailc(e) [ˈal̥kʲ(ə)], ‘razorbill, lesser auk, Alca torda’ (also ‘guillemot’ (CG II, 223: ‘[t]he razorbill and the guillemot resemble one another closely, and at some distance can only be distinguished by the practised eye’)); alc [ɑɫk] 

For the (read voiceless) non-dental velarised lateral, see Cox 2022, 14.

is recorded in Uig, Lewis 

Also in Lochs (Christiansen 1938, 4, 16).

(Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄), and falc in South Uist or Skye (ibid.) and St Kilda (Martin [1698] 1774, 94: falk), although Ross (1890) gives falca for St Kilda. SG alc yields falc with prothetic f- (Calder 1972, 37; cf. (f)arspag, q.v.), 

Via back-formation, where morphophonemically the initial vowel has been reinterpreted as the lenited reflex of /fV/-, e.g. (after the radical feminine article) an alc [ə ˈᵰ̪ɑɫ̪̥k] > an fhalc [idem] > (unlenited) falc; cf. Coates 1988: ‘... the present Hebridean form being an unhistorical nominative inferred from /alk/ [leg. /ɑʟk/] (as if this were a form representable orthographically as fhalg [leg. fhalc])’.

which in turn yields falcag f. with the nominally diminutive suffix ‑ag f. (EG -óc m.), but which probably arose out of association with other bird names in -ag, e.g. feadag ‘plover’ (< fead ‘whistle’ + -ag) and arspag, q.v., although note falcag in the sense ‘little auk, Alle alle’ (Cunningham 1990, 136). SG alc, falc and falcag have been derived from ON álka (cf. Ice. álka) ‘idem’ (MacBain 1896; Henderson 1910, 122; MacLennan 1925; Ó Muirithe 2010; Stewart 2004, 410 

McDonald (2009, 339; 2015, 122) gives ON álka, alc; Mackay (1897, 93) Ice. alk.

), recte ON alka f. (with a short stressed vowel; so Sommerfelt 1952a, 230; Lockwood 1978, 391), with apocope in Gaelic.