Place name of the week

Inverness - Inbhir Nis

Inverness (Inuernis in 1187) is of course established in Gaelic as Inbhir Nis ‘the confluence of the river Ness’ but its fame in the Gaelic-speaking world has meant that the pronunciation of the name has been subject to several dialectal peculiarities. In Lewis and Sutherland it was pronounced Eara Nis; on Skye and in parts of Perthshire it was pronounced Eanar Nis, whilst on Uist and Harris it is Eilear Nis; in parts of Easter Ross, round Inverness itself and elsewhere it was Eornais.

Inverness in Nova Scotia – which until recently had a thriving Gaelic speaking population – was transferred as a name from the Scottish Inverness, but was always called simply ‘Inverness’ in both Gaelic and English.

Inverness is affectionately known as Inversnecky, from the name of a dance hall song; how it came to be attached to Inverness is not known. lfor more information visit Ainmean-àite na h-alba at www.ainmean-aite.org