Place name of the week

London ~ Lunnainn

Whilst London is known in standard Gaelic as Lunnainn, it was pronounced as Lumainn in the Perthshire and Sutherland dialects, and may have been pronounced as this elsewhere. In Gaelic poetry, the city is sometimes referred to as Lunnainn nan Cleòc ‘London of the cloaks’, presumably in relation to the distinct traditional attire in 19th century London.

A clever example of wordplay appears in a Gaelic form for Billingsgate - a district of London - as recorded in Sutherland. Billingsgate (which of course is an English name) is famous for its fish market and as such it was known to Sutherland fishermen who referred to it as Baile nan Sgat ‘the town of the skate-fish’. This sounds similar to the name Billingsgate but is also an apt description. lfor more information visit www.ainmean-aite.org