Loch(/lɒx/LOKH) is a word meaning "lake"or"sea inlet"inScottishandIrish Gaelic,subsequently borrowed into English. In Irish contexts, it often appears in the anglicized form "lough".[1]A small loch is called alochan.
Lochs which connect to the sea may be called "sea lochs" or "sea loughs". Some such bodies of water could also be calledfirths,fjords,estuaries,straitsorbays.
Background
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This name for a body of water isInsular Celtic[2]in origin and is applied to most lakes in Scotland and to many sea inlets in the west and north ofScotland.The word comes fromProto-Indo-European*lókus('lake, pool'), and is related to theLatinlacus('lake, pond'), Englishlay('lake') and Frenchlac,as well as the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish word for a lake,lago.[citation needed]
Lowland Scotsorthography, like Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Irish, represents/x/with⟨ch⟩,so the word was borrowed with identical spelling.[citation needed]
English borrowed the word separately from a number of loughs in the previousCumbriclanguage areas ofNorthumbriaandCumbria.Earlier forms of English included the sound/x/as⟨gh⟩(compare Scotsbrichtwith Englishbright). However, by the time Scotland and England joined under a single parliament, English had lost the/x/sound. This form was therefore used when the English settledIreland.The Scots convention of using⟨ch⟩remained, hence the modern Scottish Englishloch.[citation needed]
InWelsh,what corresponds toloisluinOld WelshandllwinMiddle Welsh(such as in today's Welsh placenamesLlanllwchaiarn,Llwchwr,Llyn Cwm Llwch,Amlwch,Maesllwch), theGoideliclobeing taken into Scottish Gaelic by the gradual replacement of muchBrittonicorthography with Goidelic orthography in Scotland.[citation needed]
Many of the loughs in Northern England have also previously been called "meres" (a Northern English-dialect word for "lake", and an archaic Standard English word meaning "a lake that is broad in relation to its depth" ), similar to theDutchmeer,such as theBlack LoughinNorthumberland.[3]However, reference to the latter asloughs(lower case initial), rather than aslakes,inletsand so on, is unusual.
Some lochs in Southern Scotland have aBrythonic,rather thanGoidelic,etymology, such asLoch Ryan,where theGaeliclochhas replaced aCumbricequivalent of Welshllwch.[4]The same is, perhaps, the case for bodies of water inNorthern Englandnamed with 'Low' or 'Lough', or else represents a borrowing of the Brythonic word into the Northumbrian dialect of Old English.[4]
Although there is no strict size definition, a smaller loch is often known as alochan(spelled the same also in Scottish Gaelic; inIrish,it is spelledlochán).[citation needed]
Perhaps the most famous Scottish loch isLoch Ness,although there are other famous ones, such asLoch Awe,Loch LomondandLoch Tay.[citation needed]
Examples of sea lochs in Scotland includeLoch Long,Loch Fyne,Loch Linnhe,andLoch Eriboll.Elsewhere in Britain, places like theAfon Dyfican be considered sea lochs.[citation needed]
Uses of lochs
editSome newreservoirsforhydroelectricschemes have been given names faithful to the names for natural bodies of water. For example, theLoch Sloyscheme and LochsLagganandTreig(which form part of theLochaberhydroelectric scheme nearFort William). Other expanses are simply called reservoirs, e.g.Blackwater ReservoiraboveKinlochleven.[citation needed]
Scottish lakes
editScotland has very few bodies of water called lakes. TheLake of Menteith,anAnglicisationof theScotsLaich o Menteithmeaning a "low-lying bit of land in Menteith", is applied to the loch there because of the similarity of the sounds of the wordslaichandlake.Until the 19th century the body of water was known as theLoch of Menteith.[5]TheLake of the Hirsel,Pressmennan Lake,Lake LouiseandRaith Lakeare man-made bodies of water in Scotland, referred to as lakes.
Lochs outside Scotland and Ireland
editAs "loch" is a common Gaelic word, it is found as the root of severalManxplace names.[citation needed]
The United States naval port ofPearl Harbor,on the south coast of the mainHawaiianisland ofOʻahu,is one of a complex of sea inlets. It contains three subareas called 'lochs' named East, Middle, and West[6]or Kaihuopala‘ai, Wai‘awa, and Komoawa.[7]
Loch Raven Reservoiris a reservoir in Baltimore County, Maryland.
Brenton Lochin theFalkland Islandsis a sea loch, nearLafonia,East Falkland.
In the Scottish settlement ofGlengarry Countyin present-dayEastern Ontario,there is a lake called Loch Garry.[8]Loch Garry was named by those who settled in the area,Clan MacDonell of Glengarry,after the well-known loch their clan is from,Loch Garryin Scotland. Similarly, lakes namedLoch Broom,Big Loch,Greendale Loch,andLoch Lomondcan be found inNova Scotia,along withLoch LeveninNewfoundland,andLoch LeveninSaskatchewan.
Loch Fyneis afjordinGreenlandnamed byDouglas Claveringin 1823.
See also
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References
edit- ^"lough".Oxford English Dictionary(Online ed.).Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/OED/8929108233.(Subscription orparticipating institution membershiprequired.)
- ^The current form has currency in the following languages:Scottish Gaelic,Irish,Manx,and has been borrowed intoLowland Scots,Scottish English,Irish EnglishandStandard English.
- ^Beckensall, Stan (2004).Northumberland Place-Names.Thropton, Morpeth, Northumberland: Butler Publishing.ISBN978-0-946928-41-5.
- ^abAlan, James."Brittonic Language In The Old North - A Guide To Place Name Elements"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 13 August 2017.Retrieved29 July2018.
- ^"Lake of Menteith | Scotland's Only Lake | Trossachs.co.uk".
- ^"Pearl Harbor Ablaze Again: The West Loch Disaster".public2.nhhcaws.local.Retrieved7 November2024.
- ^"Pearl Lochs".Images of Old Hawaiʻi.15 March 2024.Retrieved7 November2024.
- ^"Lochgarrylakeassociation - LGLA Action".Archived fromthe originalon 20 October 2013.Retrieved15 June2012.
