The
Alb/Alba-/Alp/Albion/e place and feature names about Western Europe and
edging into Eastern Europe have been addressed here in the past, and the subject
has come up again on another list, and I am interested in list comments on the
specific use in historic Scotland for the highlands; and/or the State
consolidated later ..simply "Alba" . (I'm safe, I don't have a
position on the issue, just curiosity :-)
Some
of the "answers" proposed from the other list (without linguistic guidance, of
course :-) :
*
the name for Britain as a whole, meaning 'white', because of
the white cliffs of Dover seen from France?
*ALBION noun a poetic or literary
term for Britain or England (often used in referring to ancient or historical
times).—ORIGIN Old English, from Latin ,
probably of Celtic origin and related to Latin albus 'white' (in allusion to the
white cliffs of Dover). The phrase perfidious Albion (mid 19th cent.) translates
the French la perfide Albion, alluding to alleged treachery toother nations.
(OED)
* Alba , The Alps , and Albania are all noted for "high ground"
.
* While the snow covered Alps could be described as "white" , it is
less convincing to apply this term to either Albania or Alba
(Scotland)
* The Oxford English Dictionary is
wrong.
* "Alba" comes from the same Common-Celtic root as "Alps" ,
"Albania" , and so on. In early Celtic the "p" and "b" sounds were
interchangeable - "prittanni" and "brittani", for instance.
*...the place names with "Alb" or "Alp" in them have two things in
common. (1) They were inhabited by Celtic-speaking peoples at one time, and (2)
they have high land . Other places which are known to have been inhabited by
Celtic-speaking peoples at one time _but which are low lying_ do not have "Alb"
or "Alp" place names.
*..the name almost certainly
originally applied to what nowadays is the Eastern Highlands, including the
Cairngorms, the Angus Glens, and so on, and it was a reasonable description of
the most distinctive feature of the area.
Slàinte
mhath;
Rex H. McTyeire