The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #139937   Message #3978898
Posted By: Iains
25-Feb-19 - 06:03 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Irish songs in Public Domain
Subject: RE: Origins: Irish songs in Public Domain
As a total aside. It is not just folk music definitions spark dissent.
From the previous threads:
Balquhidder in Scottish Gaelic is Both Chuidir or Both Phuidir meaning the hut of ‘Cuidir’.

Balquhidder –baile-chuidir –with the bal (baile) part common in Scotland, meaning a township. The second part is a mystery, though some think it means backward-lying country.

Balquhidder village - properly called 'Kirkton of Balquhidder' takes its name from the Gaelic' Both Chuidir' meaning 'village with fodder'.
Below is a more honest attempt.
This is a very difficult name to translate. There are several suggested etymologies for Balquhidder:

1. The most common one is baile a chuile-tir = "town of the back-lying country". However this explanation does not account for the older forms of the name.

2. Beachamp and MacGregor each indicate that the early pronunciation of the name was closer to "buffudder", and that it hails from a lost dialect of Gaelic, so the exact meaning of this place name is now lost. It is also suggested by Watson that the name is derived from Baile phuidir = "land of the puidreag (stone)" where there may have been Druid worship. There are several possible sites of Druid worship around Balquhidder. The stone in question may also refer to the Angus Stone in Balquhidder church. The change from "ph" to "quh" suggests a name that may have shifted from P-Gaelic (Pictish or Welsh) to Q-Gaelic (Irish/Scot). If so, then the name Balquhidder could be derived from a much earlier Pictish place name, which would make it one of the oldest place names in the district.

3. "fodder village".

The preamble to the last section is something that researchers of folk music should perhaps heed!!
The study of ancient Gaelic place names is fraught with controversy. Often there are serious academic sources who disagree on particular translations. Often these place names are so ancient in origin that their original names are now lost in the mists of time. Even where some of these earlier names survive they can be based on old forms of Gaelic words that have not survived into modern Gaelic. Furthermore these Gaelic names have often been corrupted by centuries of contact with English and Lowland Scots. Thus many of the ascribed "meanings" below should be considered as nothing more than a "best guess"