Am mìos seo bidh sinn a’ toirt sùil air an fhacal ‘breac’ ann an litreachas na Gàidhlig. Tha ceangal aige ri iasg, lochan agus tòrr a bharrachd. / This month we look at the many uses of breac ‘speckled’ in Gaelic literature. It’s a word that is associated with trout, lochs and much more besides.

Dùthaich bhreac

Tha dà ainm-àite faisg air Port-adhair Ìle a’ sealltainn farsaingeachd an fhacail breac air aghaidh na talmhainn. Tha e a’ nochdadh mar bhuadhair ann am Beinn Bhreac. Dà chilemeatair don ear-thuath air a’ bheinn, tha Loch nam Breac, far a bheil am facal na ainmear, a’ ciallachadh an èisg Salmo trutta. ’S fhiach cuimhneachadh, ge-tà, gu bheil breac a’ ciallachadh ‘bradan’ ann an dualchainnt no dhà.

’S iomadh loch is allt thar na Gàidhealtachd air a bheil ainm le ‘breac’ ann. Tha eisimpleirean ann an Lochan Dubh nam Breac air mòinteach ann an ceann a deas an Eilein Sgitheanaich, Loch nam Breac Ruadh ann an Uibhist a Deas agus Lochan nam Breac Reamhra faisg air an Òban (Latharna). Chan eilear a’ dol a dh’innse far a bheil na sia lochan air a bheil Loch nam Breac Mòra, eagal ’s gum biodh cus dhaoine a’ falbh a dh’iasgach annta!

Mar bhuadhair, tha ‘breac’ a’ dèanamh tuairisgeul de choltas àite, gu tric air fhaicinn aig astar, co-cheangailte ri lusan, creagan no sgrìodan. Tha eisimpleirean anns an Àirigh Bhric ann am Muile (nach eil breac tuilleadh oir chaidh coille a chur oirre), An t-Sròn Bhreac, ceann beinne taobh Loch Lòchaidh agus A’ Chreag Bhreac is A’ Chruach Bhreac a tha air leth bitheanta. Tha an t-uabhas de bheanntan air a bheil Am Meall Breac agus A’ Bheinn Bhreac. Uaireannan tha na ‘beanntan breaca’ ceangailte ri Cailleach na Beinne Brice a bha uaireigin, ’s dòcha, na ban-dia phàganach a bhuineadh ris a’ gheamhradh.

Ann an litreachas na Gàidhlig, tha breac mar thuairisgeul air coltas achaidhean is leathaidean far a bheil lusan sònraichte pailt – leithid sòbhragan, neòineanan is oighreagan (feireagan). Tha ‘breac le feireagan as cruinn dearg ceann’ a’ nochdadh anns an dàn ainmeil ‘Coire a’ Cheathaich’ le Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir. Chithear a’ chiall sin anns an ainm-àite Achadh Breac (Achbreck ann am Beurla), a nochdas ann an grunn àiteachan eadar Siorrachd Bhanbh agus Earra-Ghàidheal.

A speckled land

Two place names close to Islay Airport demonstrate the diversity of the word breac (‘BREH-uchk’) in the Gaelic landscape. Meaning ‘speckled’, it is the descriptor in the mountain name Beinn Bhreac (bayn VREH-uchk) ‘speckled mountain’ – the ‘h’ softening the ‘b’ in agreement with the feminine gender of the noun beinn. Two kilometres northeast of the mountain is Loch nam Breac ‘the loch of the trout’, where the word is a noun, referring to our native brown trout which, of course, is a beautifully speckled fish.

Many water bodies across the Highlands and Islands carry the name of this species. Examples are Lochan Dubh nam Breac ‘the black [peatland] lochan of the trout’ on Skye, Loch nam Breac Ruadh ‘the loch of the russet trout’ in South Uist and Lochan nam Breac Reamhra ‘the lochan of the fat trout’ near Oban, Argyll. The localities of the six lochs which are called Loch nam Breac Mòra ‘the loch of the big trout’ will remain undeclared, because of fears of overfishing!

As a descriptor, breac is applied in place names to several types of feature, and refers to an appearance, usually observed at distance, caused by the distribution of vegetation or rocks, including scree. Examples are the Àirigh Bhreac ‘speckled shieling’ on Mull (no longer speckled because it is covered with plantation forest), Sròn Bhreac ‘speckled nose’ on Loch Lochy, and the extremely numerous and widespread Creag Bhreac ‘speckled crag’ and Cruach Bhreac ‘speckled stack’. There are many mountains called Meall Breac and Beinn Bhreac, the latter often connected with Cailleach na Beinne Brice ‘the hag of Beinn Bhreac’, who may originally have been a pre-Christian deity associated with winter.

In Gaelic literature breac is employed to describe the appearance of fields, hillsides and plateaux where particular plants are growing in abundance, examples being primroses, daisies and cloudberries. ‘Studded with cloudberries of the roundest, reddest head’ is a line from ‘The Misty Corrie’ by Duncan Bàn MacIntyre, one of Gaeldom’s most celebrated poems. A toponymic example is Achbreck, Achadh Breac ‘speckled field’, a name that occurs in locations as far apart as Banffshire and Argyll.