Carson a tha na Gàidheil a’ gabhail ‘ceann-fionn’ air eun le ceann dubh? Tha Ruairidh MacIlleathain a’ feuchainn ris an gnothach a shoilleireachadh. / Why do Scotland’s Gaels call penguins ‘white-heads’, despite their being black-headed? Roddy Maclean investigates a nomenclatural conundrum.

Eun a’ Chinn Duibh air a bheil ‘Ceann-fionn’

Air a’ chiad shealladh tha an t-ainm Gàidhlig a th’ air ‘penguin’ – ceann-fionn – car annasach, oir tha cinn dubha air na h-eòin-mhara ainmeil sin. Ged a bhuineas na cinn-fhionn don leth-chruinne mu dheas, ma dh’fhaodte gu bheil am fuasgladh airson an tòimhseachain seo ri lorg anns an leth-chruinne mu thuath – ann an cànan Ceilteach eile, eun-mara nach maireann a bha uaireigin a’ neadachadh ann an Hiort, agus eilean air taobh sear Chanada.

B’ e an gearra-bhall, no ‘great auk’ eun-mara mòr, aig nach robh comas sgiathaidh, a chaidh à bith ann an meadhan an naoidheamh linn deug. Tha co-dhiù ochd ainmean Gàidhlig clàraichte air a shon, ged as e gearra-bhall am fear as aithnichte. Tha dùil gun do dh’èirich seo bho ainm an eòin ann an Lochlannais – geirfugl ‘eun-sleagha’ – às an tig ainm eile ann am Beurla – gairfowl. Ge-tà, bha ainm Beurla a bharrachd air – ‘penguin’ – agus bha ainmean car coltach ann an cànanan Eòrpach eile. Tha luchd-saidheans eòlach air mar Pinguinus impennis agus, ann am Fraingis, canar le petit pingouin ris a’ choltraiche a tha dlùth-chàirdeach don ghearra-bhall (ach nas lugha).

Tha cuid de sgoilearan a’ cumail a-mach gu bheil ‘penguin’ a’ tighinn bhon Chuimris pen gwyn a tha a’ ciallachadh ‘ceann bàn’ no ‘ceann fionn’. Ged a bha ball bàn air ceann dubh a’ ghearra-bhuill, tha feadhainn dhen bheachd nach ann air ceann an eòin a thathar a’ dèanamh iomradh leis an ainm, ach air mullach eilein faisg air Talamh an Èisg ann an taobh sear Chanada. Ann an Cuimris, ’s e Pen Gwyn a bh’ air an eilean air sgàth na h-innearach a dh’fhàg na gearra-bhuill is eòin-mhara eile a bha a’ neadachadh ann. Ann am beul-aithris, thathar ag innse mu phrionnsa Cuimreach, Madog ap Owain Gwynedd, a chaidh a-null a dh’Ameireagaidh a Tuath anns an dàrna linn deug agus a dh’ainmich an t-eilean ann an Cuimris. Chan eil e soilleir an e sin an t-eilean ann am Bàgh Fundaidh air a bheil ‘White Head Island’ ann am Beurla an-diugh.

Tha aon rud soilleir mun ghnothach, ge-tà – nuair a chaidh maraichean a’ chinn a tuath a chuantan a’ chinn a deas, chuir na Cuimrich (agus ’s dòcha seòladairean às a’ Bhreatainn Bhig) an t-ainm ‘pen gwyn’ air na h-eòin-mhara nach tèid air sgèith agus a chunnaic iad ann am pailteas. Tha cunntas againn bhon bhòidse aig Sir Frangan Drake tro Chaolas Mhagellan ann an 1578 mu na h-eòin ‘ris an can na Cuimrich “Pengwin”’. Nuair a chaidh an gearra-bhall à bith, bha ‘penguin’ an uair sin a’ buntainn a-mhàin ris na h-eòin anns an leth-chruinne mu dheas.

Mar a bhiodh dùil le a leithid de thòimhseachan, tha sgeul eile ann – gu bheil am facal a’ tighinn bho thùs bhon Laidinn pinguis ‘geir’. Bha seòladairean às an Spàinnt is Portagail a’ gabhail ‘pinguin’ air a’ ghearra-bhall mar iomradh air an t-saill fo chraiceann an eòin. Ann an Spàinntis is Portagailis an latha an-diugh, ’s e an ceann-fionn pingüino/pingüina agus pinguim, agus tha ainmean coltach ann am mòran chànanan eile, leithid pingvin (Suainis), pingüin (Dùitsis) agus penguen (Turcais).

Ach Gàidhlig na h-Alba! Tha ar cànan fhèin air taobhadh leis na Cuimrich ann a bhith a’ riochdachadh pen agus gwyn leis na faclan Gàidhlig a tha dlùth-chàirdeach dhaibh (le tùsan Ceilteach) – ceann agus fionn. Air an làimh eile, ann an Gàidhlig na h-Èireann, canaidh daoine piongain ris an eun.

B’ e an t-aon àite far an robh an gearra-bhall ri fhaighinn air Gàidhealtachd na h-Alba Stàc an Àrmainn ann an Hiort, far an deach am fear mu dheireadh ann am Breatainn a mharbhadh ann an 1840. Cha robh Alba càil na b’ fheàrr na dùthaich sam bith eile a thaobh glèidheadh an eòin sin, ged a tha cunntas à Ameireagaidh a Tuath mu chreachadh do-labhairt anns an robh gearra-bhuill air am fionnadh beò agus air an losgadh air teine mar chonnadh air eilean gun chraobhan, a chionn ’s gu robh iad làn ola.

Ann an 1821, chaidh gearra-bhall, a bh’ air a ghlacadh ann an Hiort, a thoirt gu sgiobair soithich airson a ghiùlan a Dhùn Èideann far am biodh e air a mharbhadh is air a thaisbeanadh ann an taigh-tasgaidh. Faisg air Arainn, shaoil an sgiobair gun robh an t-eun salach agus feumach air ionnlad. Chaidh a leigeil le cliathaich an t-soithich, agus ròpa ceangailte ri a chois, ach rinn e a dhol-às agus cha d’ fhuaradh an t-eun ann an Dùn Èideann, ged a tha fear ann an taigh-tasgaidh Khelvingrove ann an Glaschu.

Gu mì-fhortanach, tha an gearra-bhall air a dhol à bith, ach tha fear de ainmean beò fhathast ann an co-cheangal ri ‘penguins’ na leth-chruinne mu dheas. Agus – ’s dòcha – tha an t-ainm Cuimris air eilean ann an Canada a’ mìneachadh mar a bhios Gàidheil na h-Alba a’ gabhail ‘ceann-fionn’ air eun le ceann dubh.

The Black-headed ‘White Head’ Bird

The generic Gaelic word for ‘penguin’ at first sight seems incongruous. It is ceann-fionn ‘fair or white head’ – yet a quick photographic survey of these flightless maritime birds of the southern hemisphere shows that their heads are overwhelmingly black. The solution to this conundrum – while still a matter of intense scholarly debate – might lie in another Celtic language, an extinct seabird that once bred on St Kilda, and a Canadian island.

The Great Auk, which survived until the mid-19^th century, was a flightless bird which weighed up to 5kg and was an important resource to maritime peoples in North America and Europe. It has at least eight recorded Gaelic names, the most familiar of which is gearra-bhall. This is literally ‘short or squat spotted one’ but is likely to be a corruption of the Norse geirfugl ‘spear-bird’ which gives an alternative English name gairfowl. Yet another English term for the species was ‘penguin’, a name with cognates in some other western European languages. It carries the scientific binomial Pinguinus impennis, and its closest living (and more diminutive) relative is the razorbill (coltraiche in Gaelic), known in French as le petit pingouin.

Many scholars claim that ‘penguin’ originates in the Welsh pen gwyn ‘white head’. While the great auk sported a white spot on its black head, it is believed by some authorities that the name comes not from the bird itself but from an island in the vicinity of Newfoundland in eastern Canada which was known in Welsh as Pen Gwyn, named for the white guano left by the auk and other roosting seabirds. There are folkloric references to an island named Pen Gwyn by Madog ap Owain Gwynedd, a Welsh prince who is said to have voyaged to North America in the 12^th century. It is uncertain as to whether this refers to an island in the Bay of Fundy, known today in English as White Head Island.

That the term ‘penguin’ was applied by mariners to the southern hemisphere flightless birds they encountered on early expeditions, and which reminded them of the great auk, is supported by an account from Sir Francis Drake’s expedition through the Magellan Straits in 1578 of the large numbers of ‘foule which the Welch men name Pengwin’. When the great auk became extinct, the word came to be exclusively applied to the southern hemisphere penguins.

As with most good etymological conundrums, there is an alternative narrative – that the word originates ultimately in Latin pinguis ‘fat’. Spanish and Portuguese voyagers called the great auk the ‘pinguin’, referring to the bird’s thick layer of blubber. In modern Spanish and Portuguese, the penguin is pingüino/pingüina and pinguim respectively, and many languages have similar terms – for example, pingvin (Swedish), pingüin (Dutch) and penguen (Turkish).

But not Scottish Gaelic. Our own language has supported a Celtic origin for the word by interpreting Welsh pen gwyn as the cognate Gaelic ceann-fionn; the Irish Gaelic name, in contrast, is piongain.

The only known breeding site of the great auk in Scotland’s Gàidhealtachd was Stac an Àrmainn in St Kilda, the site of the last known living specimen in Britain, which was killed in 1840. Scotland’s record in the conservation of this species is hardly better than any other place, although there is a particularly brutal record from North America of the species being skinned and burned alive, their oily bodies being used as fuel on a treeless island.

In 1821, a live auk was caught on St Kilda and given to the captain of a visiting cruiser in order that it be taken to a museum in Edinburgh, where it would be killed and stuffed for display. In the vicinity of Arran, the skipper decided that the bird was dirty and needed a bath. A rope was tied to its leg, and the auk was lowered into the sea. However, it escaped, and no great auk ever made its way to lifeless display in Edinburgh, although there is a specimen in the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow.

Sadly, the great auk has gone but one of its names lives on in the much-loved penguins of the southern hemisphere. And – perhaps – the Welsh name for a Canadian island explains why these black-headed birds are called ‘white-head’ in Scottish Gaelic.

The Author

Bha am blog seo air a sgrìobhadh le Ruairidh MacIlleathain, a tha na sgrìobhadair, craoladair, eòlaiche-nàdair is sgeulaiche, stèidhichte ann an Inbhir Nis.

This blog was written by Inverness-based writer, broadcaster and storyteller Roddy (Ruairidh) Maclean, whose work highlights the connections between the Gaelic language and Scotland’s environment.