Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 433

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 433

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/433

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on the name of your Canton, "Dun na Loch Ruadh," which is intended to mean "Fort Red Lake."

The best form for this name is "Dún Locha Ruaidh."

Some types of Irish placenames drop "na" (meaning "the"). We found places called "Dún locha" and "Dún inbhir" (meaning "estuary's fort"), and "Dún Locha Ruaidh" follows this pattern.

"Red Lake" is normally translated "loch ruadh," but Gaelic words change in form depending on where they're used in a sentence. Just as "Red Lake's" means "of Red Lake" in English, "locha ruaidh" means "of Loch Ruadh" in Gaelic. A native Gaelic speaker can differentiate between the two senses of "ruaidh" automatically.

That said, we don't think that "Dún Locha Ruaidh" is a very likely name for an Irish place. It's unusual to find "dún" modified by more than one word in a place-name. It's also unusual to find "dún" used in connection with a body of water. Most Irish place-names we found describe the place itself, not where it is. A fort on the shore of a reddish lake would more likely be "Shore Fort" than "Red Lake Fort." "Dun Locha Ruaidh" isn't impossible, but if we found it in a list of Irish place-names it would clearly be atypical.

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel