English / Map Form: Elgin
Gaelic Form: Eilginn
Location: Moray
Post Town: ELGIN
County: Moray
Local Authority: Moray
English / Map Form: Elgin
Gaelic Form: Eilginn
Sources
Eilginn | Am Fèillire 1873, 16 |
Eilgin | Dieckhoff Dictionary |
eilginn elikin (palatal n) | Diack, Inscriptions, 195 |
Eligin usually, occasionally eligiN’[i.e. Eilgin, usually occasionally Eilginn] | Diack, Place-names of Pictland, I, 128 |
Eilginn | Robertson MS |
Eilginn | Watson, letter in the Scotsman May 19 1913. |
Eilginn | Watson in Dwelly |
Eilginn | Watson 1926, 231 |
Additional Information
Cf also Watson in the Celtic Review vol 9, 176.
“I was… taught to pronounce the name in Gaelic, not Eilginn… but Eiliginn and in the north-west of Perthshire it is still so pronounced by the old natives. To those unacquainted with the language, the pronunciation of the word, as near as I can give it phonetically, is AEle-ghinn (or AEle-ckin), with slight emphasis on the AEle, the gh hard, as in k, and the in rather soft.” Letter to the Scotsman from ‘’Letterfinlay” in Morayshire May 20, 1913.
It would seem that the local form for Elgin is Eilginn, whilst a non-local form exists as Eilgin (such as that gathered by Dieckhoff in Glengarry). The proposed form is well established.