Genitive Form: Cheann Loch Lìobhann

Language Notes

Element Meaning

G ceann ~ head; loch ~ loch; Lìobhann ~ river name

Sources

Additional Information

This place used to be called Kinlochbeg or Ceann Loch Beag, ‘little loch end’, in the late Nineteenth Century before the settlement was built up. Kinlochmore on the other side still exists, and was the larger settlement. Only Kinlochmore is mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Name books for this area (reel 102, 165).

There are two main orthographical variants of this name: Leamhan(n) and Lìobhan(n). The first variant was adopted predominantly by scholars, on the belief that the name Leven was cognate with Gaelic leamhan, ‘elm’. This is now considered doubtful.

Lìobhan or Lìobhann more accurately represents the first syllable, which is long. Like Nevis, since this term is lexically obscure, there is debate whether the central fricative should be spelled -bh- or -mh-. The former is more established.

Informant TM, when asked, said the orthography was correct, and that although Lìobhainn would be expected in this position Lìobhann was in fact used. This is expected for river-names or loch-names.