Gaelic Speakers

[Andrew C.]

Can any Gaelic speakers tell me how the word for hazel (coldha I beleive) be pronounced?

[Forfarian]

According to an online English-Gaelic dictionary 'hazel' is 'calltain', which would be pronounced roughly as 'KAL-t'n'.

'Coldha' is not listed in the corresponding Gaelic-English dictionary.

Why do you ask?

[Andrew C.]

My surname is Cowie and I am sceptical of all the theories as to it's origin the most common one you see is that it is from the Gaelic word Colldha (note I missed out an l) which means Hazel. This is from the surnames database:

"An interesting and unusual name of Scottish origin, Cowie is locational from any of several places of this name, but mainly from the ancient barony of Cowie in Kincardineshire. The derivation is from the Gaelic "colldha", an adjective from "coll", meaning hazel, thus it is likely that places named with this word were associated with hazel trees, a grove, perhaps. In local dialect the name is pronounced "Cooie" or "Ku-ie",

Not knowing Gaelic how you could get from Colldha to Cooie.

[GR2]

There are places in Aberdeenshire with "cowie" which are supposed to derive from coille = a wood.

As for the way "colldha" is said, you will know the word "ceilidh". The "dh" at the end virtually disappears in speech and you say "cailay". The "dh" in "colldha" is the same.

Also, in Scots, "ll" often becomes "w", for example "roll" becomes "row". Folk in Aberdeen eat "rowies", not rolls in the morning.  That's how the "w" in Cowie develops from the "ll". Often the spelling of a place in a mediaeval Latin document or in one written in earlier Scots shows a placename in an earlier form, closer to the original word. That is how origins of placenames can sometimes be worked out.

[Andrew C.]

Thanks that's really informative, best explanation I have ever seen. To be clear though do you think the pronunciation of Cowie is cow-e or coo-a? I have seen it said that Coey is a form of Cowie.

Andrew

[GR2]

All the people called Cowie I have ever met called themselves "cow-ee". I have seen it spelled "Cui" in a late 17th century document, which suggests that the writer said "coo-ee" at that time.

[Andrew C.]

At school my peers called me coo-ee but that may just have been slang although I presumed it would have originally been pronounced that way with Cowie being a more anglified version.