Gàidhlig / English
Clach-mheallain

Clach-mheallain

Posted by Calum on 30th January
Recently we had hail in Glasgow, it was awfully rough and I wondered if there was the same amount of hail in other parts of the country, especially in the west coast of the country and the islands. I thought that with just how common that they are in Scotland we must be other words for them, so we will have a look at them in this blog!

We have the same word for “hailstone” almost in Gaelic-speaking Scotland with other versions of clachan-meallain (Harris, Barra), clachan mheallan (Mull, Tiree) agus clach-mheallain (Barra, Kingussie, Glean Urquhart). We have the phrase “A’ spianadh an t-sneachd” from Cershader, Lewis, meaning a fine shower spread by the wind. The word “Spràidhe” means a dispersal of rain or hail stones, the word was found in Milton, South Uist.

In our “corpus” the phrases “Cho cruaidh ris na clachan-meallain” in Gairm 148, “Literature, Prose and Verse”, and “Fead nan clachan-meallain” MacTalla Vol 7, meaning the noise of the hail stones whitling past your ears.

There are other words we can find in Gaelic for hail stones in “Òran le Greusaich’ do Inghinn Òig ann am Fanoid” from Crathie, Braemar, with the word “Geal-shian” in the book “Gaelic Verse from Aberdeenshire” by Alison Diack. From the poetry “Air àile rachainn leat an uaigneas, Do na gleannaibh fuar’ ri geal-shian,” [“By my troth I would go with you in secrecy, To the cold glens at the time of the hailstones”] and “Na tha dh’fhearann eadar Cluainidh, Is Ruigh’ na Bruaich’ an Gleann Gharainn, Bu mhòr a b’ionnsa ri cùis na gruagaich, Ann an gleannan fuar ri geal-shian” [“What there is of land between Cluny, And Ruigh’ Na Bruaich in Glengairn, I would greatly prefer the business of the girl, In the cold little glen at the time of hailstones”] are interesting to note. Dwelly has the word geal-shìon, along with gràn, clach-shneachd, meallanaich, glìbeil, crìon-chur and glìbheid.

Do you know any of the words above? Do you have any other words? Let us know on facebook, twitter and our website!
 
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