Clare Island Survey — Gaelic Plant and Animal Names. 4 3 



examples of such extreme localization in Gaelic nomenclature, yet .they offer 

 some striking analogies in folk-speech to the phenomenon known in natural 

 history as discontinuous distribution. For instance, our Common Eeed 

 (Arundo Phragmites), known in Clare Island as giolc&c, takes on the utterly 

 distinct name Coirje^nAc in Achillbeg, separated from the island by only 

 some 3 miles of sea-passage ; the Yellow Flag or Iris {Iris Pseud- Acorus), the 

 Seltir'qnnj; of the island, becomes the Sellifqioc of Cloghmore, near the 

 southern opening of Achill Sound, hardly 4 miles distant ; while the Common 

 Periwinkle (littorina littorea), known as f^ocoj at Cloghmore, bears the 

 name, f &ocAn in Clare Island. Yet, the Clare Island name, giotcAc, con- 

 nected with the definite species Arundo Phragmites, crops up again and again 

 on the mainland, as in Kerry and Connemara, and the name Coip^e^iAc, which 

 fills its place on Achillbeg, is met with in a variant form far south in Cork ; and 

 so on with the other examples of discontinuous distribution. In zoology and 

 and botany discontinuous distribution is held to be a proof of antiquity, and it 

 may well be that the same law holds good in popular Gaelic nomenclature. 



As a consequence of this marked localization of folk-names of plants and 

 animals any collection dealing with a fairly extensive area must include a 

 large proportion of synonyms, using the word in its strict scientific sense ; so 

 that the names will far exceed in number the objects named. Each county, 

 to say nothing of smaller divisions of the area, will contribute its peculiar 

 forms or dialetic variants, and these brought together in one comprehensive 

 lexicon cannot fail to give rise to false conceptions of the copiousness of folk- 

 speech and of the discriminative capacity of the folk who develop and use it. 

 Thus a full collection of the Gaelic plant names of all Ireland, arranged 

 alphabetically without localities, might lead the unwary reader to imagine, 

 for instance, that the Connemara peasant had 500 plant names at his command, 

 while it would be nearer the truth to assume that the plant and annual 

 nomenclature of an intelligent Connemara man or Clare Islander would rarely 

 cover more than 100 species. 



There seems to be as little reason to expect the occurrence of an endemic 

 or peculiar plant name in Clare Island as there is to hope for the discovery there 

 of an endemic plant species. Even if a truly endemic plant name should be 

 current in the island, the day of its recognition as such is yet far distant ; for 

 our knowledge of the precise distribution in Ireland of the various Gaelic plant 

 names and their numerous dialectic forms is still sadly defective. When our 

 knowledge of these forms has been extended by the multiplication of local lists 

 such as those here given, we shall find ourselves better equipped for excursions 

 in etymology. A study of these variants may yield clues to guide us back- 

 along the tortuous path of phonetic corruption to the original form and the 



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