Re: finally made it | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

Callanish 39

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baza Aug 18, 2004 16:55:31

Replying to delilah

Hello delilah.

:o)

I'm very envious as I've not been to Callanish...yet.
This is about the nearest I've been:

http://ferncase.com/calanais/pages/calan00.html

I notice that you refer to Callanish as 'Calanais'. I think you'll find that Callanish is the correct name. It's Norse and 'Calanais' is an attempt by Historic Scotland to Gaelicise the name. Rather silly, in my opinion.

Kammer Aug 18, 2004 17:24:39

Replying to baza

The name 'Calanais' is the correct Gaelic equivilant for the English name 'Callanish'. It is derived from the Norse, and is not used as often as the anglicised name (also derived from the Norse) but it <i>is</i> correct.

I must admit I've never come across the term <i>Calanais I</i> before. The site is sometimes known as Callanish I, but this name is usually (but not exclusively) used by first language English speakers.

As I understand it both 'Callanish' and 'Calanais' are pronounced in similar ways anyway. It's a bit like the Welsh word for 'taxi' (tacsi).

:-)#

K x

FourWinds Aug 18, 2004 17:37:37

Replying to baza

>> It's Norse and 'Calanais' is an attempt by Historic Scotland to Gaelicise the name. Rather
>> silly, in my opinion.

Very silly innit, but we're southerners fools so what do we know, eh? I seem to remember the 'Calanais' thing is only 30 years old, but could be wrong.

Kammer Aug 19, 2004 08:55:28

Replying to baza

As an aside to my discussion with Baza, I had a go at using Google to measure the use of names for the site. It's a primitive test, but interesting anyway. I used the Advanced Search method and put each name into all three of the top boxes. Here's what I got:

Callanish 17,100 pages
Calanais 6,310 pages
Classernis 4 pages
Fir Bhreig 3 pages

Obviously the stats for 'Callanish' are tilted by the use of the name for other nearby sites. By running the same search but excluding the characters I, V and X the name Callanish gets 9,840 pages listed on Google.

Also of interest to anyone who is into this sort of discussion is Burl's British Archaeology article:

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba17/ba17int.html

K x

delilah Aug 19, 2004 17:11:06

Replying to baza

right, thanks for that info baza - i assumed that Calanais was the correct name as it was everywhere!