ONlwSG

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surrag f. [ˈs̪uɍaɡ̊], gen. surraige -[æɡ̊ʲə], -[ɛɡ̊ʲə], occurs in the Lewis place-name SG Beinn nan Surrag NB316311, which Cox (1987 II, 38) translates as ‘the mountain of the hollows’, with SG beinn ‘mountain’ + gen. pl. article + gen. pl. of surrag, noting that surrag is usally compared with EG sorn (also sornd, by analogy with other words in -nd) ‘furnace, oven, kiln’ (< Lat. furnus (eDIL^˄) 

False delenition of Lat. f- to Primitive Gaelic s-, via back-formation, is on the analogy of native /sw/ (later /s/) yielding lenited /f/, cf. Goth. swistar ‘sister’, OG (disyllabic) siür ‘idem’, but (len.) fiür (cf. Lat. fūstis > EG súst ‘flail’, s.v. sùist). For the development and its chronology, see Mc Manus 1983, 22–23 §7, 40 §44, 52–54 §§63–64. For EG sorn yielding Far. sornur (sodnur) and Nn. sorn (sonn), s.v. sùist.

) (e.g. MacBain 1911 and Oftedal 1956, 78), but that the development is doubtful, instead tentatively suggesting a loan from an Old Norse compound with initial þurr adj. ‘dry’ (so also Cox 1991, 493); for lack of supporting evidence, however, McDonald (2009, 430) considers the loan uncertain.

HSS (1828) earlier compared SG surrag with Persian سوراخ (surakh) /suːɾɒːx/ ‘hole’, but this seems an unlikely development.

The central component of a traditional grain-drying kiln is the chamber, a funnel-shaped cavity into which warm air flows from below via a flue or vent leading from the fire-place; grain is lain on a framework or platform placed over the top of the chamber.

Cf. Logan’s (2021) descriptions of kilns at Bruach-Caoruinn, Strathard, and elsewhere in Scotland.

The term sòrn 

The vowel of EG sorn is lengthened in most Scottish Gaelic dialects (cf. SGDS Items 339–340: dorn). As this lengthening is in the form of a long monophthong in the most widely spoken dialects today, the Scottish Gaelic word is generally now spelt sòrn. But cf. Scots sornie /ˈsɔrni/ ‘the flue from the fire-place to the underside of the drying platform of a kiln; the fire-place itself’, a loan from an unlengthened SG sorn + the Scots diminutive suffix -ie (cf. SND^˄; CSD2).

may denote the entire ‘kiln’ (M^cAlpine 1832; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Benbecula; 

Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄’s listing reads ‘sorn: The grain kiln. Also: soran ...’. The form soran, however, is likely to be the result of confusion with SG soran ‘winnowing hole’ (e.g. AFB^˄).

AFB^˄), ‘the fire-place’ (Mac Farlan 1795; 

If this is what is intended by ‘mouth of an oven or kiln’.

MacFarlane 1815; Armstrong 1825; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925), ‘the flue’ (Shaw 1780; Armstrong 1825; HSS 1828; MacEachen 1842; MacLennan 1925; AFB^˄), ‘the chamber’ (HSS 1828; Dwelly 1911; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: North Uist 

‘The wall of the cavity’.

), or ‘the platform’ (McDonald [-1897] 1972: sòrn na h-àmhadh [with gen. of àmh, for àth ‘kiln’] ‘the top of the kiln surrounding the sùil [lit. ‘eye’, i.e. the chamber]’, South Uist; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: North and South Uist).

The term surrag (or one of its variants, as indicated below) may denote ‘the flue’ (HSS 1828; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925; McDonald [-1897] 1972: sor[r]ag, South Uist; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: South Uist), or ‘the chamber’ (CG VI, 130: sorrag, torrag; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925; MacDonald 1946, 20: Lewis; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Lewis, South Uist; 

In the case of South Uist, Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄ records ‘the cauldron [i.e. chamber]’ from the Rev. Angus MacDonald, whose ‘location’ is given as Killearnan, but which refers to Killearnan near Inverness where MacDonald (1860–1932) was minister, not to the geographical location associated with the word, which is South Uist. The same sense from the same source is recorded in McDonald 1972, s.v. sor[r]ag.

sorrag, Benbecula, South Uist; soireag, North Uist; AFB^˄). Further, surrag is recorded in the senses ‘earth-hole’, 

Alexander Carmichael (CG VI, 117) lists purrag ‘talamh-toll, earth-hole’, which his editor Angus Matheson questions maybe a ‘misreading of surrag, turrag’.

‘puddle, soft ground’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Scalpay), 

Listed separately from its entry surrag ‘eye [i.e. the chamber of a kiln]’, AFB^˄ gives surrag ‘piece of soft ground (such as quicksand or a swamp sinkhole)’.

and ‘waterhole’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Skye, South Uist).

Also in the compound surrag-laighe ‘bedspace’, or similar: Bha a’ chonnlach a chaidh a chrathadh air an ùrlar lom aig toiseach na cùise, air fàs tais, leth-bhreòite, agus fàileadh breun fual goirt dhith, mar nach robh na Frangaich a bha romhainn a’ dol seach an surrag[-]laighe le an cuid mùn (Caimbeul 1973, 286–87) [‘The straw that had been scattered over the bare ground in the first place had become damp, half-rotten, and stank of stale urine, as though the French [prisoners] before us weren’t going further than their bedspace with their piss’].

As presented in the Table below, it is suggested that, while the primary sense of SG sòrn was ‘kiln; fire-place’, extending to ‘flue; chamber’ and ultimately to ‘platform’, the primary sense of SG surrag etc. may have been ‘vessel, container’, and that this was extended on the one hand to ‘earth-hole; puddle, soft ground; and waterhole’ on the grounds of function and/or shape, and on the other to ‘chamber; flue’ on the grounds of shape alone.

The Semantic Development of (A) SG sòrn, (B) SG surrag and its variants

If correct, we might consider whether SG surrag is connected with SG soire. This word, first attested in the forms soire and soireadh, later also soir and soireag, denotes ‘a vessel or container (principally for liquids)’.

Biblical references: Ier. XIII: 12: Lionar gach soireadh le fion [sic] (An Seann Tiomnadh 1783), cf. KJV Every bottle shall be filled with wine; and Salm CXIX: 83: mar shoire-craicinn (with gen. of craiceann ‘skin’), as a gloss for mar shearraig (Am Bìoball 1807), cf. KJV like a bottle. Lexicographical references: soire ‘vessel’ (MacFarlane 1815), soire ‘vessel, bag, leathern bottle’, soireadh ‘vessel, bag, leathern bottle’ (Armstrong 1825), soir ‘sack, bag; vessel, bottle’, soire/soireadh ‘vessel of any kind, bag, bottle’ (HSS 1828), soir ‘bag’, soire ‘vessel’ (M^cAlpine 1832), soir ‘sack, bag; vessel, vase, bottle; dish’ (Dwelly 1911), soir ‘bag, vessel; bottle’, soire ‘vessel; sack; dish’ (MacLennan 1925), and soir ‘vessel; flask, bottle; vase; sack’ (AFB^˄: /sɔrʲ/). For the sense ‘womb’: soirthe na cloine [sic] ‘the womb’ (Shaw 1780), soirthe na cloinne ‘idem’ (Mac Farlan 1795), soire-na-cloinne ‘the womb, the matrix’ (MacFarlane 1815), soire na cloinne ‘idem’ (Armstrong 1825), soire ‘womb’ (M^cAlpine 1832), soir, soir na cloinne ‘the womb’ (Dwelly 1911), and soire ‘womb’ (MacLennan 1925), cf. the use of SG soitheach ‘vessel’ in a similar way (e.g. Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄, s.v.). The diminutive form soireag is listed in Armstrong 1825: ‘little vessel or bottle’; HSS 1828: idem; Dwelly 1911: ‘little vessel, bottle or sack’, and AFB^˄: ‘small vessel; small flask/bottle; small vase; small sack’. Shaw’s (1780) soirthe for soire (so also Mac Farlan 1795) is perhaps due to analogy, for example with SG coirthe ‘rock; standing stone’, Abhainn Foirthe ‘the (river) Forth’; compare also Shaw’s coirthe for SG coire ‘sin, fault’, EG caire (eDIL^˄).

Gender is variable: soire f., soireadh m./f. (Armstrong 1825); soire/soireadh f. (HSS 1828); soire m. (M^cAlpine 1832; MacLennan 1925); soir m. (HSS 1828; M^cAlpine 1832; Dwelly 1911; MacLennan 1925; AFB^˄).

It does not appear to have an equivalent in Irish or Manx, and MacBain (1911: soir ‘sack, vessel, bottle’) compares it with SG searrag ‘bottle’, which he suggests may be founded on Eng. jar.

‘A vessel of earthenware, stoneware, or glass, without spout or handle (or having two handles), usually more or less cylindrical in form; originally used only in its eastern sense of a large earthen vessel for holding water, oil, wine, etc.’ (≈OED^˄).

Scots/Eng. jar /ʤ/- would normally be expected to yield initial [ʃ]- in Scottish Gaelic, e.g. Scots/Eng. jacket > SG seacaid, hence SG searrag < Scots jar + the nominally diminutive suffix -ag, but it is not impossible that surrag etc. are by-forms of searrag, cf. Scots/Eng. sort > SG sòrt ~ seòrsa.

Cf. Ó Murchú 2021, 317: SG (West Perthshire) seòrt /šɔːrsd/, /šɔːrš/. Cf. also Southern Ir. sórt, sórd, Ulster Ir. seórt (O’Rahilly 1976, 240).

However, there may be a parallel explanation. Initial /ʤ/- of Arabic جرة (jarrah) ‘earthen water-vessel’ via OFr. /ʤ/- (hence Scots/Eng. jar 

‘From Fr. jarre, = Provençal jarro, Spanish jarra, jarro, Portuguese jarra, jarro, and Italian giara (formerly also giarra, zara), from Arabic jarrah ‘earthen water-vessel’, although the English word may be in part directly from Spanish’ (≈OED^˄).

) yields /ʒ/- in MFr. and Fr. jarre. Arabic /ʤ/- also yields Early Modern Spanish (15th–17th centuries) /ʒ/-, but this develops into /ʃ/- via devoicing, yielding (Northern and Central Spain) /x/- and (Southern Spain) /h/- in Spanish jarro (Span¡shD!ctionary.com). SG soir, soire, soireadh, then, perhaps borrowed as a dental stem as these forms seem to suggest, conceivably go back to Spanish jarro /haro/, with Spanish /h/ delenited to SG /s/ via back-formation, and with a ~ o alternation in Gaelic. Medial SG /rˊ/ [ɾʲ] from Spanish /r/ [r] is unexpected, however, but there may be conflation with, for example, SG coire ‘cauldron, kettle, boiler, vat’ (cf. Dwelly 1911).

Speculatively, then, Spanish jarro (with initial /h/-) may lie behind certain /s/-initial forms in Scottish Gaelic: on the one hand SG soir, soire, soireadh ‘vessel or container (principally for liquids)’, perhaps via conflation with SG coire ‘cauldron etc.’, and on the other SG sorrag, surrag ‘?vessel, container → (1) earth-hole, puddle/soft ground, waterhole; and (2) kiln chamber, flue’, perhaps via conflation with (if they are not in fact by-forms of) SG searrag. The form soireag is recorded as both ‘little vessel’ and ‘kiln chamber’. The variations sorrag ~ torrag, surrag ~ turrag are due to back-formation following mutation after the dative article, e.g. (dat.) an t-sorraig.