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from Edward Bunting, Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin 1840)
Irish spoken by Gráinne Yeats Scottish Gaelic luinneag spoken by Tony Dilworth Click the play button to hear it spoken. help Luinneach - Merry, jovial music ('Explanation': Supposed to apply to the Luinigs of the Highlands of Scotland) Scottish Gaelic luinneag means 'a short simple song or poem' (Cox, Brìgh nam Facal) and may never have had any much more precise meaning. It is almost certainly a development of the Early Modern word which appears as luinniuc, 'a tune, melody, song', but Bunting's luinneach cannot be so easily explained: in form it looks like an adjective but he explains it as a noun, saying on p.34 that it means 'Merry music', whereas Luinneóg / Luinneag means 'A chorus'. Colm Ó Baoill 2002
Click the play button to hear it spoken. help
Luinneach - Merry, jovial music ('Explanation': Supposed to apply to the Luinigs of the Highlands of Scotland)
Scottish Gaelic luinneag means 'a short simple song or poem' (Cox, Brìgh nam Facal) and may never have had any much more precise meaning. It is almost certainly a development of the Early Modern word which appears as luinniuc, 'a tune, melody, song', but Bunting's luinneach cannot be so easily explained: in form it looks like an adjective but he explains it as a noun, saying on p.34 that it means 'Merry music', whereas Luinneóg / Luinneag means 'A chorus'.
Colm Ó Baoill 2002
