Corryvreckan maelstrom
This confusion tends to happen when the Scots Gaelic origin word is too hard to pin down. First, it could be valley of tranquility or it could be the valley of the big meadows. Glenmorangie has both pronunciation issues as well as origin issues. Then there are the names that are more difficult to decipher. But remember the ch is also silent in some names, so you’ll need to learn these on a case by case basis. So you have GlenDronach or GlenFiddich or Glenallachie. But if it is as difficult for you as the Spanish rolled R is for me, it is perfectly acceptable to use the soft k sound. It is similar to the German ch in a name like Bach. The traditional way to say it is to raise the back of your tongue and vibrate the ch sound. Glenallachie means valley of the rocks and is so named because of the amount of stones left by the Picts and Celts in the area surrounding the distillery.Įver wonder why there is a deer on the GlenFiddich label? It means the valley of the deer, although it could also represent the valley of the River Fiddich.Īll three of these great examples of the flexibility in the Gaelic ch sound. So GlenDronach means the “valley of the brambles.” Brambles being prickly shrubs, many of which bear fruit like raspberries and blackberries. And if you’ve ever visited the distillery, you will know exactly what they are talking about.ĭronach means brambles. So Glenfarclas means Valley of the Green Grass. The word farclas roughly translates to green grass. It is actually derived from Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic (which actually are two separate languages built from the same core) and it means a deep and somewhat narrow valley. I’m sure you have noticed the word “Glen” at the beginning of a whole host of scotch whiskies. Let me get you started with some examples. Scotch on the other hand, embraces its Gaelic heritage and uses its language to help you get a visual representation of what the home of that scotch whisky looks like. You see, bourbons are usually named after founders or places you can find on a map. I know where you’re coming from.īut what I can tell you is that once you learn them and the meanings behind them, they will add a whole new dimension to your whisky experience and your new found knowledge may raise a few eyebrows among your bourbon drinking friends. And by the way, Islay is spelled ISLAY and that can very easily get you mispronouncing it as IS-lay or Eye-lay.īut don’t worry, I won’t stick you in the whisky hall of shame for getting a name wrong. I find something charming in both Por Tellen and Bo-More. My guess is, this is just the way the words evolved on Islay over the years and you can choose to pronounce them either way you feel comfortable. I’ve heard many of the locals call it Por-Tell-en - putting the emphasis on the T and running the words together. But then when I asked a tour guide about it, they said I should pronounce it the way I was, Bow-more.Īnother example would be the place where many Islay distilleries go to get their malted barley Port Ellen. But I’ve heard more than a few islanders saying Bo-More, putting the emphasis on the M instead of the B. To an American, it is pronounced Bow-more. Take the home of the world’s oldest aging warehouse, located on the Eastern shore of Islay’s Loch Indaal. And for someone used to American English pronunciations, it seemed like an added challenge would be the variety of localized Scottish dialects that add another challenging layer to getting the names right.īut after my trip to Scotland, I realized that not only was I having trouble with these words, even native Scots weren’t completely clear on some of the distillery’s pronunciation. Well, the difficulty starts with a set of phonetic rules that are very unfamiliar to English speakers. For an American, uninitiated in the world of Scots Gaelic, butchering the pronunciation of names like Bruichladdich, Auchentoshan, or Ledaig felt like a rite of passage into the whisky drinker’s hall of shame. Welcome to my world, circa 2018, a year before my first trip to Ireland and Scotland. Have you ever had an occasion not to order or talk about a particular whisky, simply because you were a little concerned about your ability to pronounce it?