# Irish/Scottish Gaelic: Gobh-an-Abhainn



## Michael30000

Hello everyone,

From the documentary _Scotch: A Golden Dream._

The documentary is in English, but in the picture below is what I can see at the beginning.

Is "Gobh-an-Abhainn" Scottish Gaelic? When I make a Google search for the whole phrase, I get nothing.

Is "Gobh-an-Abhainn" a geographical name? Is "Gobh-an-Abhainn" clear to English speakers?

Thank you.


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## The Newt

"Gobh-an-Abhainn" would be meaningless to anyone unfamiliar with Gaelic. Unfortunately we don't seem to have a Celtic languages forum, but I gather that "abhainn" means "river."

Are you sure it isn't "G*a*obh"?


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## entangledbank

No, it wouldn't mean anything to most people. I guessed that the last word was "river" (related to the river name Avon), and I checked and it is, but that's all.


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## Uncle Jack

It appears to be Taobh-an-Abhainn, which I think means beside the river in Gaelic, but whether it is Scots or Irish I could not say.



Michael30000 said:


> Is "Gobh-an-Abhainn" clear to English speakers?


No. Very few British English speakers have any knowledge of the other languages spoken in Britain. I am moderately familiar with Welsh, having lived in Wales for many years, but all I know of Gaelic comes from the names of places I have met with during walking holidays.


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## Keith Bradford

It's almost certainly a Scottish place-name meaning "bend of the river".

*Gobh *is pronounced Gove, like the former Brexit minister. It means "crooked". 
*Abhainn *is pronounced Avon, and means "river" like many others around Britain.

Revised since reading Uncle Jack's #4.  I was reading the image as Gobh, not Taobh.  Taobh-An-Abhainn, Bruichladdich, ISLE OF ISLAY, PA49 7UN.  It means _Beside the river_.


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## JulianStuart

Keith Bradford said:


> It's almost certainly a place-name meaning "bend of the river".
> 
> *Gobh *is pronounced Gove, like the former Brexit minister. It means "crooked".
> *Abhainn *is pronounced Avon, and means "river" like many others around Britain.


It's the name/address of a distillery on Islay, famous for its whisky.

Taobh-An-Abhainn, Bruichladdich, ISLE OF ISLAY, PA49 7UN - Details and Information - Address Postcode Finder


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## Uncle Jack

JulianStuart said:


> It's the name/address of a distillery on Islay, famous for its whisky.
> 
> Taobh-An-Abhainn, Bruichladdich, ISLE OF ISLAY, PA49 7UN - Details and Information - Address Postcode Finder


I hate to disappoint you, but that appears to be just the name of a house. Bruichladdich has a distillery, of course, named after the village it is situated in.


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## JulianStuart

The slash in my post was between "name" and "address of a distillery".  It appears to be the former


> *The Cask Whisperer Limited* is an entity registered with the Companies House, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, United Kingdom. The company number is #SC517009. The* business office address is Taobh-An-Abhainn, Bruichladdich*, Isle of Islay, PA49 7UN, SCOTLAND.


The OP's picture suggests the nameplate identifies the building and allows the mail to be delivered to the right address.


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## pimlicodude

It is pronounced /t̪ʰɯːv ən a.vɪnʲ/. /ɯ/ is like a /u/ with spread lips. 

Abhainn is related to afon (Welsh for river) and to the Irish abhainn (which is pronounced /aunʲ/).[There might be Irish dialects that still have the historical /v/, but in most dialects at least it is vocalised].

Beside the river in Irish would be: taobh na habhann (with the genitive; /te:v nə haun/), but this placename given by the OP has "an abhainn" in the nominative - maybe that is the way it is done in Scottish Gaelic.


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