Walking Staff

[Nathan]

As I stated earlier in response to Tobus' post, the Gaelic word is cromag.

Can I prove it? Sure! If you consult MacFarlane's Scottish-Gaelic-English Dictionary you'll find the following entry:

cromag - nf. g.d. -aig; pl.+an, a crook, any little crooked thing.

You will also see:

crom a. cruime, arched, bent, crooked, curved, bowed.

As I said, in Gaelic, "cromag" is pronounced Kro/mack. If it came into English as cromag, people would erroneously pronounce it like Kro/mag i.e., the way cro-magnon is abbreviated. It is therefore transliterated rather than just borrowed.

The online Scots dictionary has:

crummock ['krʌmək]
also crommock ['krɔm-]
n. A stick with a crooked head, a shepherd's crook. A cow with crooked horns.
dim. crummie

Wiktionary has cromach as:

Scots: Alternative spelling for cromack.

And:

cromack (plural cromacks,)a staff, stave or walking stick.

So, cromach is the Scottish standard English word for a shepherd's crook which appears in Scots variously as "cromach", "cromack", "crommock" and "crummock" and which, in turn, derives ultimately from the Scottish Gaelic "cromag" or "cromaig" depending on the grammatical context. "Cromack" is a more accurate transliteration as this word should not be pronounced with the Gaelic "ch" as we find in words like "loch" but rather with a "k" sound like we find in fealadh beag.

Slainte,

[jfraser]

This reply is rather rushed and I have not read all the posts but, I think I get the gist of what this is about. If you look at the shape of the cromach it is shaped for a function. Cromag ciobair tells you what it is, a shepherds hook or crook. It is used to catch and hold sheep, by the shape of the ones in the photos here they are basically shaped to catch the sheep by the neck as it moves away from you. I have ones made out of light metal with the hook shaped so that I can catch the sheep by its neck but, also by its hind leg. As I get older the hind leg option becomes more relevant. It was not necessary to say cromag ciobair because the function tells you what it is, thus cromag is initially a shepherds hook or crook. It is used to catch and hold sheep. Those of you with some idea of Highland history and the clearances could find this a bit ironical about how the original cromag ciobair has been adopted as an accessory to Highland dress. If I have missed the point of this post sorry.

[Benning Boy]

As I stated earlier in response to Tobus' post, the Gaelic word is cromag.

Can I prove it? Sure! [snip]

Gee, I'm supposed to be excessively didactic. I think you've topped me. Help me out here. The best I can find on-line is the Gaelic crom or crum meaning curved. What then do the various -ach, -ack, -aig and soforth add to the root word? They all appear to be a suffix.

Also if crom is the root word why is cromach, or any other spelling of the word, pronounced Kro/mack and not Krom/ack?

[Father Bill]

Oh boy... old language teacher here. Consonants sometimes migrate when suffixes (and prefixes) are added.

[Benning Boy]

Oh boy, me too. I'm ordinarily pretty good with words, but I'm drawing a blank right now. What might be an example of an English word where a consonant has migrated?

[Father Bill]

This is sometimes disputed, but generally English words are divided into syllables between consonants. Thus for example, the noun "hemp," when changed to the adjective "hempen" to describe something made of hemp such as a shirt or hat, would be divided into syllables by many experts between the "m" and the "p" such that the final "p" would migrate from the root word to the suffix for the purposes of syllabication.

While I wouldn't want to suggest that this explanation is universally prescriptive, it is an example of how some linguists might see migration of a consonant. I don't know if it might apply to the case at hand, but most linguists will divide syllables such that the new one begins with a consonant, thus "kro-mach."

[OC Richard]

yes that's a great point about the devoicing of medial and final stops in Scots Gaelic. Also the way (as in English) that any vowel in an unstressed syllable being reduced to schwa, thus "krommuck" with the stress (as usual) on the first syllable. Why they would put "ch" in the Anglicised word is a puzzler, because as you point out the sound isn't the "ch" seen in Lowland Scots.

About crom (to bend) and cromag (thing that's bent) that doesn't surprise me because there's things like cam (adjective, crooked), camadh (noun, a bend, a crook), and camag (noun, a curl, a ringlet, a crook).

[BBNC]

Well, I have ordered a very nice thumb staff with a Hazel shaft and Red Deer antler top. I thought about making one, but American Hazel, while a North American native plant, can be hard to find around here. Besides, cutting stems in the NF is kinda frowned upon even though I'm surrounded by 25,000 acres of the Pisgah NF. Photo will be forthcoming after I receive it.

http://www.scottishtradingcompany.co...ndex&cPath=144

The folks there were very nice and informative. I called on the phone after confirming by e-mail they had what I wanted.

[Benning Boy]

Where are the cromacks and market sticks?

From the catalog of the handcrafts exhibition of The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland's Royal Highland Show coming up 19-22 June:

Section K : Crooks and Walking Sticks
45. Neck Crook – plain wood head, one piece
46. Neck Crook – plain wood head, two piece
47. Neck Crook – plain horn head
48. Neck Crook – fancy horn head
49. Neck Crook – fancy wood head, one or two piece
50. Walking Stick – plain wood, one or two piece
51. Walking Stick – plain horn head
52. Walking Stick – fancy wood head, one or two piece
53. Walking Stick – fancy horn head
54. Leg Cleek – horn
55. Leg Cleek - wood
56. Thumb Stick – horn or wood
57. Walking Stick – plain buffalo horn
58. Walking Stick – fancy buffalo horn
59. Walking Stick – horn head (class not open to persons who have previously been awarded a first prize for a stick at the RHS)
60. Walking Stick – horn or wood by a novice (only open to a competitor who has not exhibited their work before 2012 or won a prize for a stick at RHS)

You'd think, when it comes to "the national stick of Scotland" if it mattered, finer distinctions would be made. There are no categories for specifically setting cromacks and market sticks apart from any other stick with a bend in it -- or even straight.

[creagdhubh]

Where are the cromacks and market sticks?

From the catalog of the handcrafts exhibition of The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland's Royal Highland Show coming up 19-22 June:

Section K : Crooks and Walking Sticks
45. Neck Crook – plain wood head, one piece
46. Neck Crook – plain wood head, two piece
47. Neck Crook – plain horn head
48. Neck Crook – fancy horn head
49. Neck Crook – fancy wood head, one or two piece
50. Walking Stick – plain wood, one or two piece
51. Walking Stick – plain horn head
52. Walking Stick – fancy wood head, one or two piece
53. Walking Stick – fancy horn head
54. Leg Cleek – horn
55. Leg Cleek - wood
56. Thumb Stick – horn or wood
57. Walking Stick – plain buffalo horn
58. Walking Stick – fancy buffalo horn
59. Walking Stick – horn head (class not open to persons who have previously been awarded a first prize for a stick at the RHS)
60. Walking Stick – horn or wood by a novice (only open to a competitor who has not exhibited their work before 2012 or won a prize for a stick at RHS)

You'd think, when it comes to "the national stick of Scotland" if it mattered, finer distinctions would be made. There are no categories for specifically setting cromacks and market sticks apart from any other stick with a bend in it -- or even straight.

They are there! Only worded differently.

Plus, I tend to think that the vast array of animals (livestock) present at the Royal Highland Show are for more important/popular than the variety of sticks, cleeks, and crooks. Therefore, I don't think it's really that big a deal that the Gaelic word of "cromach," or the term "market stick" isn't utilised in the catalogue of The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland's Royal Highland Show.