[ANSTHRLD] Am Loch or An Loch?

[kobrien@texas.net]

Quoting Maridonna <maridonna at maridonna.com>:

> Hi,
> 
> Is it Am Loch or An Loch?

In what context?

1) if you're talking about grammar, in Irish Gaelic 'the' in the singular, 
nominative case is <an>, so <an loch> means 'the lake' in Irish Gaelic.

2) if you're talking about the desired name for an incipient group here in 
our kingdom, I believe Magnus has been working on the research for that.  As 
I recall, there were 2 issues at this point: (1) getting the grammar correct 
(see note 1 above) and (2) whether something so generic as 'the lake' is 
plausible for a formal placename in Gaelic in period.  All of the placenames 
I found with 'lake' in them in period in Ireland included another word as 
well.  (My full list is at home, not with me at the moment.)  Examples 
included <Baile na Locha> literally "town [of/on/by] the lake" or "the lake's 
town".  Other names had an adjective after <Loch>, but I don't remember the 
Gaelic forms offhand.

Mari