Tarbert is a placename in Scotland, and Ireland. Places named Tarbert are characterised by a narrow strip of land, or isthmus. This can be where two lochs nearly meet, or a causeway out to an island.

Etymology

Pronunciation
Scots Gaelic:
Pronunciation:
Irish:	An Tairbeart
Pronunciation:

All placenames that variously show up as tarbert, tarbat or tarbet in their anglicised form derive from either Irish an tairbeart in Ireland and Scottish Gaelic an tairbeart in Scotland, both commonly translated as "the isthmus" today.

Both these words derive from two Old Irish elements, tar "across" and a nominalised form of the verb ber "to carry. The /ɾ/ in tar was assimilated to /ɾʲ/ as a result of being next to the historically palatal /bʲ/ in Old Irish, causing the change in spelling from tar to tair-. So the literal translation would be an "across-carrying". The reason for this is that all tarberts are in fact located at or near old portage sites.

In English language spellings the first syllable "tar" has generally remained constant but the second syllable "bert" has variously been spelled as "bart", "bert" "bat", "bad" etc.

Examples

Places named Tarbert include:

Scotland

• Tarbert, Argyll and Bute the town at the northern end of the Kintyre peninsula, Argyll
• Tarbert, Western Isles, a ferry port on the Isle of Harris
• Tarbert, Jura, on the east coast of the island of Jura
• West Loch Tarbert, an inlet between North and South Harris
• East Loch Tarbert also by Harris in the Western Isles of Scotland
• West Loch Tarbert, Argyll in Argyll
• East Loch Tarbert, Argyll also in Argyll
• Glen Tarbert, between Loch Linnhe and Loch Sunart
• Tarbert Hill, above the town of West Kilbride
• Tarbert Bay, on the Isle of Canna
• Loch Tarbert, a sea loch on the Isle of Jura
• East Tarbert Bay and West Tarbert Bay on the Isle of Gigha

Ireland

• Tarbert, Kerry, a ferry port on the estuary of the River Shannon in County Kerry.

See also

• Tarbet (disambiguation)
• Tarbat

References