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from Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin 1840), page 20: The different kinds of Irish harps.
Irish ceirnín
spoken by Gráinne Yeats
Scottish Gaelic ceirnin
spoken by Tony Dilworth
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Ceirnin - Supposed to be the portable harp, used by the priests and religious people
For ceirnín, an early word meaning 'dish, plate' (now used for a record disc). This might be taken to suggest that the harp concerned was round (somehow), but there is nothing to confirm that. On p.31 Ceirnín is said to mean 'A portable harp'; the Introduction to Bunting's 1809 collection (p.23) mentions 'Keirnine, or small Harp'.
Colm Ó Baoill 2002