Caple How, Clifton NY040271 There are many other names with Capel in them - Capplebeck NY065035 Caypilbecmire c. 1300, Capell Crag NY242118, so named in 1570. PNCu p.353 say the origin is from Middle English capel 'nag' and suggest it is 'ultimately' from Latin Caballus - itself a loan from Celtic. Diana Whaley agrees that Capell Crag is probably from capel "nag" (Whaley, 2006). There is a Capel Fell near Moffat (NT165075), Capel Burn between Lockerbie and Langholm (NY25585), another one in Angus and a Capel Hill near Pitlochry NO035525 (in Pictish territory!) The
same word is found in Scots, and the online dictionary of Scots lists cappel or capul as a horse or
mare, in a more limited sense work horse.
The Scots dictionary entry for cappel
directs us to the word keffel found in the English dialect
dictionary and found in Scots, North
Country, Yorkshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire as an old inferior horse. The
source of this is the Welsh ceffyl "horse". It suggests that the word is from Latin and
Gaulish caballus.
The
Scots dictionary gives the origin of cappel
as from Gaelic capull ~ capall "horse",
which the online Irish dictionary
gives as being from Latin *capillus.
You
will note the French cheval "horse"
which is said to be from Gaulish *caballos
with a variant *cabillos. The
Proto-Celtic wordlist gives *kaballo-
as one of the Celtic words for horse, a work horse. The word entered Latin and was passed to its
daughter languages, e.g. Spanish, French. Deshayes gives Breton kefel which is he says comes from Old
Breton cefel and which comes from a
Celtic *cappilos (Deshayes, 2003). Alan James gives a possible Cumbric *cefel which may be behind Capel Fell in
Dumfriesshire, he suggests, supplanted by its Gaelic cognate (James, 2016).
SImon Taylor and Gilbert Markus discuss Capeldrae in Fife NT185975. They say this had been previously interpreted as Gaelic capall "(work-)horse" + Gaelic treabh 'farm, settlement' or its Pictish cognate trev. (Taylor & Markus, 2006) This was first suggested by William Watson (Watson, 1926) and accepted by Nicolaisen (Nicolaisen, 1976). Taylor and Markus draw attention to the earliest form in Capildrayth 1290 x 1296 and suggest it may actually be capall + Gaelic tràigh "shore" or its Pictish cognate close in form to Welsh traeth, and they note that Capledrae was on the southern shore of Boglochty, a large bog. Taylor makes the point that the first element may not be Gaelic but the Pictish cognate.
And here's where it gets interesting. We see that the Welsh ceffyl has /f/ medially which must arise from a Brittonic *cappilos as suggested by Deshayes (The i- in the final syllable causes i-affection of the first /a/ to /e/ in Welsh.)
This change of -pp- to -f- in Welsh of voiceless geminate stops was the so-called second spirantisation (James, 2013). This might not have happened in Pictish and possibly not in Cumbric (cf. Welsh peth Pictish pett- both from a British pett-).
Laker discusses two mechanisms for Brittonic spirantisation (Laker, 2010: 72). He cites the traditional view put forward by Jackson (Jackson, 1953) is that all geminates became fricatives and the Welsh spirant mutation was brought about by the new /h/ causing gemination by sandhi between words.
Laker suggests an alternative mechanism that it might be the /h/ caused spirantisation directly, and that the medial voiceless geminates had been already shortened but retained another feature ( if I understand him correctly) such as a preaspiraton or glottal stop.
So Laker may be saying British *cappilos /kahpil → kafil/ "horse" in Welsh, (ignoring i-affection for now) and /i: hkahpil → i: xafil/ "her horse".(Rather than Jackson's suggestion of /kappil → kafil/ and /i: kkappil → i: xafil/)
Am I right in thinking that, if Laker's suggestion is correct, and if observations that spirantisation of medial geminates did not happen in Pictish, that there would be no spirant mutation equivalent to the Welsh?
But the upshot is that if spirantisation didn't happen in Northern dialects of Brittonic, then Pictish, and possibly the Cumbric cognates of Welsh ceffyl could be ceppil (or even cappil if i-affection). I think this is what Taylor was alluding to in his comment about the first element of Capledrae being possibly Pictish rather than Gaelic.
So the origin of Middle English/Scots capel 'a work horse" that we see in all these place-names, may be a Cumbric *capil rather than a Gaelic cappul. Cumbric rather than Gaelic influence seems possible in Cumberland and still valid in eastern Dumfriesshire. The dialect word keffel would be the same word borrowed directly from Welsh.
But of course it may even be more complicated that that with an unrecoverable isogloss between West Brittonic ceffyl and North Brittonic *cappil lying anywhere between Peebles and Chester.