The *tàrmachan spelling erroneous. All recorded phonetic forms have short vowels: Dieckhoff /taRaːmKan/, Lhuyd (who marks length) tar my chan and DASG /t̪ɑɾɑmɑxɑṉ/. Note also Irish (Dineen) tarmanach and tormachán. While the latter means 'ringed plover', as their suggested derivations are all based on torm/tarm 'rumbling', this also supports a short vowel plus a helping vowel, as does the fact that tarmachan refers to a number of unrelated birds which are modified by -tràghad, -beinne etc Note in this context also the variant tormachan. It is possible that the tàrmachan spelling may be influenced by English ptarmigan /tɑːmɪɡən/ which has a long /ɑː/.