Irish Language Blog

This blog is mostly pronunciation notes for the previous entry, since pronunciation is one of the aspects of Irish that many of my students keep asking about.  As usual, I’ll be concentrating on the words that have silent letters or that tend to raise questions.   

I hope this will be useful for relative beginners.  For advanced readers, please hold tight, and we’ll have the blogs on the Christmas “wrap-up” and the New Year’s theme shortly. 

Since many of the silent letters result from changes to the first letter of a word, let’s look at some of those first, including one example from the title of today’s entry:

don bhlag [dun vlahg], for the blog; while “bh” followed by a broad vowel (a, o, u) can be pronounced as either “w” or “v,” depending on dialect, it’s always pronounced “v” before the consonants “l” or “r.”  An additional example, “an bhróg” [un vrohg]

If you’ve been working on Irish for a while, you may have noticed a variant of this phrase, “don mblag” [dun mlahg], which is also correct.  Some dialects, and Standard Irish, use lenition after “don” (giving “bhlag”); other dialects use eclipsis (giving “mblag”).

bleathach [BLÆ-ukh] grist, or, the “flip/nog” part of egg-flip, eggnog; the silent “th” gives a slight breathy pause in the middle of this word, but it’s barely two syllables.  The vowel sound of the Irish “ea,” transcribed here with “Æ” is like American English “cat” or “bat.”  The vowel sound here is important, since it’s the main thing that distinguishes this word from “bláthach” [blawukh], buttermilk.  For “bláthach,” I’d treat it as one syllable; the long vowel (á) sort of swallows up that breathy pause.

With the definite article, those become “an bhleathach” [un VLÆ-ukh] and “an bhláthach” [un vlawch].  In both cases, “bhlea” and “bhlá,” the “bh” is pronounced like “v” although “bhlea” has a slender vowel and “bhlá” is broad. 

uibhe [IV-eh], of an egg; from “ubh” [uv] (egg).  Remember that the “-eh” I’m using at the end of a lot of these pronunciation guides is short and unstressed, like the “e” of “pet” or “met.”  If I just transcribe it with the single letter “e,” I find that many people read it as “ee.”  As is often the case, one could use a pronunciation guide to the pronunciation guide!  Anyway, it’s not the Canadian or Down East, “ehhh-uh”!

fíor [fee-ur], fíoracha [FEER-ukh-uh], figure(s); the singular form is basically like the more well known homonym “fíor,” which means “true.”  With the definite article, the singular form becomes “an fhíor” [un ee-ur], the figure. 

sinséir [SHIN-shayrzh], of ginger, from “sinséar,” ginger (the noun).

nach bhfuil [nahkh wil] that isn’t, that aren’t; probably familiar to seasoned learners, but since about a hundred people have joined this on Facebook since I last blinked (well, that’s a bit exaggerated, but in a very short time), I’m giving the pronunciation, ar eagla na heagla (just in case).  Another case of “bhf” being pronounced as “w.”   

féin [hayn or fayn, depending on dialect, both are fine].  The vowel sound comes close to English “rain,” or for an even more exact rhyme, English “fain,” a word that I can safely say I’ve probably never used in actual English conversation.   

I’m nearly running out of space again, but I’ll finish with the adjectives for “male” and “female” and their lenited (+h) forms: ” fireann [FIRzh-un], baineann [BWIN-yun], fhireann [IRzh-un], bhaineann [WIN-yun or VIN-yun, depending on dialect]. For the latter, I use the “win” version, partly because of the Gaeltachtaí I’ve stayed in and partly because I think it helps to cement the broad/slender distinction in Irish pronunciation.

The “zh” is used to indicate a slender “r,” which we can discuss more later (please let me know in “comments” on the Transparent page, if you want more detail).  This sound is also in Czech.  That’s the only European counterpart I know of; it’s definitely a new sound for most English speakers. 

Of course, all of this is just a “treoir gharbh” [TRORzh γAHR-uv] (rough guide), but I hope it helps.  The Irish “gh” is transcribed here with the gamma sign, standard linguistic practice, since there’s no way to “roughguide” it.  I know it looks like “v” but it does have that loop at the bottom, distinguishing it from a “v.”  At any rate, for many more examples of Irish pronunciation, you can always check out Transparent Language’s fine products for learning Irish, which are listed at http://blogs.transparent.com/languagepages/irish/irish.htm  

Athbhliain [AH-VLEE-in] faoi mhaise!  Happy New Year!         

Seo roinnt téarmaí faoin Nollaig nach bhfuil an focal “Nollaig” féin iontu (some Christmasy terms that don’t have the word “Christmas” itself in them):

an cána candaí, the candy cane

an bhleathach uibhe, the eggnog or the egg-flip. ”Bleathach” normally means “grist” or “oat-meal cake.”  Add “uibhe,” the possessive form of “ubh” (egg), and somehow, you get a beverage, lit. “egg-grist” (Say “Céard!”).  The word “an bhleathach” looks curiously similar to, but isn’t the same as, “an bhláthach” (the buttermilk). 

an t-arán sinséir, the gingerbread

an fhíor sinséir, the gingerbread man, lit. the ginger[bread] figure, from “fíor” (figure).  Interesting, i mo bharúil ar a laghad, go bhfuil an téarma ar son “gingerbread man” baininscneach (feminine, grammatically) mar tá an focal “fíor” baininscneach.  A nicely politically correct and non-gender-biased term.  How the gingerbread man himself feels about his grammatical gender being feminine is something I can’t determine and it might be, as they say, more than anyone wants to know. 

an fhíor sinséir, the gingerbread woman, exactly the same as the phrase above.  Hmmm, curiouser and curiouser.  I suppose if one really needed to be specific you could say “an fhíor sinséir fhireann” (the male gingerbread figure) and “an fhíor sinséir bhaineann” (the female gingerbread figure).  For example, you could say:

“Bain úsáid as rísíní mar chnaipí don fhíor sinséir fhireann ach déan sciorta reoáin don fhíor sinséir bhaineann.” (Use raisins as buttons for the gingerbread man but make a skirt of icing for the gingerbread woman). 

Not that most gingerbread figures are i gcruth ceart de réir anatamaíochta (as close as I can get to saying “anatomically-correct” in Irish), anyway.  This is the point where I’ll stop the discussion of the inscne (gender) of gingerbread figures, since this is a blag a thacaíonn le teaghlaigh (family-friendly blog).   

But just one last thought.  One could always defy established lexicography and just say “an fear sinséir” (lit. “the ginger man,” the man of ginger[bread]) and “an bhean sinséir (lit. “the ginger woman,” the woman of ginger[bread]).  Irish often has more than one way to say the same thing, some in the dictionary and some simply in popular usage.  There are also some references online to “fear an aráin sinséir” (the man of the bread of ginger), which is quite clear but longer, as well as to “buachaillín sinséir” (little ginger[bread] boy).  I add “bread” in square brackets to the English to clarify that I’m not trying to say the boy is “ginger” (red-haired).  Not that I’ve ever seen a “buachaillín sinséir rua” (a red-haired gingerbread boy), come to think of it. 

So, on that side-note, I’ll wrap this one up for now, and add a few more terms before New Year’s, and then we’ll get to the second half of the Twelve Days of Christmas!  Then, hmmm, Mí Eanáir (January)?  I might even have something to say about hagaois (haggis) before the month is out.  Fainic!  (Look out!). 

There are two names for this day, December 28th, in Irish, one the “téarma oifigiúil” and the other less formal.  Lá na Leanaí Neamhchiontacha (or sometimes “Lá na Leanbh”) is Holy Innocents’ Day, a reference to Matha 2:16-18.  The less formal term is “Lá Crosta na Bliana.” 

”Leanbh” is “child,” with the plural “leanaí,” or in possessive plural, sometimes “na leanbh” (of the children).  The latter form isn’t really the standard possessive plural, but at least it can be distinguished from the singular, which is “linbh,” as in “bréagáin an linbh” (the toys of the child, the child’s toys). So, “bréagáin na leanaí” (the toys of the children) as opposed to “bréagáin an linbh” (the toys of the child). 

“Leanbh” implies a somewhat younger child than “páiste,” the other main word in Irish for “child.”  It can also mean a baby or the youngest child in a family.  And, as I think I’ve mentioned before, it gives us the increasingly popular girls’ name, “Alanna,” which comes from the direct address form of the name.  If you were talking directly to a child, you’d start with the vocative particle (how’s that for an endearment?), which is simply “a,” pronounced like the “u” in “fun” or the “a” in “about.”  You’ve probably seen or heard it plenty, with names (“a Mháire,” “a Shéamais”), in starting emails or letters (“a chara,” “a chairde”), at the beginning of Riverdance or many other Irish events (“a dhaoine uaisle”), or in hurling derogatory epithets at someone, as in “A chluasánaí!” (You  blockhead!).  So the initial “a” of “Alanna” is the direct address particle, and the final “-bh” drops off from pronunciation, being unstressed in sound.  Anois, ar ais go dtí an frása “leanaí neamhchiontacha.”       

The concept of innocence in Irish terminology is interesting in and of itself.  There are two main terms for it in Irish:

neamhchiontacht (“non-guilt”)

soineantacht (referring more to personality, not deed, or to guilelessness)

The adjective forms (“innocent”) are “neamhchiontach” and “soineanta,” and for our phrase above, we make the adjective plural, adding a final “-a,” to give us “neamhchiontacha.”  If the term for the Innocents had somehow been “soineanta,” instead, there would be no specifically plural form, since you can’t add an “-a” ending to a word that already ends in “-a” in Irish.  

Note that in Irish, the “innocent” aspect of the phrase is an adjective, and the word “holy” is omitted altogether. 

As for an dara téarma, “Lá Crosta na Bliana,” it literally means “the cross (or adverse) day of the year,” that is, a day when it was unlucky to start new projects. 

December 28th is also known in English as Childermas, or sometimes “Childermass,”

which might jog the memories of any John Bellairs fans out there, since one of the main characters in his Johnny Dixon series is Professor Roderick Random Childermass.  And/or fans of Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell), since she has a character named John Childermass.  While I’d love to pursue the siombalachas of these names, I’d say that’s Á.B.E. (ábhar blag eile), in the full sense of the phrase, i.e. ábhar blag duine éigin eile (someone else’s blog), since there’s no real comhthéacs Éireannach going on.  Except perhaps to note that both authors delve extensively into a wide range of folklore and legends, including, sometimes, Celtic.  And that the surname must be loaded with symbolism for the authors, since it’s not widely used as a surname in real life (if at all).  One Clarke fan (“Lillie”) researched Ancestry.com and census reports and concluded that “[i]t’s not a name,” making it all the more interesting in literary usage.  More on her comments on The Friends of English Magic site at http://forums.foem.org.uk/archive/index.php/t-82.html, má tá suim agat (if you’re interested. 

Fuaimniú: leanbh [LYAN-uv, two syllables], leanaí [LYAN-ee], linbh [LIN-iv], páiste [PAWSH-tcheh].  As for “neamhchiontacha,” why not start with the root form?  The adjective for “guilty” is “ciontach” [KYUN-tukh].  Then negate it with the prefix “neamh-“ [nyow, with the “ow” like American “cow” or “now”].  That causes lenition (softening), to give us “neamhchiontach” [NYOW-HYUN-tukh, note the “k” sound of “ciontach” is dropped].  Finally, pluralize it with that little unstressed vowel, “-a,” and you’ve got it [NYOW-HYUN-tukh-uh]. 

Pronunciation, con’d: To call someone a blockhead convincingly, you’ll need to master the voiceless velar fricative, if you haven’t already.  That’s the guttural “-ch” sound in Irish words like “ach,” “ochón,” and “buachaill.”  It’s also in German (Achtung and Buch, to trot out the typical examples), in Welsh (bach, fach, ci a chath, cath a chi), and in some pronunciations of “chutzpah” and “challah,” to name just a few other languages that have this sound.  The basic word for “blockhead” is “cluasánach,” with a regular “k” sound at the beginning [KLOO-uss-awn-ukh] but in direct address it becomes “chluasánaí” [KHLOO-uss-awn-ee], losing the “-ch” at the end but gaining it at the beginning of the word. 

As you may have noticed, direct address usually causes lenition in Irish, but that, again is, ábhar blag eile.  Remind me, if you want, since we still have the remainder of the Christmas season to cover, up through Nollaig na mBan (January 6^th).  And my poor patient donkey sanctuary article, that I’ve been promising for months.  Now if only someone would establish National Support Your Donkey Sanctuary Day, I’d get right on it, promise, since that long-awaited article would (finally) be tráthúil (timely)!