To continue our súil siar ar shéimhiú, let’s look at these specific consonant clusters.  For anyone úrnua don ghrúpa seo, we’re discussing the process (called lenition or séimhiú) of changing the initial consonant of many Irish words, depending on how they’re used in a sentence.  The previous blog contained many examples, and there are other blogs sa tsraith seo that deal with the topic as well.  A few real quick, and typical examples can be found below in the nóta.

The previous blog mentioned which consonants can be lenited and which ones can’t, but I saved a lot of the “s” combinations for a separate blag, since, it’s, well, to use one of today’s favorite buzzwords, “casta.”  Oh, well, it’s a favorite buzzword in English at least — “casta” means “complicated.”  About half of the “s” clusters can take lenition and the other half can’t:

Sl, sn, and sr can be lenited, becoming shl, shn, and shr

Sc, sm, sp, and st cannot be lenited, so they never change (dhá scéal, dhá smaois, dhá speadóg dhubha an tsléibhe, dhá stól)  

Let’s do some examples with lenited sl, sn, and sr.  First we’ll review the ones we did last time:

sluasaid amháin, dhá shluasaid (one shovel, two shovels)

sliotar amháin, dhá shliotar (one hurley ball, two hurley balls)

And here are a few more:

slabhra amháin, dhá shlabhra (one chain, two chains) 

snaidhm amháin, dhá shnaidhm (one knot, two knots)

sruthán amháin, dhá shruthán (one stream, two streams).

And of course, the nouns are staying singular even after the number two.  That’s the way the system works!

More practice to come – stay tuned! 

Nóta: samplaí de shéimhiú: the difference between “cóta” and “chóta.”  We can see séimhiú at work in the phrases “dhá chóta” (two coats) and “mo chóta” (my coat), based on the word “cóta” (coat).  The basic word, cóta, does not have lenition and is pronounced pretty much as you’d expect: KOH-tuh.  The lenited version of the word, chóta, is spelled with an initial “ch” and is pronounced KHOH-tuh.  The “KH” is like the guttural (throaty) sound in words like German “Buch,” Welsh “Bach” or “Fach,” or Yiddish “Chutzpah” (check out the Lucille Ball song online if you want a livelier illustration of the pronunciation; it is a true song and dance routine, with Carole Burnett!).  Seo nasc don amhrán: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuKJNA6pdEE.  Hmm, fuaimniú na Gaeilge le Lucy – who’da thunk it? 

Gluais: scéal, story; smaois, snout or snotty nose; speadóg dhubh an tsléibhe, a little black mountain cow; stól, stool