(le Róislín)

The word “barbecue” is interesting in its own right in many ways but looking at the Irish adaptation of the word adds a further level of interest.  What plural form do we use for Irish words that are derived the Taino language, via English?  There is probably only one such word, “beárbaiciú,” which we’ve been discussing recently since, after all, “tis the season.”   Or the “blastanais” (seasonings), as it were.

We’ll start with a brief summary of the word “barbecue” itself.  The original Taino “barbacòa” was noted by Spanish explorers in the Caribbean in the 17th century.   The phrase “Let’s barbicu [sic] this fat rogue” was used in a 1690 play by Aphra Behn (1640-89), “The Widdow Ranter, Or A History of Bacon in Virginia.”  If you noticed anything strange about those dates, chillax, foilseachán iarbháis (posthumous) a bhí ann.  I have to admit that I took a great interest in the title of Behn’s work, which seemed reasonably appropriate for a pioneering use of the word “barbicu” in English.  And being distantly related, through a relative’s marriage, to the Gwaltneys of Virginia, founders of Gwaltney Foods (bacon, ham, etc.), my interest in the topic was more than usually piqued (i.e. Chuir mé an-suim ann).  Reading on about the document, I found that it’s actually about a rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon (ca. 1640-76), leading, creid é nó ná creid é, an army of Native Americans, or as Behn would have called them, Indians.  So much for bringing home the bagún!

At any rate, getting back to the Irish word “beárbaiciú,” it’s hard to tell exactly when it entered the Irish language.  Probably not as early as Behn and her contemporaries!  A very quick survey of representative Irish sources prior to ca. 1990 shows no use of “beárbaiciú” as such.  When the topic comes up, a native Irish term “fulacht” or “fulacht fia” is used, but in my understanding, this is really a different style of outdoor cooking.  At any rate, even if some stray examples of the word “beárbaiciú” being used earlier than the late 20th century emerge, I think the basic trend holds.  It wasn’t adopted as a cooking practice in Ireland until relatively recently, so the word “fulacht” sufficed for when the situation came up.

But here we are now, with “beárbaiciú.”  So what do we do with this word in a phrase or sentence?  Well, we’ve already seen “ag an mbeárbaiciú” (at the barbecue), or as it would be said in the North, “ag an bheárbaiciú.”  The possessive form gets lenited: costas an bheárbaiciú [… un VyAHR-bak-yoo].

For today’s blog, though, I’m especially intrigued by the plural, “beárbaiciúnna.”  There aren’t actually that many words in Irish that form their plural this way.  So let’s quickly review some plurals before we proceed with “beárbaiciúnna.  One typical pattern involves slenderization, as in:

fear (man), fir (men), or amhrán (song), amhráin (songs)

A variety of suffixes may be added instead (far more than the English -s /-es and very occasional -en).  These include:

-eacha: cathaoir, cathaoireacha, chair(s)

-acha, sometimes with syncopation or loss of a syllable: cathair, cathracha, city (-ies)

-eanna: aghaidh, aghaidheanna, face(s)

-ta: rón, rónta, seal(s) [the animal, that is, from which the name “Ronan” is derived]

-í: cailín, cailíní, girl(s); buachaill, buachaillí, boy(s)

-a: spúnóg, spúnóga, spoon(s)

-aí: mapa, mapaí, map(s)

and the occasional completely irregular form, as in:

bean (woman) [say “ban” as in “to ban” something–it’s not an “ee” sound as in English “bean,” “seen,” or “scene”], and the plural, mná [pronounced either quite straightforwardly as “mnaw” or, sometimes, as “mraw.”  If the initial “mn” is challenging, think of “ainmneacha” and take away the first syllable, “ain-.”

And of course, there are variations in plural form according to dialect:

crann, pl: crainn or crainnte

leoraí, pl: leoraithe or leoraís [with a broad “s”]

And changes:

fear (man) is sometimes now pluralized as “feara”(men).  “Feara” used to only occur in direct address (“A fheara,” arsa Fionn) but in recent years it has started to become a general plural.  I first noticed it in Conamara ca. 2000, but the shift probably started earlier.

So back to “beárbaiciú.”  Our plural ending here is “-nna.”  And where else might you see this?  Not all that often really, but here are a few more examples:

criú, criúnna, crew(s)

scriú, scriúnna, screw(s)

and because it’s so much fun to say, here’s one more:

brúscriú, which means, yes, you guessed it, based on “brú” + “scriú,” a pressure-screw, as used for protective clamping and such; its plural is “brúscriúnna”

How ’bout one not borrowed from or based on English?  Well, since you asked:

coiciú, coiciúnna, kokyu(s), as in the Japanese bowed musical instrument.  Not based on English!

Does this suffix occur with words ending in vowels other than “ú”?  Occasionally, but not often, at least, i mo thaithí féin.  A few additional examples are:

sleá, sleánna, spear(s), lance(s), javelin(s)

cnó, cnónna, nut(s)

cnó caisiú, cnónna caisiú, cashew nut(s), which I’ve occasionally seen simply as “caisiúnna.”

So there’s a little cúlra cultúrtha for the season, sprinkled with a tantalizing dose of Irish plural suffixes.  Blasta!  SGF, Róislín