In this blog, we don’t have to deal with the question of “séimhiú” or “gan séimhiú” since the consonant clusters “sf-“ and “sv-“ are never lenited.  But they’re intriguing nonetheless, so let’s take a further look.  I recently mentioned “sfioncs” and “svaeid,” as samplaí.  Those two words comprise about cúig faoin gcéad of the total number of Irish words I can track down that actually start with “sf” or “sv.”  It’s a very unusual consonant cluster in Irish, and all the words that use it are borrowed, mostly from Gréigis via Béarla. 

First, though, let’s put to rest any lingering notions about leniting them – it doesn’t happen!  So, in that sense, these cairn chonsan behave like the traditional combinations, sc-, sm-, sp-, and st-.  No change, ar chaoi ar bith!  We can easily count the following items, with nary a thought of lenition to trouble our sionapsaí!

sféar, dhá sféar

sféirín, trí sféirín

sfigmeamanaiméadar, ceithre sfigmeamanaiméadar

svaeid (meaning the lower-case swede, the vegetable), cúig svaeid, and,

svaidhpchárta, sé svaidhpchárta

How about the infamous “beirt,” with its “inscne bhaininscneach” and role as a “truicear séimhithe.”   

So far I’ve only found one word to describe a type of person that begins with “sv” (Svahaíleach), and none that start with “sf-“.  I have to admit that I’ve never had much opportunity to use the word Swahili as a singular noun for a person, but it it is possible.  Here’s the pattern for counting Swahili people:

Svahaíleach amháin, beirt Svahaíleach, triúr Svahaíleach, ceathrar Svahaíleach, …

No change after “beirt.”  Unlike two Swedes (that is Swedes as people):

Sualannach amháin, beirt Shualannach, triúr Sualannach, ceathrar Sualannach, srl.

By the way, if you’re new to the blog, you might want to check out some of the terms I’ve been using in previous blogs, like “lenition” (séimhiú).  You can enter the word as a search term in the box in the upper right corner of the blog page (blogs.transparent.com/irish/), next to the gloine formhéadaithe, and click.  Please do note though that the search will bring up results in any language that appears in the blog, so the more specific your search is, the better.  For example, “ban” will bring up “ban” in Irish (“of women”) and, if it’s somewhere in the blog, phrases in English like “to ban” or “a ban on.” “Banana” will also show up, and the search engine won’t know whether you mean “banana” as an English noun or “banana” as an Irish noun.  Ach an ndéanann sé difear?  The search will also bring up “mban” (as in “seomra na mban”).  Often you’ll get a long page of results, so at that point, I’d recommend using “find on page,” to hone in on the specific examples you want. 

If you actually search for “lenition,” keep in mind that I use that term in about gach dara blag (every other blog), so you’ll get torthaí go leor (lots of results). 

Gluais: faoin gcéad, percent; formhéadaithe, of magnifying; inscne, gender; sféar, sphere; sféirín, spherule, sfigmeamanaiméadar, sphygmomanometer; sfioncs, sphinx; svaidhpchárta, swipe-card

Nóta: there’s another word, svaeid, meaning “suede,” but that’s not a “countable,” so I haven’t dealt with it here.