(le Róislín)

Cén sórt cloiche í sin sa phictiúr?  Cloch shneachta.  Sin ceann de na cineálacha frasaíochta a mbeidh muid ag caint fúthu sa bhlagmhír seo.

Leis an fhírinne a dhéanamh, oighear atá ann (sa chloch shneachta), in ionad sneachta, ach sin an t-ainm atá ar an gcineál frasaíochta seo.   Ós ag caint ar chlocha sneachta (hailstones) atá muid, cad is ciall leis an “hail” sa Bhéarla “hailstone”? Hmm, níl baint ar bith aige le rudaí mar “Hail fellow well met” nó “Hail and farewell” nó “Hail Mary” nó “Wassail.”  An Sean-Bhéarla ar “frozen rain” atá i gceist: hægl.  Dála an scéil, chun an Ghaeilge ar “Hail fellow well met,” “Hail and farewell,” “Hail Mary,” agus “Wassail” a fháil — féach an nóta thíos.

Seo ceithre chineál frasaíochta (precipitation), na príomhchineálacha, sílim, cé go bhfuil fochatagóirí ann:

1)) fearthainn nó báisteach: rain.  Typically used in sentences like:

Tá sé ag cur fearthainne OR Tá sé ag cur báistí, both of which mean, “It’s raining,” lit. “It is putting rain” (i.e the rain Is “precipitating,” if you will, downward from the sky)

2)) sneachta: snow.  Typically used in a sentence like “Tá sé ag cur sneachta” (It’s snowing, lit. It’s “putting” snow).  A little more dramatically, one might hear “ag plúchadh sneachta” (snowing heavily).

3)) flichshneachta: sleet (fliuch, wet + sneachta, snow).  Which, just to tantalize the mind, has at least two variants: flithshneachta and fleathshneachta.  Why is this making me think of “Snip, Snap, Snorem?”  And “Snipp, Snapp, Snurr”?   Hmmm, tripartite variations on a theme?  Well, those three boys, Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr were Sualannach (Swedish), so I’m sure they had plenty of encounters with sneachta.  And probably flichshneachta as well.

4)) cloichshneachta: hail.  Hailstones themselves would be clocha sneachta.  Notice that the lenition (shown by the inserted “h”) in “cloch shneachta” is gone, since we’re now dealing with the singular form of the noun (i.e. a single hailstone), not “hailstones.”

And of course, there are subdivisions, like “draonán báistí” (drizzly rain) and “báisteach cheathach” (showery rain) and “fuarlach báistí” (torrential rain) and “guairneán sneachta” (flurry of snow), but to attempt to cover all of those would be too much for one blogpost.

It’s also probably worth mentioning frost here, although it doesn’t strike me as “precipitation” as such, since it doesn’t fall from the sky.  At any rate, it’s “sioc,” often showing up in the phrase “ag cur seaca” (freezing, lit. “putting frost”).

Bhuel, an “chonchlúid bhunlíne” anseo, fan tirim, agus bíodh do scáth fearthainne agat!  – SGF — Róislín

Nóta:

Hail fellow well met (mar aidiacht): mór le ‘chuile dhuine, teanntásach le ‘chuile dhuine (gan trácht ar “hail” nó “fellow” nó “well” nó “met”)

Hail and farewell:  a) heileo agus slán, b) fáilte romhat agus slán leat

Hail Mary: a) ‘Sé do Bheatha, a Mhuire (mar bheannacht, .i. mar líne de théacs na paidre), b) Áivé Máiria nó Áibhé Máiria (mar theideal na paidre) c) Fáilte an Aingil

Wassail: “wassail,” go díreach mar atá sé i mBéarla mar is coincheap Béarla é (amhráin wassail, mar shampla) a thagann ó “ves” (bí) agus “heill” (sláintiúil) sa tSean-Lochlainnis.