(le Róislín)

Continuing our coverage of Irish personal names, this blogpost will look at “Séamas” and “Seosamh.”  Beidh na hainmneacha “Liam” agus “Mícheál” sa chéad bhlagmhír eile.

“Séamas” and “Seosamh” make an interesting pair, pronunciation-wise, because even though they both start with the same letter, a slender “s,” in their basic form, the sounds vary once we get to “A Shéamais!” and “A Sheosaimh!”  The good news is that one of the two pronunciations was covered quite thoroughly in the previous blog (nasc thíos).  An cuimhin leat an míniú?

Starting with “Séamas,” we have:

Séamas [SHAY-mus], Séamas, equivalent to “James.”

direct address form/vocative case: “A Shéamais!” [uh HAY-mish].  The first “s” has become silent and the “h” sound is as in the English words “hay” or “hail.”  By the way, the equivalent form in Gaelic (Scottish Gaelic, i.e. Gàidhlig) is “Sheumais,” which leads to the anglicized form of the name as “Hamish.”  The basic form in Gaelic is “Seumas,” pronounced the same as the Irish.

To describe how the word has changed, we say it’s “lenited” (inserting the “h”) and slenderized (inserting the “i”).

possessive form/genitive case: Shéamais [HAY-mish].  Once again, the good news is that the possessive form echoes the direct address form.  Like an tuiseal gairmeach, this form (an tuiseal ginideach) shows “lenition” and “slenderization.”

Samplaí: cóta Shéamais, máthair Shéamais.

And now, Seosamh:

Seosamh [SHOH-suv, or sometimes with an “soo” sound at the end], equivalent to “Joseph.”

direct address form/vocative case: “A Sheosaimh!” [uh H^yOH-siv].  For the pronunciation of this initial “Sh,” please keep in mind the same explanation offered for “A Sheáin!” (the direct address form of “Seán“) in the previous blogpost: “The initial ‘h’ sound is pronounced like the “h” in “humid” or “hew” or “hue” or “Hugh.”  In other words, it’s not like the ‘hoy’ of ‘ahoy.'”  There’s a little more detail in that previous blogpost (nasc thíos).

possessive form/genitive case: Sheosaimh [H^yOH-siv].  As with “Seán” and “Séamas,” and many other Irish names, the possessive form is the same as the direct address form, minus the initial word “A …!”

Samplaí: cóta Sheosaimh, máthair Sheosaimh

There is a general  rule that covers when we pronounce an Irish “sh” as a simple “h” (as in “hay”) and when we pronounce it as “h^y,” as in “humid” or “human.”  If the Irish word has an initial “sh” followed by a slender vowel and then a long vowel, we get that extra “yuh” sound, which makes the difference between “human” and “Hoover.”  The “long” vowel may be marked long (as in “Seán“) or not marked long (as in “Seosamh“), but marked or not, the pronunciation is affected.

The Biblical “Joseph,” by the way, isn’t “Seosamh.”  It has two slightly different versions: “Iósaef” or “Iósaf,” with no changes, not even for an tuiseal gairmeach or an tuiseal ginideach.  So we say (I’ll stick to the spelling “Iósaef“):

“Iósaef” mar ainmní na habairte: Tá Iósaef sa stábla.

“Iósaef” sa tuiseal gairmeach: “Ag machnamh ar an méid sin dó, áfach, thaispeáin aingeal ón Tiarna é féin do [sic] i mbrionglóid agus dúirt: ‘A Iósaef, a mhic Dháiví, ná bíodh eagla ort do bhean chéile Muire a thabhairt abhaile leat, óir, an leanbh atá gafa aici, is ón Spiorad Naomh é.'” (Matha 1:20; NB: an litriú “do” in An Bíobla Naofa, Maigh Nuad: An Sagart, 1981, 2000) 

“Iósaef” sa tuiseal ginideach: “Chonaic Iósaef an tríú glúin de shliocht Eafráim, agus chonaic sé leis clann Mháicír mac Mhanaise a rugadh in ucht Iósaef.” (Geineasas 50:23)

Bhuel, sin dhá ainm eile, Séamas agus Seosamh (agus an leagan bíobalta leis).  Dhá ainm fágtha don chéad bhlag eile (Liam, Máirtín).  Tá súil agam go raibh sé seo úsáideach, go mór mór do dhaoine atá le bheith ina dtuismitheoirí (for parents-to-be).  SGF  — Róislín

Nasc: Five More Irish Names for Boys – Seán, Séamas, Seosamh, Liam, Mícheál, Pt. 1: Seán, ‘sea, ach sa tuiseal gairmeach agus sa tuiseal ginideach? Posted on 05. Apr, 2016 by róislín in Irish Language (https://blogs.transparent.com/irish/five-more-irish-names-for-boys-sean-seamas-seosamh-liam-micheal-pt-1-sean-sea-ach-sa-tuiseal-gairmeach-agus-sa-tuiseal-ginideach/)

Freagra don cheist ón mblagmhír dheireanach (Cén Ghaeilge a bheadh ar an ainm “John Fitzgerald Kennedy,” dá mba rud é gur bhain sé úsáid as an leagan Gaeilge dá ainm?):

John: Seán (ar ndóigh)

Fitzgerald: a) Mac Gearailt nó b) Gearaltach

Kennedy: Ó Cinnéide

Beagán cúlra faoi ag an iarbhlagmhír seo:  JFK agus a Chúlra Éireannach Posted on 21. Nov, 2013 by róislín in Irish Language https://blogs.transparent.com/irish/jfk-agus-a-chulra-eireannach/