(le Róislín)

Bhuel, last time we looked at various features of a cat’s face and named them in Irish (nasc thíos).  For the next few entries, we’ll look at some more examples of those features, starting with sróna (noses).

You may find, as I did, that we don’t tend to use the word “nose” in the plural all that often, so I used to find myself wondering if it would have the “-acha” ending or the “-anna” ending, or would it work like “lón” and “rón” (becoming “lónta” / “rónta“).  As it turns out, the plural is “sróna,” as we see in the graphic above.  Ah, the joys of the Irish plural forms!  And, of course, “sróna” is just the nominative plural form, used, for example, for the subject of a sentence (like “Tá sróna madraí níos íogaire ná sróna daoine.” “The noses of dogs are more sensitive than the noses of people”).  To say “of noses”, it’s simply “srón” (so “cruthanna srón,” shapes of noses) and for “of the noses,” it’s “na srón” (as in “cruthanna na srón,” the shapes of the noses).

We didn’t really go into details about the word “srón” last time, so in today’s post we’ll look at the forms, and in the next post, some types of noses.

srón, nose, a nose.  Sampla: Bhí fána shuntasach ag srón Richard Nixon.  (Richard Nixon’s nose had a  noticeable/distinctive slope, lit. There was a noticeable/distinctive slope at Richard Nixon’s nose).

an tsrón, the nose (remember, the “t” is silent, as it is in “an tsráid” and “an tsnáthaid” as well as many other examples).  Sampla: Sa scannán Sleeper (1973), níl ach srón an iardeachtóra fágtha tar éis a dhúnmharaithe, scriosadh an chuid eile dá chorp.  Tá baill an “Aries Project” (le dochtúirí atá dílis don deachtóir ina measc) ag iarraidh an tsrón a chlónáil chun an deachtóir a athchruthú, a chorp go hiomlán a chlónáil ón tsrón. (In the film Sleeper (1973), only the nose of the former dictator is left after his murder; the rest of his body was destroyed.  The members of the Aries Project, with doctors loyal to him among them, are attempting to clone the nose to recreate the dictator, to clone his whole body from the nose.

sróine, of a nose.  Sampla: stoda sróine, a nose stud

na sróine, of the nose.   Sampla: Síleann sí go bhfuil cuma na sróine i bhfad níos deise ó rinneadh obráid uirthi.  (She thinks the appearance of the nose is much nicer since she had a nose job, lit. since an operation was done on it).

sróna, noses.  Sampla: Bhí sróna Richard Nixon agus Cyrano de Bergerac neamhghnách.  (The noses of Richard Nixon and Cyrano de Bergerac were unusual).

na sróna, the noses.  Sampla.  Tá roinnt píosaí de m’fheistis Mr. Potato Head ar iarraidh.  Ní fheicim na sróna ná na cluasa.  An bhfuil a fhios agat cá bhfuil siad?  (Some pieces from my Mr. Potato Head sets are missing.  I don’t see the noses or the ears.  Do you know where they are?  NB: I made the Mr. Potato Head sets plural so we could have at least two noses involved.  Fad m’eolais níl ach srón amháin ag gach Mr. Potato Head).

srón, of noses.  Sampla: Ar chuala tú cad a tharla do na daoine a d’úsáid an tseacláid nua insmúrtha?  Tá a gcuid srón an-ghreannaithe agus tá níos mó damáiste déanta dona scamhóga.   Mo chomhairle féin?  Ná bí ag smúradh seacláide!  (Did you hear what happened to the people who used the new snortable chocolate?  Their noses [lit. their share of noses (!), the traditional form for this expression] are very irritated and there is more damage done to their lungs.  My advice?  Don’t be snorting chocolate!).  Fiosrach?  Nasc thíos.

na srón, of the noses.  Sampla: Cinniúint na srón atá ar iarraidh ó na feistis Mr. Potato Head?  Níl a fhios agam.  Níl a fhios agam cad a tharla dóibh.  B’fhéidir gur leag duine éigin a chos orthu agus gur briseadh ina smidiríní iad.  (The destiny of the noses that are missing from the Mr. Potato Head sets?  I don’t know.  I don’t know what happened to them.  Perhaps someone stepped on them and they were broken into smithereens).

Maidir leis an bhfrása “Mr. Potato Head,” b’fhéidir “*An tUasal Ceannphráta” i nGaeilge?  Do bharúil?

Our “noses” feature will continue with a discussion of the following: cainceanna, caincíní, camshróna, caochshróna, cromóga, geanca, smuilceanna, and more.  And then, of course, there’s “gaosán,” a completely different word for “nose.”  All in all, a vocabulary assortment that’s, ahem, nothing to sneeze at.

An dtuigeann tú na téarmaí srónacha (nasal terms) sin go léir?  Muna dtuigeann, lean ort de bheith ag fáil greama ar an aill (hanging onto the cliff) agus gheobhaidh tú na haistriúcháin sa chéad bhlagmhír eile.  SGF  – Róislín

Naisc: Aghaidheanna Cat (Faces of Cats) — Their Main Features in Irish Posted by róislín on Jun 25, 2017 in Irish Language

You might also like: Comhrá le Cat: translation, pronunciation, and glossary  Posted by róislín on Jun 23, 2017 in Irish Language

BTW, in the grueling research I did for this blogpost, I chanced upon this fun article about preparing a Cyrano-esque nose (or should that be Bergerac-esque?): http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/theatre/richard-roxburgh-dons-cyrano-de-bergeracs-false-nose-for-sydney-theatre-company-20141104-11gisk  Seans go mbainfidh tú féin sult as freisin.

Maidir leis an tseacláid insmúrtha, léigh mé é seo: https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2017-06-16/snortable-chocolate-arrives-in-us-stores