{"id":10907,"date":"2018-10-31T19:55:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T19:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=10907"},"modified":"2018-12-06T02:45:38","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T02:45:38","slug":"the-irish-for-halloween-and-for-november-using-samhain-samhna-shamhna-srl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/the-irish-for-halloween-and-for-november-using-samhain-samhna-shamhna-srl\/","title":{"rendered":"The Irish for Halloween and for November: Using Samhain, Samhna, Shamhna, srl."},"content":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Samhain#\/media\/File:Snap-Apple_Night_globalphilosophy.PNG<\/a>, Snap-Apple Night\u00a0(1833), On the Festival of Hallow Eve, public domain, by\u00a0Daniel Maclise, RA (25 Jan 1806, Cork\u201325 Apr 1870, Chelsea), inspired by a party he attended in Blarney, in 1832. Includes divination games with melted lead and roasted nuts. Lip\u00e9ad Gaeilge le R\u00f3isl\u00edn, 2018<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Our Halloween topics in this blog series have ranged from tornapa\u00ed<\/strong> to cultacha<\/strong> (naisc th\u00edos<\/strong>).\u00a0 Today we\u2019ll focus on the actual word \u201cSamhain<\/strong>\u201d and why it changes to other forms like \u201cShamhna<\/strong>\u201d in the phrase \u201cO\u00edche Shamhna<\/strong>\u201d (Halloween, lit. Eve of Samhain) or “Samhna<\/strong>” in “m\u00ed na Samhna<\/strong>” (November, month of November).<\/p>\n

But before we plunge into how to use and pronounce Samhain, Shamhna, Samhna<\/strong>, etc., let’s briefly consider some of the fun aspects of this holiday, as we seen in the illustration above (Daniel Maclise’s 1833 painting “Snap-Apple Night”).\u00a0 Three of the most visible ones are music (ceol<\/strong>), dancing (damhsa<\/strong> OR rince<\/strong>), and bobbing for apples (\u00e1ladh ar \u00falla<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

There are a few other customs that are a little harder to see in the picture but which reflect the supernatural aspect of the liminal period when the Old Year ends and the New Year (Samhain<\/strong>) begins, specifically several divination customs.\u00a0 One involves dropping molten lead into water and interpreting the shape it hardens into (much as one interprets tea leaves in the bottom of the cup or the shape created by dropped apple parings, and, further back in time, for the ancient Romans, the shape of the entrails of birds specially killed for the purpose).\u00a0 That latter one is “beag\u00e1n gr\u00e1ini\u00fail<\/strong>” IMO, but it does have a fancy Latin-based name, haruspication.\u00a0 \u00a0I believe that “Maureen,”as referred to in the picture’s caption,\u00a0 is the woman sitting by the three-legged stool with a container on it, presumably holding the water to harden the lead.<\/p>\n

Near\u00a0” Maureen” is the fireplace where the roasted nuts (cn\u00f3nna r\u00f3sta<\/strong>) would be used for another type of divination.\u00a0 Each nut would be named, and since I’ve mostly heard of this divination custom being practiced by young women, the names were of young men in the community.\u00a0 The young woman would see which roasting nut would burst open first — that would be the man she’d marry.\u00a0 So if the “Kate” named in the caption for the picture had named one nut “Will,” and it opened first, the two sweethearts would marry.\u00a0 Hmm, “Kate”?\u00a0 “Will”? Some romance and then a marriage — that sounds pretty familiar.\u00a0 Comhtharl\u00fa, is d\u00f3cha<\/strong> (coincidence, I suppose).<\/p>\n

And now, to look at the words for November and Halloween themselves.\u00a0 \u201cSamhain<\/strong>\u201d is November 1st<\/sup>, the ancient Celtic New Year.\u00a0 The pronunciation is approximately like \u201cSOW-in\u201d or \u201cSOW-en\u201d with the \u201csow\u201d sounding similar to \u201chow\u201d or \u201cnow\u201d (that is, not like \u201cto sow seeds\u201d).\u00a0 Unfortunately, the spelling of English is so erratic that almost every attempt to describe a sound requires some qualification.\u00a0 For those who read IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet), some possible transcriptions are \/\u02c8sa\u028a.w\u025bn\/ and\u00a0\/\u02c8sa\u028a.w\u026an\/.\u00a0 Some speakers may reduce the “w” aspect so it’s barely perceptible, more like English “sound” but without the final “d.”\u00a0 For a little etymological background on this word, please see the note below.<\/p>\n

Anyway, if “Samhain<\/strong>” is November 1st, the Celtic New Year, why does the word sometimes appear as “Shamhna” (O\u00edche Shamhna<\/strong>) or “Samhna<\/strong>” (m\u00ed na Samhna<\/strong>)?\u00a0 The answer is “an tuiseal ginideach<\/strong>” (the genitive case), which is used when you want to indicate that one thing is “of” another, as in “eve of Samhain.”\u00a0 In English, of course, the word wouldn’t change after “of” (“boy” stays “boy” in the phrase “the book of the boy”), but in some other languages (like Latin and German and Irish), there is a change.\u00a0 “Samhai<\/strong>n” is grammatically irregular, so its pattern doesn’t form a major category in Irish; it’s pretty much unique unto itself.\u00a0 To say “of Samhain,” we drop the “-ai”, push the “n” right up against the “h,” and add another “a” at the end (Samhna<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

So far, that gives us “Samhna<\/strong>,” and that is the form of the word that we see in phrases such as “m\u00ed na Samhna<\/strong>” (November, lit. month of Samhain).<\/p>\n

But how about “Shamhna<\/strong>” as in “O\u00edche Shamhna<\/strong>” and related phrases like “culaith O\u00edche Shamhna<\/strong>” (Halloween costume) and “canda\u00ed O\u00edche Shamhna<\/strong>” (Halloween candy)?\u00a0 With this spelling, we now have “Sh” at the beginning and only the “h” is pronounced.\u00a0 \u00a0Warning – more grammar ahead!\u00a0 The word “o\u00edche<\/strong>” (night, eve of a holiday) is grammatically feminine so typically words describing it take the process called “s\u00e9imhi\u00fa<\/strong>” (lenition, lit. “softening”).\u00a0 Additional examples are “O\u00edche mhaith!” (Good night!, from “maith<\/strong>,” good) or “O\u00edche Dh\u00e9ardaoin<\/strong>” (Thursday night, from “D\u00e9ardaoin<\/strong>,” Thursday).<\/p>\n

Now we have seen three forms of the same word (Samhain, Samhna, Shamhna<\/strong>).\u00a0 There are two more in the singular, “an tSamhain<\/strong>” and “Shamhain<\/strong>.” “An tSamhain<\/strong>” is for saying “the Samhain,” which we may do in Irish, even if we don’t typically use “the” with “Samhain” in English.\u00a0 Several other Irish words for holidays include “the” at the beginning (An Nollaig<\/strong>, lit. “the Christmas;” An Ch\u00e1isc<\/strong>, lit. “the Easter”); “Samhain<\/strong>” behaves similarly.\u00a0 In the case of “An tSamhain<\/strong>,” the “S” is silent and only the “t” is pronounced [un TOW-in, and that’s “ow” like “how” and “now,” not like “tow” as in “tow-truck” or “tow-headed].\u00a0 The other variations in pronunciation also use the “t” and keep the “s” silent [un TOW-en, un town, etc.].\u00a0 Among the uses of the form “an tSamhain<\/strong>,” we could have a sentence like “Is \u00ed an tSamhain an ch\u00e9ad l\u00e1 de mh\u00ed na Samhna<\/strong>” ((The)) Samhain is the first day of November) or a phrase like “\u00d3 bh\u00ed an tSamhain ann<\/strong> … (Since November 1st …).<\/p>\n

Additionally, we have “Shamhain<\/strong>,” not as common in my experience, but it could be used in phrases like “um Shamhain<\/strong>” or “faoi Shamhain<\/strong>,”\u00a0 as in “um Shamhain agus um Bhealtaine<\/strong>.”\u00a0 \u00a0“Um<\/strong>” in Irish has a wide variety of meanings, including “at,” “about,” or “in,” when discussing time and holidays.\u00a0 BTW, this “um<\/strong>” isn’t pronounced like the English “gum” or “tummy” or with the “u” in “to putt straight” (in golf).\u00a0 It’s more like the “u” in “put” or the “oo” in “soot” or “book” (at least the typical American English pronunciations of the latter two).\u00a0 “Faoi Shamhain<\/strong>,” similarly, means “at Samhain.”<\/p>\n

There is actually a plural form for Samhain<\/strong> also, “Samhnacha<\/strong>,” but it my experience, it’s not used very often.\u00a0 \u00a0A quick look online doesn’t reveal any use of “Samhnacha<\/strong>” in a natural context, just in dictionary entries.\u00a0 Similarly, words like “Nollaig\u00ed<\/strong>” or “Nollaigeacha<\/strong>” (Christmases) and “C\u00e1isceanna<\/strong>” (Easters) aren’t that widely used either, but of those, Nollaig\u00ed\/Nollaigeacha<\/strong> picks up at least a few hits in online searches for natural contexts, mostly nostalgic references to Christmases past.\u00a0 There is also the occasional possibility of “Shamhnacha<\/strong>,” for example, after a preposition like “ar<\/strong>” (on, about) as in “ag smaoineamh ar Shamhnacha<\/strong>“.\u00a0 Curiously, there is a place called “Samhnacha<\/strong>” in Co. Galway, (angl. “Sawnagh”).\u00a0 Anybody know the background to this place name?\u00a0 \u00a0Speaking of place names, there is also a “Cnoc Samhna<\/strong>” and a “Cnoc na Samhna<\/strong>.”\u00a0 C\u00falra na logainmneacha sin ag duine ar bith?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, there we have it, seven forms of the basic word (Samhain, Samhna, Shamhna, an tSamhain, Shamhain, Samhnacha, Shamhnacha<\/strong>).\u00a0 I hope you found it useful for discussing “an s\u00e9as\u00far seo<\/strong>.”\u00a0 SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

N\u00f3ta faoi ch\u00falra teangeola\u00edoch an fhocail “Samhain<\/strong>“: There are at least two possible etymologies for this word, and I first learned it as a term on its own, without any basic breakdown, unlike the English word \u201cHalloween,\u201d which breaks down quite neatly to \u201cHallow(s)\u201d and \u201cE\u2019en\/Evening.\u201d\u00a0 One theory says that the word “Samhain<\/strong>” is derived from Proto-Indo-European \u201c*sam<\/em>\u201d (together).\u00a0 Another theory suggests that it’s\u00a0from\u00a0Proto-Celtic\u00a0*samo-<\/em>\u00a0(\u201csummer\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0But as I said, there\u2019s still no definitive answer to this linguistic mystery.\u00a0 Whenever we start talking about Proto-Indo-European, we\u2019re talking about language that predates actual writing or any written texts.\u00a0 The asterisk before the sample words means that there are no written examples of the given samples; they are based on linguistic detective work, tracing words back to their earliest known forms and then applying formulas of language change to speculate about what the word might have been before we have any written records.<\/p>\n

Naisc:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Glasra O\u00edche Shamhna (a Halloween vegetable), but what\u2019s it called in Irish?<\/a> Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Oct 24, 2017 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(discusses the original vegetable used for “Jack O’Lanterns,” given that pumpkins are not native to Ireland and were not available to the ancient Irish who celebrated the original Samhain)<\/p>\n

T\u00e9arma\u00ed O\u00edche Shamhna: Cine\u00e1lacha Cultacha (Halloween Terms: \u2018Kinds of Costumes\u2019 in Irish)<\/a>\u00a0Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Oct 6, 2016 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Samhain#\/media\/File:Snap-Apple_Night_globalphilosophy.PNG, Snap-Apple Night\u00a0(1833), On the Festival of Hallow Eve, public domain, by\u00a0Daniel Maclise, RA (25 Jan 1806, Cork\u201325 Apr 1870, Chelsea), inspired by a party he attended in Blarney, in 1832. Includes divination games with melted lead and roasted nuts. Lip\u00e9ad Gaeilge le R\u00f3isl\u00edn, 2018. Our Halloween topics in this blog series have…<\/p>\n

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