{"id":10948,"date":"2018-12-24T23:20:22","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T23:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=10948"},"modified":"2018-12-30T23:45:22","modified_gmt":"2018-12-30T23:45:22","slug":"how-to-say-merry-christmas-and-happy-new-year-in-irish-and-five-examples-of-lenition-seimhiu-to-boot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/how-to-say-merry-christmas-and-happy-new-year-in-irish-and-five-examples-of-lenition-seimhiu-to-boot\/","title":{"rendered":"How to say “Merry Christmas” and “Happy New Year” in Irish AND Five Examples of Lenition (S\u00e9imhi\u00fa), to boot"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>

Crann Nollag (http:\/\/www.publicdomainpictures.net\/view-image.php?image=84962&picture=christmas-tree<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

Around this time of year, we often see the phrases “Nollaig Shona<\/strong>” and “Athbhliain faoi sh\u00e9an agus faoi mhaise duit<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Today’s blogpost will look at how to pronounce these phrases and at the reasons why words like “sona<\/strong>” and “bliain<\/strong>” change to “shona<\/strong>” and “bhliain<\/strong>.”\u00a0 This change of the first letter is called “lenition” (s\u00e9imhi\u00fa<\/strong>, in Irish).<\/p>\n

First, pronunciation<\/p>\n

The pronunciation of “Nollaig<\/strong>” is fairly predictable.\u00a0 Just keep in mind that the “-ai-” combination is really just a short “i” sound (that is, it’s not like English “drain” or “train” or like the Irish “maith<\/strong>” or “aithne<\/strong>.”\u00a0 The final syllable sounds more or less like “-ig” or “-ick.”<\/p>\n

For “shona<\/strong>,” the main thing is the “s” is silent, so the initial sound is just “h,” like “honey.”\u00a0 The “o” is short (as in Irish “pota<\/strong>” or “lom<\/strong>“). \u00a0And the Irish word “shona<\/strong>” is not remotely connected to the English word “Shona” (SHOW-nuh), which refers to the language and tribe of the Shona people of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.\u00a0 In case you’re wondering what the Irish actually is for the Shona language and for a Shona tribesperson, it’s Seoinis<\/strong> and Seoineach<\/strong>.\u00a0 That’s just what one would expect, given the long “o” sound.\u00a0 Not that that’s our primary concern here, but it is worth noting that “Seoinis<\/strong>” is one of the teangacha Bant\u00facha<\/strong>, a language family that has about 350 millions speakers, close to the same number of native English speakers in the world.<\/p>\n

The main thing to remember is that our word for the Christmas greeting is “sona<\/strong>” in its basic form and it changes to “shona<\/strong>” when it follows the word for Christmas.<\/p>\n

Athbhliain faoi sh\u00e9an agus faoi mhaise duit<\/strong>.\u00a0 The t, the b, the s, the m, and the d are all either silent or mutated.\u00a0 The practical effect of these processes is that the words are not pronounced the way an English speaker would expect.\u00a0 Not by a long shot.\u00a0 But before you think this is totally bizarre, remember some of our more unusual English words like “ptarmigan,” “mnemonic,” “ptomaine,” and “psyche,” none of which are pronounced the way the spelling would suggest.\u00a0 Five Irish pronunciation points follow:<\/p>\n

a)) ath<\/strong>-: say “ah; the “t” is silent (“ath<\/strong>-” means “second” or “re-“)<\/p>\n

b)) ~bhliain<\/strong>: the “bh” is like English “v,” giving us the sound “vlee,” which virtually never occurs at the beginning of an English word — the closest I can come would be words like “Vlad,” “Vladimir,” “Vladivostok,” and , for those in the US, “Vlasic Pickles.” So we say “VLEE-in.” (the root word is “bliain<\/strong>,” year).<\/p>\n

c)) faoi sh\u00e9an<\/strong>: say “fwee hayn”(with that “ay” as in “may” or “say,” not as in “aye, aye” or “ayah”). Remember, the “s” is silent. (the root form is “s\u00e9an<\/strong>,” good luck, prosperity)<\/p>\n

d)) faoi mhaise<\/strong>: the “mh” can be pronounced like a “w” or like a “v.” I use the “w” pronunciation, so the phrase is like “fwee WUSH-uh.” The “s” is like an English “sh.”\u00a0 (the root form is “maise<\/strong>,” adornment, beauty, with the extended meaning of “prosperity”)<\/p>\n

e)) duit<\/strong>: first, forget any French you might know — it’s nothing like “bonne nuit<\/em>” or “tout se suit<\/em>” or, for that matter, “b\u00e9guin<\/em>” or “b\u00e9guinage<\/em>“). The “ui” sound is simply a short “i” (as in the Irish “duine<\/strong>” or English “it” or “if”). The “t” is the so-called “slender” Irish “t” (as in “tiocfaidh<\/strong>” or “tiubh<\/strong>“, about halfway between English “it” and “itch.”<\/p>\n

And why all these silent letters and\/or changes?\u00a0\u00a0 Here’s a quick summary:<\/p>\n

sona<\/strong>: this adjective changes to “shona” because it follows a feminine noun.\u00a0 Similarly, “bean mhaith<\/strong>” and “cearc dhonn<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

ath<\/strong>– : this prefix inherently ends in “th” so it’s not a matter of “t” changing to “th.” However, the “t” of “th” is always silent when it occurs in the middle or at the end of a word (e.g. Baile \u00c1tha Cliath, orthu, f\u00fathu, maith, go maith<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

bliain<\/strong>: “bliain<\/strong>” changes to “bhliain<\/strong>” because it follows the prefix “ath-<\/strong>“.\u00a0 Many prefixes routinely cause lenition (s\u00e9imhi\u00fa<\/strong> or “softening”) in Irish: seanfhear, roc-cheol, r\u00f3the<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

s\u00e9an, maise<\/strong>: “s\u00e9an<\/strong>” changes to “sh\u00e9an<\/strong>” and “maise<\/strong>” changes to “mhaise<\/strong>” for the same reason–they follow the word “faoi<\/strong>” (about, under), which routinely causes lenition (faoi Mh\u00e1ire, faoi dheireadh, srl.<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

So there you have it, two seasonal phrases, with pronunciation notes and a brief explanation of why the words change at the beginning.\u00a0 Of course, Irish words constantly change at the beginning, unlike English, or, indeed, unlike most of the world’s languages.\u00a0 But this feature is shared by all the Celtic languages and everyone learning a “teanga Cheilteach<\/strong>” has to get used to the process.\u00a0 A few other examples include the Welsh phrase “yng Nghymru<\/em>” (in Wales), for “yn” + “Cymru,”<\/em> and the Scottish Gaelic phrase “anns an Gh\u00e0idhlig”<\/em> (in Gaelic), for “anns” + “an” + “G\u00e0idhlig.”<\/em>\u00a0 The good news is that it eventually does become second nature, or, as one might say in Irish, it becomes something you can do “gan mhachnamh<\/strong>” (without thought or reflection) or “faoi mar a bheife\u00e1 \u00e1 dh\u00e9anamh riamh<\/strong>” (as if you had always been doing it, or more literally, as if you would ever be at its doing).\u00a0 SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Around this time of year, we often see the phrases “Nollaig Shona” and “Athbhliain faoi sh\u00e9an agus faoi mhaise duit.”\u00a0 Today’s blogpost will look at how to pronounce these phrases and at the reasons why words like “sona” and “bliain” change to “shona” and “bhliain.”\u00a0 This change of the first letter is called…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":10953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[4235,307112,307111,365253,13285,5667,5878,306385,1152,365257,6273,6274,2418,2503,6758,513768,513767,365255,111625,13056],"class_list":["post-10948","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-ath","tag-bhliain","tag-bliain","tag-faoi","tag-happy-new-year","tag-irish","tag-lenition","tag-maise","tag-merry-christmas","tag-mhaise","tag-nollag","tag-nollaig","tag-prefix","tag-sean","tag-seimhiu","tag-seoineach","tag-seoinis","tag-shean","tag-shona","tag-sona"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t