{"id":1306,"date":"2011-10-15T10:16:59","date_gmt":"2011-10-15T10:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=1306"},"modified":"2015-10-31T15:54:11","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T15:54:11","slug":"ag-tarraingt-ar-oiche-shamhna-halloween%e2%80%99s-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/ag-tarraingt-ar-oiche-shamhna-halloween%e2%80%99s-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"Ag Tarraingt ar O\u00edche Shamhna (Halloween\u2019s Coming!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Halloween is, of course, a very Celtic topic, and you may be familiar with some of the basics of its role sa bhf\u00e9ilire Ceilteach<\/strong>.\u00a0 So in today\u2019s blog, we\u2019ll mostly focus on the phrase itself, its pronunciation and basic meaning.<\/p>\n

The word order of the Irish phrase is a reversal of the English.\u00a0 That\u2019s assuming, of course, that we think of the word \u201cHalloween\u201d in its original sense (Hallow + e\u2019en, with the \u201ce\u2019en\u201d standing for \u201cevening\u201d).\u00a0 Curious, isn\u2019t it, how we rarely use the apostrophe for \u201cHalloween\u201d anymore, even though the same syncopation process, dropping the \u201cv,\u201d occurs occasionally in \u201cwhenever\u201d (\u201cWhene\u2019er you make a promise,\u201d as Girl Scouts will recall).\u00a0 To the best of my knowledge, that apostrophe remains (the possible spelling “Wheneer” seems atypical). \u00a0Hmm, I wonder if the ubiquitous \u201cwhatever\u201d that we hear so much of nowadays will ever get apostrophized (\u201cI was, like, whate\u2019er\u201d?)<\/p>\n

Anyway, \u201cHallowe\u2019en\u201d (to fully punctuate the word), is essentially \u201challowed evening,\u201d whereas \u201cO\u00edche Shamhna<\/strong>\u201d is \u201ceve of Samhain,\u201d with the \u201ceve\u201d part first.\u00a0 This is typical Irish word order, since the word \u201cSamhain<\/strong>\u201d is being used to modify \u201co\u00edche<\/strong>,\u201d similar to an adjective.<\/p>\n

\u201cO\u00edche<\/strong>\u201d [EE-hy<\/sup>uh] is the general word for \u201cnight\u201d in Irish, and when used before holiday names, it can also mean \u201ceve,\u201d i.e. the night before, as in \u201cO\u00edche Nollag<\/strong>\u201d (Christmas Eve, as opposed to \u201cO\u00edche L\u00e1 Nollag<\/strong>,\u201d the night of Christmas Day).\u00a0 Irish does have a word that is cognate to \u201cnight,\u201d \u201cnicht<\/em>,\u201d \u201cnuit<\/em>,\u201d \u201cnox\/noctis<\/em>,\u201d et al., which is the \u201c-nocht<\/strong>\u201d part of \u201canocht<\/strong>\u201d (tonight), but this \u201c-nocht<\/strong>\u201d cognate is limited to set phrases in Irish, and there are only a few of them, at that.\u00a0 \u201cO\u00edche<\/strong>\u201d is a feminine noun, as you might recognize from the widely used phrase, \u201cO\u00edche mhaith<\/strong>\u201d [EE-hy<\/sup>uh wah], where the adjective \u201cmaith<\/strong>\u201d becomes \u201cmhaith<\/strong>\u201d to match the feminine noun.\u00a0 To be thorough in the pronunciation notes, I should add that in the North, instead of the \u201cwah\u201d sound for \u201cmhaith<\/strong>,\u201d it\u2019s more like the English word \u201cwhy,\u201d but very breathy, like \u201cwhy\u201d with a puff of breath.<\/p>\n

byb (or are we not minimizing “by the by” to “textese” yet? — BYB mostly shows up as “Bihar Yoga Bharati” online!). \u00a0 Anyway, by the by (maith dom an t-athluaiteachas<\/strong>), that “hy<\/sup>uh” sound I indicated uses the “y<\/sup>” to indicate the specific \u00a0“h” sound of “human” or “humid,” not the actual “hy-” sound of “hybrid” or “hydrogen” and not the “h” sound of “hoover.”<\/p>\n

\u201cShamhna<\/strong>\u201d [HOW-nuh] comes from Samhain [SOW-in] (1 November), which was the Celtic New Year.\u00a0 \u201cShamhna<\/strong>\u201d means \u201cof Samhain\u201d and is lenited here after \u201co\u00edche<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 In certain other situations, the form \u201cSamhna<\/strong>\u201d (unlenited) is used, for example, in \u201ccultacha Samhna<\/strong>\u201d (Halloween costumes).\u00a0 And, as I know I\u2019ve explained pre-this-blog, the \u201csow\u201d of the pronunciation guide for \u201cSamhain\u201d is like English \u201csow\u201d (the pig), at least in American English.\u00a0 That\u2019s \u201csow\u201d as typically rhyming with \u201cnow\u201d or \u201cFrau<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Not as in \u201csow\u201d (to sow seeds, etc.).<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the basics, word-wise.\u00a0 Some upcoming blogs may cover more Halloween topics, such as costumes, candies or sweets, decorations, typical \u201ctricks\u201d and supernatural figures.<\/p>\n

Other blogs in this series have covered the Halloween season, including \u201cSamhain (1 M\u00ed na Samhna)<\/strong>: The First Day of Winter, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/samhain-1-mi-na-samhna-the-first-day-of-winter\/<\/a>, and \u201cCultacha Samhna M\u00f3r\u00e9ilimh<\/strong> [best-selling] na Bliana 2010<\/strong>, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/cultacha-samhna-moreilimh-best-selling-na-bliana-2010\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, for another view of Halloween, you might like to read \u201cThe Japanese Knotweed of Festivals\u201d by Sean Coughlan, from October 31, 2007, ag<\/strong> http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/7067804.stm<\/a> .\u00a0\u00a0 Bhur mbar\u00falacha<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

SGF, R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gluais: bar\u00fail,<\/strong> opinion; f\u00e9ilire,<\/strong> calendar; maith dom<\/strong>, forgive me (for)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Halloween is, of course, a very Celtic topic, and you may be familiar with some of the basics of its role sa bhf\u00e9ilire Ceilteach.\u00a0 So in today\u2019s blog, we\u2019ll mostly focus on the phrase itself, its pronunciation and basic meaning. The word order of the Irish phrase is a reversal of the English.\u00a0…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4187,1977,4855,111240,12146,111064,111239,3213,6088,6344,6667,6668,6779,111241,111242],"class_list":["post-1306","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apostrophe","tag-calendar","tag-cultacha","tag-een","tag-evening","tag-feilire","tag-hallow","tag-halloween","tag-mi-na-samhna","tag-oiche-shamhna","tag-samhain","tag-samhna","tag-shamhna","tag-wheneer","tag-wheneer-you-make-a-promise"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1306"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7234,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1306\/revisions\/7234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}