{"id":132,"date":"2010-02-08T09:41:23","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T13:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=128"},"modified":"2016-09-20T23:30:31","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T23:30:31","slug":"cinealacha-sneachta-kinds-of-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/cinealacha-sneachta-kinds-of-snow\/","title":{"rendered":"Cine\u00e1lacha Sneachta: Kinds of Snow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/strong><\/div>\n

As a tribute to the amount of snow that fell over the weekend ar ch\u00f3sta thoir na St\u00e1t Aontaithe, <\/strong>and, I suppose, as a belated tribute to the amount that fell in \u00c9irinn i m\u00ed Ean\u00e1ir<\/strong>, let\u2019s talk about some of the ways it can fall or accumulate.<\/p>\n

The most basic statement would be:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

T\u00e1 s\u00e9 ag cur sneachta<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 It\u2019s snowing, lit. It is \u201cputting\u201d snow.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That verb \u201ccur<\/strong>\u201d (putting) is used for other forms of precipitation as well, as in \u201cT\u00e1 s\u00e9 ag cur fearthainne<\/strong>\u201d or \u201cT\u00e1 s\u00e9 ag cur b\u00e1ist\u00ed<\/strong>\u201d (both meaning \u201cIt\u2019s raining\u201d) and \u201cT\u00e1 s\u00e9 ag cur seaca<\/strong>\u201d (It\u2019s freezing).\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other forms of snow are:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

caidhleadh sneachta [KAL-yeh \u2026] <\/span><\/strong>, a blizzard, from the verb \u201ccadhail<\/strong>\u201d (\u201cpile\u201d or \u201ctwist\u201d in general, \u201cdrive\u201d regarding \u201csnow\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

flichshneachta <\/span><\/strong>[FLIH-HNAKH-tuh, the first \u201cc\u201d and the \u201cs\u201d are silent]<\/span>, sleet, from \u201cfliuch<\/strong>\u201d (wet) + \u201csneachta<\/strong>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

greallach sneachta<\/span><\/strong>, slush, from \u201cgreallach<\/strong>\u201d (mire, puddle)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of my favorite phrases in Irish is \u201cmuc shneachta<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 For those of you who know your domestic animals in Irish, yes, you read that right.\u00a0 It means a \u201csnow drift\u201d but literally it is \u201cpig of snow.\u201d\u00a0 For the plural, muca sneachta<\/strong>, you lose the first \u201ch\u201d in \u201cshneachta<\/strong>,\u201d following the standard pattern for feminine plural nouns (cf. fuinneog mh\u00f3r<\/strong>, a big window, but fuinneoga m\u00f3ra<\/strong>, big windows)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I just learned a new term in English, thundersnow, for which I can\u2019t find any Irish equivalent.\u00a0 But, m\u00faineann g\u00e1 seift<\/strong>, and we could always improvise with a beautifully long word like *toirneachshneachta<\/strong> [TIR-nukh-HNAKH-tuh] with no fleisc\u00edn <\/strong>(hyphen), as per the current trends in\u00a0modern Irish punctuation.\u00a0 Or we could go for the genitive and say \u201csneachta toirn\u00ed\u201d <\/strong>(lit. snow of thunder, on analogy with \u201cstoirm thoirn\u00ed<\/strong>,\u201d thunderstorm, using \u201ctoirn\u00ed<\/strong>,\u201d the genitive case of \u201ctoirneach<\/strong>\u201d).\u00a0 Apparently that\u2019s what some areas received this weekend.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beautiful as the t\u00edrdhreach sneacht\u00fail<\/strong> may be, it can always present the danger of d\u00f3 seaca<\/strong> (frostbite).\u00a0 \u201cD\u00f3<\/strong>\u201d literally means \u201cburning\u201d and is a completely different word here from \u201cd\u00f3<\/strong>,\u201d the number \u201ctwo.\u201d\u00a0 There are two ways to say the adjective form, frostbitten, \u201cd\u00f3ite ag an sioc<\/strong>\u201d and \u201csiocdh\u00f3ite<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 So, in Irish, the frost \u201cburns\u201d instead of \u201cbites.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How many of these snow-related phrases can you figure out: daille shneachta, pl\u00fair\u00edn sneachta, liopard sneachta, fear sneachta,<\/strong> and liathr\u00f3id shneachta<\/strong>?\u00a0 If, as you work through them, you wonder why some say \u201cshneachta<\/strong>\u201d and others say \u201csneachta<\/strong>,\u201d it\u2019s because some are grammatically feminine.\u00a0 \u201cDaille<\/strong>,\u201d blindness, follows many abstract nouns in being feminine (like \u00e1ille, gile<\/strong>, etc.).\u00a0 As for why \u201cliathr\u00f3id<\/strong>\u201d (ball) is feminine, there\u2019s no apparent reason.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a feature of Irish, like most Indo-European languages except English, that nouns have grammatical gender.\u00a0 Every noun is either masculine or feminine, except for a handful of genderless nouns referred to in Irish grammar as \u201csubstantives.\u201d\u00a0 Most of these are limited to use in set or fixed phrases today, like \u201cf\u00e9idir<\/strong>\u201d in \u201cIs f\u00e9idir liom<\/strong>\u201d (I can).\u00a0 So, from the group above, the \u201csnowdrop\u201d (flower), \u201csnow leopard,\u201d and (logically enough) \u201csnowman\u201d are all masculine.\u00a0 Now that you have all five translations, you can probably match which one goes with which Irish phrase. Sl\u00e1n go f\u00f3ill — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

N\u00f3ta\u00ed: g\u00e1<\/span><\/strong> [gaw] need, necessity; seift<\/strong> [sheft] plan (here \u201cinvention,\u201d which should help you translate this phrase into the familiar proverb).\u00a0 \u201cSeaca<\/strong>\u201d [SHAK-uh] is the possessive (genitive) form of \u201csioc<\/strong>\u201d ([shuk] frost).\u00a0 Even though phrases like \u201cag cur seaca<\/strong>\u201d or \u201cd\u00f3 seaca<\/strong>\u201d don\u2019t involve possession in the sense of ownership, they are still required, in Irish, to be in the genitive case, which typically marks possession.\u00a0 So you can think of these, very literally, as \u201cat frost\u2019s putting\u201d (at the putting of frost) and \u201cfrost\u2019s burning.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) As a tribute to the amount of snow that fell over the weekend ar ch\u00f3sta thoir na St\u00e1t Aontaithe, and, I suppose, as a belated tribute to the amount that fell in \u00c9irinn i m\u00ed Ean\u00e1ir, let\u2019s talk about some of the ways it can fall or accumulate. The most basic statement would…<\/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":[3898],"tags":[1875,4001,4002,4003,4004,4005,4017,4261,4377,4404,4499,4500,4515,4518,4519,4521,4892,4893,4901,3160,4978,4983,4991,5152,5154,5158,2906,5210,5211,5260,1076,5267,5268,3201,5368,5421,5435,5436,5657,5667,5887,5903,2993,6123,6158,6159,6164,6237,6238,6239,6460,2395,6481,6551,2443,6757,6789,6828,6829,6842,6864,6866,6867,984,6870,6871,6872,6873,6874,6875,6949,6962,7121,7122,7123,7129,7211],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-adjective","tag-ag-cur","tag-ag-cur-baisti","tag-ag-cur-fearthainne","tag-ag-cur-seaca","tag-ag-cur-sneachta","tag-aille","tag-baisteach","tag-bites","tag-blizzard","tag-burning","tag-burns","tag-cadhail","tag-caidhleadh","tag-caidhleadh-sneachta","tag-caighleadh","tag-daille","tag-daille-shneachta","tag-danger","tag-do","tag-do-seaca","tag-doite-ag-an-sioc","tag-drift","tag-fear-sneachta","tag-fearthainn","tag-feidir","tag-feminine","tag-flichshneachta","tag-fliuch","tag-freezing","tag-frost","tag-frostbite","tag-frostbitten","tag-ga","tag-gile","tag-grammatical-gender","tag-greallach","tag-greallach-sneachta","tag-invention","tag-irish","tag-liathroid-shneachta","tag-liopard-sneachta","tag-masculine","tag-mire","tag-muc-shneachta","tag-muca-sneachta","tag-muineann-ga-seift","tag-necessity","tag-necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention","tag-need","tag-pig","tag-plan","tag-pluirin-sneachta","tag-puddle","tag-rain","tag-seift","tag-shift","tag-sioc","tag-siocdhoite","tag-sleet","tag-sneachta","tag-sneachta-toirni","tag-sneachtuil","tag-snow","tag-snow-blindness","tag-snow-leopard","tag-snow-drift","tag-snowball","tag-snowdrop","tag-snowman","tag-stoirm-thoirni","tag-substantives","tag-thunder","tag-thundersnow","tag-thunderstorm","tag-tirdhreach","tag-two"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","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=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8394,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/8394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}