{"id":1456,"date":"2011-12-03T18:30:46","date_gmt":"2011-12-03T18:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=1456"},"modified":"2018-12-28T04:24:22","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T04:24:22","slug":"happiness-is-%e2%80%a6-lots-of-ways-to-say-%e2%80%9chappy%e2%80%9d-in-irish-including-%e2%80%9chappy-christmas%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/happiness-is-%e2%80%a6-lots-of-ways-to-say-%e2%80%9chappy%e2%80%9d-in-irish-including-%e2%80%9chappy-christmas%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"Happiness Is \u2026 Lots of Ways to Say \u201cHappy\u201d in Irish (including \u201cHappy Christmas\u201d)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Recently we talked about some of the more whimsical (i.e. jingle-ish) ways to describe Christmas (\u201cHolly Jolly\u201d and \u201cBerry Merry\u201d) in English and pondered their translatability into Irish.\u00a0 Today let\u2019s get back to the more traditional Irish phrase, and look at its various forms (singular and plural, greeting and response):<\/p>\n

Nollaig Shona duit<\/strong> [NUL-lik HUN-uh ditch<\/sup>], Merry\/Happy Christmas to you (singular)<\/p>\n

Nollaig Shona duitse<\/strong> [NUL-lik HUN-uh DITCH<\/sup>-uh], Merry Christmas to you (singular, the \u201cresponse\u201d or \u201cback at you\u201d form).\u00a0 This, or \u201cAgus Nollaig Shona duitse<\/strong>,\u201d would be used if a person has just greeted you with \u201cNollaig Shona duit<\/strong>\u201d or perhaps in an email exchange that\u2019s almost \u201ci bhf\u00edor-am<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 If you\u2019re sending a greeting card in the mail, I wouldn\u2019t use the \u201cresponse\u201d form, even if you have received a card from the other person, because so much time will have elapsed.\u00a0 The response form is created by adding the suffix \u201c-se<\/strong>\u201d [shuh] to \u201cduit<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nollaig Shona daoibh<\/strong> [\u2026 deev], Merry Christmas to you (plural).\u00a0 Remember that Irish, like most European languages, has separate words for \u201cyou\u201d (singular) and \u201cyou\u201d (plural).\u00a0 In these Christmas greetings, the words for \u201cyou\u201d as such (t\u00fa, sibh<\/strong>) don\u2019t show up, but they are embedded in the words \u201cduit<\/em><\/strong>\u201d (to you) and \u201cdaoibh<\/em><\/strong>\u201d (to you, plural), as endings (-t, singular; -ibh, plural).<\/p>\n

Nollaig Shona daoibhse<\/strong> [\u2026 DEEV-shuh], Merry Christmas to you (plural, response form)<\/p>\n

So those are the forms.\u00a0 But why do we say \u201cHappy Halloween\u201d and \u201cHappy Easter\u201d but \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d (stateside) in English? Diabhal a fhios agam!\u00a0 <\/strong>I just follow the trend that \u201cChristmas\u201d is more typically considered \u201chappy\u201d rather than \u201cmerry\u201d in both Irish and British English.\u00a0 At any rate, \u201csona \/ shona<\/strong>\u201d is considered to mean \u201chappy\u201d rather than \u201cmerry,\u201d for whatever difference that makes.<\/p>\n

You might recognize the word \u201csona<\/strong>\u201d (happy) from other phrases like \u201cL\u00e1 Breithe Sona duit<\/strong>!\u201d (Happy Birthday to you) or \u201cT\u00e1 an bhean sona s\u00e1sta<\/strong>\u201d (The woman is happy content\/satisfied).\u00a0 However, in most cases, the first way Irish learners are told to say \u201cI am happy\u201d is \u201cT\u00e1 \u00e1thas orm<\/strong>,\u201d which literally means \u201cHappiness is on me.\u201d\u00a0 There is also an adjective form \u201c\u00e1thasach<\/strong>\u201d but it is usually used for things like news and stories; it also means \u201cglad,\u201d \u201cjoyful,\u201d and \u201cgleeful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why \u201csona<\/strong>\u201d [SUN-uh] and not \u201cshona<\/strong>\u201d [HUN-uh] in these two examples?\u00a0 In the phrase \u201cL\u00e1 Breithe Sona duit<\/strong>,\u201d the adjective \u201csona<\/strong>\u201d describes \u201cl\u00e1<\/strong>,\u201d a masculine noun.\u00a0 \u201cNollaig<\/strong>,\u201d on the other hand, is feminine, so it takes the form \u201cshona<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 In the sentence \u201cT\u00e1 an bhean sona s\u00e1sta<\/strong>,\u201d the phrase \u201csona s\u00e1sta<\/strong>\u201d is separate from the subject (an bhean<\/strong>).\u00a0 Similarly, \u201cT\u00e1 an chearc beag<\/strong>\u201d (the hen is small) but \u201cT\u00e1 an chearc bheag b\u00e1n<\/strong>\u201d (the small hen is white).\u00a0 Adjectives in this position in the sentence (technically called \u201cpredicate adjectives\u201d) do not<\/em> agree with their noun in gender, so they will not alternate between lenited forms (shona, bheag<\/strong>) and basic forms (sona, beag<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

More?<\/p>\n

happiness: gliondar, l\u00fachair, sonas<\/strong> (that\u2019s the noun form of \u201csona<\/strong>\u201d), and \u201cs\u00e9an<\/strong>\u201d [shayn, pronounced like the name \u201cShane\u201d \u2013 note the difference from \u201cSe\u00e1n<\/strong>\u201d and \u201csean<\/strong>\u201d]<\/p>\n

happy: gliondrach, s\u00e9anmhar, l\u00fachaireach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Still more?<\/p>\n

Often the idea \u201chappy\u201d is expressed in a phrase, or is simply implied:<\/p>\n

Hanukah faoi mhaise<\/strong> [\u2026 fwee WUSH-uh], Happy Hanukah, lit. Hanukah \u201cunder\u201d adornment, i.e. flourishing<\/p>\n

Athbhliain faoi mhaise<\/strong> [AH-VLEE-in fwee WUSH-uh], Happy (flourishing) New Year<\/p>\n

For Kwanzaa (not overwhelmingly the subject of Irish language greetings, in my experience, but one never knows), there seems to be some precedent for using \u201cjoyous\u201d (\u00e1thasach, gliondrach, l\u00fachaireach, suairc<\/strong>) \u2013 take your pick, I guess.\u00a0 No gender issues to worry about here, since Kwanzaa, as a focal iasachta<\/strong> is a \u201csubstantive\u201d (and therefor genderless) noun in Irish.\u00a0 Seems to me one could use \u201csona<\/strong>\u201d also, and then the phrase would, in my view, have a slightly better \u201cflow.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as a reminder, the traditional Easter greeting is \u201cBeannachta\u00ed na C\u00e1sca<\/strong>\u201d (the blessings of Easter), bypassing the word \u201chappy\u201d altogether.<\/p>\n

Overwhelmed by the variety?\u00a0 Well, you can always add to the mix and create a completely new phrase, as Neil Diamond did in his \u201cA Cherry Cherry Christmas,\u201d with its rollicking refrain of \u201ca very merry, cherry cherry, holly holy, rock and rolly Christmas.\u201d\u00a0 Hmmm, more food for thought.\u00a0 \u201cSil\u00edn sil\u00edn<\/strong>\u201d doesn\u2019t quite cut it!\u00a0 My basic recommendation is that if you intend to use any of these phrases in their traditional forms, follow the guidelines \u2013 don\u2019t just randomly pick a word for \u201chappy\u201d or for \u201cmerry\u201d and try to match it with Christmas, or any other holiday.\u00a0 But if you want to create your own unique phrase, the world is your \u201coisre<\/strong>\u201d (to hybridize an English idiom with Irish)! —\u00a0R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gluais: iasacht<\/strong>, a loan, a borrowing; sil\u00edn<\/strong> [SHIL-een], cherry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Recently we talked about some of the more whimsical (i.e. jingle-ish) ways to describe Christmas (\u201cHolly Jolly\u201d and \u201cBerry Merry\u201d) in English and pondered their translatability into Irish.\u00a0 Today let\u2019s get back to the more traditional Irish phrase, and look at its various forms (singular and plural, greeting and response): Nollaig Shona duit…<\/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":[111659,111647,111632,111649,111656,111592,111657,111661,111621,111617,3167,2906,111648,5217,111655,111633,111635,111638,111642,7431,111645,1091,111668,111631,5483,111627,111593,111624,111623,111646,306415,13285,111662,111590,111629,5599,2204,111634,111651,111653,5801,111626,111667,111639,111644,2993,13059,1152,111658,6274,6277,129825,6280,111616,111665,111636,111615,111663,2503,111643,111625,111620,111664,3404,13056,111628,111640,111652,111654,111630,51381,111660,11723],"class_list":["post-1456","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-a-cherry-cherry-christmas","tag-adornment","tag-athasach","tag-athbhliain-faoi-mhaise","tag-beannachtai-na-casca","tag-berry-merry","tag-blessings","tag-cherry-cherry","tag-daoibh","tag-duit","tag-easter","tag-feminine","tag-flourishing","tag-focal-iasachta","tag-genderless-noun","tag-glad","tag-gleeful","tag-gliondar","tag-gliondrach","tag-greeting","tag-hanukah-faoi-mhaise","tag-happiness","tag-happiness-is","tag-happiness-is-on-me","tag-happy","tag-happy-birthday-to-you","tag-happy-christmas","tag-happy-easter","tag-happy-halloween","tag-happy-hanukah","tag-happy-in-irish","tag-happy-new-year","tag-holly-holy","tag-holly-jolly","tag-i-am-happy","tag-iasacht","tag-idiom","tag-joyful","tag-joyous","tag-kwanza","tag-kwanzaa","tag-la-breithe-sona-duit","tag-loan","tag-luchair","tag-luchaireach","tag-masculine","tag-merry","tag-merry-christmas","tag-neil-diamond","tag-nollaig","tag-nollaig-shona-daoibh","tag-nollaig-shona-daoibhse","tag-nollaig-shona-duit","tag-nollaig-shona-duitse","tag-oisre","tag-predicate-adjective","tag-response","tag-rock-and-rolly-christmas","tag-sean","tag-seanmhar","tag-shona","tag-sibh","tag-silin-silin","tag-singular","tag-sona","tag-sona-sasta","tag-sonas","tag-suairc","tag-substantive","tag-ta-athas-orm","tag-tu","tag-very-merry","tag-you"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456","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=1456"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10946,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456\/revisions\/10946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}