{"id":2359,"date":"2012-06-08T22:56:01","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T22:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=2359"},"modified":"2018-08-21T22:44:35","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T22:44:35","slug":"o-o-cuileanain-go-bling-agus-smaointe-fanacha-ramblings-eile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/o-o-cuileanain-go-bling-agus-smaointe-fanacha-ramblings-eile\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00d3 “\u00d3 Cuileann\u00e1in” go “Bling” agus Smaointe F\u00e1nacha (Ramblings) Eile"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

As I was mulling over the recent entries on “diamaint<\/strong>,” I decided to look a little further into diamond lore. I always wondered what exactly Koh-I-Noor meant (turns out to be “mountain of light” in Persian) and had a general curiosity about the largest known diamond ever. Hope? Taylor-Burton? Uncle Sam? Excelsior? So, lo and behold – guess what I found at the top of the list for uncut diamonds? Yet another Irish connection! The Cullinan Diamond, at 3106.75 carats, found in 1905, was the world’s largest, until it was cut into nine (or more?) separate pieces. I’m not really all that concerned with all the exact measurements and values (though they are impressive) but am intrigued by the Cullinan connection.<\/p>\n

Cullinan turns out to be a small town near Pretoria, South Africa (2001 population ca. 7,700), named after Sir Thomas Cullinan (1862-1936). And where does his moniker come from? He was a diamond magnate, owner of the Premier (Cullinan) Mine. He was born in South Africa (Elands Post near Seymore, Cape Colony) but the family history probably traces back to the area of Ennis, Co. Clare, through a James Cullinan (grandfather or great-uncle, it’s not clear to me). Sir Thomas was the father of 10 children and the Irish connection also shows up in the name of one of his grandsons, the South African poet Patrick Cullinan (1933-2011).<\/p>\n

And what’s “Cullinan” in Irish anyway? Well, like most Irish surnames, there’s a masculine and a feminine version:<\/p>\n

\u00d3 Cuileann\u00e1in<\/strong>, the masculine form. This is often anglicized without the “\u00d3<\/strong>” (grandson, descendant), so it may appear as Cullinan, O’Cullinan, O’Cullinane, Cullinane, and perhaps other versions.<\/p>\n

N\u00ed Chuileann\u00e1in<\/strong>, the feminine form for unmarried women or, as occurs often enough, married women keeping their “maiden” name. I put “maiden” in quotation marks since in Irish, the term is actually (and more straightforwardly) “sloinne r\u00e9amh ph\u00f3sadh<\/strong>” [SLIN-yuh RAYV-FOHSS-uh, sort of gliding the “-mh,” a v-sound, with the “ph-,” an f-sound], lit. “name before marriage.” And, in fact, there are other ways to say “maiden name” in Irish as well, but none of them have to do with being a “maiden.” The word “n\u00ed<\/strong>,” short for “daughter of,” is pronounced “nee” and triggers lenition, causing “Cuileann\u00e1in<\/strong>” to change to “Chuileann\u00e1in<\/strong>.” A rough guide for that is “KHIL-un-aw-in,” with the “KH” as in the “ch” of German “Buch<\/em>” or Irish “loch<\/strong>” or Welsh “bach<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

U\u00ed Chuileann\u00e1in<\/strong>, the feminine form indicating that the woman is married. The “ch” pronunciation is the same as above, so a rough guide is “ee KHIL-un-aw-in,” “U\u00ed<\/strong>” is the possessive form of “\u00d3<\/strong>” and is pronounced “ee.”<\/p>\n

“U\u00ed Chuileann\u00e1in<\/strong>” would also be used to say something is “of” (possessed by) \u00d3 Cuileann\u00e1in<\/strong>, so, in Irish, the Cullinan diamond, if possessed by a Mr. O’Cullinan, would be “Diamant U\u00ed Chuileann\u00e1in<\/strong>.” Can’t say I’ve found any references to this term, as such, in Irish, but that would be the structure anyway, with \u00d3<\/strong> becoming U\u00ed<\/strong>. Just like O’Byrne’s shop would be “Siopa U\u00ed Bhroin<\/strong>” (shades of Bunt\u00fas Cainte<\/em><\/strong>, anyone?) and \u00d3 Broin’s wife, for that matter, would be “Bean U\u00ed Bhroin<\/strong>.” With her given name, let’s say, M\u00e1ire<\/strong>, she would be “M\u00e1ire Bean U\u00ed Bhroin<\/strong>” or “M\u00e1ire U\u00ed Bhroin<\/strong>.” \u00d3 Broin’s daughter would use “N\u00ed Bhroin<\/strong>,” at least until marriage; after that the name could change to her husband’s or she might retain “N\u00ed Bhroin<\/strong>.” Blogworthy in its own right?<\/p>\n

There are lots of other intriguing diamond names, far too many to discuss further here: Briolette, Great Chrysanthemum, and Martian Pink, to mention just a few. But like I said, it was really the Irish connection that caught my interest in this case. Martian Pink, though – hmm, “B\u00e1ndearg Marsach<\/strong>“? Gaolta leis an bPantar B\u00e1ndearg i nd\u00f3igh ar bith?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, here are a few other related terms:<\/p>\n

carat<\/strong>, carat (same in Irish and in English, all derived from the Greek for “carob bean,” ach sin sc\u00e9al (agus blag?) eile<\/strong><\/p>\n

r\u00e9inchloch<\/strong>, you guessed it, “rhinestone,” from “An R\u00e9in<\/strong>,” the River Rhine. “Buachaill B\u00f3 na R\u00e9inchloch<\/strong>” (the cowboy of the rhinestones)? Oh, if it’s just one rhinestone “Buachaill B\u00f3 na R\u00e9inchloiche<\/strong>“! I forget exactly how he was decked out. \u00a0C\u00e9 mh\u00e9ad r\u00e9inchloch a bh\u00ed air?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another word for rhinestone is “br\u00e9agdhiamant<\/strong>,” literally “false diamond.” Neither seems to be all that widely used in Irish, at least not in a way that’s trackable online. I got no hits for “br\u00e9agdhiamant<\/strong>” (singular), and just one for the plural subject form (br\u00e9agdhiamaint<\/strong>), which traces back to one of my own blogs (https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/an-dara-diochlaonadh-eggs-and-legs-clutches-and-hutches\/), from April 11, 2011. “R\u00e9inchloch<\/strong>” doesn’t fare much better online, with five hits total, three from what I find to be a very bizarre website, somebody’s business-growing site I suppose (“ginead\u00f3ir<\/strong>“), one from the same 4\/11\/11 blog just cited, and one that I can’t decipher at all.<\/p>\n

So maybe the whole world of “costume jewelry” (with r\u00e9inchlocha go leor<\/strong>\u00a0) isn’t as big in Ireland as it is\/was in the U.S., but there is, at least, a phrase for it: seodra br\u00e9ige<\/strong> (lit. jewelry\/jewellery of falseness). “Seodra<\/strong>” is based on “seoid<\/strong>” (jewel), an interesting word with the following forms:<\/p>\n

an tseoid<\/strong>, the jewel
\nna seoide<\/strong>, of the jewel
\nna seoda<\/strong>, the jewels
\nna seod<\/strong>, of the jewels<\/p>\n

This can also give us the word for “Crown Jewels,” which is inherently plural: na R\u00edsheoda<\/strong> [nuh REE-HYOH-duh]. Sometimes they are simply known as “na Seoda<\/strong>,” but that must be culturally specific.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, I guess, instead of ultra-expensive jewels and bling, I’m more interested in “Marmar Chonamara<\/strong>” or the intriguing new look of “Heathergems” (made of fraoch triomaithe comhdhl\u00faite<\/strong>, dried pressed heather, http:\/\/www.heathergems.com\/). Or other Celtic jewelry like Rhiannon (http:\/\/www.rhiannon.co.uk\/), or Aidan Breen or Declan Killen at the Kilkenny Design Centre (www.kilkennydesign.com). And that, if you’re interested would be “Ionad Dearth\u00f3ireachta Chill Chainnigh<\/strong>” in Irish, though I don’t see it promoted as such online. S\u00edlim go bhfuil s\u00e9 suimi\u00fail go bhfuil an focal B\u00e9arla<\/strong> “bling” go d\u00edreach mar a gc\u00e9anna i nGaeilge (“bling”) ach n\u00edl m\u00f3r\u00e1n suime agam sa bhling \u00e9 f\u00e9in!<\/strong> Now, rambling<\/em> thoughts (smaointe f\u00e1nacha<\/strong>), that’s more like it for me, more up my b\u00f3ithr\u00edn. P\u00e9 sc\u00e9al \u00e9, SGF – R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iarsmaoineamh (10 M\u00ed na Nollag 2014):\u00a0<\/strong>Reading over this, I realize I should point out that if we’re specifically talking about Cullinan, the town, we could postulate something like “Baile U\u00ed Chuillean\u00e1in.<\/strong>” \u00a0Then the phrase would be “Diamant Bhaile U\u00ed Chuillean\u00e1in<\/strong>.” \u00a0Otherwise, we could always simply say “Diamant Cullinan<\/strong>,” and leave the town name as is in the phrase.<\/p>\n

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

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) As I was mulling over the recent entries on “diamaint,” I decided to look a little further into diamond lore. I always wondered what exactly Koh-I-Noor meant (turns out to be “mountain of light” in Persian) and had a general curiosity about the largest known diamond ever. Hope? Taylor-Burton? Uncle Sam? Excelsior? So…<\/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":[229419,229415,229412,229418,229434,229409,207403,229423,229405,229410,229420,229432,229433,229408,5375,229407,35054,2243,229417,229435,229431,8607,229421,6539,11,229414,229413,229430,229429,229428,229426,229406,6980,229427,175,229422],"class_list":["post-2359","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-breagdhiamaint","tag-breagdhiamant","tag-carat","tag-carob-bean","tag-chuileannain","tag-clare","tag-co-clare","tag-crown-jewels","tag-cullinan","tag-cullinan-diamond-surname","tag-cullinan-south-africa","tag-diamond","tag-diamond-magnate","tag-ennis","tag-given-name","tag-james-cullinan","tag-jewellery","tag-jewelry","tag-karat","tag-o-cuileannain","tag-patrick-cullinan","tag-poet","tag-premier-mine","tag-pronounce","tag-pronunciation","tag-reinchloch","tag-rhinestone","tag-risheoda","tag-seod","tag-seoda","tag-seoid","tag-sir-thomas-cullinan","tag-surname","tag-tseoid","tag-ui","tag-uncut"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359","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=2359"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10779,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359\/revisions\/10779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}