{"id":3020,"date":"2012-08-19T10:18:22","date_gmt":"2012-08-19T10:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=3020"},"modified":"2012-09-02T10:16:39","modified_gmt":"2012-09-02T10:16:39","slug":"horse-latitudes-without-the-capaill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/horse-latitudes-without-the-capaill\/","title":{"rendered":"Horse Latitudes (without the “capaill”)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

So what’s the connection between the last blog (re: Laethanta an Mhadra<\/strong>, aka Laethe Madr\u00fala<\/strong>) and this one? \u00a0Well, admittedly it’s a bit tenuous, but I guess the semantic leap was from Laethanta an Mhadra<\/strong> to An Crios Calma<\/strong> (aka\u00a0Criosanna na gCalm)<\/strong> via na Doldrama<\/strong>.\u00a0 As you might have picked out, “An Crios Calma<\/strong>” is the Irish for the so-called “Horse Latitudes.”\u00a0 And, yes, this blog will discuss the various words for “horse” (capall, each<\/strong>, et al.) in Irish, even though none of them occur in the Irish for “Horse Latitudes.”<\/p>\n

Why are they called “Horse Latitudes” anyway?\u00a0 A bit of a mystery, that.\u00a0\u00a0 I grew up hearing it was because the ships were so becalmed that horses started dying and had to be thrown overboard.\u00a0\u00a0 Now I see that there is an alternate explanation involving a seamen’s ritual using a straw effigy of a horse, also thrown overboard.\u00a0 Answers.com suggests yet another explanation, the Spanish phrase \u00a0golfo de las yeguas<\/em> (mares’ sea), so I see another rainy day project lurking.\u00a0 But suffice to say for now that the Irish language addresses this issue with the more straightforward phrase, An Crios Calma<\/strong> (lit. the calm zone).<\/p>\n

Technically speaking, the Horse Latitudes are “domhanleithid fh\u00f3-thropaiceacha<\/strong>” between 30 and 35\u00a0degrees both north and south, i.e. Subtropical High.\u00a0 They are in the area of the trade winds and are characterized by light “baffling” (shifting, variable) winds and occasional calms.<\/p>\n

For the Horse Latitudes, there are actually two variations of the phrase in Irish:<\/p>\n

Criosanna na gCalm<\/strong>, lit. zones of the calm<\/p>\n

an Crios Calma<\/strong>, the calm belt<\/p>\n

Neither of these refers to horses (capaill<\/strong>, etc.)\u00a0 and neither actually uses the word “latitude.”\u00a0 Both are based on the word “crios<\/strong>,” which means “belt” or “zone,” not “latitude” as such.\u00a0 “Criosanna<\/strong>” is the plural of “crios<\/strong>.”\u00a0 This is combined with the noun “calm<\/strong>” (calms, or a calm area, in the navigational sense) or with the related adjective “calma<\/strong>,” which means, creid \u00e9 n\u00f3 n\u00e1 creid \u00e9<\/strong>, “calm.”\u00a0 By the way, this latter word isn’t the same as the more widely used adjective “calma<\/strong>” (a homonym), which means “brave,” “strong,” “intrepid,” or “splendid;” that’s a completely different word, as in “laoch calma<\/strong>” (a brave warrior).\u00a0 Don’t forget, there are comhainmneacha<\/strong> (homonyms) go leor sa Ghaeilge<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

“Doldrama<\/strong>,” the Irish for “Doldrums” is simply an adaptation of the English, which, in turn, is based on “dull” and related to words like “dolt” or “dullard.”\u00a0 The ending “-(t)rum” \u00a0is believed to be modeled on the word “tantrum,” and I wonder if words like “rostrum” and “spectrum” aren’t also part of the underlying model.<\/p>\n

Grammatically, “Doldrama<\/strong>” is plural both in Irish (as well as in English), so it takes the preposition “sna<\/strong>” (“in the,”, for plural nouns), so we’d say “sna doldrama<\/strong>.”\u00a0 I’ve never heard it as a noun in the singular in English or in Irish (a “doldrum”?\u00a0 *doldram amh\u00e1in<\/strong>?) — nor can I fathom how there could be a singular version of this concept, since it’s a wide area.\u00a0 At any rate, it’s a zone near the equator where winds are relatively calm, and travel by sail may be slowed down.\u00a0 While we typically use the phrase “in the doldrums” in English in the metaphorical sense (to be in low spirits or to feel “dull” or “becalmed”), I’m not really aware of there being much figurative use of the expression in Irish.<\/p>\n

At any rate, before we leave this domhanleithead<\/strong> (latitude), let’s check out the words for “horse” in Irish.\u00a0 Of course, there’s more than one (before we even get into terms such as l\u00e1racha, searraigh<\/strong>, and p\u00f3naithe<\/strong>, which will have to be \u00e1bhar blag eile<\/strong>).\u00a0\u00a0 Seo an bunstuif<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

capall (an capall)<\/strong>, with “capaill<\/strong>” plural; cf. various Romance language words for horse starting with Latin “caballus<\/em>” (cavallo, cheval, caballo<\/em>, etc.) and (French-based) English words like “chevalier” and “chivalry” as well as Welsh “ceffyl<\/em>”<\/p>\n

each (an t-each)<\/strong>, with “eacha<\/strong>” plural, often used in a more literary sense, much like “steed” in English; cf. Latin “equus<\/em>” and related words in English (equine, equestrian, etc.)<\/p>\n

marc (an marc)<\/strong>, with “mairc<\/strong>” plural, also literary, and the source of words and terms such as “marcach<\/strong>” (horseman), “marcach toinne<\/strong>” (surf-rider), “patr\u00f3l marcach<\/strong>” (mounted patrol), marca\u00edocht<\/strong> (riding in general or horsemanship), and “marca\u00edocht aera\u00edochta<\/strong>” (joy-riding); cf. Welsh “march<\/em>” and Breton “marc’h<\/em>”<\/p>\n

So there we have it, plenty of words for “horse” but none used in the intriguing phrase “Horse Latitudes.”\u00a0 One way or another, they do show up, though, in predictable phrases like:<\/p>\n

marcairtl\u00e9ire<\/strong>, horse artillery<\/p>\n

c\u00f3iste capaill<\/strong>, horse-drawn carriage<\/p>\n

eachlasc<\/strong>, horse-whip<\/p>\n

eacha\u00ed<\/strong>, horseman (synonymous with “marcach<\/strong>“), with two feminine forms “baneachlach”<\/strong> and “banmharcach”<\/strong><\/p>\n

fear m\u00f3r capaill<\/strong>, however, is a “horsy man” (not a “horseman”); literally it means “big man of horse,” implying “interest in” or “involvement with”<\/p>\n

As for the non-biologically-horsy horse terms, “horseradishes,” “horse chestnuts,” and the like, that’s definitely \u00e1bhar blag<\/strong> way way eile<\/strong>.\u00a0 So many possible “\u00e1bhair bhlaganna<\/strong>” (osna s\u00e1sta <\/strong><a contented sigh>). \u00a0SGF, R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nasc don teoiric<\/strong> “yeguas<\/em>“: http:\/\/www.answers.com\/topic\/horse-latitude<\/a><\/p>\n

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

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) So what’s the connection between the last blog (re: Laethanta an Mhadra, aka Laethe Madr\u00fala) and this one? \u00a0Well, admittedly it’s a bit tenuous, but I guess the semantic leap was from Laethanta an Mhadra to An Crios Calma (aka\u00a0Criosanna na gCalm) via na Doldrama.\u00a0 As you might have picked out, “An Crios…<\/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":[229689,229687,229688,229690,229680,229691],"class_list":["post-3020","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-capall","tag-crios-calma","tag-criosanna-na-gcalm","tag-each","tag-horse-latitudes","tag-marc"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020","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=3020"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3034,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020\/revisions\/3034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}