{"id":399,"date":"2010-09-06T23:09:58","date_gmt":"2010-09-06T23:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=399"},"modified":"2010-09-07T13:13:55","modified_gmt":"2010-09-07T13:13:55","slug":"dea-aimsir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/dea-aimsir\/","title":{"rendered":"Dea-aimsir!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The title sounds short and sweet, but to some extent this blog is actually disguised coverage of prefixes, lenition, and hyphenation.\u00a0 Good ole \u201cbaoite agus aistri\u00fa<\/strong>\u201d!<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve talked a lot lately about drochaimsir <\/strong>[DROKH-AM-shirzh<\/sup>], ranging from hairic\u00edn<\/strong> to saighne\u00e1n gaoithe<\/strong>.\u00a0 How about some more upbeat terms, even if sometimes they\u2019re just smaoineamh in aice le do thoil?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with \u201cdea-aimsir<\/strong>\u201d itself.\u00a0 It simply means \u201cgood weather.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cDea<\/strong>-\u201c is basically a positivizing prefix, translated according to the core word in the phrase.\u00a0 \u201cAimsir<\/strong>\u201d [AM-shirzh<\/sup>] means \u201cweather,\u201d except when it means \u201ctime\u201d (in aimsir na bhFiann<\/strong>, etc.) or \u201ctense\u201d for verbs (an aimsir chaite<\/strong>, etc.).\u00a0 Can any Celticly bilingual reader spot the close Welsh cognate? (freagra th\u00edos<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a few more positive weather terms.\u00a0 Probably the most basic:<\/p>\n

T\u00e1 an l\u00e1 go bre\u00e1<\/strong>: The day is fine.<\/p>\n

T\u00e1 an l\u00e1 go deas<\/strong>: The day is nice.<\/p>\n

L\u00e1 deas at\u00e1 ann<\/strong>: A nice day is \u201cin it\u201d (i.e. It is a nice day).<\/p>\n

L\u00e1 bre\u00e1 at\u00e1 ann<\/strong>: A fine day is \u201cin it\u201d (i.e. It is a fine day). \u00a0<\/p>\n

And then, a little more specialized:<\/p>\n

soineann<\/strong>, nice weather (the opposite of our old friend \u201cdoineann<\/strong>,\u201d one of the sona-dona<\/strong> pairs of opposites); somewhat formal or literary, at least as far as my experience goes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

leoithne<\/strong>: a light breeze or zephyr (though you can also use \u201csteifir<\/strong>\u201d for the latter, especially, perhaps, to be poetic \u2013 it doesn\u2019t ring any bells for everyday usage, anymore than English speakers would likely describe a day as \u201czephyrous\u201d)<\/p>\n

A distinctly Irish way of describing the weather would be to say,<\/p>\n

Is l\u00e1 bog \u00e9<\/strong>: It\u2019s a soft day (i.e. with soft light rain).\u00a0 This might not be considered particularly \u201caoibhinn<\/strong>\u201d from an American viewpoint, but when the alternatives include \u201ctaomadh,<\/strong>\u201d \u201cd\u00edle bh\u00e1ist\u00ed<\/strong>,\u201d or \u201ctuile b\u00e1ist\u00ed<\/strong>,\u201d all frequent in Ireland, a \u201cl\u00e1 bog<\/strong>\u201d starts to sound pretty good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We might also recall here the song \u201cAn Ghaoth Aneas,\u201d which praises the qualities of the South Wind a n\u00ed gach faiche f\u00e9armhar<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u201cAneas<\/strong>\u201d [un-YASS] means \u201cfrom the south.\u00a0 \u201cAneas<\/strong>\u201d was originally spelled \u201candheas<\/strong>,\u201d which shows the connection to the word for \u201csouth\u201d more clearly (deisceart, \u00f3 dheas<\/strong>, etc.).\u00a0<\/p>\n

And how about those prefixes, \u201cdea<\/strong>-\u201c (good) and \u201cdroch\u201d<\/strong> (bad), as in \u201cdea-aimsir\u201d<\/strong> and \u201cdrochaimsir\u201d<\/strong>?\u00a0 One thing to remember about these is that in Modern Irish they appear \u00a0only as prefixes.\u00a0 They can\u2019t be used after<\/em> the noun they modify, only attached in front<\/em> of it.\u00a0 And they cause lenition in most cases.\u00a0 It happens that our first pair of examples, (dea-aimsir, drochaimsir<\/strong>) has a core word (aimsir<\/strong>) that begins with a vowel, so there is no opportunity for lenition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You might wonder why \u201cdea-aimsir<\/strong>\u201d has a hyphen and \u201cdrochaimsir<\/strong>\u201d doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 I love it when people ask questions like that!\u00a0 Here\u2019s the skinny, more or less.\u00a0 Irish has stopped using as many hyphens as it used to.\u00a0 The word \u201cdrochaimsir<\/strong>\u201d used to be hyphenated (\u201cdroch-aimsir<\/strong>\u201d), as did \u201cina<\/strong>\u201d and \u201ca h\u00fall<\/strong>\u201d (i n-a<\/strong>, a h-\u00fall<\/strong>). \u00a0The trend has been similar in English, which used to hyphenate \u201cto-day\u201d and \u201cto-morrow\u201d and has only recently been dropping the hyphen from words like \u201cbi-lingual.\u201d \u00a0Whether or not to hyphenate the English \u201ce-mail\u201d has been a mystery to me for almost twenty years.\u00a0 Compound-word rule or majority-usage rule?\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s \u00e1bhar blag eile<\/strong>, if at all, anyway.\u00a0 Note to self, though: r-phost<\/strong> vs. rphost<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The prefix \u201cdea<\/strong>-\u201c is still always followed by a hyphen.\u00a0 It causes lenition before the consonants b, c, d, f, g, m, p, s, and t.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Samples of \u201cdea-<\/strong>\u201c include:<\/p>\n

dea-ainm<\/strong>, good name<\/p>\n

dea-bhean<\/strong>, a good, kindly, or virtuous woman<\/p>\n

dea-bholadh<\/strong>, a good smell, fragrance<\/p>\n

dea-fhocal<\/strong>, a good or charitable word<\/p>\n

dea-ghu\u00ed<\/strong>, good wish or prayer, as in the typical, if somewhat formal, letter-closer, \u201cle gach dea-ghu\u00ed<\/strong>\u201d (with every best wish, i.e. all the best, etc.)<\/p>\n

dea-labhartha<\/strong>, well-spoken, witty,<\/p>\n

dea-mh\u00e9ineach<\/strong>, well-wishing, benevolent<\/p>\n

dea-thoil<\/strong>, goodwill<\/p>\n

Samples of \u201cdroch<\/strong>\u201d include:<\/p>\n

drochainm<\/strong>, bad name or reputation<\/p>\n

drochairteagal<\/strong>, a bad article or a bad and dangerous person (somehow, I thought such people were \u201cbold\u201d and \u201cbrazen,\u201d not \u201cbad and dangerous,\u201d ach sin sc\u00e9al eile<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

drochdhuine<\/strong>, a bad or evil person<\/p>\n

drochmh\u00fainte<\/strong>, unmannerly<\/p>\n

drochrath<\/strong>, bad luck<\/p>\n

After \u201cdroch<\/strong>,\u201d hyphenation is limited now to nouns that actually begin with \u201cc\u201d and which are lenited (c becomes ch) after the prefix, as in \u201cdroch-chro\u00ed<\/strong>\u201d (a bad heart or ill-will) or \u201cdroch-chiall<\/strong>\u201d (folly, lack of sense).<\/p>\n

The fact that dea<\/strong>– and droch<\/strong>– are limited to the prefix position in Irish is especially interesting, to me at least, since they have close cognates in Welsh, da<\/em> (good) and drwg<\/em> (bad).\u00a0 In Welsh, however, they are usually used as ordinary adjectives, as in \u201ccwrw da<\/em>\u201d (good beer) or \u201cblaidd drwg<\/em>\u201d (bad wolf, in Doctor Who or otherwise).\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of these topics can pave the way for further blogs.\u00a0 Preferences, anyone?\u00a0 R\u00e9im\u00edreanna? Fleisc\u00edn\u00ed? S\u00e9imhi\u00fa?\u00a0 N\u00edos m\u00f3 cine\u00e1lacha aimsire? <\/strong><\/p>\n

N\u00f3ta\u00ed: a n\u00ed gach faiche f\u00e9armhar<\/strong>, which makes every field grassy (in praise of the South Wind); aistri\u00fa<\/strong> [ASH-trzh<\/sup>oo] to switch, change; d\u00edle bh\u00e1ist\u00ed<\/strong> [DJEEL-yuh WAWSH-tchee], deluge; gaolmhar <\/strong>[GAYL-wur or GEEL-wur] related; in aice le do thoil,<\/strong> wishful; taomadh <\/strong>[TEEM-uh], bailing, teeming (as in \u201cteeming rain\u201d); tuile b\u00e1ist\u00ed<\/strong> [TWIL-yuh BAWSH-tchee] downpour.<\/p>\n

Freagra<\/strong>: Welsh \u201camser<\/em>,\u201d the focal gaolmhar<\/strong> to Irish \u201caimsir<\/strong>,\u201d normally means \u201ctime.\u201d\u00a0 The Welsh word for \u201cweather\u201d is quite unrelated, \u201ctywydd<\/em>\u201d [say: TUH-with, the \u201c-wydd\u201d sounds like English \u201cwith\u201d].\u00a0 I know you\u2019re not necessarily reading this blog to learn to pronounce Welsh, but you may as well go for it since you\u2019re here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title sounds short and sweet, but to some extent this blog is actually disguised coverage of prefixes, lenition, and hyphenation.\u00a0 Good ole \u201cbaoite agus aistri\u00fa\u201d! We\u2019ve talked a lot lately about drochaimsir [DROKH-AM-shirzh], ranging from hairic\u00edn to saighne\u00e1n gaoithe.\u00a0 How about some more upbeat terms, even if sometimes they\u2019re just smaoineamh in aice le…<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t