{"id":4042,"date":"2013-05-14T03:13:42","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T03:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=4042"},"modified":"2016-09-14T00:17:04","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T00:17:04","slug":"ainteanna-no-aintini-aunts-or-aunties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/ainteanna-no-aintini-aunts-or-aunties\/","title":{"rendered":"Ainteanna n\u00f3 Aint\u00edn\u00ed? (Aunts or Aunties?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/strong><\/p>\n

We’ve recently mentioned Mother’s Day (L\u00e1 na M\u00e1ithreacha)<\/strong> and Father’s Day (L\u00e1 na nAithreacha),<\/strong> and we’ve looked at various mother\/father expressions (e.g. m\u00e1thair na mballach, lus gan athair gan mh\u00e1thair<\/strong>).\u00a0 For the next couple of blogs, we’ll check out na hainteanna<\/strong> (or should we say “na haint\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong>“?) and na huncail\u00ed<\/strong> (or the occasionally used “uncail\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong>“).<\/p>\n

As it happens, there is now an official “Auntie’s Day \u00ae\u00a0” founded five years ago by Melanie Notkin, author of Savvy Auntie: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids<\/em> (http:\/\/melanienotkin.com\/<\/a>).\u00a0 I don’t know to what extent it is celebrated outside the US, but this year’s date is July 28th.\u00a0 So how would we say “Auntie’s Day” in Irish?\u00a0 Following the same pattern as “L\u00e1 na M\u00e1ithreacha \/ na nAithreacha<\/strong>,” it would be either “L\u00e1 na nAint\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong>” or “L\u00e1 na nAinteanna<\/strong>.”\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t yet recall seeing any c\u00e1rta\u00ed beannachta<\/strong> Gaeilge<\/strong> for “Auntie’s Day”–maybe this blog will provide some molta\u00ed!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before we proceed further, let’s look at the “ai” sound of “aint<\/strong>” and “aint\u00edn<\/strong>.”\u00a0 It’s like the “a” sound most American speakers use for “aunt” itself, as in “ant” (the insect).\u00a0 The typical exceptions, for the US, are New England and eastern Virginia, where “ahnt” prevails.\u00a0 Maidir le Ceanada<\/strong>, I’m not really sure which pronunciation dominates, and Britain itself presents a pretty mixed picture.\u00a0 For those who want to pursue the ant\/ahnt aspect, there are plenty of websites to check out (over 6000 hit for “pronunciation of aunt,” in quotes, in my recent search).\u00a0 I bring this up here mainly to prevent any confusion with the slang English word “ain’t,” which is, of course, completely different in sound and completely unrelated in meaning.\u00a0 I mention it simply because of the coincidental spelling similarity.\u00a0 BTW, for the English spelling, both “auntie” and “aunty” are accepted; I’ll be sticking to “auntie” here.<\/p>\n

Choosing between “L\u00e1 na nAint\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong>” and “L\u00e1 na nAinteanna<\/strong>” actually brings up a really interesting point about the aint\/aint\u00edn<\/strong> vocabulary.\u00a0 The word “aint\u00edn<\/strong>,” a diminutive form closer to “auntie,” seems to largely be replacing “aint<\/strong>” (aunt), at least in instructional materials. \u00a0In Irish, the terms seems to have leveled off, so most of the time, we simply see “aint\u00edn<\/strong>.”\u00a0 That’s what’s given in most textbooks and dictionaries these days, especially the mionfhocl\u00f3ir\u00ed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I rarely hear the word “aint<\/strong>” used in Irish conversation.\u00a0 It’s almost always “aint\u00edn<\/strong>.”\u00a0 I checked out a few famous literary\/show-biz aunts to see how their names turn out in Irish.\u00a0 The Brandon Thomas play, Charley’s Aunt<\/em>, has been translated into Irish as Aint\u00edn Sh\u00e9arlais<\/em><\/strong> (aint\u00edn<\/strong>, technically the diminutive, being used for “aunt”).\u00a0 I actually looked a bit online for “Auntie Mame” but can’t find any translation of it into Irish, not too surprisingly.\u00a0 But if it were to be translated, I assume that it would also be “aint\u00edn<\/strong>,” since the original is “auntie.”\u00a0 In fact, I’d assume any use of “auntie” would be translated as “aint\u00edn<\/strong>.”\u00a0 It’s really the translation of “aunt” or the use of “aint<\/strong>,” as such, that’s the wild card these days.<\/p>\n

I also checked out two famous aunts of the Muggle world, Petunia Dursley and her sister-in-law, Marge Eileen Dursley.\u00a0 How Marge got an Irish middle name “Eileen” might be an interesting query in and of itself, but for current purposes, suffice it to say that she’s usually known as “Aunt Marge.”\u00a0 However, early in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone<\/em> (English version), when Dudley Dursley is counting up his birthday presents, his mother refers to the gift from “Auntie Marge,” using the more childish form given the child-oriented situation.\u00a0 But the Irish translation (Harry Potter agus an \u00d3rchloch<\/em><\/strong>) uses “Aint Marge<\/strong>” for both “Auntie Marge” and “Aunt Marge,” with no use of “aint\u00edn<\/strong>” to suggest the more childish nature of the word “auntie.”\u00a0 In this case, then, the translator, M\u00e1ire Nic Mhaol\u00e1in, breaks from the trend, having “aint<\/strong>” serve for both “auntie” and “aunt,” instead of using “aint\u00edn<\/strong>” as the all-purpose word for a parent’s sibling.<\/p>\n

So to wrap up this part of the discussion, Irish has both “aint<\/strong>” and “aint\u00edn<\/strong>,” and they loosely approximate the difference between “aunt” and “auntie,” but “aint\u00edn<\/strong>” seems to be gaining ground, gradually replacing “aint<\/strong>.” \u00a0Now let’s look at some of the forms of these words, starting with “aint\u00edn<\/strong>,” since it seems to be more widely used.<\/p>\n

an aint\u00edn<\/strong>, the aunt, the auntie (although a few sources consider this a masculine noun, with the “-\u00edn” ending, typically masculine, as in “cail\u00edn<\/strong>,” the masculine noun meaning “girl,” in which case we’d have “an t-aint\u00edn<\/strong>” for “the aunt”)<\/p>\n

From here on, I’ll just translate “aint\u00edn<\/strong>” as “aunt,” since it doesn’t always have the “auntie” implication.\u00a0 Probably more typical than actually saying “the aunt” would be “my aunt,” “your aunt,” etc.\u00a0 Those forms would be:<\/p>\n

singular: m’aint\u00edn, d’aint\u00edn, a aint\u00edn<\/strong> (his aunt), a haint\u00edn<\/strong> (her aunt)<\/p>\n

plural: \u00e1r n-aint\u00edn<\/strong> (our aunt), bhur n-aint\u00edn <\/strong>(your aunt), a n-aint\u00edn<\/strong> (their aunt)<\/p>\n

na haint\u00edn<\/strong>, of the aunt (hata dearg na haint\u00edn<\/strong>, the aunt’s red hat); admittedly, we’d probably be more likely to say “hata dearg m’aint\u00edn<\/strong>” (my aunt’s red hat)<\/p>\n

aint\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong>, aunts; na haint\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong>, the aunts<\/p>\n

aint\u00edn\u00ed,<\/strong> of aunts (ge\u00e1its\u00ed mearg\u00e1nta aint\u00edn\u00ed mearg\u00e1nta<\/strong>, madcap antics of madcap aunts — a popular theme in movies and plays, it seems)<\/p>\n

na n-aint\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong>, of the aunts (ge\u00e1its\u00ed mearg\u00e1nta na n-aint\u00edn\u00ed mearg\u00e1nta<\/strong>, the madcap antics of the madcap aunts)<\/p>\n

And here’s “aint<\/strong>“:<\/p>\n

an aint<\/strong>, the aunt; also: m’aint<\/strong>, my aunt; d’aint<\/strong> (or “t’aint<\/strong>“), a aint, a haint, \u00e1r n-aint, bhur n-aint, a n-aint<\/strong><\/p>\n

ainte<\/strong>, of an aunt (gr\u00e1 ainte<\/strong>, an aunt’s love)<\/p>\n

na hainte<\/strong>, of the aunt (hata dearg na hainte<\/strong>, the aunt’s red hat; similarly “hata dearg m’ainte<\/strong>,” my aunt’s red hat)<\/p>\n

ainteanna<\/strong>, aunts; na hainteanna<\/strong>, the aunts<\/p>\n

ainteanna<\/strong>, of aunts (r\u00f3l ainteanna i ndinimic an teaghlaigh<\/strong>, role of aunts in the dynamics of the family)<\/p>\n

na n-ainteanna<\/strong>, of the aunts (ainmneacha na n-ainteanna<\/strong>, the names of the aunts)<\/p>\n

Actually, this is all just the tip of the iceberg for terms having to do with kinship.\u00a0 The word “aint\u00edn<\/strong>” is relatively new in Irish.\u00a0 The more traditional concept is “deirfi\u00far athar<\/strong>” (father’s sister), deirfi\u00far mh\u00e1thar<\/strong> (mother’s sister), etc.\u00a0 There are also some fairly archaic terms like “athaireog<\/strong>” and “br\u00e1thaireog<\/strong>” (paternal aunt), “m\u00e1ithre\u00e1n<\/strong>” and “m\u00e1ithr\u00edn<\/strong>” (maternal aunt, the second one can also mean “little mother”).<\/p>\n

I’m still on the lookout for some traditional Irish expressions about aunts who are “can\u00f3naithe<\/strong>” (sainted), \u00e0 la Katherine Hepburn’s, at least in The Philadelphia Story<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 Or perhaps one who is “meadhr\u00e1nach<\/strong>” (giddy), as H.D.A. [sic] wrote in The Avicultural Magazine, 1913, regarding the variety of species of birds, “It bewilders one, and one feels inclined to exclaim ‘My giddy aunt.’ ” \u00a0The giddiness of aunts was even further immortalized by the play of the same name, My Giddy Aunt<\/em>, set a bit mind-bogglingly in India, 1960, in the post-Raj era.\u00a0 \u00a0Any parallels in Irish to those English expressions?\u00a0 As for “materteral” (of or pertaining to an aunt, auntlike), or its variant, “materterine,” I see no trace of this as a vocabulary word in Irish.\u00a0 Focl\u00f3ir ar bith agus n\u00ed cuimhin liom aon fhocal mar sin a chloiste\u00e1il<\/strong>.\u00a0 While the Oxford English Dictionary does cite a few examples of “materteral” and “materterine,” it basically dismisses the word as “humorously pedantic.”\u00a0 Oddly, though, while “avuncular” is a more widely used word in English, I don’t see any sign of it in Irish either.\u00a0\u00a0 I suppose in both cases, one could improvise with “ar n\u00f3s aint\u00edn<\/strong>” (or “ar n\u00f3s ainte<\/strong>“) or “ar n\u00f3s uncail<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Stay tuned for the next blog and we’ll talk about several ways to say “uncle,” literally, and maybe even dive into some nathanna<\/strong> cainte<\/strong> as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) We’ve recently mentioned Mother’s Day (L\u00e1 na M\u00e1ithreacha) and Father’s Day (L\u00e1 na nAithreacha), and we’ve looked at various mother\/father expressions (e.g. m\u00e1thair na mballach, lus gan athair gan mh\u00e1thair).\u00a0 For the next couple of blogs, we’ll check out na hainteanna (or should we say “na haint\u00edn\u00ed“?) and na huncail\u00ed (or the occasionally…<\/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":[289760,315741,289761,289759,289762,315737,289785,289778,289781,289776,289777,289789,289764,289768,289763,289765,289783,289786,315740,289775,289790,289782,207459,315738,5142,315732,289773,289774,5491,315730,315728,289784,315736,289787,289788,289779,315734,289769,289770,315731,289792,6148,254991,289771,289772,6264,315735,65848,315729,6633,315733,289791,7063,289766,289767,94537],"class_list":["post-4042","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-aint","tag-aint-marge","tag-ainteanna","tag-aintin","tag-aintini","tag-antics","tag-athaireog","tag-aunt-marge","tag-aunt-petunia","tag-auntie-mame","tag-auntie-marge","tag-aunties-day","tag-aunties","tag-auntlike","tag-aunts","tag-aunty","tag-avuncular","tag-brathaireog","tag-canonaithe","tag-charleys-aunt","tag-cool-aunts","tag-dudley-dursley","tag-dursley","tag-dynamics","tag-fathers-day","tag-giddy","tag-hainteanna","tag-haintini","tag-harry-potter","tag-hda","tag-hepburn","tag-kinship","tag-madcap","tag-maithrean","tag-maithrin","tag-marge-eileen-dursley","tag-maternal","tag-materteral","tag-materterine","tag-meadhranach","tag-melanie-notkin","tag-mothers-day","tag-muggle","tag-nainteanna","tag-naintini","tag-nic-mhaolain","tag-paternal","tag-petunia","tag-philadelphia-story","tag-rowling","tag-sainted","tag-savvy-auntie","tag-term","tag-uncail","tag-uncailini","tag-uncle"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\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