{"id":4465,"date":"2013-10-06T20:19:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-06T20:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=4465"},"modified":"2016-07-14T01:41:42","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T01:41:42","slug":"an-litir-v-in-aibitir-na-gaeilge-the-letter-v-in-the-irish-alphabet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/an-litir-v-in-aibitir-na-gaeilge-the-letter-v-in-the-irish-alphabet\/","title":{"rendered":"An Litir ‘V’ in Aib\u00edtir na Gaeilge (The Letter ‘V’ in the Irish Alphabet)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Some of you may have been surprised to see the combination “tv,” followed by a vowel, in the recent post about “tvu\u00edteanna<\/strong>” and “tvu\u00edte\u00e1il<\/strong>” ( \u00a0https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/how-to-say-tweet-and-twitter-in-irish\/<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0Admittedly, it’s not at all common in Irish, or, for that matter, in any other languages that I’ve been able to check (with Russian city and river “Tver” being the only example I can readily find outside of Irish).\u00a0 It is also worth noting that there are various other Irish spellings of “tweet” in the modern social-media sense, including “tu\u00edt<\/strong>” and “tbhaoit<\/strong>,” both pronounced more or less like “tweet.”<\/p>\n

But the “tv+vowel” issue does remind us of a few important aspects of Irish.\u00a0 First, there are some consonant combinations that are reasonably common in Irish (like “tn” and “dl,” and their lenited forms, “thn” and “dhl”) but not at all common in English–perhaps non-existent.\u00a0 Second, while the letter “v” is not very typical in Irish, it does occur, mostly in loanwords (“svae,” mar shampla<\/strong>)\u00a0and in a few other unusual combinations.<\/p>\n

First, let’s look briefly at “tn” and “dl.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There aren’t many examples, but there are enough to give us some good samples:<\/p>\n

tn\u00e1ite<\/strong> [TNAW-chuh], worn down, exhausted, collapsed,\u00a0 jaded.\u00a0 I wouldn’t say that this a word I’ve heard used real often in everyday speech, but it serves our purposes here.\u00a0 Lenited, it would become “thn\u00e1ite<\/strong>” [HNAW-chuh]. The first “t” is silent, leaving you with a real quick, one-syllable “hnuh” sound.\u00a0 I think I can safely say that I can’t think of a sound like this in English, or, for that matter, in any other language that I know.\u00a0 So where would we use it?\u00a0 Bhuel<\/strong>, for some reason, the first example that comes to mind is “si\u00f3g thn\u00e1ite<\/strong>” (an exhausted fairy).\u00a0 And when would we say that?\u00a0 Well, ummm, I see that Jerry Twedt (note the interesting surname) and David Grote used the phrase ‘wornout fairy godmother” in their play, “Three Fairy Godmothers.”\u00a0 I guess it wouldn’t take too much more to gaelicize that!<\/p>\n

And how about the “dl” and “dhl” combinations?<\/p>\n

dl\u00ed<\/strong> [djlee, sort of like “Ridgely” without the “ri-“], law: a dhl\u00ed<\/strong> [yuhlee] f\u00e9in<\/strong>, his own law, his own procedure (the “dh” would also occur in “mo dhl\u00ed f\u00e9in<\/strong>” or “do dhl\u00ed f\u00e9in<\/strong>,” but not in the phrase “a dl\u00ed f\u00e9in<\/strong>,” which would mean “her own law\/procedure”).\u00a0 What to do with the sound “yuhlee” ?\u00a0 Admittedly it’s tricky, but try to drop the “uh” part out as much as you can and you’ll get the sound.\u00a0 The word “dhl\u00ed<\/strong>” is still just one syllable, so it’s not like “yuh-lee.”<\/p>\n

Hmm, the Irish for “dirndl”?\u00a0 \u00c1bhar blag eile<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

And this brings us round to our other main point of the day, words like “svae,” “svaeid,” “Svaha\u00edlis,”<\/strong> and, yes, “svaistice.<\/strong>”\u00a0\u00a0 So if you were surprised to see the “tv-” of “tvu\u00edt<\/strong>,” remember that there is a related pattern in these loanwords.\u00a0 At least these are relatively easy to pronounce, if we think of names like “Sven” and “Svetlana.”<\/p>\n

svae<\/strong> [svay], sway, victory, or even “hegemony,” as in “svae cult\u00fartha<\/strong>” (cultural hegemony!)<\/p>\n

Svaha\u00edlis<\/strong> [sva-HEEL-ish], Swahili<\/p>\n

svaistice<\/strong> [SVA-shtik-uh], swastika<\/p>\n

and there are two (comhair iad<\/strong>!) words “svaeid<\/strong>” in Irish:<\/p>\n

svaeid<\/strong>, plural: svaeideanna<\/strong>, a swede (lower-case), a type of turnip<\/p>\n

svaeid<\/strong>, no plural: suede (a type of leather)<\/p>\n

As for “v” on its own at the beginning of a word, there are, I would say, a couple hundred such words, at most, in Irish, including “vailint\u00edn<\/strong>,” “v\u00e1lsa<\/strong>,” “veain<\/strong>” (a van), “vinil<\/strong>,” “v\u00f3d<\/strong>” (woad), and, in case you were champing at the bit for it, “vuibhearn<\/strong>” [VIV-ern], meaning “a wyvern.”<\/p>\n

So getting back to “tvu\u00edt<\/strong>,” it’s quite reasonable to have such a word in Irish.\u00a0\u00a0 But I must admit, “tbhaoit<\/strong>” does tickle my fancy.\u00a0 Bhuel<\/strong>, guess I gotta vamoose, – R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Some of you may have been surprised to see the combination “tv,” followed by a vowel, in the recent post about “tvu\u00edteanna” and “tvu\u00edte\u00e1il” ( \u00a0https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/how-to-say-tweet-and-twitter-in-irish\/).\u00a0\u00a0Admittedly, it’s not at all common in Irish, or, for that matter, in any other languages that I’ve been able to check (with Russian city and river “Tver”…<\/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":[229772,302897,302898,302899,298708,298626,2603],"class_list":["post-4465","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-svae","tag-svaeid","tag-tbhaoit","tag-tuit","tag-tvuit","tag-tweet","tag-twitter"],"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