![\"Cat](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2013\/12\/770px-Gato_enervado_pola_presencia_dun_can-cat-arching-back-wikipedia-e1386930522149.jpg\")
<\/a>Cat ag cur droinne air f\u00e9in (grianghraf: Luis Miguel Bugallo S\u00e1nchez, nasc th\u00edos)<\/p><\/div>\n
Ar dt\u00fas b\u00e1ire, n\u00ed peata “Leamhanfhir” \u00e9.\u00a0 N\u00f3 “peata Fhear an Leamhain,” m\u00e1s fearr leat mar sin \u00e9.<\/b>\u00a0 So, no, the Mothman of West Virginia (and of “Prophecies” fame) didn’t suddenly become a Hiberno-Francophone and adopt a (presumably wing\u00e9d) “moth-cat,” as it were.\u00a0 Fad m’eolais, ar a laghad.\u00a0 M\u00e1 t\u00e1 t\u00fa ag iarraidh a bheith cinnte, cuir thusa th\u00fa f\u00e9in an cheist air.\u00a0 T\u00e1 beag\u00e1n fait\u00eds orm roimhe<\/b>.\u00a0 And if you want to check out the lepidopterological possibilities for “cat,” please see the note which I have put below, since it is just a “beag\u00e1in\u00edn<\/b>” tangential.<\/p>\n
Why “moth<\/b>-” then?\u00a0 It’s used here as a prefix meaning “male” and is not, in my experience, all that widely used.\u00a0 But nevertheless, it gives us one more possibility for “tomcat.”<\/p>\n
A note re: pronunciation.\u00a0 First, we have the usual coterie of silent consonants (I almost said “cattery” there, but caught myself just in time).\u00a0 The “t” of “moth<\/strong>-” is completely silent, so this syllable is nothing like English “moth” or “mother.”\u00a0 Not that there’s any reason why it should be–it’s just the tendency to see words from one’s native language when the same combination of letters shows up in a new language (other Irish\/English examples: teach<\/b>\/teach, fear<\/b>\/fear, bean<\/b>\/bean, etc.).\u00a0 There is still a slight breathy sound in the Irish “moth<\/b>” because of the “h” so\u00a0 “moth<\/b>” sounds slightly different from the Irish “mo<\/b>” (my).<\/p>\n As for the “ch,” it’s the guttural (throaty) “ch” sound of “chutzpah” and “challah” (the braided bread), aka for the teangeola\u00edocht<\/b>-minded, the voiceless velar fricative.\u00a0 This sound is often transcribed “kh” to distinguish it from English words like “chew” and “church,” and I’ve followed suit.\u00a0 In IPA, it would, of course, be \/x\/, but that can set up its own Xerox-ox-xylophone paradox for those who haven’t studied IPA.\u00a0 If you’re struggling with “chutzpah” or have always pronounced it “hutzpah” (fricativelessly), I can simply recommend the most entertaining explanation of the sound that I know, as sung<\/i> by Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett: http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=v3XB4XXYhDs<\/a><\/p>\n And for French speakers, please remember that also, yes, French “chat<\/i>” and Irish “cat<\/b>” are etymologically related, as are Welsh “cath<\/i>” and German “Katze<\/i>” and more, but the Irish “chat<\/b>” [khaht] is simply the lenited form of “cat<\/b>,” not the basic form.\u00a0 You also find the lenition (indicated in spelling by adding the “h”) in phrases like “a chat<\/b>” (his cat), “do chat<\/b>” (your cat), “ar chat<\/b>” (on a cat), etc.<\/p>\n The short “o” sound of “moth<\/b>” is actually a bit tricky to transcribe.\u00a0 It’s like the “o” of Irish “mo<\/b>” and “pota<\/b>.”\u00a0 But if I transcribe it as [mo], people tend to pronounce it like the name “Mo” as in Mo Willems or the “mo” of “slow-mo.”\u00a0 So I’ve settled for a sort of non-descript “uh.”\u00a0 In the “Irish-modified” IPA system, as used in Focl\u00f3ir P\u00f3ca<\/i> and various other resources, the symbol is simply \/o\/, which is “official” but maybe not super clear for an English speaker.\u00a0\u00a0 For any German speakers out there, please remember this “uh” in the transcription is not like the German “Huhn<\/i>” or the surname “Kuhn.”<\/b><\/p>\n So, all that just for pronunciation!\u00a0 But then, “mothchat<\/b>” is a deceptively simple-looking word and it’s good to (cat)nip any English “moth,” French “chat<\/i>,” or plain ol’ “chat” associations in the bud.\u00a0 I include “chat” there, as in “online talk” since it has become such an international word, a bhu\u00ed leis an Idirl\u00edon<\/b>.<\/p>\n All of which means, sound-wise, it would be rather fun to say “my tomcat” using “mothchat<\/b>” as our basic word:<\/p>\n mo mhothchat<\/b> [muh wuh-khaht], my tomcat.\u00a0 As if anyone can really own a cat, ach sin sc\u00e9al eile<\/b>.<\/p>\n Of course, there are other ways to say “my tomcat,” using the more standard vocabulary:<\/p>\n mo chat fireann<\/b> [muh khaht FIRzh-un], lit. my male cat<\/p>\n m’fhearchat<\/b> [mar-khaht, with the “a” of “mar” like “marry,” not like “March,” i.e. it’s the sound transcribed in IPA as \/\u00e6\/]. \u00a0Very literally this means “my man-cat” (!).\u00a0 Remember, with this one, the “fh” is silent, as it is in phrases like “a fhiacail<\/b>” (uh EE-uk-kil], his tooth,” and “A fheara!<\/b>” [uh AR-uh], which is “Men!,” in direct address, especially as proclaimed by Fionn Mac Cumhail and similar characters in folktales.<\/p>\n Alls\u00fan (l\u00e9itheoir ar an liosta seo<\/b>) wrote in with another “tomcat” term (go raibh maith agat, a Alls\u00fan<\/strong>):<\/p>\n bald\u00fain<\/b>, which I see sometimes written in English as “baldoon.”<\/p>\n Which somehow makes me want to sing, “There goes Baldoon … and he’s a solid, errm, cat.” \u00a0Apologies to Edward Harrigan there, but him being Irish, I’m sure he would have taken it in stride.<\/p>\n All of which would be more apropos if a cat, possibly Data’s Spot, were being beamed somewhere and temporarily had his m\u00f3il\u00edn\u00ed <\/b>scattered.\u00a0 But then, come to think of it, Spot turned out not to be a “fearchat<\/b>” after all, right.? Bh\u00ed \u00e1l pisc\u00edn\u00ed aici (mar dhea) san Eipeas\u00f3id “Geineasas” (An Ch\u00e9ad Ghl\u00fain Eile, S\u00e9as\u00far 7, Eipeas\u00f3id 19).<\/b><\/p>\n An interesting thing about the word “bald\u00fain<\/b>,” though — I haven’t yet found it in any Irish language dictionary, hard copy or online.\u00a0 Maybe there’s a slight spelling variation, but I’ve tried several possibilities.\u00a0\u00a0 Given the existing “-in” ending, I’m wondering what the plural and possessive forms would be in Irish.\u00a0 Heaven forfend that it would turn out to be like “an ghl\u00fain<\/b>” (the knee, the generation — a sc\u00e9al f\u00e9in ag an bp\u00e9ire focal sin, is d\u00f3cha<\/b>), “An Bhur\u00fain<\/b>” (Burundi), or “An Vall\u00fain<\/b>” (Wallonia), and be (grammatically), feminine!\u00a0 Bhuel<\/b>, if so, it would at least join “stail<\/b>” (stallion), which is also grammatically feminine in Irish.\u00a0 “Bandia<\/b>” (goddess), on the other hand, is grammatically masculine, while “banab<\/b>” (abbess, lit. “woman-abbot”) is grammatically feminine, so the bottom line, I suppose, is that grammatical gender in Irish is a mixed bag (maybe the one the proverbial cat escaped from).\u00a0 More like a “bosca Phand\u00f3ra<\/b>,” though, if you ask me, the more I think about it.\u00a0 Smaoineamh ar bith ag duine ar bith agaibh faoi dh\u00edochlaonadh an fhocail “bald\u00fain”<\/b>?<\/p>\n And finally, a third term, which can apply to male or female cats, young or old, and also, to, um, \u00a0people behaving like cats or perhaps other animals:<\/p>\n cr\u00fab\u00e1la\u00ed<\/b> [kroo-BAWL-ee], a clawer or pawer, from “cr\u00fab\u00e1il<\/b>” (to claw or paw, naturally enough).\u00a0 “Claw” or “paw” — I guess “veilbhit<\/strong>” or “an ionga \u00ed f\u00e9in<\/b>” makes all the difference.<\/p>\n Hmmm, I thought I’d get to “caterwauling” in this blog, since it would seem fitting, but space is running out so that’ll have to wait for blag \u00e9igin eile<\/b>.\u00a0 BTW, that’s not “an sp\u00e1s amuigh<\/b>,” where Miley Cyrus’s cute lost crying cat (cait\u00edn gleoite caillte ag caoineadh<\/b>, as I dubbed it) is probably still safely ensconced.\u00a0 That is, if anything can be safely ensconced while free-floating sa sp\u00e1s amuigh, gan chulaith sp\u00e1is.\u00a0 Sp\u00e1s don bhlag seo at\u00e1 i gceist.\u00a0 Ar an n\u00f3ta sin, SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n N\u00f3ta<\/b>: If you really want to say “moth-cat,” as in a hypothetical pet of Mothman, presumably you’d say “*leamhanchat<\/b>,” since “leamhan<\/b>” [Ly<\/sup>OW-un] means “moth.”\u00a0\u00a0 Note that this word is “fada<\/b>-less.”\u00a0 “*Leamh\u00e1nchat<\/b>,” perhaps an even more far-fetched word than “leamhanchat<\/b>,” would mean “*elm-cat” (!), based on “leamh\u00e1n<\/b>” [ly<\/sup>ow-awn] “elm.”\u00a0 And a double fada<\/b> caveat, “*le\u00e1mh\u00e1nchat<\/b>” would presumably mean something like “a cat made out of flimsy cloth,” perhaps a toy, based on “le\u00e1mh\u00e1n<\/b>” [Ly<\/sup>AW-wawn], “flimsy cloth.”\u00a0 But that, as you may have seen coming, is all made out of whole cloth, although the elements of the compounds are sound and usable in their own way (ite ag na leamhain<\/b>, moth-eaten; crann leamh\u00e1in<\/b>, elm-tree, srl.<\/b>)<\/p>\n