{"id":528,"date":"2010-11-27T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2010-11-27T06:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=528"},"modified":"2010-11-30T06:15:10","modified_gmt":"2010-11-30T06:15:10","slug":"suil-siar-seimhiu-agus-ainmfhocail-bhaininscneacha-the-infamous-lenition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/suil-siar-seimhiu-agus-ainmfhocail-bhaininscneacha-the-infamous-lenition\/","title":{"rendered":"S\u00fail Siar: S\u00e9imhi\u00fa agus Ainmfhocail Bhaininscneacha (The Infamous Lenition)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was going to move right on to talking about \u201carbhar<\/strong>\u201d (arbhar Indiach<\/strong>), the other main ingredient of the Native American dish, succotash, which was discussed in the previous blog.\u00a0 But it occurred to me that the list of feminine nouns, all those types of p\u00f3nair\u00ed<\/strong> (beans), would make a good opportunity to practice \u201cs\u00e9imhi\u00fa<\/strong>\u201d with adjectives and after the definite article.\u00a0 Also, there always seems to be interest in pronunciation tips, so I\u2019ll give my \u201crough guide\u201d phonetics with all of these.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are some of the beans we discussed, in their singular form, and with the definite article.\u00a0 As you can see, all of the adjectives except \u201cleathan<\/strong>\u201d (broad) and \u201cathfhriochta<\/strong>\u201d (refried) get the letter \u201ch\u201d added \u00a0in the singular, after the initial consonant.\u00a0 Vowels cannot be lenited.\u00a0 For some speakers there a slight change in the sound of an \u201cl\u201d where lenition would occur, but it\u2019s not marked in writing and it\u2019s limited to certain dialects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also note that the word p\u00f3naire<\/strong> (a bean) is lenited after the definite article \u201can<\/strong>\u201d (the).\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because it\u2019s feminine and singular.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0As for why these changes occur in the first place, that\u2019s a much deeper question, which would require a much longer answer.\u00a0 Suffice it to say, for now, that while in some languages the definite article itself changes to show gender (le\/la <\/strong><\/em>i bhFraincis, mar shampla<\/strong>), in Irish, it\u2019s what happens after the definite article that shows gender. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cAn<\/strong>\u201d is used before both masculine and feminine nouns (an ph\u00f3naire<\/strong>, f; an fear<\/strong>, m).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the word<\/strong> \u201cp\u00f3naire\u201d <\/strong>itself.\u00a0 To say \u201cthe bean,\u201d you add the definite article (an), and lenite \u00a0the main word.\u00a0 The initial \u201cp\u201d changes to \u201cph,\u201d which has an \u201cf\u201d sound: <\/strong><\/p>\n

p\u00f3naire<\/strong> [POHN-irzh<\/sup>-uh], a bean; <\/strong>an ph\u00f3naire<\/strong> [un FOHN-irzh<\/sup>-uh], the bean<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

an ph\u00f3naire mh\u00f3r<\/strong> [wor], the butter (lima) bean<\/strong><\/p>\n

an ph\u00f3naire fhrancach <\/strong>[RAHNK-ukh, silent \u201cf\u201d]<\/strong>, the French bean<\/p>\n

an ph\u00f3naire chaife <\/strong>[KHAF-eh]<\/strong>,<\/strong> the coffee bean<\/p>\n

an ph\u00f3naire leathan<\/strong> [Ly<\/sup>A-hun] \u00a0the broad bean<\/p>\n

an ph\u00f3naire shoighe <\/strong>[HOY-uh]<\/strong>, <\/strong>the soy (soya) bean<\/p>\n

an ph\u00f3naire bh\u00e1c\u00e1ilte<\/strong>, [WAWK-awl-tchuh] the baked bean (yup \u2013 just one!)<\/strong><\/p>\n

an ph\u00f3naire athfhriochta<\/strong> [AH-RIKH-tuh], the refried bean (probably even harder to isolate just one than with baked beans, but after all, this is just practice)<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the skinny on s\u00e9imhi\u00fa, at least as far as our examples go.\u00a0 “““““““““““““`\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

And in case you\u2019re wondering about that rather long adjective in the title of this blog, bhaininscneacha<\/strong>, it actually breaks down into logical components (Spock sona<\/strong>!).\u00a0 And that makes it a lot easier to pronounce and remember.\u00a0 The word basically consists of a prefix indicating feminine (similar to the prefix \u201cban<\/strong>-\u201c used in words like \u201cbanab<\/strong>,\u201d \u201cbandraoi,<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cbanaltra<\/strong>\u201d), the core word \u201cinscne<\/strong>\u201d (gender), and an adjective ending, \u201c-ach<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 Then there\u2019s an ending added to the ending because the word is in its plural form\u00a0 — that\u2019s the final \u201c-a.<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0 Jumping back to the beginning of the word, we have s\u00e9imhi\u00fa<\/strong> (lenition), but not for the same reasons we just finished discussing.\u00a0 This time it\u2019s because we have an adjective modifying a masculine noun whose plural form ends in a slender consonant, specifically, the \u201cl\u201d of the \u201c-il<\/strong>\u201d ending.\u00a0\u00a0 So we could block the word out like this:<\/p>\n

bhain + inscne + ach + a<\/p>\n

To pronounce it, remember the \u201cbh\u201d is like a \u201cw\u201d sound here and the \u201cch\u201d is like the German \u201cBuch\u201d (transcribed as \u201ckh\u201d):<\/p>\n

WAHN-INSH-knukh-uh<\/p>\n

The first two syllables have equal stress (emphasis) because the prefix (eg. WAHN) generally gets the same emphasis as the original first syllable (eg. INSH) \u00a0in compound words.\u00a0 Same thing happens with \u201cdrochaimsir<\/strong>\u201d [DROKH-AM-shirzh<\/sup>] and \u201cpr\u00edomhchathair<\/strong>\u201d [PREEV-KHAH-hirzh<\/sup>].\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do I hear a lone voice in the wilderness asking, \u201cWhy \u2018bhain<\/strong>-\u2018 and not \u2018bhan<\/strong>-?\u201d\u00a0 Ceist mhaith<\/strong>!\u00a0 Sometimes the prefixes follow the rules of vowel harmony (caol le caol agus leathan le leathan<\/strong>), but increasingly, these days they don\u2019t.\u00a0 In this case, \u201cbhain<\/strong>-\u201c has added the letter \u201cI\u201d to agree with the initial \u201cI\u201d of \u201cinscne<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 \u2018Nuf said for now on that, I believe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just for contrast, in the singular, the word would be:<\/p>\n

baininscneach<\/strong> [BAHN-INSH-knukh]<\/p>\n

and the phrase would be:<\/p>\n

ainmfhocal baininscneach<\/strong> [AN-yim-OK-ul BAHN-INSH-knukh], a feminine noun<\/p>\n

So, next time, back to \u201car ais go succotash\u201d (hey \u2013 it rhymes!) and the answer to the ceist<\/strong> about the carachtair chart\u00fain<\/strong>.\u00a0 See you soon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was going to move right on to talking about \u201carbhar\u201d (arbhar Indiach), the other main ingredient of the Native American dish, succotash, which was discussed in the previous blog.\u00a0 But it occurred to me that the list of feminine nouns, all those types of p\u00f3nair\u00ed (beans), would make a good opportunity to practice \u201cs\u00e9imhi\u00fa\u201d…<\/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":[12791,12790,12795,12796,12799,12798,12792,12797,12794,12793],"class_list":["post-528","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ainmfhocail-bhaininscneach","tag-ainmfhocal-baininscneach","tag-an-phonaire","tag-an-phonaire-athfhriochta","tag-an-phonaire-fhrancach","tag-an-phonaire-leathan","tag-an-phonaire-mhor","tag-an-phonaire-shoighe","tag-the-butter-bean","tag-the-lima-bean"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528","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=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":532,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions\/532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}