{"id":557,"date":"2010-12-16T00:21:34","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T00:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=557"},"modified":"2012-01-01T22:58:15","modified_gmt":"2012-01-01T22:58:15","slug":"daidi-no-athair-na-nollag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/daidi-no-athair-na-nollag\/","title":{"rendered":"Daid\u00ed n\u00f3 Athair (na Nollag)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We recently addressed the \u201chappy\u201d vs. \u201cmerry\u201d distinction for Christmas greetings, discussing the use of \u201csona<\/strong>\u201d (or shona<\/strong>), faoi sh\u00e9an<\/strong> and faoi mhaise<\/strong>, as well as non-Christmas terms translated as \u201chappy,\u201d like dea<\/strong>-, or which may function like \u201chappy\u201d lie \u201cbeannachta\u00ed\u201d <\/strong>(lit. blessing).\u00a0 Some day we\u2019ll deal with a slew of other \u201chappy\u201d words, like \u00e1thasach<\/strong> and l\u00fachaireach<\/strong> and gliondrach<\/strong>, ach i ndiaidh na Nollag<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s look at another pair of seasonal words, Daid\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong> and Athair na Nollag<\/strong>.\u00a0 And for good measure, San Niocl\u00e1s<\/strong>.\u00a0 But first let\u2019s talk about the word Santa Claus itself, and why neither of the typical Irish equivalents are actually based on that phrase.\u00a0 As an English word, \u201cSanta Claus\u201d is most closely related to the Dutch \u201cSinterklaas<\/em>\u201d (St. Nicholas, referring to Nicholas of Myra, 280-342\/345 AD),\u00a0\u00a0 So \u201cSanta Claus\u201d joins a small but noticeable group of American English words of Dutch origin, like \u201ccookie\u201d (koekje<\/em>) and \u201cstoop\u201d (stoep<\/em>, as a door step).<\/p>\n

Irish has its own way of saying St. Nicholas (San Niocl\u00e1s<\/strong>) but this is not nearly as typical as saying \u201cDaid\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong>\u201d or \u201cAthair na Nollag<\/strong>,\u201d when discussing Christmas customs.\u00a0 There\u2019s no particular reason why Irish would have borrowed their word for this folk\/religious figure from the Dutch, whereas, in America, it was New Amsterdam, Haarlem, the \u201cbouwerij,\u201d and all that.<\/p>\n

The American term \u201cSanta Claus\u201d (or \u201cSanty\u201d) \u00a0has become quite well known in Ireland, and it may be displacing \u201cFather Christmas\u201d in England, ach sin sc\u00e9al eile<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So getting back to \u201cDaid\u00ed<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cAthair<\/strong>,\u201d let\u2019s look at some figures for their usage.\u00a0 I Googled \u201cDaid\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong>\u201d and initially got an amazing 185,000 hits, which Google then narrowed down to a practical 375 (eliminating some duplicates, etc.).\u00a0 I also checked \u201cDeaide na Nollag<\/strong>,\u201d since \u201cDeaide<\/strong>\u201d is another way to say \u201cDaddy.\u201d\u00a0 That brought in another 32 hits, which were then narrowed down to 14.<\/p>\n

Searching for \u201cAthair na Nollag<\/strong>,\u201d I initially got 800 hits, which Google then narrowed down to 56.\u00a0 That gives us about eight times as much usage of \u201cDaid\u00ed<\/strong>\u201d as \u201cAthair<\/strong>\u201d for this purpose.<\/p>\n

We seem to have a trend here, as far as Irish Gaelic usage can be determined from Internet searches.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve said before, this type of searching and comparing is not \u201cbun agus barr an sc\u00e9il<\/strong>,\u201d but it confirms the trend I thought I\u2019d find — more use of \u201cDaid\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong>\u201d than \u201cAthair na Nollag<\/strong>,\u201d at least in contemporary terms.<\/p>\n

What do we see for \u201cSanta Claus\u201d in Irish language children\u2019s literature or Christmas products?\u00a0 Well, there\u2019s not a whole lot to look at, actually printed in Irish, but I take some cues from C\u00e1it N\u00ed Dhuibhir\u2019s charming oversized picture book, Daid\u00ed na Nollag<\/em>. The title mostly says it all \u2013 \u201cDaid\u00ed<\/strong>,\u201d not \u201cAthair<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 Inside, we see a picture of the main child character, Liam, reading a book called \u201cSan Niocl\u00e1s<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 But when Liam speaks to Santa, it\u2019s \u201ca Dhaid\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 The book suggests that children think of \u201cDaid\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong>\u201d but might read about the historic figure as \u201cSan Niocl\u00e1s<\/strong>,\u201d a fair enough assessment of the situation.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure one could do a much more intensive survey of these usage issues and what they reflect (folklore, religious tradition, linguistic borrowing, and the spread of the American image of the plump, betrousered Santa Claus, as popularized first by cartoonist Thomas Nast and then by Coca-Cola ads).\u00a0 But this brief discussion should serve our purposes.\u00a0 So, in summary, I\u2019d suggest:<\/p>\n

Daid\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong>, for most purposes<\/p>\n

Athair na Nollag<\/strong>, slightly more formal<\/p>\n

San Niocl\u00e1s<\/strong>, for historical or biographical discussion<\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, there isn\u2019t really a tradition in Irish of incorporating the term \u201cSan Niocl\u00e1s<\/strong>\u201d into popular Christmas, umm, jingles, as English has done with \u201cSt. Nick,\u201d \u201cJolly Old St. Nicholas,\u201d etc.\u00a0 So using \u201cSan Niocl\u00e1s<\/strong>\u201d does seem to be primarily in more of a documentary context, or in the naming of schools and churches..<\/p>\n

Finally, I picked a sample basic sentence to search for, just to check for the phrase \u201cSanta Claus\u201d itself being used in an Irish language context.\u00a0 Grand total?\u00a0 Three hits, duplicating each other, for \u201cT\u00e1 Santa Claus ag teacht<\/strong>,\u201d about what I expected.\u00a0 Given the pervasiveness of the American Santa image, I\u2019m not at all surprised to see this.\u00a0 But, certainly, \u201cDaid\u00ed na Nollag\u201d<\/strong> as a phrase seems to be holding its own.<\/p>\n

And if you noticed that the word for Christmas in these phrases has changed slightly, you were right on.\u00a0 \u201cNollaig<\/strong>\u201d becomes \u201dNollag<\/strong>\u201d (with no \u201ci\u201d) for the possessive form.\u00a0 Another special feature of the word \u201cNollaig<\/strong>\u201d is that it often takes the definite article \u201can<\/strong>,\u201d as in \u201can Nollaig<\/strong>\u201d (lit. the Christmas).\u00a0 This \u201can<\/strong>\u201d changes to \u201cna<\/strong>\u201d when we\u2019re showing possession (Daid\u00ed na Nollag, Athair na Nollag, m\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong>).\u00a0 When the word \u201cna<\/strong>\u201d is dropped, the term is more general, like \u201cc\u00e1rta Nollag<\/strong>\u201d (a Christmas card) or \u201ccar\u00fal Nollag\u201d<\/strong> (a Christmas carol).<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the skinny on our plump jolly Santa and the lanky Father Christmas, who\u2019s traditionally depicted as tall and thin and dressed in vestments like a bishop\u2019s.\u00a0 Any contributions from na h\u00c9ireannaigh ar an liosta seo <\/strong>regarding how you have used our Christmas terms, as Gaeilge<\/strong>, as a child would be welcome.\u00a0 Or, for that matter, how you\u2019re using them today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We recently addressed the \u201chappy\u201d vs. \u201cmerry\u201d distinction for Christmas greetings, discussing the use of \u201csona\u201d (or shona), faoi sh\u00e9an and faoi mhaise, as well as non-Christmas terms translated as \u201chappy,\u201d like dea-, or which may function like \u201chappy\u201d lie \u201cbeannachta\u00ed\u201d (lit. blessing).\u00a0 Some day we\u2019ll deal with a slew of other \u201chappy\u201d words, like…<\/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":[4136,9755,13084,13085,9754,4890,9753,3652,13086],"class_list":["post-557","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-an-nollaig","tag-athair-na-nollag","tag-bouwerij","tag-coekje","tag-daddy-christmas","tag-daidi-na-nollag","tag-father-christmas","tag-sinterklaas","tag-stoep"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557","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=557"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1573,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557\/revisions\/1573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}