{"id":5984,"date":"2014-12-01T20:18:28","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T20:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=5984"},"modified":"2018-01-01T20:01:16","modified_gmt":"2018-01-01T20:01:16","slug":"sona-or-shona-for-happy-christmas-merry-christmas-in-irish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/sona-or-shona-for-happy-christmas-merry-christmas-in-irish\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Sona’ or ‘Shona’ for ‘Happy Christmas’ (Merry Christmas) in Irish?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Crann<\/a>

Crann Nollag (http:\/\/www.publicdomainpictures.net\/view-image.php?image=84962&picture=christmas-tree<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

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

As we transition from L\u00e1 Altaithe (i Meirice\u00e1)<\/strong> to Aoine Dhubh<\/strong> to Satharn na nGn\u00f3thas Beag<\/strong> to Cibearluan<\/strong>, and now, most recently, M\u00e1irt na Carthanachta<\/strong>, we’re now ready to look at another set of holiday terms, such as “O\u00edche Nollag<\/strong>” and “An Nollaig<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

And right along with that, we have the greeting, “Nollaig Shona<\/strong>!”\u00a0 [NOL-ig HUN-uh, with the “s” silent].<\/p>\n

So let’s take a closer look at that adjective “sona<\/strong>” (with the “s” pronounced) see why it changes to “shona<\/strong>” for this phrase.<\/p>\n

And some of you might be wondering why we use “shona<\/strong>” for Christmas but “sona<\/strong>” for “birthday” (as in “L\u00e1 breithe sona duit<\/strong>,” and I can just hear you all singing along to that, well, i mo shamhla\u00edocht<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

It all boils down to … inscne<\/strong> (grammatical gender).<\/p>\n

If you’ve been doing Irish for a while, you’ve already picked up the fact that almost all nouns in Irish have grammatical gender.\u00a0 There are about 20 that don’t (my rough count, anyway), ach sin sc\u00e9al eile<\/strong>.\u00a0 If you haven’t got the basic skinny on inscne<\/strong>, you might want to check out Transparent Language’s video on YouTube first (Irish Gaelic Grammar: Gender, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5Vt6p1wF5xw)<\/p>\n

So we know that Irish nouns are either masculine or feminine (except for a few further exceptions, that switch gender from dialect to dialect).\u00a0 “Table” (bord<\/strong>) is masculine but “chair” (cathaoir<\/strong>) is feminine, and that list goes on and on.\u00a0 Sometimes it seems logical (an fear<\/strong>, the man, masculine, and an bhean<\/strong>, the woman, feminine).\u00a0 Other times it’s less logical, at least from today’s perspective (an cail\u00edn<\/strong>, the girl, masculine, but an stail<\/strong>, the stallion, feminine).<\/p>\n

At any rate, our topic today is holidays, specifically Christmas, so we’re mostly concerned with the word “Nollaig<\/strong>” (An Nollaig<\/strong>, Christmas).<\/p>\n

“An Nollaig<\/strong>” is feminine, so when we use an adjective to describe it, like “happy,” we have to use the feminine form of the adjective “happy.”\u00a0 For current purposes, that will be “shona<\/strong>” [HUN-uh, silent s].<\/p>\n

The fact that we drop the “an<\/strong>” part off of the greeting doesn’t change what we do with adjective in the greeting:<\/p>\n

Nollaig Shona<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Or to be more specific: Nollaig Shona duit!<\/strong> (to one person) and Nollaig Shona daoibh!<\/strong> (to two or more people).<\/p>\n

Or in a different dialect: Nollaig Shona dhuit!<\/strong> and Nollaig Shona dhaoibh!<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you’ve already learned to sing “L\u00e1 breithe sona duit<\/strong>,” just remember that we use “sona<\/strong>” there because “l\u00e1<\/strong>” is masculine, and “sona<\/strong>” agrees with “l\u00e1<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

It’s interesting that a number of Irish words for major holidays are also feminine (An Ch\u00e1isc<\/strong>, Easter, mar<\/strong> shampla<\/strong>). \u00a0So we might think “shona<\/strong>” would also apply.\u00a0 But for Easter, the typical “happy” greeting isn’t with any form of “sona<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Instead, people typically say “Beannachta\u00ed na C\u00e1sca ort<\/strong>” (lit. the blessings of Easter on you).\u00a0 So we don’t have the “sona”\/”shona”<\/strong> issue there.\u00a0 But if you wanted to literally say, “Happy Easter,” you’d use “shona<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Thanksgiving greetings are probably fairly scarce in Irish, since it’s not an Irish holiday, but if you were going to say “Happy Thanksgiving,” the word “sona<\/strong>” would match up with “l\u00e1<\/strong>,” which is masculine.\u00a0 L\u00e1 Altaithe Sona!<\/strong>\u00a0 And certainly among the Irish-speaking community in the U.S. or Canada, this would be a reasonably typical thing to say.<\/p>\n

“Happy Halloween,” again not a particularly traditional phrase in Irish, would be “O\u00edche Shamhna Shona!”<\/strong> because “o\u00edche<\/strong>” is feminine.\u00a0 As it happens, “Samhain<\/strong>,” which changes to “Shamhna<\/strong>” here, is also feminine, but that’s not what governs the phrase here.<\/p>\n

At any rate, to sum up:<\/p>\n

Nollaig Shona duit!<\/strong>, but<\/p>\n

L\u00e1 breithe sona duit!<\/strong><\/p>\n

For some further discussion on “happy” vs. “merry,” you might want to check out a previous blog in this series: Happy vs. Merry and All That! (Sona, Meidhreach, srl.<\/strong>)<\/a> Posted on 12. Dec, 2010 by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a>\u00a0 (https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/happy-vs-merry-and-all-that-sona-meidhreach-srl\/)<\/p>\n

For a little more on “Giving Tuesday” in Ireland, you might want to check out their website (http:\/\/givingtuesday.ie\/). \u00a0But I don’t see any actual Irish language there.\u00a0 In the phrase above, M\u00e1irt na Carthanachta<\/strong>, I patterned the phrase for “Giving” on “Seachtain N\u00e1isi\u00fanta Carthanachta<\/strong>” (National Giving Week), from “carthanacht<\/strong>” ([KAHR-hun-ukht, first “t” silent], love, charity, friendliness, friendship).\u00a0 “M\u00e1irt na Tabhartha<\/strong>” \u00a0[… TOW-ur-huh] and “M\u00e1irt an Tabhartais<\/strong>” of course, would be other possibilities. \u00a0So far, I don’t see any of these phrase for “Giving Tuesday” in Irish online.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, an bhfuil siopad\u00f3ireacht Nollag le d\u00e9anamh agat<\/strong>?\u00a0 In an upcoming blog, we’ll decide whether to go “-ig<\/strong>,” “-ag<\/strong>,” or “-ig\u00ed<\/strong>” when talking about Christmas.\u00a0 \u00a0Hopefully that will prove to be a POPular topic.\u00a0 Sorry, James Newell, couldn’t resist — there are so many examples of “-ig\u00ed<\/strong>” (and “-\u00edg\u00ed<\/strong>“) in Irish, I knew an Iggy Pop reference would come up sooner or later.\u00a0 Sl\u00e1n go f\u00f3ill — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) As we transition from L\u00e1 Altaithe (i Meirice\u00e1) to Aoine Dhubh to Satharn na nGn\u00f3thas Beag to Cibearluan, and now, most recently, M\u00e1irt na Carthanachta, we’re now ready to look at another set of holiday terms, such as “O\u00edche Nollag” and “An Nollaig.” And right along with that, we have the greeting, “Nollaig…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":5987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[365096,43,365097,5483,13059,6273,6274,365095,111625,13056],"class_list":["post-5984","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-aoine-dhubh","tag-christmas","tag-cibearluan","tag-happy","tag-merry","tag-nollag","tag-nollaig","tag-satharn-na-ngnothas-beag","tag-shona","tag-sona"],"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