{"id":6056,"date":"2014-12-20T21:41:20","date_gmt":"2014-12-20T21:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=6056"},"modified":"2015-05-26T17:22:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T17:22:09","slug":"eve-vs-evening-in-irish-christmas-eve-vs-a-nice-evening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/eve-vs-evening-in-irish-christmas-eve-vs-a-nice-evening\/","title":{"rendered":"Eve vs. Evening in Irish (‘Christmas Eve’ vs. ‘a nice evening’)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

O\u00edche Nollag<\/strong>… it has always struck me as interesting that the Irish phrase for “Christmas Eve” actually uses the word for “night” (o\u00edche<\/strong>), not the usual word for “evening,” which is “tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Usual? \u00a0It’s actually an intriguing question – what exactly is “evening” in Irish, since “tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>” can also mean “afternoon.”\u00a0 Sc\u00e9al cine\u00e1l casta \u00e9 sin, d\u00e9arfainn.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But given the season that’s in it, let’s look at “Christmas Eve” first.\u00a0 Then maybe the next most celebrated “evening” in the traditional Irish calendar, O\u00edche Shamhna<\/strong>.\u00a0 And, of course, New Year’s Eve, O\u00edche Chinn Bhliana<\/strong>.\u00a0 And then I’ll try to make a dent in the n\u00f3in – iarn\u00f3in – tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na – o\u00edche<\/strong> continuum, as space permits.\u00a0\u00a0 Space-permitting?\u00a0 Hmm, does that make it a “space-time” continuum?\u00a0 How much space do we have to talk about time? \u00a0I could easily see ten blogs’ worth, but we’ll just deal with some basics today.<\/p>\n

So, here goes:<\/p>\n

O\u00edche Nollag<\/strong>, Christmas Eve, lit. the night of (i.e. preceding) Christmas (24 M\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

O\u00edche L\u00e1 Nollag<\/strong>, the night of Christmas Day (25 M\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

O\u00edche Shamhna<\/strong>, Halloween, aka All Hallow’s Eve, reminding us that at one time the following day, Samhain<\/strong>, was at least equally important, being the Celtic New Year.\u00a0 So November 1st was the ancient Celtic New Year, whereas January First is now recognized as the beginning of the new year.<\/p>\n

O\u00edche Chinn Bhliana<\/strong>, New Year’s Eve, lit. night\/eve (of the) end (of the) year (31 M\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

The most basic translation of “o\u00edche<\/strong>” is “night,” and we use it constantly to say “Good night!” (O\u00edche mhaith!<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

So what’s the deal with “evening,” since “eve” is just a short form of “evening”?<\/p>\n

There are several ways to say “evening” in Irish, with “tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>” as the most basic.\u00a0 But, fad m’eolais, <\/strong>“tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>” is not used in the actual name of any “holiday eves.”\u00a0 They’re all “o\u00edche<\/strong>,” and understood to refer to the night before the holiday.\u00a0 To make things even more complicated, “tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>” also means “afternoon.”<\/p>\n

This distinction has always intrigued me.\u00a0 Sometimes “tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>” is defined as “evening,” that is, evening while there is still light.\u00a0 After it turns dark, the word “o\u00edche<\/strong>” can be used, but that also means “night.”\u00a0 Is there an exact cutoff point for evening becoming night?\u00a0 N\u00edl a fhios agam<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I’ve always had a rough sense of “tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>” lasting from after noon to dusk.\u00a0 Dusk-ish, rather.\u00a0 Since dusk can start as early as four o’clock in Ireland and Scotland, and a little earlier, the farther north you go.\u00a0 \u00a0So once it gets dark, is it totally “o\u00edche<\/strong>,” even if it’s fairly early?<\/p>\n

And while we might say “tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na bre\u00e1<\/strong>” means a “nice evening,” it could also mean a “nice afternoon.”<\/p>\n

If we look at some of the phrases that typically use “evening” in English, we see a mixture of “tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>” and “o\u00edche<\/strong>“:<\/p>\n

an evening of music: o\u00edche cheoil<\/strong><\/p>\n

evening primrose: coinneal o\u00edche<\/strong>, lit. candle of night<\/p>\n

evening class: rang o\u00edche<\/strong><\/p>\n

the evening news: nuacht an tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong><\/p>\n

evening prayer: urna\u00ed an tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong><\/p>\n

evening dress: culaith thr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong><\/p>\n

And then there’s “iarn\u00f3in<\/strong>” (iar<\/strong>-, after + n\u00f3in<\/strong>, noon).\u00a0 But that doesn’t really affect the “o\u00edche\/tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>” distinction.\u00a0 “Iarn\u00f3in<\/strong>,” in my experience, is mostly limited to when you’re referring to specific times of the day, as in “ag a ceathair iarn\u00f3in<\/strong>.” \u00a0But you can also say, “ag a ceathair tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

“N\u00f3in<\/strong>” can also mean “nones,” as in the canonical hours.\u00a0 Specifically, it’s the ninth canonical hour, which is at 3 pm.\u00a0 But dealing with all the uaireanta\u00a0can\u00f3nta, bhuel<\/strong>, that could definitely be \u00e1bhar blag eile<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So to recap:<\/p>\n

o\u00edche<\/strong>, which basically means “night,” also used for holiday “eves”<\/p>\n

tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong>, for some uses of “evening,” outside of holiday names<\/p>\n

o\u00edche<\/strong> for some other uses of “evening,” aside from holiday names<\/p>\n

tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na<\/strong> for “afternoon” in general<\/p>\n

iarn\u00f3in<\/strong> for “afternoon,” mostly accompanied by a specific time, or at least implying some specific hours<\/p>\n

and n\u00f3in<\/strong>, mostly for noon (12 pm) in everyday speech, but can be nones (3 pm).<\/p>\n

Ah, well, maybe I should go turn on Christian Morgenstern’s “Daynight Lamp” and be done with it.\u00a0 What if Irish were the native language of some Arctic locale where you have 24 hours of daylight and 24 hours of darkness, depending on the season.\u00a0 The mind boggles!\u00a0 Or mine does, anyway.\u00a0 \u00a0Especially if I consider the phrase “tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na iarn\u00f3na<\/strong>,” which means “postmeridian hours.”\u00a0 Why isn’t it “uaireanta iarn\u00f3na<\/strong>“?\u00a0 Mh’anam<\/strong>! \u00a0But hope this was of interest. SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) O\u00edche Nollag… it has always struck me as interesting that the Irish phrase for “Christmas Eve” actually uses the word for “night” (o\u00edche), not the usual word for “evening,” which is “tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na.”\u00a0 Usual? \u00a0It’s actually an intriguing question – what exactly is “evening” in Irish, since “tr\u00e1thn\u00f3na” can also mean “afternoon.”\u00a0 Sc\u00e9al cine\u00e1l…<\/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":[365208,365210,365204,365211,2701,365214,5111,12146,12644,365205,365213,306333,365206,6273,6274,365209,365207,211595,365203,365215,365216],"class_list":["post-6056","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-12-pm","tag-3-pm","tag-afternoon","tag-canonical","tag-christmas-eve","tag-daynight-lamp","tag-eve","tag-evening","tag-hours","tag-iarnoin","tag-morgenstern","tag-night","tag-noin","tag-nollag","tag-nollaig","tag-nones","tag-noon","tag-oiche","tag-trathnona","tag-trathnona-iarnona","tag-uaireanta"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6056","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=6056"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6735,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6056\/revisions\/6735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}