{"id":624,"date":"2011-01-23T19:45:07","date_gmt":"2011-01-23T19:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=624"},"modified":"2011-02-01T20:02:51","modified_gmt":"2011-02-01T20:02:51","slug":"cairn-chonsan-le-%e2%80%9csf-%e2%80%9c-agus-%e2%80%9csv-%e2%80%9c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/cairn-chonsan-le-%e2%80%9csf-%e2%80%9c-agus-%e2%80%9csv-%e2%80%9c\/","title":{"rendered":"Cairn Chonsan le \u201csf-\u201c agus \u201csv-\u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this blog, we don\u2019t have to deal with the question of \u201cs\u00e9imhi\u00fa<\/strong>\u201d or \u201cgan s\u00e9imhi\u00fa<\/strong>\u201d since the consonant clusters \u201csf-\u201c and \u201csv-\u201c are never lenited.\u00a0 But they\u2019re intriguing nonetheless, so let\u2019s take a further look.\u00a0 I recently mentioned \u201csfioncs<\/strong>\u201d and \u201csvaeid,<\/strong>\u201d as sampla\u00ed.<\/strong>\u00a0 Those two words comprise about c\u00faig faoin gc\u00e9ad<\/strong> of the total number of Irish words I can track down that actually start with \u201csf\u201d or \u201csv.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a very unusual consonant cluster in Irish, and all the words that use it are borrowed, mostly from Gr\u00e9igis<\/strong> via B\u00e9arla<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, though,\u00a0let\u2019s put to rest any lingering notions about leniting them \u2013 it doesn\u2019t happen!\u00a0 So, in that sense, these cairn chonsan<\/strong> behave like the traditional combinations, sc-, sm-, sp-, and st-.\u00a0 No change, ar chaoi ar bith<\/strong>!\u00a0 We can easily count the following items, with nary a thought of lenition to trouble our sionapsa\u00ed<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

sf\u00e9ar, dh\u00e1 sf\u00e9ar<\/strong><\/p>\n

sf\u00e9ir\u00edn, tr\u00ed sf\u00e9ir\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

sfigmeamanaim\u00e9adar, ceithre sfigmeamanaim\u00e9adar<\/strong><\/p>\n

svaeid<\/strong> (meaning the lower-case swede, the vegetable), c\u00faig svaeid<\/strong>, and,<\/p>\n

svaidhpch\u00e1rta, s\u00e9 svaidhpch\u00e1rta<\/strong><\/p>\n

How about the infamous \u201cbeirt<\/strong>,\u201d with its \u201cinscne bhaininscneach<\/strong>\u201d and role as a \u201ctruicear s\u00e9imhithe<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

So far I\u2019ve only found one word to describe a type of person that begins with \u201csv\u201d (Svaha\u00edleach<\/strong>), and none that start with \u201csf-\u201c.\u00a0 I have to admit that I\u2019ve never had much opportunity to use the word Swahili as a singular noun for a person, but it it is possible.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the pattern for counting Swahili people:<\/p>\n

Svaha\u00edleach amh\u00e1in, beirt Svaha\u00edleach, tri\u00far Svaha\u00edleach, ceathrar Svaha\u00edleach<\/strong>, \u2026<\/p>\n

No change after \u201cbeirt<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 Unlike two Swedes (that is Swedes as people):<\/p>\n

Sualannach amh\u00e1in, beirt Shualannach, tri\u00far Sualannach, ceathrar Sualannach, srl. <\/strong><\/p>\n

By the way, if you\u2019re new to the blog, you might want to check out some of the terms I\u2019ve been using in previous blogs, like \u201clenition\u201d (s\u00e9imhi\u00fa<\/strong>).\u00a0 You can enter the word as a search term in the box in the upper right corner of the blog page (blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/), next to the gloine formh\u00e9adaithe,<\/strong> and click.\u00a0 Please do note though that the search will bring up results in any language that appears in the blog, so the more specific your search is, the better.\u00a0 For example, \u201cban\u201d will bring up \u201cban<\/strong>\u201d in Irish (\u201cof women\u201d) and, if it\u2019s somewhere in the blog, phrases in English like \u201cto ban\u201d or \u201ca ban on.\u201d \u201cBanana\u201d will also show up, and the search engine won\u2019t know whether you mean \u201cbanana\u201d as an English noun or \u201cbanana\u201d as an Irish noun.\u00a0 Ach an nd\u00e9anann s\u00e9 difear<\/strong>?\u00a0 The search will also bring up \u201cmban<\/strong>\u201d (as in \u201cseomra na mban<\/strong>\u201d).\u00a0 Often you\u2019ll get a long page of results, so at that point, I\u2019d recommend using \u201cfind on page,\u201d to hone in on the specific examples you want.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you actually search for \u201clenition,\u201d keep in mind that I use that term in about gach dara blag<\/strong> (every other blog), so you\u2019ll get tortha\u00ed go leor<\/strong> (lots of results).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gluais: faoin gc\u00e9ad<\/strong>, percent; formh\u00e9adaithe<\/strong>, of magnifying; inscne<\/strong>, gender; sf\u00e9ar<\/strong>, sphere; sf\u00e9ir\u00edn<\/strong>, spherule, sfigmeamanaim\u00e9adar, <\/strong>sphygmomanometer; sfioncs<\/strong>, sphinx; svaidhpch\u00e1rta<\/strong>, swipe-card<\/p>\n

N\u00f3ta<\/strong>: there\u2019s another word, svaeid<\/strong>, meaning \u201csuede,\u201d but that\u2019s not a \u201ccountable,\u201d so I haven\u2019t dealt with it here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this blog, we don\u2019t have to deal with the question of \u201cs\u00e9imhi\u00fa\u201d or \u201cgan s\u00e9imhi\u00fa\u201d since the consonant clusters \u201csf-\u201c and \u201csv-\u201c are never lenited.\u00a0 But they\u2019re intriguing nonetheless, so let\u2019s take a further look.\u00a0 I recently mentioned \u201csfioncs\u201d and \u201csvaeid,\u201d as sampla\u00ed.\u00a0 Those two words comprise about c\u00faig faoin gc\u00e9ad of the total…<\/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":[13535,13534,6776,13536,13537],"class_list":["post-624","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cairn-chonsan","tag-carn-consan","tag-sfear","tag-sionapsai","tag-svaidhpcharta"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624","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=624"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":626,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions\/626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}