{"id":6765,"date":"2015-05-31T20:29:09","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T20:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=6765"},"modified":"2015-06-05T02:13:14","modified_gmt":"2015-06-05T02:13:14","slug":"when-is-strawberry-blonde-not-strawberry-when-its-fionnrua-an-introduction-to-hair-color-in-irish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/when-is-strawberry-blonde-not-strawberry-when-its-fionnrua-an-introduction-to-hair-color-in-irish\/","title":{"rendered":"When Is ‘Strawberry Blonde’ Not ‘Strawberry’?\u00a0 When It’s ‘Fionnrua’ (An Introduction to Hair Color in Irish)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"Bean<\/a>

Bean chl\u00faiteach fhionnrua! By Siebbi (Nicole Kidman) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons). Nicole Kidman
Premiere of the movie “Queen Of The Desert”<\/p><\/div>\n

In the last blog post, we looked at the issue of redhead emojis, or the lack thereof. \u00a0In the past, when we just had simple hand-typed emoticons or basic yellow smileys, hair color wasn’t so much of an issue.\u00a0 But now that we have\u00a0a wide variety of choices for hair color and skin tone, per the Fitzpatrick scale, it seems only fair that “ruacht<\/strong>” should have its place as well.\u00a0 Remember those words for “hair color” and “skin tone” from last time?\u00a0 Muna cuimhin leat iad, t\u00e1 na freagra\u00ed th\u00edos. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

But today, we’ll look at a few of the more basic ones (blond, brown, black, gray), and the picturesquely phrased “strawberry blonde,” which somehow seems to usually be considered feminine in English, with the “-e” ending, from French.\u00a0 Quick Google search: 852,000 hits for “strawberry blonde” and 344,000 (less than half) for “strawberry blond,” with no “-e,” implying either generic\/unisex or perhaps specifically masculine.\u00a0 \u00a0Food for thought!<\/p>\n

The basic word to describe blond hair is “fionn<\/strong>,” which also means “fair-haired” and sometimes “white,” although the basic word for “white” is “b\u00e1n<\/strong>.” \u00a0Sampla\u00ed<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

fear fionn<\/strong>, a blond man<\/p>\n

bean fhionn<\/strong> [ban in, silent “fh”], a blonde woman<\/p>\n

fir fhionna<\/strong>, blond men<\/p>\n

mn\u00e1 fionna<\/strong>, blonde women<\/p>\n

“Donn<\/strong>” [dun OR down, depending on dialect] describes brown hair.<\/p>\n

fear donn<\/strong>, a brown-haired man<\/p>\n

bean dhonn<\/strong>, a brown-haired woman, a brunette.\u00a0 In general, the “d” of “donn<\/strong>” will soften to the “dh” sound here, but sometimes this rule is broken because of the DNTLS exceptions (d after n tending not to get lenited even when the phrasing would normally require it, so you might see “donn<\/strong>” after “bean<\/strong>“)<\/p>\n

fir dhonna<\/strong>, brown-haired men<\/p>\n

mn\u00e1 donna<\/strong>, brown-haired women, brunettes; btw, this is not pronounced like the English name “Donna” or the name “Madonna;” those have more of an “ah” sound.\u00a0 Irish “donn,<\/strong>” “donna,<\/strong>” and “dhonna<\/strong>” have the “o” sound of the Irish word “pota.<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

Hmmm, do we actually have an English word “brunet” for a brown-haired man?\u00a0 N\u00ed d\u00f3igh liom go bhfaca m\u00e9 riamh \u00e9.\u00a0 C\u00e9ard faoin bhFraincis?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Dubh<\/strong>” [duv OR doo, with the standard Irish “dental d,” described in other blog postings in this series] means “black” or “black-haired.”<\/p>\n

fear dubh<\/strong>, a black-haired man<\/p>\n

bean dhubh<\/strong>, a black-haired woman.\u00a0 May show up as “bean dubh<\/strong>” for the reasons mentioned above.<\/p>\n

Remember also, this “black” doesn’t pertain to skin tone, for people of African descent.\u00a0 It’s for hair.\u00a0 To say someone is “black” (of African descent) in Irish, we use the word “gorm<\/strong>,” which basically means “blue.”\u00a0 It strikes most learners as unusual, but, it is what it is.\u00a0 Many people may have first been introduced to this terminology in the poignant movie, In America<\/em>, in which an Irish family meets their first “black” person, while living in New York City, and use the word “gorm<\/strong>” to describe him.<\/p>\n

Anyway, back to hair color.\u00a0 For “gray,” we have “liath<\/strong>” [LEE-uh, with silent “-th”] as in:<\/p>\n

fear liath<\/strong>, a gray-haired man<\/p>\n

bean liath<\/strong>, a gray-haired woman<\/p>\n

fir liatha<\/strong>, gray-haired men<\/p>\n

mn\u00e1 liatha<\/strong>, gray-haired women<\/p>\n

This word has a few other interesting twists, including “hoary” (sioc liath<\/strong>), “watery” (bainne liath<\/strong>), and even “moldy” (ar\u00e1n liath<\/strong>). \u00a0Oh, and “Cistercian” (manach liath<\/strong>), although we can, of course, also say “Cist\u00e9irseach<\/strong>” [KISH-tayrzh<\/sup>-shukh] for that.<\/p>\n

And now, as we promised in the title for “strawberry blonde.”<\/p>\n

Sorry, gan s\u00fatha tal\u00fan<\/strong> (strawberries) ar bith sa bhfr\u00e1sa<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The word is “fionnrua<\/strong>,” literally “pale red” or “fair-red,” logically enough.\u00a0 But just not “strawberry” as such.\u00a0 In fact, a quick glance at some other languages suggests that the strawberry element isn’t always present for this color.\u00a0 In French, the term is “blond v\u00e9netien<\/em>,” which appears masculine, and so I assume the feminine would be “blonde v\u00e9netienne<\/em>.”\u00a0 Ceart, a Fhrancacha is a Cheanadacha?\u00a0 N\u00f3 duine ar bith eile a labhra\u00edonns Fraincis?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, to wrap up, the phrases will be like “fionn<\/strong>” in terms of plurals and mutation:<\/p>\n

fear fionnrua, <\/strong>a strawberry blond man (even though the term seems to apply more to women — cad a deir sibhse, a ghruagair\u00ed?)<\/strong><\/p>\n

bean fhionnrua,<\/strong> a strawberry blonde woman<\/p>\n

fir fhionnrua<\/strong>, strawberry blond men<\/p>\n

mn\u00e1 fionnrua<\/strong>, strawberry blonde women<\/p>\n

Of course, so we haven’t really addressed various brightly dyed hair colors, like pink (b\u00e1ndearg<\/strong>) or bright red (dearg<\/strong>).\u00a0 Iontr\u00e1il eile, l\u00e1 eile, b’fh\u00e9idir. \u00a0\u00a0SGF\u00a0 – R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Freagra\u00ed: dath gruaige<\/strong> (hair color, lit. color of hair), ton cnis<\/strong> (skin tone, lit. tone of skin)<\/p>\n

Dath ghruaig Nicole Kidman: fionnrua i mo bhar\u00fail, ach deir roinnt daoine go bhfuil gruaig rua uirthi agus deir daoine eile go bhfuil gruaig fhionn uirthi. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)   In the last blog post, we looked at the issue of redhead emojis, or the lack thereof. \u00a0In the past, when we just had simple hand-typed emoticons or basic yellow smileys, hair color wasn’t so much of an issue.\u00a0 But now that we have\u00a0a wide variety of choices for hair color and…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":6774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[255637,384237,362403,359503,111204,384238,229593,309459,254952,384239,34619],"class_list":["post-6765","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-blond","tag-blonde","tag-emoji","tag-emoticon","tag-fionn","tag-fionnrua","tag-red","tag-redhead","tag-rua","tag-smiley","tag-strawberry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765","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=6765"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6783,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765\/revisions\/6783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}