{"id":7091,"date":"2015-09-09T15:03:23","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T15:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=7091"},"modified":"2015-09-13T11:24:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T11:24:07","slug":"irish-words-starting-with-w-dornan-beag-ach-dornan-acu-ann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/irish-words-starting-with-w-dornan-beag-ach-dornan-acu-ann\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish Words Starting with ‘w’ (dorn\u00e1n beag ach dorn\u00e1n acu ann!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Bhuel<\/strong>, let’s start by saying there aren’t many words in Irish that start with “w”, since like “v,” this letter was not traditional in the Irish alphabet. \u00a0But times change, languages change, and there are now at least a few words to note.<\/p>\n

I’ll also mention in passing that a fair number of words have been borrowed into Irish as “focail iasachta<\/strong>,” with their spelling left as it was in their original language.\u00a0 While it’s interesting to see what happens to a word like “wok,” the simple fact is that it stays the same in Irish (wok<\/strong>). \u00a0Another example is “wadi,<\/strong>” which can either be used as is in Irish (transliterated from Arabic), or “sruthch\u00farsa<\/strong>” can be used.<\/p>\n

A few words that start with “w” in English have been borrowed with a “v” in Irish.\u00a0 Some are fairly basic, like “v\u00e1stch\u00f3ta<\/strong>” (waistcoat), and others are more specialized, like “vaipit\u00ed<\/strong>” (wapiti) and “valba\u00ed<\/strong>” (wallaby), mostly referring to contexts outside of Ireland.\u00a0 \u00a0We’ve recently discussed the letter “v” in Irish, but perhaps we’ll revisit the topic another time, for still more words!<\/p>\n

Then we have words like “waighnde\u00e1il<\/strong>” (to wind, winding), fully gaelicized in its spelling.\u00a0 There are, of course, more traditional options for this activity, like “casadh<\/strong>” or “l\u00fabadh<\/strong>,” but “waighnde\u00e1il<\/strong>” has come into usage, at least in the music recording context. \u00a0\u00a0For the pronunciation of this word, note that the “-gh-” is silent but does give the “ai” the sound of English “I” or “eye.” \u00a0This pronunciation parallels the Irish “faigh<\/strong>” (unless your dialect pronounces the final “g,” as in Cork or Kerry) but it’s not the same not same as the “-aigh” in “ceannaig<\/strong>h” or “cr\u00edochnaigh<\/strong>,” which have an “ee” or “ig” sound, again, depending on dialect.<\/p>\n

It’s also interesting to note what the plural of a loanword is, even when the singular form of the loanword itself keeps its original spelling, usually as transliterated from another language.\u00a0 For example, ‘wigwamanna<\/strong>‘ and ‘wokanna<\/strong>.’<\/p>\n

So how often do we encounter those two words in Irish?\u00a0 For “wigwamanna<\/strong>,” I haven’t found any actual Irish sentences online that use “wigwamanna<\/strong>” in a real-life context, only a handful of dictionary entries or paradigms of noun forms.\u00a0 Those interested in this type of vernacular housing, might also be interested to see “t\u00edp\u00edonna<\/strong>” for English “tipis (tepees aka teepees).” \u00a0The Irish form of the word has a fairly typical Irish plural ending (-nna) and a slight modification for Irish spelling, with the s\u00edneadh fada<\/strong> of the “i” (t\u00edp\u00ed<\/strong> in the singular) to get the “ee” sound”.<\/p>\n

For “wokanna<\/strong>,” I’ve found a grand total of two usages in context.\u00a0 Seo na naisc agus athfhriotal as ceann acu<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/vernacularismsgaeilege.wordpress.com\/, mentions “wokanna<\/strong>” while discussing an “ollmhargadh \u00c1iseach<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ncca.ie\/ga\/Treoir-Chleachtais\/Aistear-Appendix-1-Irish.pdf (“uirlis\u00ed c\u00f3caireachta \u00f3 chult\u00fair \u00e9ags\u00fala, pac\u00e1ist\u00ed bia, \u00e9ada\u00ed, frapa\u00ed sc\u00e1th\u00e1nacha \u00f3 bhaile na leana\u00ed (trealamh \u00f3n gcistin, sc\u00e1la\u00ed me\u00e1chain, taephota\u00ed, s\u00edothl\u00e1in, tr\u00e1idir\u00ed b\u00e1c\u00e1la, wokanna, bord agus cathaoireacha, tolg, seantriomad\u00f3ir gruaige, citeal\/ t\u00f3staeir leis an bhfleisc bainte), spar\u00e1in, soithigh fholmha bia ar na cine\u00e1lacha a \u00fas\u00e1idtear i mbaile na leana\u00ed<\/strong>“)<\/p>\n

So where does this leave us?\u00a0 Three main points, I guess.\u00a0 First, no really historic Irish words start with “w” since that letter isn’t traditional in the Irish alphabet.\u00a0 Second, some borrowed words starting with “w” in English get an initial “v” in Irish (veist, vaipit\u00ed, valba\u00ed<\/strong>) but that’s really a topic for yet another blog post.\u00a0 And finally, as we saw today, a handful of borrowed words keep the “w” at the beginning, but may still have an Irish spelling (waighnde\u00e1il<\/strong>) or may have plural forms that show that they’ve been fully absorbed into the language (wokanna, wigwamanna<\/strong>)–even if they don’t come up all that often in daily conversation.\u00a0 By the way, there are some other borrowed words that don’t seem to show any gaelicization at all, like “Weltanschauung<\/em>,” but then, that word doesn’t show any anglicization in English either.\u00a0 It’s a distinctively German word and seems to stay that way, however it’s borrowed.<\/p>\n

Bhuel<\/strong>, and you may have noticed that the English word “well” got a “bh” at the beginning for the Irish “bhuel<\/strong>,” I guess that wraps up the letter “w” for today’s blog.\u00a0 And why is there a “w” in “wrap,” anyway?\u00a0 But once again, that’s a topic for a History of English blog.\u00a0 SGF – R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Bhuel, let’s start by saying there aren’t many words in Irish that start with “w”, since like “v,” this letter was not traditional in the Irish alphabet. \u00a0But times change, languages change, and there are now at least a few words to note. I’ll also mention in passing that a fair number of…<\/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":[4173,4176,4356,4761,384220,390424,390419,5303,390425,3349,11,390423,390428,390431,390427,390430,390426,390429,8872,7611,9369,390418,390420,390422,390421,350330,390416,390417,390414,390415],"class_list":["post-7091","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-anglicisation","tag-anglicization","tag-bhuel","tag-consonant","tag-faigh","tag-focal-iasactha","tag-gaelicisation","tag-gaelicization","tag-ollmhargadh","tag-plural","tag-pronunciation","tag-sruthchursa","tag-teepee","tag-teepees","tag-tepee","tag-tepees","tag-tipi","tag-tipis","tag-v","tag-w","tag-wadi","tag-waighndeail","tag-waistcoat","tag-wallaby","tag-wapiti","tag-well","tag-wigwam","tag-wigwamanna","tag-wok","tag-wokanna"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7091","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=7091"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7096,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7091\/revisions\/7096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}