{"id":7276,"date":"2015-10-31T12:50:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T12:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=7276"},"modified":"2015-11-08T15:38:52","modified_gmt":"2015-11-08T15:38:52","slug":"whats-upside-down-in-irish-and-what-about-the-nuthatch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/whats-upside-down-in-irish-and-what-about-the-nuthatch\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s ‘Upside Down’ in Irish?\u00a0 And what about the nuthatch?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"Given<\/a>

Given five Irish word elements, (bun, cionn, cn\u00f3, os, snag), how would you assemble them to indicate that this nuthatch is upside down? (Grafaic: By Mdf (Own work) [GFDL (http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/)], via Wikimedia Commons)<\/em><\/p><\/div>As soon as I saw the photo which I have embedded in this blog, I immediately thought, “Now that would be a fun blog topic.”\u00a0 And I did look at the photographer’s description of the picture, to be sure it wasn’t just some Photoshop fun, with the picture really having been inverted.\u00a0 But, in the notes describing the shot, the photographer actually says, in several languages, that, “This image is not upside down.”\u00a0 T\u00e1 an fr\u00e1sa sna teangacha eile sa n\u00f3ta th\u00edos.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So for this blog, we’ll look at the word for “upside down” in Irish and also the word for “nuthatch” (the bird).<\/p>\n

“Upside down” is always a fun word to learn in any language, or at least so I’ve found.\u00a0 In Welsh, there’s “wyneb i waered<\/em>” (nice alliteration) and French offers up “sens dessus dessous<\/em>.”\u00a0 More alliteration–hmm, what is it about upsidedownness and alliteration?\u00a0 Bhuel, sin \u00e1bhar blag eile<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 If you know of any more ways to say “upside down” in other languages, please do write them in.\u00a0 It would be interesting to see what they translate to, literally.<\/p>\n

Our Irish phrase is literally “bottom over head” and it’s usually written as one, longish word, though I’ve sometimes seen it as three separate words: bunoscionn<\/strong> (or “bun os cionn<\/strong>“). \u00a0It breaks down as:<\/p>\n

bun<\/strong>, bottom, foundation<\/p>\n

os<\/strong>, over, above, although a more basic vocabulary word is for “over” is usually “thar<\/strong>” [say “har,” silent “t”] as in “thar a ghuaill\u00ed<\/strong>” (over his shoulders).\u00a0 The word “os<\/strong>” tends to be used in set phrases, like “os comhair<\/strong>” (in front of, opposite), “os cionn<\/strong>” (over, above, beyond, etc.), “os ard<\/strong>” (openly, out loud, aloud) and “os \u00edseal<\/strong>” (in a low voice, quietly, secretly)<\/p>\n

cionn<\/strong>, the old “dative case” form of ceann<\/strong> (head), now mostly limited to set phrases (os cionn, de chionn go …, d\u00e1r gcionn, thar cionn, cionn is go …, srl.<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

So, an interesting point about “bunoscionn<\/strong>” meaning “upside down” is that it doesn’t contain any element that actually means “up” (thuas, in airde, srl.<\/strong>), side (taobh<\/strong>), or “down” (s\u00edos<\/strong>, sometimes “go talamh<\/strong>” or “ar l\u00e1r<\/strong>,” etc.). \u00a0But it conveys the same idea.<\/p>\n

And how about the nuthatch?<\/p>\n

Great bird, great word.<\/p>\n

The Irish for “nuthatch” is “cn\u00f3shnag<\/strong>.”\u00a0 If you’re seeing this word for the first time, you might think, as I sometimes do, what’s the natural division in the compound word?\u00a0 Logic tells me that it’s from “cn\u00f3<\/strong>” (nut) and “snag<\/strong>” (gasp, hiccup, and the basis of “snagach<\/strong>“). \u00a0“Snagach<\/strong>” can mean with a jerky or staccato style, which I assume is the connection to nuthatch behavior).\u00a0 I doubt if nuthatches actually gasp or hiccup.\u00a0 Anyway, “snagach<\/strong>” is related to “snagaire darach<\/strong>” (woodpecker) and I assume it’s because the woodpecker makes a staccato sound.\u00a0 Actually, the Irish, snagaire darach<\/strong>, literally means something more like staccato-noise-maker of oak (darach<\/strong>, from dair<\/strong>, oak), but that specification doesn’t seem to affect how “snagaire darach<\/strong>” is actually used.\u00a0 AFAIK, “snagaire darach<\/strong>” isn’t limited to birds which peck on oak trees.\u00a0 The usual words for “to peck” or “pecking” in Irish are “piocadh<\/strong>” and “priocadh<\/strong>,” with “gobadh<\/strong>” (from “gob<\/strong>,” beak) as an additional choice.\u00a0 As you can see, none of those three words actually forms the basis of “snagaire<\/strong>,” as used in Irish for “woodpecker.” \u00a0Although the nuthatch doesn’t get its food in quite the same way as a woodpecker, it apparently wedges large pieces of food into crevices in trees and then hacks away at them with its beak. \u00a0Seems like an awkward way of eating (why not just swallow a worm?), but, I guess you gotta do whatcha gotta do to eat, especially if you don’t have a “scian”<\/strong> and\u00a0“forc”<\/strong> (or “ord\u00f3ga is f\u00e9idir a chur i gcoinne na m\u00e9ar<\/strong>“).\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, why did I even bring up the point of looking at the word division for “cn\u00f3shnag<\/strong>“?\u00a0 Some Irish words seem to me to have an optical illusion effect, where the eye wants to see one syllabic division but logic or previous vocabulary study tells us that the word division is otherwise.\u00a0 So, for “cn\u00f3shnag<\/strong>,” I constantly see the word as “cn\u00f3<\/strong>” with an “sh” ending (vaguely like some amalgamation of “nosh” and “gosh” and “gnash” and “Gnostic,” plus what I guess must be called a folk spelling of “nosh” as “gnosh”).\u00a0 And then the second part of the word would be “nag,” which is certainly an English word, but which would make no sense here.<\/p>\n

At any rate, that’s all mostly a pronunciation caveat, since “cn\u00f3shnag<\/strong>” is pronounced “KNOH-hnahg.”\u00a0 The “s” is silent, leaving us with an initial “hn” sound unlike anything I can think\u00a0of in English offhand.\u00a0 And yes, the “c” of “cn\u00f3<\/strong>” and the “K” in the pronunciation guide are pronounced, just like a regular “k” as in English “cookie” or “kale.”\u00a0 In other words, none of that silent “k” business English offers (know, knee, etc.).\u00a0 The “KN” in the pronunciation guide is meant to be pronounced as “KN.”<\/p>\n

To answer the original question in the caption for the picture, “cn\u00f3shnag bunoscionn,<\/strong>” adding the lenition of the “s” to make “shnag<\/strong>.” \u00a0A full sentence could be, “T\u00e1 an\u00a0cn\u00f3shnag bunoscionn<\/strong> \u00a0and for clarification, we could add “… ach n\u00edl an grianghraf bunoscionn<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

BTW, the photographer, Mdf, comments that the photo was taken at Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada. \u00a0What a struck of luck, and probably a lot of patience and skill, to get this shot. \u00a0It looks natural and easy\u00a0for the bird, but for most of us, let’s hope \u00e1r gcosa<\/strong>\u00a0are firmly planted on the talamh<\/strong>, SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

N\u00f3ta (cur s\u00edos ar an bpicti\u00far\u00a0i dteangacha eile)<\/strong>: https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Sitta-carolinensis-001.jpg<\/p>\n

Deutsch:<\/strong>\u00a0Ein\u00a0Carolinakleiber<\/a>\u00a0im\u00a0Algonquin Provincial Park<\/a>,\u00a0Kanada<\/a>. Dieses Bild steht nicht auf dem Kopf.<\/p>\n

English:<\/strong>\u00a0White-breasted Nuthatch<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Algonquin Provincial Park<\/a>,\u00a0Canada<\/a>. This image is not upside-down.<\/p>\n

Espa\u00f1ol:<\/strong>\u00a0Un\u00a0trepador pechiblanco<\/a>\u00a0en el\u00a0parque provincial Algonquin<\/a>\u00a0de\u00a0Canad\u00e1<\/a>. Esta imagen no debe rotarse.<\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7ais:<\/strong>\u00a0Sittelle \u00e0 poitrine blanche<\/a>\u00a0dans le parc provincial\u00a0Algonquin<\/a>, dans l’Ontario. Cette image est \u00e0 l’endroit.<\/p>\n

T\u00fcrk\u00e7e:<\/strong>\u00a0Bir\u00a0s\u0131vac\u0131 ku\u015fu<\/a>\u00a0t\u00fcr\u00fc –\u00a0Sitta carolinensis<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) As soon as I saw the photo which I have embedded in this blog, I immediately thought, “Now that would be a fun blog topic.”\u00a0 And I did look at the photographer’s description of the picture, to be sure it wasn’t just some Photoshop fun, with the picture really having been inverted.\u00a0 But…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":7278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[273265,390603,390601,390604,390602],"class_list":["post-7276","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-cno","tag-cnoshnag","tag-nuthatch","tag-snag","tag-upside-down"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7276","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=7276"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7286,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7276\/revisions\/7286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}