{"id":7317,"date":"2015-11-17T17:13:44","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T17:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=7317"},"modified":"2018-06-19T14:17:29","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T14:17:29","slug":"mutating-turkeys-with-seimhiu-and-uru-that-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/mutating-turkeys-with-seimhiu-and-uru-that-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Mutating Turkeys, With ‘S\u00e9imhi\u00fa’ and ‘Ur\u00fa’ That Is"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

‘Tis the season to “talk turkey,” so let’s go for it.\u00a0 And by the way, “mutating” here (as in the title of this blog) doesn’t refer to “s\u00f3ch\u00e1in<\/strong>” (mutations in genetics:\u00a0 A thiarcais, sin turca\u00ed a bhfuil tr\u00ed shn\u00fada air!<\/strong>) but rather to “athruithe gramada\u00ed<\/strong>,” that is, the use of “s\u00e9imhi\u00fa<\/strong>” and “ur\u00fa<\/strong>” to show changes in how an Irish word works in context.<\/p>\n

Let’s start with a quick review of “s\u00e9imhi\u00fa<\/strong>” ([SHAY-voo], lenition) and “ur\u00fa<\/strong>” ([UR-oo], eclipsis).<\/p>\n

“S\u00e9imhi\u00fa<\/strong>” (lit. softening) is a “softening” of the initial consonant of a word, shown in writing by inserting the letter “h” right after the initial consonant.\u00a0\u00a0 Among its uses, we see it:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. a) to show possession: S\u00e9amas<\/strong> but “c\u00f3ta Sh\u00e9amais<\/strong>” [KOH-tuh HAY-mish], S\u00e9amas’s coat)<\/li>\n
  2. b) to show direct address: S\u00e9amas<\/strong> becomes “a Sh\u00e9amais<\/strong>” [uh HAY-mish] when speaking directly to him, or in a salutation in a letter to him (“A Sh\u00e9amais, a chara<\/strong> …”)<\/li>\n
  3. c) following the words “mo<\/strong>” (my), “do<\/strong>” (your), and “a<\/strong>” (his), as in the song title, “An bhfaca t\u00fa mo Sh\u00e9amais\u00edn?<\/strong>” Hypothetically, as an example of “do<\/strong>” (your), we could answer, “N\u00ed fhaca, n\u00ed fhaca m\u00e9 do Sh\u00e9amais\u00edn?<\/strong>” but I don’t think that line is actually in the song. \u00a0An example with “a<\/strong>” (his) would be, “Seo S\u00e9amas agus seo a mhadra<\/strong>.”\u00a0 (Here’s James and here’s his dog) or, for a second example, “Seo S\u00e9amas agus seo a mhadra<\/strong>. \u00a0An t\u00e9 a bhuailfeadh a mhadra, bhuailfeadh s\u00e9 S\u00e9amas \u00e9 f\u00e9in<\/strong>” (the Irish equivalent, not very literal, of “Love S\u00e9amas, love his dog;” exact translation sa n\u00f3ta<\/strong> below)<\/li>\n
  4. d) after the number 2 (as in “dh\u00e1<\/strong> mhadra<\/strong>” or “dh\u00e1 bhliain<\/strong>“) and after “beirt<\/strong>” (2 people), as in “beirt bhan<\/strong>” or “beirt mhac<\/strong>“)<\/li>\n
  5. e) after the numbers 3 through 6, as in “tr\u00ed mhadra<\/strong>,”\u00a0<\/strong>except for 1) certain, but not all, units of measurement, like “tr\u00ed bliana<\/strong>,” 2) dialects where point “1” just mentioned doesn’t apply (a bit “athluaiteach<\/strong>” but c’est la vie), or 3) when counting people, using the “uimhreacha pearsanta<\/strong>” system, as in “tri\u00far ban<\/strong>” or “tri\u00far mac<\/strong>“<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There are about a dozen more situations in which lenition (s\u00e9imhi\u00fa<\/strong>) applies, but they don’t pertain as readily to turkeys, so we won’t address them here.<\/p>\n

    As for “ur\u00fa<\/strong>” (eclipsis), here’s a quick review of some of the circumstances in which it occurs:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. a) after “\u00e1r<\/strong>” (our), “bhur<\/strong>” (your, plural), and “a<\/strong>” (their), as in “\u00e1r dteach,” “bhur dteach,”<\/strong> and “a dteach”<\/strong><\/li>\n
    2. b) to show possession or a similar “of” concept with plural nouns following the word “the,” as in “d\u00edonta na dtithe<\/strong>” (the roofs of the houses) or “Cumann na mBan<\/strong>“<\/li>\n
    3. c) after the numbers 7 through 10, including the special units of measurement (Yay! The rule is consistent here), as in “ocht dteach<\/strong>” or “ocht mbliana<\/strong>“<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      And again, there are more uses and applications, but, ar\u00edst eile<\/strong>, they’re mostly not so relevant to turkeys.<\/p>\n

      So now let’s get down to the brass tacks and really talk turkey.\u00a0 In fact, all we have left to do is look at the basic forms of the word for turkey and then mutate the word for different contexts.\u00a0 Like this:<\/p>\n

      an turca\u00ed<\/strong>, the turkey (no change)<\/p>\n

      sprochaille an turca\u00ed<\/strong>, the wattle of the turkey (still no change for this particular word; other pairs would change, like “cail\u00edn, c\u00f3ta an chail\u00edn<\/strong>” or “madra, cos an mhadra<\/strong>“)<\/p>\n

      cearc thurca\u00ed<\/strong>, a turkey-hen, with lenition because “cearc<\/strong>” is feminine<\/p>\n

      na turcaithe<\/strong>, the turkeys<\/p>\n

      ar thurcaithe<\/strong>, on turkeys, with lenition after “ar<\/strong>“; B\u00edonn sprochaill\u00ed ar thurcaithe<\/strong> (There are wattles on turkeys)<\/p>\n

      sprochaill\u00ed na dturcaithe<\/strong>, the wattles of the turkeys, with eclipsis for the plural possessive form<\/p>\n

      And now, let’s mutate some more!<\/p>\n

      turca\u00ed amh\u00e1in<\/strong>, no change, because the number (amh\u00e1in<\/strong>) comes after the noun, so it can’t trigger lenition or eclipsis, which, by definition, come before the noun.<\/p>\n

      lenition: dh\u00e1 thurca\u00ed, tr\u00ed thurca\u00ed, ceithre thurca\u00ed, c\u00faig thurca\u00ed, s\u00e9 thurca\u00ed,<\/strong> with “thurca\u00ed<\/strong>” pronounced “HERK-ee” (silent t)<\/p>\n

      eclipsis: seacht dturca\u00ed, ocht dturca\u00ed, naoi dturca\u00ed, deich dturca\u00ed<\/strong>, with “dturca\u00ed<\/strong>” pronounced “DERK-ee” (silent t)<\/p>\n

      more lenition:<\/p>\n

      sprochaille mo thurca\u00ed<\/strong>, the wattle of my turkey<\/p>\n

      sprochaille do thurca\u00ed<\/strong>, the wattle of your turkey<\/p>\n

      sprochaille a thurca\u00ed<\/strong>, the wattle of his turkey<\/p>\n

      But note that the word “turca\u00ed<\/strong>” doesn’t change for “her turkey”<\/p>\n

      sprochaille a turca\u00ed<\/strong>, the wattle of her turkey<\/p>\n

      more eclipsis:<\/p>\n

      sprochaill\u00ed \u00e1r dturcaithe<\/strong>, the wattles of our turkeys<\/p>\n

      sprochaill\u00ed bhur dturcaithe<\/strong>, the wattles of your turkeys<\/p>\n

      sprochaill\u00ed a dturcaithe<\/strong>, the wattles of their turkeys<\/p>\n

      and, as we saw above (sprochaill\u00ed na dturcaithe<\/strong>), when something is “of the turkeys,” we also have eclipsis:<\/p>\n

      cosa na dturcaithe<\/strong>, the feet\/legs of the turkeys<\/p>\n

      praghasanna na dturcaithe<\/strong>, the prices of the turkeys<\/p>\n

      gogail fhi\u00e1nta dheireanacha na dturcaithe roimh L\u00e1 an Altaithe,<\/strong> the last frantic gobbles of the turkeys before Thanksgiving<\/p>\n

      On that note, so much for mutating turkeys.\u00a0 “Wattle” we do next time? – SGF<\/strong>, R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

      N\u00f3ta:\u00a0An t\u00e9 a bhuailfeadh a mhadra, bhuailfeadh s\u00e9 S\u00e9amas \u00e9 f\u00e9in.<\/strong> \u00a0The one who would hit his (i.e. S\u00e9amas’) dog would hit S\u00e9amas himself. \u00a0The standard phrase for “Love me, love me dog” is, An t\u00e9 a bhuailfeadh mo mhadra, bhuailfeadh s\u00e9 m\u00e9 f\u00e9in<\/strong>, lit. The one who would hit my dog would hit me (myself).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      (le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) ‘Tis the season to “talk turkey,” so let’s go for it.\u00a0 And by the way, “mutating” here (as in the title of this blog) doesn’t refer to “s\u00f3ch\u00e1in” (mutations in genetics:\u00a0 A thiarcais, sin turca\u00ed a bhfuil tr\u00ed shn\u00fada air!) but rather to “athruithe gramada\u00ed,” that is, the use of “s\u00e9imhi\u00fa” and “ur\u00fa”…<\/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":[96397,513269,359625,8667,5878,6758,359626,513270,111349,111350],"class_list":["post-7317","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-uru","tag-dturcai","tag-dturcaithe","tag-eclipsis","tag-lenition","tag-seimhiu","tag-thurcai","tag-thurcaithe","tag-turcai","tag-turcaithe"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7317","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=7317"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10582,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7317\/revisions\/10582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}