{"id":7412,"date":"2015-12-11T21:31:48","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T21:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=7412"},"modified":"2016-12-25T23:20:10","modified_gmt":"2016-12-25T23:20:10","slug":"aig-ag-nollaig-no-ag-ag-nollag-when-to-say-nollaig-and-when-to-say-nollag-for-the-irish-word-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/aig-ag-nollaig-no-ag-ag-nollag-when-to-say-nollaig-and-when-to-say-nollag-for-the-irish-word-for-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"‘-aig” ag Nollaig n\u00f3 ‘-ag’ ag ‘Nollag’? (When to say “Nollaig” and when to say “Nollag” for the Irish word for ‘Christmas’)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"mar\u00f3g<\/a>

mar\u00f3g Nollag le skimmia (planda \u00f3n \u00c1ise) mar mhaisi\u00fach\u00e1n in ionad cuilinn — a Christmas pudding with skimmia as a decoration instead of holly<\/em>
(grianghraf: Musical Linguist at the English language Wikipedia [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>It’s that time of year again, and while the Christmas season may make us feel “holly jolly” and “berry merry,” but we might not always feel that way when confronted with the decision of “tuiseal ginideach<\/strong>” or not “tuiseal ginideach<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

And what’s the “tuiseal ginideach<\/strong>,” anyway?\u00a0 It’s the form of the word used in Irish to show, among other things, a) possession (c\u00f3ta Sh\u00e9amais<\/strong>, for S\u00e9amas’s coat) and b) attribute (i.e. further modification or description, like the words “house” in “housework” or “chocolate” in “chocolate cake” in English).\u00a0 For the latter (attribute), the hitch is that in English we simply rely on word order to know that “housework” is different from a “workhouse.”\u00a0 And although I don’t think there’s really such a word in English, if we had “*cake chocolate,” it might be the unsweetened chocolate used for baking, not the chocolate cake itself.<\/p>\n

But in Irish, it’s not just a matter of word order, although that does come into play. \u00a0Mostly we tell that one noun is being to used to describe another noun by the word ending, i.e. the genitive-case ending, i.e. an tuiseal ginideach<\/strong>. \u00a0So the term for “chocolate cake” is “c\u00edste seacl\u00e1ide<\/strong>,” with the “-e” added to “seacl\u00e1id<\/strong>.”\u00a0 The basic form of the word for “chocolate” is simply “seacl\u00e1id<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Maybe in some future blog we can revisit this topic, with a wider range of examples, but for now, we’ll focus on phrases related to Christmas.<\/p>\n

First, let’s look at the basic word for “Christmas” itself, and note, the name of the holiday includes the word “the,” as we see in:<\/p>\n

an Nollaig<\/strong> [un NUL-ig], (the) Christmas<\/p>\n

na Nollag<\/strong> [nuh NUL-ug], of (the) Christmas (“an<\/strong>” has changed to “na<\/strong>” for “of the” and the “-i-” has been dropped)<\/p>\n

Nollag<\/strong>, of Christmas<\/p>\n

And the relatively rarely used plural form: na Nollaig\u00ed<\/strong>, the Christmases, with the same form meaning “of the Christmases.”<\/p>\n

As you can see, the basic form includes the letter “i” just before the “g.”\u00a0 But when we say “of (the) Christmas,” the “i” disappears, with a slight change in pronunciation.<\/p>\n

Now let’s look at some examples:<\/p>\n

an Nollaig<\/strong>, Christmas<\/p>\n

The “i” remains for most of the phrases that mean “at Christmas,” like: “faoi Nollaig<\/strong>” and “um Nollaig<\/strong>,” and, with the “the,” “ag an Nollaig<\/strong>.”\u00a0 But the “-i-” goes away in phrases with “compound prepositions,” like “i rith na Nollag<\/strong>” or “le linn na Nollag<\/strong>,” both meaning “over Christmas.”<\/p>\n

Here are some examples with “na Nollag<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Examples like this are relatively less common than those with just “Nollag<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

M\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong>, December, lit. the month of (the) Christmas<\/p>\n

Athair na Nollag<\/strong>, Father Christmas, lit. the Father of (the) Christmas, aka Daid\u00ed na Nollag<\/strong>, “Daddy Christmas,” lit. the Daddy of (the) Christmas aka San Niocl\u00e1s<\/strong><\/p>\n

deasghn\u00e1tha na Nollag<\/strong>, the rituals of (the) Christmas<\/p>\n

Oile\u00e1n na Nollag<\/strong>, Christmas Island.\u00a0 And two animals named after this island: frig\u00e9ad Oile\u00e1n na Nollag<\/strong>, Christmas Island frigate bird, and ulchabh\u00e1n seabhaic Oile\u00e1n na Nollag<\/strong>, Christmas Island hawk owl<\/p>\n

spiorad na Nollag<\/strong>, Christmas spirit<\/p>\n

tr\u00e9imhse na Nollag<\/strong> OR aimsir na Nollag<\/strong>, the Christmas period.\u00a0 Remember, “aimsir<\/strong>” can mean “time” or “time period” as well as “weather”<\/p>\n

Most of the more everyday items associated with Christmas do not include the word “the,” as in the following:<\/p>\n

bronntanas Nollag<\/strong>, a Christmas gift, lit. a gift of Christmas<\/p>\n

c\u00e1rta Nollag<\/strong>, a Christmas card, lit. a card of Christmas<\/p>\n

car\u00fal Nollag<\/strong>, a Christmas carol, lit. a carol of Christmas<\/p>\n

crann Nollag<\/strong>, a Christmas tree, lit. a tree of Christmas<\/p>\n

an geansa\u00ed Nollag a bhfuil an ghr\u00e1in ag daoine air<\/strong>, the hated Christmas jumper (sweater) … cine\u00e1l geansa\u00ed a bhfuil an-eolas ag Ron Weasley air!<\/strong> \u00a0Literally, the Irish phrase is, “the Christmas jumper that there is hate at people on it,” or a little more fluidly, “the Christmas jumper that people hate”<\/p>\n

L\u00e1 Nollag<\/strong>, Christmas day, lit. day of Christmas<\/p>\n

mar\u00f3g Nollag<\/strong>, a Christmas pudding, lit. a pudding of Christmas<\/p>\n

O\u00edche Nollag<\/strong>, Christmas Eve, lit. eve of Christmas<\/p>\n

pl\u00e9asc\u00f3g Nollag<\/strong>, a Christmas cracker (in the Irish or UK sense, like a party favor), lit. a little explosion of Christmas<\/p>\n

And it seems like there are always some phrases where either pattern works, making absolute rules hard to determine:<\/p>\n

saoire phribhl\u00e9ide na Nollag<\/strong> OR saoire phribhl\u00e9ide Nollag<\/strong><\/p>\n

Which means …?\u00a0 Freagra th\u00edos<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Finally, and perhaps most important of all, “Nollaig Shona!<\/strong>” for “Merry\/Happy Christmas!”\u00a0 Needless to say, the “-i-” is included.<\/p>\n

Hope this added some “spiorad na Nollag<\/strong>” to your holiday plans.\u00a0 Nothing like learning some more Irish grammar as a bronntanas Nollag<\/strong> for yourself. —\u00a0R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Freagra: saoire phribhl\u00e9ide (na) Nollag<\/strong>, Christmas privilege leave (t\u00e9arma mileata<\/strong>, a military term)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) It’s that time of year again, and while the Christmas season may make us feel “holly jolly” and “berry merry,” but we might not always feel that way when confronted with the decision of “tuiseal ginideach” or not “tuiseal ginideach.” And what’s the “tuiseal ginideach,” anyway?\u00a0 It’s the form of the word used…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":7414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[390701,22424,60846,95147,43,306294,390693,289732,4913,5111,5141,1083,5366,5373,5483,8254,390692,390688,390695,13059,192199,6136,6199,6273,6274,390700,390698,126,390694,109595,390699,6625,6675,111484,111485,390697,390689,7063,7183,7206,7291],"class_list":["post-7412","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-ag","tag-card","tag-carol","tag-case","tag-christmas","tag-christmases","tag-cracker","tag-daddy","tag-day","tag-eve","tag-father","tag-genitive","tag-gift","tag-ginideach","tag-happy","tag-hate","tag-hated","tag-jumper","tag-leave","tag-merry","tag-military","tag-month","tag-na-nollag","tag-nollag","tag-nollaig","tag-over","tag-period","tag-present","tag-privilege","tag-pudding","tag-ritual","tag-ron","tag-san-nioclas","tag-seaclaid","tag-seaclaide","tag-spirit","tag-sweater","tag-term","tag-tree","tag-tuiseal","tag-weasley"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412","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=7412"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8712,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412\/revisions\/8712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}