{"id":977,"date":"2011-06-17T14:34:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-17T14:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=977"},"modified":"2016-08-17T19:55:59","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T19:55:59","slug":"dith-ingne-an-cuigiu-diochlaonadh-ar-l-aris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/dith-ingne-an-cuigiu-diochlaonadh-ar-l-aris\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00edth Ingne (An C\u00faigi\u00fa D\u00edochlaonadh, ar l. ar\u00eds)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

So, what do you see in the title of this blog that exemplifies the pattern for a 5th<\/sup>-declension noun?\u00a0 That\u2019s right, nothing really.<\/p>\n

Remember the various patterns we\u2019ve seen so far (athair, athar, aithreacha; cathair, cathrach, cathracha; cathaoir, cathaoireach, cathaoireacha<\/strong>)?\u00a0 And more recently, the pattern where you add \u201c-an<\/strong>,\u201d as in:<\/p>\n

pearsa, pearsan, pearsana,<\/strong><\/p>\n

monarcha, monarchan, monarchana,<\/strong><\/p>\n

dearna, dearnan, dearnana,<\/strong><\/p>\n

leite, leitean, (gan iolra, cgl, an eisceacht a dh\u00e9anann an riail)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our word of the day for today follows the expected pattern for the genitive singular, like this<\/p>\n

ionga, iongan, <\/strong><\/p>\n

but then we have:<\/p>\n

ingne,<\/strong>\u00a0yes, that\u2019s right, ingne, <\/strong>for the plural forms.<\/p>\n

So our full set of forms for \u201cionga<\/strong>\u201d (fingernail, toenail, claw, talon, or hoof) is:<\/p>\n

an ionga<\/strong>, the fingernail, etc.<\/p>\n

iongan,<\/strong> of a fingernail, etc.<\/p>\n

na hiongan<\/strong>, of the fingernail, etc.<\/p>\n

ingne,<\/strong> fingernails, etc,<\/p>\n

na hingne<\/strong>, the fingernails, etc.<\/p>\n

na n-ingne<\/strong>, of the fingernails, etc.<\/p>\n

Some sample sentences are:<\/p>\n

N\u00edl an vearnais iongan ar an ionga seo tirim f\u00f3s.<\/strong><\/p>\n

N\u00ed raibh b\u00e9im iongan air.<\/strong><\/p>\n

T\u00e1 scuab ingne agus raspa ingne de dh\u00edth orm.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And finally, the infamous curse (one of the many traditional mallachta\u00ed<\/strong> in the Irish language) and the source of the title of this blog:<\/p>\n

Tochas, agus d\u00edth ingne ort!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTochas\u201d<\/strong> means \u201can itch\u201d and \u201cd\u00edth<\/strong>\u201d means \u201ca lack of\u201d or \u201ca need of\u201d<\/p>\n

So, put it together, and the phrase means \u201cAn itch and a lack of fingernails on you,\u201d or to paraphrase it, \u201cMay you itch and not have any fingernails to scratch yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this phrase, \u201cingne<\/strong>\u201d would be considered genitive plural, since we\u2019re saying a \u201clack of fingernails.\u201dThe curse is also sometimes expressed as \u201cTochas gan ingne<\/strong>\u201d (an itch without fingernails).\u00a0 Same sentiment.\u00a0 In this case, the word \u201cingne<\/strong>\u201d looks exactly the same as in the earlier phrase but here it\u2019s simply the object of the preposition \u201cgan<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s one mild concession with this word, and most (but not all) of the 5th<\/sup>-declension nouns \u2013 usually the plural forms have the same ending for \u201cgach tuiseal<\/strong>\u201d (every case, that is, the nominative\/subject form, the genitive\/possessive form, etc.).\u00a0 As you may recall that was not the situation for many nouns from other declensions (na fir, na bhfear; na s\u00faile, na s\u00fal,<\/strong> etc.)<\/p>\n

I first heard this curse as \u201ceascaine Chromail<\/strong>\u201d (i.e. mallacht Chromail<\/strong>), that is \u201cCromwell\u2019s curse,\u201d but, curiously, all the online examples I see either give this curse with no connection to Cromwell or mention \u201cCromwell\u2019s curse\u201d as a general phenomenon, relating to the massacres and destruction of his era, but not specifying anything about tochais<\/strong> or ingne<\/strong>.\u00a0 Hmmm.<\/p>\n

Years ago, when I learned this, it didn\u2019t occur to me to hope that that, minimally, the \u201ctochas<\/strong>\u201d wouldn\u2019t be on someone\u2019s \u201ctukhus<\/em>,\u201d since that would be mixing two languages, both rich in cursing traditions.\u00a0 \u201cTukhus<\/em>\u201d might look more familiar with its slightly more anglicized spelling, \u201ctuchus<\/em>\u201d (still keeping that guttural \u201ckh\u201d sound, as is typical i nGi\u00fadais<\/strong>, in the middle).\u00a0 But now, years later, with all kinds of phonological flukes from various languages rolling around in my head, just waiting for the opportunity to be sprung, I can at least wish that no one has a \u201ctochas sa<\/strong> tukhus<\/em>,\u201d or if they do, that they have \u201cingne go leor\u2019<\/strong> with which to scratch it.<\/p>\n

If \u201cionga, iongan, ingne\u201d <\/strong>seems like a strangely-declined specimen, even for Irish, it may help to consider the nice familiar cognate we have in the Latin word unguis<\/em> (fingernail, toenail, claw, talon, hoof) and its cohorts, ungula<\/em> (hoof, talon, claw) and unguiculus<\/em>.\u00a0 \u201cUnguiculus<\/em>\u201d is actually, a \u201clittle\u201d finger- or toenail, perhaps belonging, back in Roman days, to a homunculus<\/em> (fir\u00edn<\/strong>) or a matercula<\/em> (m\u00e1ithr\u00edn<\/strong>), or, it we can extend the meaning to a little animal\u2019s little hoof, to an ovicula<\/em> (caoir\u00edn).\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

We also have some fairly technical adjectives in English that are related to the Latin \u201cunguis<\/em>\u201d:<\/p>\n

ungulate, hoofed.\u00a0 The Irish for \u201choofed,\u201d \u201ccr\u00fabach,\u201d <\/strong>gets straight to the point (cr\u00fab<\/strong>, hoof, sometimes also claw or talon) and at least avoids any ambiguity with human finger- or toenails.\u00a0 In theory, \u201ccr\u00fabach<\/strong>\u201d could also mean \u201cclawed\u201d or \u201ctaloned,\u201d but any potential ambiguity with \u201ccr\u00fabach<\/strong>\u201d can be disambiguated by the following:<\/p>\n

unguiferous or unguiculate (having nails, claws, or talons), clearly connected to the Irish, iongach <\/strong>or ingneach, <\/strong>which also mean \u201chaving nails, claws, talons\u201d (as opposed to having hoofs).\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps these related English and Latin words may help in remembering the unusual \u201cingne\u201d <\/strong>plural And, hopefully, they\u2019ll also keep anyone from being tempted to use \u201ctairne\u201d <\/strong>(nail for carpentry and construction), when talking about anatama\u00edocht<\/strong>, be it of daoine<\/strong> or airpeanna<\/strong>.\u00a0 In this era of machine-translation, where I\u2019ve seen \u201cslac\u00e1n<\/strong>\u201d used for \u201cbat\u201d (the flying mammal) and where English comhainmneacha, <\/strong>or more specifically homagraif,<\/strong> like \u201ccan,\u201d \u201cback,\u201d \u201crack,\u201d and \u201cmine,\u201d are potential minefields, one can\u2019t be too careful regarding vocabulary.<\/p>\n

And, for closers, one final spinoff word based on \u201cionga\/ingne<\/strong>\u201d:<\/p>\n

ingnead\u00f3ireacht, <\/strong>picking at something with nails, claws, or talons<\/p>\n

So, to end on a cheery note, who can fill in the following sentence (freagra th\u00edos, faoin ngluais):<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bh\u00edodh _________ ag ingnead\u00f3ireacht ar ______________ Phroim\u00e9it\u00e9is mar a fheiceann muid sa phicti\u00far \u201cProim\u00e9it\u00e9as _____ Chuibhreach\u201d a rinne Rubens.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Banc focal (t\u00e1 c\u00fapla focal breise ann, le haghaidh an d\u00fashl\u00e1in): ae, du\u00e1n, faoi, i, iolar, seabhac, <\/strong><\/p>\n

Gluais: ae, <\/strong>liver; b\u00e9im iongan, <\/strong>a fingernail\u2019s mark (referring to someone being scratched); cuibhreach<\/strong>, binding, fetter; dearna<\/strong>, palm of one\u2019s hand (more typically “bos<\/strong>“, also, a thump with the palm; de dh\u00edth orm<\/strong>, wanted by me, lit. of need on me; du\u00e1n, <\/strong>kidney; iolar, <\/strong>eagle, Proim\u00e9it\u00e9as, <\/strong>Prometheus; raspa<\/strong>, file, rasp; scuab<\/strong>, brush; seabhac, <\/strong>hawk; slac\u00e1n<\/strong>, a bat (in cricket, baseball, etc., NOT the mammal); tirim<\/strong>, dry; vearnais<\/strong>, polish, varnish<\/p>\n

Freagra:<\/strong> Bh\u00edodh iolar ag ingnead\u00f3ireacht ar ae Phroim\u00e9it\u00e9is mar a fheiceann muid sa phicti\u00far \u201cProim\u00e9it\u00e9as faoi Chuibhreach\u201d a rinne Rubens.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) So, what do you see in the title of this blog that exemplifies the pattern for a 5th-declension noun?\u00a0 That\u2019s right, nothing really. Remember the various patterns we\u2019ve seen so far (athair, athar, aithreacha; cathair, cathrach, cathracha; cathaoir, cathaoireach, cathaoireacha)?\u00a0 And more recently, the pattern where you add \u201c-an,\u201d as in: pearsa, pearsan…<\/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":[32980,33041,33034,33030,33033,33043,33019,33036,33042,33026,33020,33023,33025,33028,33046,33044,33021,33045,33022,33035,33024,33040,33039,33038,33037,33029,33027,7207,33032,33031],"class_list":["post-977","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-5th-declension","tag-ae","tag-chromail","tag-claw","tag-cromail","tag-cuibhreach","tag-dith-ingne","tag-eascaine","tag-faoi-chuibhreach","tag-fingernail","tag-gan-ingne","tag-hingne","tag-hiongan","tag-hoof","tag-ingneach","tag-iolar","tag-ionga","tag-iongach","tag-iongan","tag-mallacht","tag-n-ingne","tag-phroimeiteis","tag-proimeiteas","tag-prometheus","tag-rubens","tag-talon","tag-toenail","tag-tuiseal-ginideach","tag-unguis","tag-ungulate"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t