![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2017\/11\/0872-turkey-wattle-snood-caruncle-e1511451104952.jpg\")
<\/a>http:\/\/www.publicdomainpictures.net\/view-image.php?image=39705&picture=turkey-bird-head-close-up<\/a>, License:\u00a0CC0 Public Domain , Turkey Bird Head Close-up; T\u00e9acs Gaeilge le R\u00f3isl\u00edn 2017<\/p><\/div>\n Well, the picture above may look like an Ood from Doctor Who<\/em>, but this actually is a well-wattled turkey, so it will contribute to our seasonal “t\u00e9ama L\u00e1 an Altaithe<\/strong>.”\u00a0 “L\u00e1 an Altaithe<\/strong>” is “Thanksgiving.”\u00a0 We’ve looked at basic turkey terminology in various previous posts, so this one will look at three specific terms to describe a turkey’s head (wattle, caruncle, snood) and see how they work in phrases like “the color of the wattle,” etc.\u00a0 In other words, we’ll look at\u00a0na tuisil<\/strong> (the different case forms of Irish nouns).\u00a0 If “case forms” doesn’t sound familiar for English speakers, it’s because it’s almost a moot point in English, where we simply tack on apostrophe-s (‘s) to show possession, and we’re done.\u00a0 Oh, and “her, him, us, and them” vs. “she, he, we, they,” the so-called “inflected” forms of our pronouns.<\/p>\n But unlike English, Irish has a comprehensive “case system,” like Latin, although it’s not necessary to study Latin to understand the Irish system.\u00a0 If you study Latin, however (ceithre bliana d\u00e9anta agamsa<\/strong>, just scratchng the surface, really), you quickly learn forms like “filius, filium, filii, filio<\/em>, and filiorum<\/em>,” to give just part of the paradigm of the word for “son.”\u00a0\u00a0 The Latin “case system” also accounts for why we address Caesar’s frenemy, Brutus, as “Brute<\/em>” (pronounced with 2 syllables), not as “Brutus,” if we’re speaking to him in direct address, like, um, as he’s stabbing us. \u00a0So, “Et tu, Brute<\/em>?” not “Et tu<\/em>” followed by “Brutus<\/em>.”\u00a0 The case system also applies to various other languages, like Russian and German, but not to many other languages like English or French (except for pronouns and the apostrophe-s option for English possession).<\/p>\n So today we’ll do three turkey terms with their various case forms.\u00a0 \u00a0As noted previously, we’ll bypass the more basic words for a turkey’s body (cosa, sciath\u00e1in, cleit\u00ed, eireaball\/ruball, ceann<\/strong>, and gob)<\/strong>.\u00a0 Our three less typical words are wattle, caruncle, and snood.<\/p>\n an sprochaille<\/strong>, the wattle<\/p>\n na sprochaille<\/strong>, of the wattle (dath na sprochaille, the color of the wattle)<\/p>\n na sprochaill\u00ed<\/strong>, the wattles<\/p>\n na sprochaill\u00ed<\/strong>, of the wattles (dath na sprochaill\u00ed, the color of the wattles, assuming all turkey wattles are the same color — I’m not really sure!):<\/p>\n If you were talking to<\/em> the sprochaill\u00ed<\/strong>, for whatever strange reason, there’s actually … [drum roll] … no change.\u00a0 You’d just start out, “A sprochaille<\/strong>!” for one wattle and “A sprochaill\u00ed!<\/strong>” for two or more. That’s the vocative case (for “direct address”, as when Caesar addressed Brutus as “Brute”).\u00a0 For Irish words, the\u00a0vocative case usually does involve more change (like “a She\u00e1in<\/strong>” for “Se\u00e1n<\/strong>” or “a Bhr\u00edd<\/strong>” for “Br\u00edd<\/strong>“).\u00a0 But for “sprochaille<\/strong>,” the initial “spr” and the final vowels do not change.\u00a0 Yay!<\/p>\n an charancail<\/strong>, the caruncle<\/p>\n dath na carancail<\/strong>e, the color of the caruncle (that’s the genitive case form)<\/p>\n na carancail\u00ed<\/strong>, the caruncles<\/p>\n dath na gcarancail\u00ed<\/strong>, the color of the caruncles (as above, assumimg we’re talking about several turkeys, and assuming the caruncles are all the same reddish-pink colors; if there was a variety of colors, we’d say, “dathanna na gcarancail\u00ed); that’s the plural of the genitive case<\/p>\n If, for the same strange reason you might be talking to the sprochaill\u00ed<\/strong>, you were talking to the caruncles, you’d say “A charancail!<\/strong>” (singular) or “A charancail\u00ed!<\/strong>” (plural).\u00a0 The only change is at the beginning of the word.<\/p>\n The word “sprochaille<\/strong>” can also be used for “caruncle,” but, as noted above, it also means “wattle.”\u00a0 For our purposes (talking turkey), it seems useful to establish some distinction between them, so I’m reserving “sprochaille<\/strong>” for wattle, as seen above.<\/p>\n A caruncle, by the way, seems to be quite different from a “carbuncle,” (a boil, in the sense of a sore on the skin) which in Irish has four possibilities (!): carrmhogal<\/strong> (perhaps an approximation of the sound, or based on “mogall<\/strong>,” a globular mass) or\u00a0carbuncal<\/strong> (a gaelicization of the English) or meall gorm<\/strong> (lit. blue lump) \u00a0or bun ribe<\/strong> (the word “ribe<\/strong>” meaning “a strand of hair”).<\/p>\n an sn\u00fada<\/strong>, the snood<\/p>\n an tsn\u00fada<\/strong>, of the snood (in pronunciation, the “s” drops out so you’re really saying “tnooduh”); ex. dath an tsn\u00fada, the color of the snood<\/p>\n na sn\u00fada\u00ed<\/strong>, the snoods<\/p>\n na sn\u00fada\u00ed<\/strong>, of the snoods (dath na sn\u00fada\u00ed, or if we’re talking about various colors of hair-net snoods for people, dathanna na sn\u00fada\u00ed)<\/p>\n If addressing a snood (again, I know, pretty unusual), you could say, “A shn\u00fada!<\/strong>” for singular, with the “s” dropping out of the sound, leaving you saying something like “uh hnooduh”.\u00a0 The plural would be “A shn\u00fada\u00ed!<\/strong>” (uh hnood-ee).\u00a0 Please let me know if you find a context for that vocative-case use!<\/p>\n So that’s three turkey terms, and a good review of the genitive and vocative cases.\u00a0 If it seems complex, just remember that Latin had ablative and accusative as well, some languages also have locative, and in Irish we only have to deal with the remnants of the dative case (like “ag an mnaoi<\/strong>“), not the whole dative shebang.\u00a0 Minor blessings!\u00a0 Hope you found this fun, informative and helpful – R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/p>\n BTW, while Latin “filius<\/em>” is a far cry from Irish “mac<\/strong>” for “son,” it does give us the French word “fils<\/em>” (son), which in turn gives us the “Fitz” of names like “Fitzgerald” or “Fitzmaurice.”\u00a0 And it also gives us the English word “filial” as in “filial piety.”\u00a0 The Irish for “filial,” though, takes us right back to “mac<\/strong>,” with the word “mac\u00fail<\/strong>” (filial, like a son).\u00a0 So was Finn McCool mac\u00fail<\/strong>?\u00a0 And, wow, “filial leave” in Irish doesn’t even use the word “mac\u00fail<\/strong>”\u00a0 — it’s “saoire le haghaidh c\u00faraim do thuismitheoir\u00ed<\/strong>” (lit. leave for care to parents).\u00a0\u00a0 And another interesting, related phrase is “macleabhar fola\u00edochta<\/strong>,” which literally, in my interpretation, means “son-book of breeding” \u00a0but is understood to mean “filial breeding book” or “daughter studbook.”\u00a0 About horses, of course.<\/p>\n\n
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