Posts tagged with "máthair"

“Comharsa,” “Monarcha,” “Pearsa”: An Cúigiú Díochlaonadh Arís

Posted by róislín 2 Comments
Jun 10 2011

(le Róislín)

We’ve recently seen several patterns for 5th-declension nouns in Irish.

One small group, which contains some very important kinship terms, looks like this:

athair (father), athar, aithreacha

máthair (mother), máthar, máithreacha

Another group sometimes also has the “-air” ending but works slightly differently when you create the possessive form (adding “-ach”) and includes the following:

cathair (city), cathrach, cathracha

nathair (snake), nathrach, nathracha

This second pattern also contains nouns that work the same way (adding “-ach”), but have slightly different endings (-il, -ir, -in) in their basic form, all within the same family, though.  These include:

triail, trialach, trialacha (trial, attempt)

uimhir, uimhreach, uimhreacha (number)

traein, traenach, traenacha (train)

And now for our third sub-section of 5th-declension nouns.  These add “-n” for genitive singular and, with a few exceptions, “-na” for all the plural forms.  Examples include the following:

comharsa (neighbor), comharsan (of neighbor, neighbor’s), comharsana (neighbors)

monarcha (factory), monarchan (of factory, factory’s), monarchana (factories)

pearsa (person, in the literary, grammatical, or philosophical sense; also, a character in a play), pearsan (of person, person’s), pearsana (persons, cast of characters in a play); “person” in the more physical sense is “duine.”

It’s worth noting that this “-(a)na” plural ending is structurally quite different from the much more widely used “-(e)anna” plural ending (busanna, carranna, ceisteanna, feiseanna, srl.).  For “comharsa,” “monarcha,” and “pearsa,” we’re basically taking the “-n” ending used to show possession and adding an “-a” to it for the plural.  So, there’s only one “-n.”  Another point of contrast is that there are probably thousands of words that have the “-(e)anna” plural, including a lot of recently borrowed ones, but probably only a couple dozen, at least of reasonably widely used words, that are part of this 5th-declension “-(a)na” subset. 

How about a little cleachtadh now.  Freagraí, as usual, thíos.  First we’ll practice the most recent batch, the “-n, -na” words.  Remember these are all feminine, so you’ll have “na” in the middle for “of the,” singular as well as plural.  Oh, and that “na” (meaning “of the”) is not at all related to our “-na” suffix; it’s just a chance similarity.

Cleachtadh A: Word bank: comharsa, monarcha, pearsa (but you’ll need to add the endings, where necessary)

a) úinéir na _____________  (the owner of the factory)

b) úinéirí na ________________ (the owners of the factories)

c) Tá lomaire faiche mo _______________ an-challánach agus úsáideann siad go moch sa mhaidin é.

d) Tá an briathar “táid” sa tríú __________________.  (Leid: táid = tá siad)

e) Cé mhéad ______________ atá sa dráma sin? 

And now, let’s mix it up with other 5th-declension nouns, not just today’s “-n, -na” set:

Cleachtadh B: Word bank: athair, cathair, comharsa, monarcha, nathair, traein.  Sé fhocal i mbanc na bhfocal, ach ocht gceist?  Tá cúpla ceist bhreise ann le haghaidh an chraic agus mar tá na hábhair chomh suimiúil!  It’ll be up to you to decide if you need a possessive or plural form here, and to add the appropriate ending.  

1)     An bhfuil preabmhúnlanna i lár na _________ ? (city)

2)     Cad é ainm d’___________ ? (father)

3)     Cá bhfuil an stáisiún ______________ ? (train)

4)     Na hAchtanna ________________ ? (factory)

5)     An fearr leat cáis ____________________ ná cáis cheardaí ? (factory)

6)     An bhfuil mórán eolais agat ar _________________?  Cad é an ______ is lú sa domhan? (snake)

7)     Cén fáth a dtugtar an leasainm “Juteopolis” ar Dhún Déagh, in Albain?  Freagra: Mar gheall ar na ________________ siúite a bhíodh ann.  (factory)

8)     Ná santaigh teach do ______________; ná santaigh bean do ______________, ná a dhaor ná a dhaoirseach, ná a dhamh ná a asal, ná aon ní is leis (Eaxodus 20:17).  Leid: the use of forms like “a dhaor” and “leis” tell us that the answer is singular; also, unlike some fill-in-the-blank questions, both blanks here are identical.  (neighbor)

And finally, while still talking about “an cúigiú díochlaonadh,” what do “porridge” and “fingernails” have in common.  Well, that’s the cliffhanger don chéad bhlag eile.   Slán go fóill, ó Róislin

Freagraí do Chleachtadh A: a) na monarchan, b) na monarchana, c) mo chomharsana; has to be plural here because of the “siad,” d) pearsa, e) pearsa (singular after the question “Cé mhéad”)

Freagraí do Chleachtadh B:

1) i lár na cathrach

2) ainm d’athar

3) an stáisiún traenach

4) Na hAchtanna Monarchan (sa Bhreatain)

5) cáis mhonarchan (“mh” instead of just “m” because “cáis” is feminine)

6) nathracha; nathair; an ceann is lú (de réir http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2008/f/zt01841p030.pdf): snáthnathair Bharbadós (Leptotyphlops carlae), a bhfuil cónaí air ar Bharbadós, é 10cm (ceithre horlaí) ar a fhad agus chomh tanaí le ribe spaigití. 

7) monarchana.  Dála an scéil, ceann amháin acu fágtha anois, fad m’eolais, a bhfuil an t-ainm “Verdant Works” air.  Maidir leis an difear idir an téarma “monarcha” agus an téarma “muileann” sa chás seo (muilte siúite a bhí i gceist, le bheith cruinn), sin idirdhealú nach bhfuil agam go réidh.  Ach chonaic mé “muileann síoda” i liosta na “monarchana” ba shine i Sasana agus mar sin is dócha go dtig linn “monarcha” a úsáid do mhuileann siúite sa chás seo.  “Monarcha” mar scáth-théarma, b’fhéidir.  Agus an Ghaeilge ar “Juteopolis”?  *Siúiteapolas, b’fhéidir.  Bhur mbarúlacha?     

8)) do chomharsan, do chomharsan.  Hmmm, why is the “bean” part of that “aithne” (commandment) so much more memorable than the “damh” and “asal” part?  Changing times, is dócha.  And what about “santú fhear do chomharsan”?  I wonder why that wasn’t specified. 

Gluais: asal, donkey; ba shine, oldest; callánach, noisy; ceardaí, artisan; damh, ox; daor, unfree person, slave; daoirseach, slave, serf; idirdhealú, distinction; is lú, smallest; lomaire, mower; orlach, inch; ribe, strand (of hair, etc.); santú, to covet; síoda, silk; siúit, jute; snáth, thread

Nóta re: *preabmhúnlann (pop-up urinal): If you have any doubts about the *preabmhúnlann concept, which I have not seen implemented in the U.S., just check out the website of the UriLift manufacturer, which cites their popularity in London and Belfast, amongst other places (www.urilift.com).  My question is what to call these devices in Irish, since, yet again, I find nothing online for this phrase.  The choice is basically whether to use “preab-“ as a prefix or “aníos” as a modifier.  “Preab” literally means “bounce,” “spring,” or “leap,” and “aníos” means “upward” or “from below.”  “Preab aníos” means “pop up from below,” but would seem to be overkill for the pop-up urinals.  With “preab,” we have samples like “preableabhar” (pop-up book) and “preabdheis” (pop-up device).

Using “aníos,” we have phrases like mír aníos (a pop-up, i.e. ad, message, etc. on computer), bacaire míreanna aníos, pop-up blocker (lit. blocker of pop-ups), pictiúr aníos (a pop-up picture), and roghchlár aníos (a pop-up menu, as on a computer, not, afaik, as a 3-dimensional feature on a dining table in a restaurant, although, come to think of it, that’s not a bad idea).

Of course, we could always drop the colloquialism “pop-up” and describe them in scientific terms: múnlanna a ardaítear go hiodrálach (múnlanna inardaithe go hiodrálach).  Curiously, at least to me, the Irish for “retractable” is “inardaithe,” but literally, that would mean something more like “able to be raised.”  The word “retractable” in English puts more emphasis on the lowering-down aspect.  Either approach seems reasonable, since that’s exactly what the UriLift does – it gets raised in the evening when it will help with public urination problems, typically around 10 pm, and lowered again in the morning when it’s not needed and would block traffic.  All with a cianrialtán (remote control).

An Mháthair nó an Lá: Cé Acu Atá Sona?

Posted by róislín No Comments
May 8 2011

(le Róislín)

Some of you may have been wondering how to say “Happy Mother’s Day” in Irish.  Previous blogs in the series have talked about the phrase for “Mother’s Day” itself (Lá na Máithreacha, lit. day of the mothers).  But what happens when you want to say the greeting?

In Irish, if a greeting is a blessing, we typically use the preposition “ort” (or “oraibh” for plural).  Who remembers how to say the following? Freagraí thíos-1.

Beannachtaí na _____________ Pádraig ort!  for “Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you!” (for plural use “oraibh” instead of “ort”).  Leid: think “feast,” not “day.”

Beannachtaí na ___________ ort! (or “oraibh)  for  “Happy Easter to you!”

If the greeting uses the word “sona” for “happy” instead of being basing the phrase on “beannacht” for “blessing,” we typically use the preposition “duit” (“daoibh” [deev] for plural).

So, for “Happy Mother’s Day to you,” I’d recommend “Lá na Máithreacha Sona duit.”  If you’re addressing a group of mothers, use “daoibh.”  That, of course wouldn’t be typical for most individuals, but might pertain for an event or in a group setting.

Tricky thing here, though, is this could also mean “the day of the happy mothers.”  Of course, it’s almost one and the same, moodwise.  It’s just a little different grammatically.  What with na bláthanna and na bróinsí, or other Mother’s Day traditions,  it’s both a happy day and, hopefully, a day on which mothers are happy.

The reason we can’t tell if “sona” goes with “lá” or “máithreacha”  is that “sona” doesn’t have a separate plural ending, like some other adjectives do (maith, maithe; suimiúil, suimiúla, srl.).  “Sona” can be singular or plural.  “Lá na Máithreacha” is a set phrase, so “sona” wouldn’t normally come right after the word “lá.”  In other words, even though adjectives usually follow their noun in Irish (“gúna nua” as opposed to English “new gown”), the adjective can also follow an entire phrase when it describe that entire phrase.

This is a reminder of how, within reason, we tend to interpret linguistic phenomena the way they’re intended to be interpreted.  The simplest solution is “supposed” to be the one that works.  In some cases, English will be as ambiguous as our Irish “Mother’s Day” phrase but pattern and context usually provide clarification.  For example, the phrase “Little Used Book Store” could mean all of the following:

1)       a store selling used books that are little (miniature editions, etc., many of which are collectible)

2)       a store selling books that are little used (like obscure dictionaries or histories of footnotes and of screwdrivers, both of which happen to be real books I couldn’t resist acquiring)

3)       a little store that sells used books, or,

4)      a book store that’s little used (Say it ain’t so! – I like to think that all bricks-and-mortar bookstore are well-used since they are among my favorite haunts, but they do seem to be disappearing  at an alarming rate)

I’m sure you can imagine other phrases that have struck you similarly.  Theoretically, in English, punctuation is supposed to help, but we seem to be losing our main weapon for this purpose, the hyphen.  If you have any doubts on that, just consider which you would rather encounter – a man eating shark or a man-eating shark.  Bhuel, ‘nuff said maidir le fleiscíní, is dócha.

Anyway, back to our phrase, Mother’s Day as celebrated in the US (ar an dara Domhnach de mhí na Bealtaine) isn’t a traditional holiday in Ireland, or for that matter in the UK, where “Mothering Sunday” is celebrated, usually in late March.  But the observance seems to be spreading, and certainly as more and more Gaeil-Mheiriceánaigh learn a dteanga dhúchais, people seem to want to know how to say “Happy Mother’s Day” in Irish.

Just to break the phrase down a little more:

lá (day): this will come first in the phrase since Irish word order is usually noun followed by modifiers/possessors, not modifier/possessor followed by noun as we usually find in English (Mother’s Day) or, for that matter, in German (Muttertag).

na: here, “of the.”  Remember, Irish doesn’t use the word “of” to express possession, since it’s an “inflected” language, meaning it has actual endings to words to tell us who owns what.  Usually!

máithreacha, plural of “máthair” (mother); this form is used both for “mothers” as the subject of the sentence (Tá na máithreacha ag teacht leis na leanaí) or for saying “of mothers.”  Moral of that story: the word “mother” doesn’t fit any of the declensions we’ve discussed so far, and I’ll make its details  the subject of a later blog, maybe when we do “Lá na nAithreacha,” since the word “athair” behaves quite similarly.

sona (happy): as I said before, somewhat ambiguous here, but tradition nudges us toward the correct interpretation.  “Sona” can undergo one change, initial mutation, resulting in phrases like “cearc shona” (a happy hen) or “fir shona” (happy men).  But for our purposes, modifying a masculine singular noun (lá), it stays as “sona.”  On that note, and for a little “cloze” practice, who remembers how to say the following in Irish (fill in the blank, freagraí thíos-2):

Lá Breithe ________ duit! (for “Happy Birthday to you!”)

Nollaig _____ duit! (for “Merry Christmas,” lit. “Happy Christmas,” comparable to the UK English usage).

On that nóta sona, sin é don bhlag seo.  SGF, ó Róislín

Freagraí (1): Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig ort; Beannachtaí na Cásca ort.

Freagraí (2): Lá Breithe Sona duit (“sona” stays as is because it’s modifying a masculine singular noun, lá); Nollaig Shona duit! (lenition, with “s” changing to “sh,” because “sona” modifies a feminine singular noun).

Lá na Máithreacha vs. Lá na Máthar (“Day of the Mothers” or “of the Mother”)?

Posted by róislín No Comments
May 10 2009

I’ve been following this debate in Irish circles for a good 10 or so years now, probably since the first time I wrote on the topic for my children’s Irish language column in the Philadelphia-based Irish Edition newspaper (www.irishedition.com).   Are we celebrating one mother or all mothers? 

I should probably qualify that to say “i gciorcail Ghael-Mheiriceánacha agus Ghael-Cheanadacha” (in Irish-American and Irish-Canadian circles), since Mother’s Day as such wasn’t traditionally celebrated in Ireland, or Britain for that matter.  Instead, “Mothering Sunday” was, and is, observed on the fourth Sunday of Lent (aka Laetare Sunday).  Mothering Sunday was originally a very religious holiday, for the purpose of visiting one’s mother church (“going a-mothering”) and typically being reunited with one’s mother for the day.  Recently, however, it has become increasingly secularized and more like North American Mother’s Day.  The Irish term for “Mothering Sunday” is surprising elusive, but “Domhnach an Mháithreachais” should do. 

 

The consensus seems to be that the Mother’s Day concept is plural, despite the English grammatical structure, which makes it singular.  These days many people leave out the apostrophe altogether, adding to the confusion, since the phrase “Mothers Day” without the apostrophe isn’t  specifically singular or plural or even possessive. In English, of course, the apostrophe is currently dying a slow death, despite the valiant attempts of organizations like the Apostrophe Protection Society (www.apostrophe.org.uk) and websites like www.apostrophecatastrophes.com, as well as attention from such prominent commentators as Arianna Huffington who wrote “The Apostrophe Crisis: When Perfectly Good Punctuation Goes Bad” (www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-apostrophe-crisis-wh_b_12628.html).  So, at some point in the future, we’ll just have a blur of events like “Mothers Day,” “Fathers Day,” and “St. Patricks Day.”  The latter will be particularly problematic if it presumes the existence of more than one St. Patrick!  Mother – Mothers, Father — Fathers — OK.  But is there another St. Patrick? 

 

Fortunately, the Irish language will never fall quite into that grammatical trap.  It doesn’t  use the apostrophe to show possession.  So you see, those of you from Ireland, all those years of studying the tuiseal ginideach (genitive case) are of some benefit!  It’s true that Irish has some complicated use of apostrophes, including indicating the real colloquial pronunciation of phrases like “fear an phoist” (the postman, pronounced fear a’ phoist).  Bhuel, more on na hapastrófa and an tuiseal ginideach later but that Á.B.E. (ábhar blag eile) will have to wait.  

 

Back to Mother’s Day itself.  “Lá na Máithreacha” seems to be favored somewhat over “Lá na Máthar,” to judge by some recent online searching.  As I mentioned, there’s not much precedent for either of these phrases in older Irish sources, since the day was not traditionally observed in Ireland under the name “Mother’s Day.”  

 

Conveniently, this topic has also introduced some of the irregularities of the word “máthair.”  It’s an irregular noun, with the following forms:

 

máthar: of a mother (note the “i” has been dropped at the end – that shows that this form is possessive).  Example: gach mac máthar, every mother’s son 

 

na máthar: of the mother.  Ex.: Sláinte na máthar, the health of the mother. 

 

máithreacha: mothers,  Ex. ár máithreacha romhainn, our mothers before us

 

Based on this, can you guess the forms for “athair” (father)?  It’s irregular in a similar way to “máthair.”  How would you suppose we’d say “Father’s Day”?   Or “Grandpar­ents Day,” which, by the way, is officially gan apastróf (apostrophe-less) according to its creator’s website (www.grandparents-day.com).

 

However you celebrate the day, bain sult as (enjoy it) – bhur mblagálaí — Róislín

�

Mór? Críonna? or Sean? — Grandparents By Any Other Name!

Posted by róislín 8 Comments
Apr 9 2009

  I frequently get asked about the Irish word for “grandmother” or “grandma,” so children in Irish-American families can start using it as a pet name.  Sometimes the basic term “Grandma” has already been taken by one side of the family, so the other side may look for a different name, like “Nana” in English.  Most of the people who ask for this are the actual grandmothers, not the grandfathers, but in this blog, I’ll be an equal opportunity terminologist and assume that the male and female terms are of equal interest.  A Sheanaithreacha (grandfathers!) please take note!

   Let’s start with the formalities, “grandmother” and “grandfather.”  Most children don’t actually use these in talking with the actual grandparent but they’re useful in narrative and in general discussion.  There are three pairs of terms, each building on the words “máthair” (mother) and “athair” (father).  :

   seanmháthair, seanathair: based on the prefix “sean-“ (old)

   máthair chríonna, athair críonna: based on the adjective “críonna” (wise, prudent, aged).  Please note: despite the endearing bit of misinformation currently circulating on the Internet (sites will remain nameless), these terms do NOT mean “mother of my heart” and “father of my heart.”  Those phrases would be based on “croí” (heart), not “críonna” (wise).   

   máthair mhór, athair mór: based on the adjective “mór” (big, great).  I’ve mostly heard this term in Donegal. 

   For the more familiar terms, there are “Mamó” and “Móraí” for “grandma,” and “Daideo” for “grandpa.” 

   Using these words is one way that Irish words can be come part of a child’s life, and perhaps stimulate further study of the language later.   Needless to say, the terms can now grace mugaí (mugs), t-léinte (t-shirts), or léinte aclaíochta (sweatshirts, lit. “exercise shirts”). Or, for that matter, any other merchandise that allows you to send in customized text for printing. 

   One curious feature of all of these terms is that none of them are used to create the words “grandchild,” “grandson,” or “grand-daughter.”  So how do you do it?  Bhuel, ag bogarnach ar an aill sin (Well, hanging on that cliff), slán go dtí an chéad bhlag eile (goodbye until the next blog).   

 Bhur mblagálaí – Róislín

 
 

 

 

 

Back to the Top