Celtic Studies (01/13)

[godinakilt.livejournal.com]

"Since you all seem to be utterly fascinated by the last few lessons," Camulus begins dryly, "I will keep today's short. We'll be continuing the theme of clans, but looking at the single question that you will inevitably be asked by anyone of Celtic descent - "có ris a bhuineas tu?" (ko reesh ah vinyuhs to) In other words, "who do you belong to?"" He looks down at some hastily scribbled notes. "It seems that in more modern times, the question is also a more specific, "where are you from?" leaning more towards where your people are from rather than you yourself. This is tied in with a very Celtic concept of the sloinneadh (sluhnyug), which is so Gaelic that the closest translation into English is the obscure word "patronymic". It is a more extended form of the 'mac' appelation, wherein a person could list their male ancestors. In these days, this list would probably go back only two, three, maybe four generations without research. In the days of the Celts, sloinneadh could be recited sometimes up to fifty generations, including any and all nicknames. My host, a man named Mochta Mor, could recite his sloinneadh back sixty-eight generations. But he was a bard, and never learned to read or write. It is the development of these "literacy" skills that began to limit memory and the ability to retain stories and tales, which we'll be looking at later."

He begins handing out a sheet with a number of Gaelic phrases on it. "We'll be beginning our brief look at the Gaelic language next week, so the sloinneadh is really just an introduction to that. Macbeth, I'm sure you can deliver a sloinneadh for us. But I won't put you on the spot, so I will demonstrate.

"A man's sloinneadh is stated the following way: Is mise Seumas 'ac Dhomhnaill 'ic Iain. (is misha Shaymus ak Ghow(n)wheel ik Ian). I am James son of Donald son of John. The 'ac and 'ic are elided forms of 'mac' and 'mhic', the subject and genitive cases of the word for 'son'. Any nicknames, such as 'Mor' - 'big' - or 'Dubh' (doo) - 'black' - are added after the name and similarily put into the genitive case.

"A woman's sloinneadh is slight different, as the word for 'daughter' is 'nighean' - slightly cumbersome. Instead, the sloinneadh is recited as Anna Sheumais Dhuibh (hamish guive) - Black James' Anna.

"If you have any questions, please ask them. We will be starting our study of Gaelic, as I said, next week and I will have worksheets and language tapes available for you then. Have a good weekend."

[[This lesson is mostly for the muns. Because I find sloinneadh fun. Mine, if anyone's interested, is Eilidh Dhomhnaill Bheig Dhomhnaill Mhoir Uilleim - William's Big Donnie's Little Donnie's Eilidh].]]

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[sensethevisions]

Phoebe watches and listens to everything as she takes notes on who is doing waht."