Shawn
Community Tutor
Irish: Are these the correct mutations after sa and san? According to this grammar book, the Munster dialect lenites b, c, f, g, m and p after sa and the Ulster and Connacht dialects eclipse instead. It also says Munstrr changes initial s in feminine nouns to ts and in some varieties initial s in mascular nouns to ts. Are these correct? san árasán (in the apartment/flat) sa mballa / bhalla (in the wall) sa gcistin / chistin (in the kitchen) sa dánlann (in the art gallery) san eochair (in the key) sa bhfuinneog / fhuinneog (in the window) sa ngort / ghort (in the field) sa hata (in the hat) sa leabhar (in the book) sa madra / mhadra (in the dog) sa néal (in the cloud) san oifig (in the office) sa bpeann / pheann (in the pen) sa ród (in the road) sa siopa / tsiopa (in the shop) sa teach (in the house) san úll (in the apple)
Jan 24, 2015 5:32 AM
Answers · 4
1
I think your grammar book is a bit mixed up. "Sa" is a shortened form of "insan" which is formed from "ins" + "an". Compare this with "leis an". "San" is used instead of "sa" when a vowel sound follows. So "san árasán", but also "san fhuinneog" since "fh" is silent. In Ulster, preposition + "an" always lenites, therefore "sa" lenites. In Connacht, preposition + "an" eclipses, except in the case of "i" (i.e. "sa"), "do" and "de", in which case the following noun is lenited. In Munster, preposition + "an" eclipses. Normally, when "s" is lenited it becomes "sh", but after the article lenited "s" is always "ts". "D" and "t" are never lenited after the article. I think there is a rule in some dialect that "s" becomes "ts" in feminine nouns only, but I'm not sure where exactly. I'm most familiar with the Ulster dialect where this happens irrespective of gender. All your phrases are correct, apart from "in the window", which I mentioned above.
January 26, 2015
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