seanchas

Irish

FWOTD – 20 July 2016

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old Irish senchas, senchus (“old tales, ancient history, tradition; genealogy; traditional law”),[1] from senchae (“custodian of tradition, historian”) + -as, -us; senchae is from *seno-kʷoisos (literally “old witness”),[2] from Proto-Celtic *senos (“old”) (from Proto-Indo-European *sénos), plus a derivative of *kʷiseti (“to see”);[3] see ad·cí for more. By surface analysis, seancha (“genealogist, historigrapher”) +‎ -as.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈʃan̪ˠəxəsˠ/[4], /ˈʃanˠəxəsˠ/[5]
  • (Ulster) IPA(key): /ˈʃanˠəxəsˠk/, /ˈʃan̪ˠəxəsˠk/[6] (reflecting the form seanchasc)

Noun

seanchas m (genitive singular seanchais or seanchasa)

  1. the body of historical, genealogical, etc., information that has been handed down by tradition
  2. (literary) history, lore, ancient tale (such as a fairy tale), account
    • 1919, First Dáil of Ireland, Message to the Free Nations of the World:
      I gcúrsáibh náisiúntachta, tá deighilt ó bhonn idir Éire agus Sacsa i dtaoibh cineadh is teangan, béas is nós is seanchus.
      Nationally, the race, the language, the customs and traditions of Ireland are radically distinct from the English.
    • 1920, Adam Mickiewicz, translated by Liam Ó Rinn, Leabhar na Polainne (translation of Księgi narodu polskiego i pielgrzymstwa polskiego), p. 93:
      Siniad Leabhar an Náisiúin Pholannaig agus Leabhar na nOilithreach bPolannach, leabhair nár ceapadh, ach a cnósadh a’ leabhraibh seanchuis na Polainne, […]
      Those are the Book of the Polish Nation and the Book of the Polish Pilgrims, books that were not made up, but collected from the books of Polish lore, […]
  3. (literary) ancient law
  4. pedigree
  5. (act of) storytelling, gossiping; chatting, inquiring about another's health, etc.
    • 1906, “Scéal Ghiolla na gCochall Craicionn”, Téacsanna ó na Gleannta, printed in E. C. Quiggin, A Dialect of Donegal, p. 231:
      Labhair sí leis ⁊ ní robh sé fonnmhar seanchas(c) air bith do dheánadh.
      She spoke to him but he was not willing to do any chatting.
    • 1929, Tomás Ó Criomhthain, An t-Oileánach, page 65:
      Ní h-í an chomhairle sin óm’ mháthair is mó do mhaoluigh me ach bhíos ana-thugtha do sheanchas Thomáis agus thógas de rogha bheith ag éisteacht leis.
      It wasn’t this advice from my mother that moderated me the most, but I was very attached to Tomás’s storytelling, and I made the choice to listen to him.

Declension

Declension of seanchas (first declension, no plural)
bare forms
singular
nominative seanchas
vocative a sheanchais
genitive seanchais
dative seanchas
forms with the definite article
singular
nominative an seanchas
genitive an tseanchais
dative leis an seanchas
don seanchas
Declension of seanchas (third declension, no plural)
bare forms
singular
nominative seanchas
vocative a sheanchas
genitive seanchasa
dative seanchas
forms with the definite article
singular
nominative an seanchas
genitive an tseanchasa
dative leis an seanchas
don seanchas

Derived terms

Mutation

Mutated forms of seanchas
radical lenition eclipsis
seanchas sheanchas
after an, tseanchas 		not applicable

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

  1. ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “senchas, senchus”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
  2. ^ McCone, Kim (1995) “OIr. senchae, senchaid and preliminaries on agent noun formation in Celtic”, in Ériu, volume 46, pages 1–10
  3. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*kʷiso-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 180
  4. ^ Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry [Phonetics of an Irish Dialect of Kerry] (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, § 74, page 39
  5. ^ Finck, F. N. (1899) Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect] (in German), Zweiter Band: Wörterbuch [Second volume: Dictionary], Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 229
  6. ^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, § 138, page 55

Further reading

Scottish Gaelic

Alternative forms

  • seanachas

Etymology

From Old Irish senchas, senchus (“old tales, ancient history, tradition; genealogy; traditional law”).[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

seanchas m (genitive singular seanchais, plural seanchasan)

  1. lore
  2. chat, talk, gossip
    Synonyms: agallamh, còmhradh

Usage notes

  • Can be used as a verbal noun:
    Bha iad a' seanchas ri chèile. ― They were talking to each other.

Mutation

Mutation of seanchas
radical lenition
seanchas sheanchas
after "an", t-seanchas

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Scottish Gaelic.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

  1. ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “senchas, senchus”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
  2. ^ Oftedal, M. (1956) A linguistic survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland, Vol. III: The Gaelic of Leurbost, Isle of Lewis, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
  3. ^ John MacPherson (1945) The Gaelic dialect of North Uist (Thesis)‎[1], Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh
  4. ^ Borgstrøm, Carl Hj. (1937) The dialect of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
  5. ^ Roy Wentworth (2003) Gaelic Words and Phrases From Wester Ross / Faclan is Abairtean à Ros an Iar, Inverness: CLÀR, →ISBN

Further reading

  • Edward Dwelly (1911) “seanchas”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎[2], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.