A question and translation...

[Amethyst]

Hello!

I've only scratched the surface of the amazing amount of knowledge stored in this subforum, but a question came to my mind last night...

I read "A Druid's Sourcebook" by John Matthews back in 1997, and remember something about the "fa le la la la, le la la la" line in "Deck the Halls".  The line should actually be written "failte la..." because it means "welcome the day".  I love that this welcome and blessing is hidden in plain sight!

Last night, I started thinking about what I would like to say at sunrise on the Solstice, and "welcome the day, welcome the year" came to mind.

So if "welcome the day" is "failte la" (apologies for wrong spelling/lack of accents), what would "welcome the year" be?

Thanks so much!
Amethyst

[Beith]

Hi Amethyst,

That's an interesting thought! I never heard that about the "Deck the halls" song...but I wonder if it's really true or just a speculation? (it would seem to me quite strange to have a gaelic phrase as the refrain of an English song).

But to answer your question, I guess you could say:

"Fáilte roimh an bhliain nua" or "Fáilte don bhliain nua"or "Fáilte don Athbhliain"
(pron: Fawl-tcha dun vleen noo-a/ fawltcha rev an vleen nooa, fawltcha dun ah-vleen).
Bliain is the word for a year but it gets a mutation when preceded by a preposition or article that lenites it, or in combination with another word or prefix (eg. Ath-) which changes the b-sound to a v-sound.

All mean welcome to the new year (the word "Athbhliain" is used for the occasion of "New Year"in the sense of 'return' or 'later' or 'after' -year, where as bliain nua is not really used for the occasion of "New Year" but more generally a year that's new, if you know what I mean?)

best wishes
Beith

[Amethyst]

Hi Beith,
Thank you! Now I just have to get my tongue around it all

I never heard that about the "Deck the halls" song...but I wonder if it's really true or just a speculation?

I'm not sure either, but as I mentioned, I know I read it in John Matthews' "Druid Sourcebook". I think there was a whole chapter devoted to the origins of Christmas... but I read it 10 years ago!

(it would seem to me quite strange to have a gaelic phrase as the refrain of an English song).

And I always thought a line like "fa le la le la la la la la" was odd to form every other line in any song And then the fact they felt it necessary to write it all out (In my elementary school we used to sing Christmas carols every morning in December. They'd have the words projected onto a screen, just in case you didn't know them.)

Does "Fáilte la" even mean 'Welcome the day'??  

But back to the translation.... "Fáilte don Athbhliain" seems the easiest one for me to wrap my tongue around. I find I'm saying it with the following syllables stressed:  FAWLtcha dun ah-VLEEN. Is that correct?

Would there be a translation of 'welcome the day' that would have a similar syntax to Fáilte don Athbhliain, so that the two would sound somewhat appropriate together? Sorry for all the inane questions! I know very little about Gaelic grammar, but I think it would be fascinating to learn... It's been on my 'to-do list' for some time now!

Many thanks!
Amethyst

[Beith]

Hi Amethyst!

You're welcome.
On stress:
Stress is usually on the first part of the word in Irish (unless a word is unstressed, like a preposition or an article)..so FÁILte don ATHbhliain.

I should qualify everything I write here by repeating that although I learned gaeilge at school it's a long time ago and my grammar is a bit rusty for modern Irish because I'm not speaking it every day. I think I have to correct myself above with some clarifications (1-4) below.

Clarifications of mutations on words beginning with consonants:
(1) Bliain = year (a feminine word).  - on it's own, no mutation. Pron."bleen"

(2) After the singular article "an" (the),  femine words beginning with voiced (g,b,d) and voiceless (c,p,t) consonants are lenited
~ so "an bhliain" = the year, lenited, pronounced "on vleen"

(3) after some prepositions - like roimh, de, do,O, faoi etc) a consonant is lenited
~so roimh bhliain, ("rev on vleen") ó bhlian ("oh vleen"), etc

(4) when a preposition is in combination with a singular article, a different mutation happens - eclipsis (or nazalistion, "urú") of the consonants b, c, g, p, f
~ so roimh an mbliain nua = "Before the new year", (also for/to the NY)pron "Rev on mleen nooah"

So I think:

Fáilte don bhliain nua "fawltch dun vleen noo-ah"
Fáilte roimh an mbliain nua "fawltcha rev on mleen nooah" (except in the Ulster dialect where it's fáilte roimh an bhliain nua)...it's confusing I know!

Where a word begins with a vowel eg. Athbhlian (a combination of Ath- plus 'bliain' which is lenited to 'bhliain' in compounds) there is no mutation:
Fáilte don Athbhliain nua

Regarding 'day',
the word for day in modern Irish is Lá ( masculine word), pronounced "Law" {and in old Irish 'laithe', a neuter io stem pron "latheh"}.

For simplicity, one can say there is no visible mutation on a consonant beginning with l after a preposition or article; so:

"Fáilte roimh an lá" would be "welcome to the day" and I guess one could also use the prepositions "ar" or "don" too...ie. "Fáilte ar an lá", "Fáilte don lá".

Sorry for the long reply to a short question but Irish is more complex than English in these respects, so I try to include explanations of why I'm writing something a certain way, so that anyone following it can see what's happening...and certainly anyone who's more versed in nuaghaeilge (modern Irish) than I, such as mother-tongue speakers, can comment and correct me and update info as need be -as there may be more concise or more elegant ways of expressing the phrases you want.


In Old Irish there were much more distinct cases and grammar for various constructs. In Modern Irish most of the strict grammar has fallen away to leave a less distinct grammar (one that's harder to explain the origins of why something does or doesn't affect a word!).


Anyway, enjoy getting your tongue around the words. A few shots of Irish whiskey helps!
Beith

[Amethyst]

Wow Beith! Thank you! I'm glad you've included the explanations, because my only non-English grammar references are Latin and German, both of which appear ridiculously simply in comparison

I've printed off the posts and am trying to digest it all - linguistics was a long time ago! But I like challenges and Irish appears to be a good one for me at the moment. I'll try to pop in here every once in a while... But now off to find some Irish Whiskey

Solstice Blessings,
Amethyst