Ok all, I’ve been learning the tune ‘Eamonn na Chnoic’ which I understand from an little tune book I have, to mean ‘Ned of the Hill’. Is this correct?
My next question is on the Gaelic pronounciation of ‘Chnoic’ it looks to perhaps be simliar to knock which is gaelic for ‘Hill’, but they’re just different enough to make me wonder. I’ve self-studied a fair bit on speaking Gaelic, but reading/translating is still bloody difficult.
As a side note, Jean-Michel Veillon plays a gorgeous rendition of this tune on his live BEO! album and on Hanz Araki’s latest project called ‘An Tua’ he plays a simpler, but no less beautiful version of the tune. www.antua.com
I’ve wondered at the Anglicised word “Knock”, myself. My learn-to-speak-Irish text says that combinations like cn, gn, tn and mn (I forget if there are others) would be pronounced “cr”, “gr”, “tr”, and “mr”, respectively. If so, cnoc ought to be pronounced something like “kRuck”. A bit of a remove from “knock”, I think.
Thanks, Roger! That makes sense, as the text I have concerns the Cois Fhairrge dialect in Galway. It didn’t specify if the above applied to all Irish or not.
You can’t follow English spelling or pronunciation rules, as many “kn” spellings in English are supposed to be from Nordic words, like “know” or “Knute”.
On the NPU Vol 2 video, Nollaig Mac Cárthaigh pronounces it “Aymon a Kunnik”. I have heard others pronounce it as “Crik”.
Its unfortunate no-one actually speaks this language any more.
My latest favourite “How shall we pronounce Irish this week?” story was listening to Áine Hensey interview Nicholas Carolan from the Irish Traditional Music Archive. She would pronounce Gaeltacht as “goyle-tact” and he would none-too-subtley pronounce it as “gwale-tact-a” in his next sentence and she would say it a bit louder as “goyle-tact” in her next sentence, etc. Half-way through the interview she started pronouncing it his way, but as soon as the interview was over and he was gone, she immediately went back to pronouncing it “goyle-tact” as if to say, “Its my radio show and I’ll have the last word on it!”
It is funny, the different dialects we have. In Northern Minnesota, people say:“Hi, how are you.” In Florida, most folks say:“Hi y’all, how y’all doin,y’all?” And in New York City they say: “Get the fu** outa the way!”
In Minneapolis, it’s “'Sup?” (downward tonal inflection), sometimes “W’sup?” (stress on the second syllable, same inflection as the former). It covers both the northern MN and NYC functions, as well as challenging the greetee to fight or back down. A wonderful multipurpose greeting. Keeps our social barometers fine-tuned.
I think the first time I encountered ‘w’sup’, was back in 1982’ in St. Paul Minnesota where I worked as a Head Pizza Chef…yeah, big time…not. We had this guy from New York City, I believe a native of Puerto Rico, who trained a lot of the other people, and roughly 65% of his convesational English consisted solely of ‘w’sup’? It spead to the rest of the staff (myself included) and before too long, the rest of the mall was saying it. Then a few years later, I ran into it at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis. I knew then the Twin Cities would never be the same again…sigh. But, I will say it was a welcome diversion from the usual ‘..gonna be cold out today, you betcha’ that I never could get used to…and here I grew up in Duluth where little else is said.
Sorry for the ramble, my medication is kicking in. Yup, better living through chemistry, that’s what I say…
I’d be interested in getting some more commentary from our Canadian bretheren on this subject matter. What sort of impact would the Canadian low back vowel merger have on the pronunciation of Eamonn a’Chnoic?*
*N.B. The aforementioned Canadian low back vowel merger does not apply in some circumstances. A Montrealer would likely pronounce Eamonn a’Chnoic as 'Allo Intestines, whereas a Newfie would likely pronounce it as “Buddy dere is on’ a inside fer sum fine tinkin’ wit’ a tackler fer d’gulley, eh bys?.”
It is nearly 15 or more years since I was there but here goes. Touring in the west I went to visit the family of one of my friends in Europe, and, stayed a few days in west Limerick. There in a little town called Bruff I was taken on a tour of the local ‘sights’. I saw the ‘Townland’ of ‘Bulgaden’ famous for the tune called after it, or as you may know it ‘The Temple House’, and a derelict building with nothling left but the walls.
The story goes that it was once a Courthouse and there the British executed by hanging a hill famer for stealing a sheep (stolen to feed his starving family), the man’s name was ‘Eamon An Cnoic’ - hence the ‘Air’ or as they say over there 'Lament. It is worth noticing that at the time nobody there spoke English except the English.
So think Slaibh Luachra - think ‘The O’Sullivans’ and most of all think about what the English HAD to do to contain the Gaelic speaking old Irish clans in the hills and mountains of the south of Ireland. Today when you visit the Gaelteact’s in the area - eg on the Dingle Penisula - you’ll still get the feeling of sadness and a deep hatred of invaders of the past.
Lately I read that the Irish people are related to the southern European people in the Iberian penisula but are not related to the nothern Germanic tribes such as the Saxons - Angles - Normans etc that invaded THEIR Island.
So the troubles in Ireland weren’t JUST about rejecting Protestantism - it still isn’t, t’was about race and language, about cuture and freedom.
