The Leper's Bell (44 page)
Authors: Peter Tremayne
Tags: #_NB_Fixed, #_rt_yes, #Clerical Sleuth, #Fiction, #lorraine, #Medieval Ireland
I
n the previous fourteen books of the Sister Fidelma series, it has been my custom to include a historical note at the beginning as I have felt that for most readers the setting of the series, in seventh-century Ireland, would be unfamiliar. By now, I think that most people who pick up a Fidelma book will know the general background and that a weighty historical foreword now gets in the way of the story. The forewords remain in the previous editions and may also be found on the website of The International Sister Fidelma Society at
www.sisterfidelma.com
Further information may be found in the Society’s thrice-yearly magazine
The Brehon
, distributed free to all members of the Society wherever they may be.
Suffice to say that the books accurately reflect the society, the law system, and the Celtic Church of seventh-century Ireland, and while some matters may still come as a surprise to readers, nevertheless this was the system that existed, as supported by the evidence of the surviving Irish law manuscripts and an extensive early medieval literature.
In deference to continued requests, the pronouncing guide, the list of principal characters and the map of Fidelma’s world remain part of the present volume.
The action of
The Leper’s Bell
take place immediately following the events in
Badger’s Moon
, during the month of Cet Gaimred, the first of the winter moons, which approximates to the modern month of November, in the year AD 667.
Pronunciation Guide
A
s the Fidelma series has become increasingly popular, many English-speaking fans have written wanting assurance about the way to pronounce the Irish names and words.
Irish belongs to the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It is closely related to Manx and Scottish Gaelic and a cousin of Welsh, Cornish and Breton. It is a very old European literary language. Professor Calvert Watkins of Harvard maintained it contains Europe’s oldest
vernacular
literature, Greek and Latin both being a
lingua franca.
Surviving texts date from the seventh century AD.
The Irish of Fidelma’s period is classed as Old Irish; after AD 950 the language entered a period known as Middle Irish. Therefore, in the Fidelma books, Old Irish forms are generally adhered to, whenever possible, in both names and words. This is like using Chaucer’s English compared to modern English. For example, a word such as
aidche
(‘night’) in Old Irish is now rendered
oiche
in modern Irish.
There are only eighteen letters in the Irish alphabet. From earliest times there has been a literary standard but today four distinct spoken dialects are recognised. For our purposes, we will keep to Fidelma’s dialect of Munster.
It is a general rule that stress is placed on the first syllable but, as in all languages, there are exceptions. In Munster the exceptions to the rule of initial stress are a) if the second syllable is long then it bears the stress; b) if the first two syllables are short and the third is long then the third syllable is stressed - such as in the word for fool,
amadán
, pronounced amad-awn; and c) where the second syllable contains ach and there is no long syllable, the second syllable bears the stress.
There are five short vowels - a, e, i, o, u - and five long vowels - á, é, í, ó, ú. On the long vowels note the accent, like the French acute,
which is called
a fada
(literally, ‘long’), and this is the only accent in Irish. It occurs on capitals as well as lower case.
The accent is important for, depending on where it is placed, it changes the entire word.
Sean
(Shawn) = John. But
sean
(shan) = old and
séan
(she-an) = an omen. By leaving out the accent on his name, the actor Sean Connery has become ‘Old’ Connery!
These short and long vowels are either ‘broad’ or ‘slender’. The six broad vowels are:
a pronounced ‘o’ as in cot á pronounced ‘aw’ as in law
o pronounced ‘u’ as in cut ó pronounced ‘o’ as in low
u pronounced ‘u’ as in run ú pronounced ‘u’ as in rule
The four slender vowels are:
i pronounced ‘i’ as in hit í pronounced ‘ee’ as in see
e pronounced ‘e’ as in let é pronounced ‘ay’ as in say
There are double vowels, some of which are fairly easy because they compare to English pronunciation - such as ‘ae’ as
say
or ‘ui’ as in
quit.
However, some double and even triple vowels in Irish need to be learnt.
ái pronounced like ‘aw’ in law
(dálaigh =
daw-lee)
ia pronounced like ‘ea’ in near
io pronounced like ‘o’ in come
éa pronounced like ‘ea’ in bear
ei pronounced like ‘e’ in let
aoi pronounced like the ‘ea’ in mean
uai pronounced like the ‘ue’ in blue
eoi pronounced like the ‘eo’ in yeoman
iai pronounced like the ‘ee’ in see
Hidden vowels
Most people will have noticed that many Irish people pronounce the word film as fil-um. This is actually a transference of Irish pronunciation rules. When
l, n
or
r
is followed by
b, bh, ch, g
(not after
n), m
or
mh
, and is
preceded by a short stressed vowel, an additional vowel is heard between them. So
bolg
(stomach) is pronounced bol-ag;
garbh
(rough) is gar-ev;
dorcha
(dark) is dor-ach-a;
gorm
(blue) is gor-um and
ainm
(name) is an-im.
The consonants
b, d, f, h, 1, m, n, p, r
and
t
are said more or less as in English
g
is always hard like the ‘g’ in gate
c
is always hard like the ‘c’ in cat
s
is pronounced like the ‘s’ in said except before a slender vowel when it is pronounced ‘sh’ as in shin
In Irish the letters
j, k, q, w, x, y
or
z
do not exist and
v
is formed by the combination of
bh
.
Consonants can change their sound by aspiration or eclipse. Aspiration is caused by using the letter
h
after them.
bh
is like the ‘v’ in voice
ch
is a soft breath as in loch (not pronounced as lock!) or as in Ba
ch
dh
before a broad vowel is like the ‘g’ in gap
dh
before a slender vowel is like the ‘y’ in year
fh
is totally silent
gh
before a slender vowel can sound like ‘y’ as in yet
mh
is pronounced like the ‘w’ in wall
ph
is like the ‘f’ in fall
th
is like the ‘h’ in ham
sh
is also like the ‘h’ in ham
Consonants can also change their sound by being eclipsed, or silenced, by another consonant placed before it. For example
na mBan
(of women) is pronounced nah m’ on;
i bpaipéar
(in the paper) i b’ap’er and
i gcathair
(in the city) i gcathair.
p
can be eclipsed by
b, t
t
can be eclipsed by
d
c
can be eclipsed by
g
f
can be eclipsed by
bh
b
can be eclipsed by
m
d
and g can be eclipsed by
n
For those interested in learning more about the language, it is worth remembering that, after centuries of suppression during the colonial period, Irish became the first official language of the Irish state on independence in 1922. The last published census of 1991 showed one third of the population returning themselves as Irish-speaking. In Northern Ireland, where the language continued to be openly discouraged after Partition in 1922, only 10.5 per cent of the population were able to speak the language in 1991, the first time an enumeration of speakers was allowed since Partition.
Language courses are now available on video and audio-cassette from a range of producers from Linguaphone to RTÉ and BBC. There are some sixty summer schools and special intensive courses available. Teilifís na Gaeilge is a television station broadcasting entirely in Irish and there are several Irish-language radio stations and newspapers. Information can be obtained from Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge, 46 Sráid Chill Dara, Baile Atha Cliath 2, Eire.
Readers might also like to know that
Valley of the Shadow
, in the Fidelma series, was produced on audio-cassette, read by Marie McCarthy, from Magna Story Sound (SS391 - ISBN 1-85903-313-X).
Table of Contents