Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patrick's Day (Edited)

The title says it all. But I invite you to hear the Irish national anthem on my music blog. The post is titled (like the anthem) "Amhrán na bhFiann." (pronounced aRON naVEEN) (Or more precisely, thanks to TRiG's comment, owRAWN naVEEN)
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7 comments:

cvn70 said...

happy st patrick day to you too and i hope you enkoyed evacation day also lol

take care and be safe

bob

March 18, 2009 at 12:08 AM
Anonymous said...

*goes to music blog*

March 18, 2009 at 10:12 PM
TRiG said...

Amhrán na bhFiann, The Soldier's Song. Contrary to popular belief, it was first written in English and later translated into Irish.

I'd pronounce the first syllable of amhrán to rhyme with cow. But it's an unstressed syllable, so the difference isn't large. And I'm not a native speaker.

I'd also pronounce the second syllable to rhyme with dawn, not with on. I'm guessing your pronunciation guide was from the north of the country. They talk funny up there. Donegal Irish has a distinctive accent. They pay little attention to the fada, the accent mark which lengthens the vowel for speakers in the rest of the country.

TRiG.

March 21, 2009 at 7:25 PM
TRiG said...

And, having now wandered over to your music blog, I see you already knew it was first written in English, so my one bit of erudition was wasted.

TRiG.

March 21, 2009 at 7:29 PM
naturgesetz said...

My first full time job was at the Internal Revenue Service's form processing factory in Andover, Massachusetts, on the swing shift (about 3:30 to midnight). Fred Stanlick had a radio, which he tuned to the Irish music program, which always concluded with the Soldier's Song. We'd stand at attention for it. It was a version that was sung with the original words. SO I've known for almost 40 years about the English text, although it was some years later that I learned that the English was the original.

As for the pronunciation, I'm not conscious of a difference between the way I pronounce the vowels of dawn and on. Thanks for the clarification regarding the first syllable of amhrán.

BTW, I think the wiki article says that the "land beyond the wave" is a reference to the U.S. That was my guess when I first heard the song, but I seem to recall learning that the land meant was actually England.

BBTW, I tried at one time to learn your language, but gave up at the point where I found out that the beginnings of words change according to the syntax. But I had been at it long enough to realize that, unlike English, the spelling was phonetic; and if one knew the rules, there was no real problem in knowing how to pronounce the written word. (As wild as it looks to the English speaker.)

BBBTW, my mother was of Irish extraction. The ancestor whose point of origin we know came from County Monaghan to Prince Edward Island some time after 1841, when he appears on the census roll in Ireland, and before 1846, when he appears on the P.E.I. census.

March 21, 2009 at 10:45 PM
TRiG said...

I'm not conscious of a difference between the way I pronounce the vowels of dawn and on.

Our accents must be wildly different.

My parents are English, but I was born and raised here. I learned Irish in school, but I was never very good and I've forgotten a lot.

TRiG.

March 22, 2009 at 9:09 AM
naturgesetz said...

On further consideration, "dawn" often is longer than "on" usually is, but it doesn't always have to be.

March 23, 2009 at 3:48 PM

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