Fáilte (Welcome) › Forums › General Discussion (Irish and English) › Mnathan etymology
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Onuvanja.
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May 19, 2015 at 8:23 am #36845
charlie
ParticipantAnyone know what mnathan is derived from and how it relates to bean?
May 19, 2015 at 10:42 am #45726charlie
ParticipantI’m aware the Irish equivialent of mnthan is mná but I presume same etymology.
May 19, 2015 at 7:45 pm #45727Labhrás
ParticipantAnyone know what mnathan is derived from and how it relates to bean?
McBain’s Etymological Dictionary:
bean, wife, so Ir., O. Ir. ben, W. bun, benyw, Cor. benen, sponsa, Celtic benâ, g. bnâs, pl. n. bnâs ; Gr. gyné, BÅ“ot. Gr. baná, Got. ginô, Eng. queen, Sc. queyn, Skr. gnâ
Celtic benâ, genitive bnâs
benâ -> bean
bnâs -> mná-than plural suffix.
May 19, 2015 at 10:49 pm #45728charlie
ParticipantCheers
Is there any reason why no other words don’t work the same way (you’ll need to excuse my ignorance).Is it cause it was so common a word it carried on through and survived other language changes.
Thanks again
Charlie
May 20, 2015 at 9:33 am #45729Onuvanja
Participant
benâ -> bean
bnâs -> mná-than plural suffix.
Labhrás, would you happen to know if this is a purely Scottish Gaelic suffix or did the form “mnathan” at some point also exist in Irish Gaelic? I thought the plural form was “mná” already in Classical Old Irish…
May 20, 2015 at 8:22 pm #45730Labhrás
Participant
benâ -> bean
bnâs -> mná-than plural suffix.
Labhrás, would you happen to know if this is a purely Scottish Gaelic suffix or did the form “mnathan” at some point also exist in Irish Gaelic? I thought the plural form was “mná” already in Classical Old Irish…
I don’t know if other plural forms of “bean” beside “mná” (/mna:/, /mra:/) exist or existed in Irish.
I guess the Irish equivalent for -an is -anna , The th in Scottish Gaelic -than is probably silent and due to the hiatus between mna- and -an .
-an is a frequent plural suffix in Gàidhlig, much more so than Irish -anna, so I’m not surprised about “mnathan”.May 20, 2015 at 8:30 pm #45731Labhrás
Participant
Is it cause it was so common a word it carried on through and survived other language changes.Yes, certainly.
Irregular forms are most common in the most frequent words. in every language.May 20, 2015 at 11:21 pm #45732charlie
ParticipantCheers, wiser, a wee bit and a big bit 😉
Beannacht dhuit
Charlie
May 21, 2015 at 8:24 am #45733Onuvanja
Participant
benâ -> bean
bnâs -> mná-than plural suffix.
Labhrás, would you happen to know if this is a purely Scottish Gaelic suffix or did the form “mnathan” at some point also exist in Irish Gaelic? I thought the plural form was “mná” already in Classical Old Irish…
I don’t know if other plural forms of “bean” beside “mná” (/mna:/, /mra:/) exist or existed in Irish.
I guess the Irish equivalent for -an is -anna , The th in Scottish Gaelic -than is probably silent and due to the hiatus between mna- and -an .
-an is a frequent plural suffix in Gàidhlig, much more so than Irish -anna, so I’m not surprised about “mnathan”.Ah, that’s interesting! So technically, “mnathan” has two plular markers – the special plural stem “mna” plus the plural ending “-an”. 🙂
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