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Adjectives for An Tir
Originally Posted to the SCAHrlds Mailing List

Note that the article below was originally written as a posting to a newsgroup or mailing list; it has not benefited from the same level of research and review as my web articles. Please keep its extemporaneous nature in mind while reading!

This posting was addressing what people from the SCA kingdom of An Tir would be called if they used Gaelic forms rather than English forms (such as "Antirian") for their adjectives and the like. I have added below some (not quite Gaelic) pronunciations reflecting the common pronunciation of <Tir> as \teer\ by English speakers from An Tir (in contrast to the Gaelic pronunciation, which is closer to \cheer\, like the English word <cheer>); these additional pronunciations were not in the original posting to SCAHrlds. All additions (and corrections) are in orange text.

Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 18:32:21 -0800
From: "Eafric neyn Ken3e (mka Sharon L. Krossa)" <krossa@....>
Subject: Re: Kingdom Names Question, expanded
To: SCAHRLDS@....

>....

Oooh, let's start something for An Tir! The adjective would be <Tireach> (of or belonging to An Tir), a masculine inhabitant <Tireach>, a feminine inhabitant <Ban Tireach> (though I would advocate just using <Tireach> as gender neutral), multiple inhabitants <Tirich> or <Tirigh> (depending on dialect). (The question of native tongue does not arise -- though when speaking Gaelic, just stick <Tireach> after the name of whatever language being spoken, so <Beurla Tireach> would be the English spoken in An Tir, <Gaidhlig Tireach> would be the Gaelic spoken in An Tir, if any ;-)

These terms are confirmed by Dwelly, who helpfully tells us the adjective <tireach> means "territorial, of or belonging to a country", the noun <tireach> means "Countryman 2. Patriot". The plural forms <Tirich> and <Tirigh> are based on the analogy to other people names ending in <-(e)ach>, which form their plurals with <-ich>/<-igh> rather than <-ichean>, instead of using the plural for the noun "countryman" (which is <Tirichean>, "countrymen").

Note that I have not included the "An" in these derivative terms -- this follows Gaelic practice, whereby even for those countries whose names include a definite article, the adjectives and words for people from that country do not (e.g., <An Fhraing> = France, but <Frangach> = French (adj.), <Frangach> = Frenchman, and <Frangaich> = French people).

So I would recommend:

In the above pronunciations:
\TCHEER'\ is roughly like English "Cheer", with some unknown slender \R'\ sound.

\ahkh\ is just like German "ach", \kh\ being the rasping sound of the "ch" in Scottish "loch" and German "Bach"

\eekh\ is just like German "ich", the \kh\ here being the palatalized form of the rasping sound of the "ch" in Scottish "loch" and German "Bach"

Of course, the pronunciations would naturally end up being something else, as the terms became adopted into the languages actually spoken in An Tir...

Afraig, rather liking this and almost thinking it too bad she doesn't live in An Tir...
(Unless otherwise noted, when commenting on names I address historical authenticity, not SCA registerability.)
-------------------------
Sharon Krossa, krossa@....
...

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