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Sgian Dubh
Fiona Grant
Feb. 1, 2006, 9:15 p.m. (Message 44024)
sgian a knife, Irish sgian, Early Irish scían, Welsh ysgíen slicer, scimitar, ysgi, citting off Breton skeja, cut: *scêenâ, vb. skêô, cut; Sanskrit châ, cut off, Greek @Gsházw, cut, @gsháw; Indo-European root skjê, skha, split, cut. Lindsay refers Gadelic to *scênâ, allied to Latin scêna, a priest's knife, whose side-form is sacena, from seco, cut, English section, saw. Others have compared Latin scio, know, Greek @Gkeíw, cut. from: McBain's http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb33.html dubh black, Irish dubh, Old Irish dub, Welsh du, Old Welsh dub, Cornish duv, Breton du, *dubo-; Greek @Gtuflós (= quf-lós, blind; Gothic daubs, deaf, German taub, English deaf, also dumb. Cf. Gaulish river name Dubis, now Doubs. >From McBains: http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb15.html Or from McFarlane's Gaelic School dictionary: sgian nf. g. sgìne; d. sgithinn; pl. sgèanan, knife dubh a. black, dark dubh va. blacken, darken, blot out Anyhow, it's the pronunciation that's critical not the spelling .and that will tell the listener which part of the world/island/glen you come from! Fiona Bristol Sasuinn
| sgian | nf. g. sgìne; d. sgithinn; pl. sgèanan, knife | dubh | a. black, dark | dubh | va. blacken, darken, blot out | | Anyhow, it's the pronunciation that's critical not the spelling .and that | will tell the listener which part of the world/island/glen you come from! So what are some of the pronunciations? (Of course, there's the notorious problem of English lacking anything resembling a usable phonetic writing system. ;-)