seanmhair

See also: séanmhair

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish senmáthair, from sen (“old”) + máthair (“mother”). Compare Irish seanmháthair, Manx shennvoir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɛ.nə.vɛɾʲ/

Noun

seanmhair f (genitive singular seanmhar, plural seanmhairean)

1. grandmother

Declension

Declension of seanmhair (type Vb feminine noun)

indefinite
	singular	plural
nominative	seanmhair	seanmhairean
genitive	seanmhar	sheanmhairean
dative	seanmhair	seanmhairean
definite
	singular	plural
nominative	(an) t-seanmhair	(na) seanmhairean
genitive	(na) seanmhar	(nan) seanmhairean
dative	(an) t-seanmhair	(na) seanmhairean
vocative	sheanmhair	sheanmhairean

Derived terms

• ionnsaich do sheanmhair lit' a dhèanamh

Mutation

Mutation of seanmhair

radical	lenition
seanmhair	sheanmhair after "an", t-seanmhair

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Scottish Gaelic.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “seanmhair”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎^[1], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “senmáthair”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language