The west Kerry Gaeltacht that I call home, Corca Dhuibhne, is famous for its beautiful mountains (among numerous other things!). I thought that it would be nice to learn how to say mountain in Irish.

The Irish for mountain is sliabh/sh-lee-uv/.

In the Ulster dialect this is pronounced /sh-lee-ow/.

The plural form (mountains) is sléibhte /sh-lay-teh/.

But what, you might say, is the Irish word for hill?

That is cnoc /kuh-nuk/.

In the Connaught and Ulster dialects this is pronounced /kruk/.

The plural form (hills) is cnoic /kuh-nik/.

And, again, in the Connaught and Ulster dialects this is pronounced /krik/.

This word cnoicbrings us nicely to a seanfhocal, or proverb, in Irish that is particularly poignant due to Ireland’s history of emigration.

This is Is glas iad na cnoic i bhfad uainn /Iss gloss ee-ud nuh kuh-nik ih vod woo-in/.

This translates as “green are the hills far away from us”. In a sense, it shares the sentiment of the English language proverb ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’.

Now we know the Irish for hill and mountain, but if we consider the names of actual hills and mountains in west Kerry we may notice the use of either ‘sliabh’ or ‘cnoc’ in naming an actual mountain or hill can be somewhat arbitrary.

Cnoc Bhréanainn, for instance, is the 8th highest peak in Ireland, reaching 952 metres, and yet its Irish name calls it a mere hill (‘cnoc’).

A few miles south-west of Cnoc Bhreánainn we encounter Sliabh an Iolair (‘Mount Eagle’). Sliabh an Iolair is only the 419th tallest peak in Ireland, yet we see that its Irish name bestows the status of mountain (‘sliabh’) on it.

Just a hop-skip-and-jump from Slaibh an Iolair you’ll see Cruach Mhárthain standing proud. Cruach /kroo-ukh/ means ‘stack’, and refers to a mountain with a pronounced conical peak.

The most famous cruach in Ireland is Cruach Phádraig (‘Croagh Patrick’), a Christian pilgrimage site in Co. Mayo. It is associated, or course, with Naomh Pádraig (St. Patrick), the man reputed to have driven the snakes from Ireland (here’s Christy Moore’s fine tribute to the man).

It is doubtful that there were ever snakes in Ireland, of course. If there were, it was before the onset of the last ice-age – which ended over 10,000 years ago. Let’s not let the truth get in the way of a good story!

The post How to say mountain in irish first appeared on Bitesize Irish.