sna

See also: SNA, snä, snã, sną, and -sna

Translingual

Symbol

sna

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Shona.

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sˠnˠə/

Etymology 1

From Old Irish isnaib (“in the m or f or n pl dative”), isna (“into the m or f or n pl accusative”).

Alternative forms

• ’sna
• ins na

Contraction

sna (triggers h-prothesis)

1. Contraction of i + na.

   Tá sí ina cónaí sna hIndiacha Thiar.

   She lives in the West Indies

Usage notes

This contraction is obligatory, i.e. *i na never appears uncontracted. Triggers h-prothesis of a following vowel.

Often understood to be a contraction of ins na, but the form sna was in common use by the 12th century and accepted in Classical Gaelic poetry while ins is a later innovation with the -n- reintroduced by analogy.

Related terms

Irish preposition contractions

Basic form	Contracted with							Copular forms
	an (“the sg”)	na (“the pl”)	mo (“my”)	do (“your”)	a (“his, her, their; which (present)”)	ár (“our”)	ar (“which (past)”)	(before consonant)	(present/future before vowel)	(past/conditional before vowel)
de (“from”)	den	de na desna*	de mo dem*	de do ded*, det*	dá	dár		dar	darb	darbh
do (“to, for”)	don	do na dosna*	do mo dom*	do do dod*, dot*	dá	dár		dar	darb	darbh
faoi (“under, about”)	faoin	faoi na	faoi mo	faoi do	faoina	faoinár	faoinar		faoinarb	faoinarbh
i (“in”)	sa, san	sna	i mo im*	i do id*, it*	ina	inár	inar		inarb	inarbh
le (“with”)	leis an	leis na	le mo lem*	le do led*, let*	lena	lenár	lenar		lenarb	lenarbh
ó (“from, since”)	ón	ó na ósna*	ó mo óm*	ó do ód*, ót*	óna	ónár	ónar		ónarb	ónarbh
trí (“through”)	tríd an	trí na	trí mo	trí do	trína	trínár	trínar		trínarb	trínarbh
*Dialectal.

References

• McKenna, Lambert, editor (1944), Bardic Syntactical Tracts, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, page 113: “Before pl. art. i n- gives is na, ’sna; in such cases a h- gives as na. (…) Before sg. art. i n- is isin, san (often sa before consonants).”
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), chapter I, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Etymology 2

Extracted from a reinterpretation of forms like ins na, as na, gus na, leis na as in/a/gu/le sna.

Article

sna (triggers h-prothesis)

1. (Munster) Alternative form of na (“the pl”)

Usage notes

This form is found after the prepositions aige, de, do, and ó, especially in older texts. In modern texts, aiges na has the s on the preposition, while desna, dosna, and ósna are more commonly written as single words—to the extent they are found at all, since they occur only in Munster dialect and are not part of the standard written language.

Serbo-Croatian

Noun

sna m

1. genitive singular of san