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Seanchai

A seanchaí (pronounced [ˈʃan̪ˠəxiː] or [ʃan̪ˠəˈxiː] – plural: Irish: seanchaithe [ˈʃan̪ˠəxəhɪ]) is a traditional Gaelic storyteller or historian. In Scottish Gaelic the word is Scottish Gaelic: seanchaidh (pronounced [ˈʃɛn̪ˠɛxɪ]; plural: Scottish Gaelic: seanchaidhean). The word is often anglicised as shanachie ( SHAN-ə-khee, -⁠KHEE). The word seanchaí, which was spelled seanchaidhe (plural seanchaidhthe) before the Irish-language spelling reform of 1948, means a bearer of "old lore" (seanchas). In the Gaelic culture, long lyric poems which were recited by bards (filí; filidhe in the original pre-1948 spelling) in a tradition echoed by the seanchaithe. more »