What the plural of sgian dubh?

[creagdhubh]

Wikipedia says:

I would agree with this.

[JonathanB]

After I'd started this I thought how does one say the plurals in English of foreign words that would not end in "s" in their original.

In Italian, the plural of pizza is pizze.

In English to say "There's a choice of different pizze" would sound affected, if not incomprehensible. "There's a choice of pizzas" is the only possible way to say it.

I'd put the "s" at the end of sgian, rather the dubh.

[figheadair]

I would agree with this.

S'mise cuideachd.

[Madadh]

Well armed.

[OC Richard]

I have a Gaelic dictionary to hand (Malcolm MacLennan) and it gives

sgian, n.f. gen. sgine and sgidhinn, pl. sginean, a knife; sgian-pheann, penknife; sgian-luthaidh, clasp-knife; sgian-bhuird, table knife...

So the plural of 'knife' is 'sginean'.

What I don't know is that when you make a noun plural, if the adjective has to mutate to agree. (It seems silly in English because 'black' is 'black' whether there's one black thing or many, but in some languages the adjective has to take a plural form.)

[Calgacus]

I have a Gaelic dictionary to hand (Malcolm MacLennan) and it gives

sgian, n.f. gen. sgine and sgidhinn, pl. sginean, a knife; sgian-pheann, penknife; sgian-luthaidh, clasp-knife; sgian-bhuird, table knife...

So the plural of 'knife' is 'sginean'.

What I don't know is that when you make a noun plural, if the adjective has to mutate to agree. (It seems silly in English because 'black' is 'black' whether there's one black thing or many, but in some languages the adjective has to take a plural form.)

In gaelic, the adjective does not mutate.

[OC Richard]

In gaelic, the adjective does not mutate.

Thanks!

So sginean-dubh?

I take it that the noun does not have initial mutation in this case?

[Calgacus]

Thanks!

So sginean-dubh?

I take it that the noun does not have initial mutation in this case?

You've reached the limit of my knowledge of Gaelic, but going from Nathan's Wikipedia quote above...

The plural is most commonly sgian-dubhs (in its various spellings) but sgians-dubh is also occasionally encountered. The proper Gaelic plural forms sg(e)inean-dubh or sgianan-dubh are only rarely encountered in English usage.

...you appear to have a couple of choices.

[OC Richard]

It's interesting that the singular sgian has broad n but the plural sginean has slender n, meaning (as it seems to me) what a linguist would call a y-offglide to the n in sginean.

On many Gaelic nouns an 'i' is inserted between the vowel and the final consonant to create the plural, making the final consonant slender (marbh v mairbh) and it's interesting that sgian follows this pattern.