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Archive for May, 2013

You Just Call Out My Name (sa Tuiseal Gairmeach, of course, in Irish) (Pt. 1) Posted by on May 31, 2013

(le Róislín)   “Dia duit, a …” — hmm, what’s next, after “hello”?  We could ask the same question for “Slán agat, a (ainm duine),” when saying “goodbye”!   In most other languages I’ve studied, once you learn the words for “hello” and “goodbye,” putting people’s names into the phrase presents no particular challenge.  That is…

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Deir Tusa ‘Slán,’ Deirimse ‘Haló’ (Saying ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’ in Irish, Cuid a Dó: Goodbye) Posted by on May 27, 2013

(le Róislín) After some deliberation, I decided to hold off on the blog on “ainmneacha sa tuiseal gairmeach” (names in the vocative case), since I think that will probably also be a blag dhá chuid (two-part blog).   Let’s cut right to the chase here and go over some possibilities for saying “goodbye” in Irish.  That…

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Deir Tusa ‘Slán,’ Deirimse ‘Haló’ (Saying ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’ in Irish, Cuid a hAon: Hello) Posted by on May 24, 2013

(le Róislín) Ever wonder what to say first in an Irish conversation?  Or how to wrap it up?  In this blog, we’ll look at various greetings in Irish.   The next blog will cover goodbyes, that is, unless there’s another blog in between, with more greetings, or at least direct address forms of names, since you’ll…

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How To Say “Uncail” (Uncailín, Amhnair, etc.) i nGaeilge Posted by on May 20, 2013

(le Róislín) First, let me clarify that in this blog we’ll just be saying “uncle” in a very straightforward way, no implication of “crying uncle” (yielding, giving in).  Even though the Irish language is incredibly rich in idioms and figurative expressions, I haven’t really found much use of the word “uncail” in such expressions.  Perhaps…

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Ainteanna nó Aintíní? (Aunts or Aunties?) Posted by on May 14, 2013

 (le Róislín) We’ve recently mentioned Mother’s Day (Lá na Máithreacha) and Father’s Day (Lá na nAithreacha), and we’ve looked at various mother/father expressions (e.g. máthair na mballach, lus gan athair gan mháthair).  For the next couple of blogs, we’ll check out na hainteanna (or should we say “na haintíní“?) and na huncailí (or the occasionally…

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When Is An ‘Athair” Not A ‘Father’ (literally, that is) Posted by on May 10, 2013

(le Róislín) In the last blog (nasc thíos), we first reviewed the basic words for “mother” (plus mom, mum, mam, mommy, mummy, mammy) in Irish (máthair, mam, mamaí, srl.).  Then we looked at phrases like “máthair shúigh” and “teanga dhúchais,” where there is not a one-to-one correlation between máthair/mother and the translation of a phrase…

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When Is A ‘Máthair” Not A ‘Mother’ (literally, that is) Posted by on May 7, 2013

 (le Róislín) No, this blog isn’t going to be about toircheas fireann (à la Trip Tucker and the Xyrillians in Star Trek: Enterprise, The Unexpected).  Nor will it be about capaill mhara or snáthaidí mara or the possibilities of toirchis eachtópacha i bhfir as postulated in our homeworld or as speculated about i bhficsean eolaíoch…

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