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Tag Archives: father

How to Pronounce Irish Words with the ‘Leas-‘ Prefix (Cuid/Part 1) Posted by on Nov 12, 2016

(le Róislín) Leasainm … Leas-rí … Leas-ardeaglais … all fairly straight-forward in pronunci-ation, all things consider-ed.  But what hap-pens to the “m” in “leas-mhamó” or “leas-mháthair” or the “c” in “leas-chodán” or “leaschon-sal“?  Why don’t the “s’s” of “leas-seanathair” and “leas-seanmháthair” and “leas-seansailéir” change at all?  And what about “leis-chliamhain” and the presumably possible “leasbhanchliamhain”…

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‘-aig” ag Nollaig nó ‘-ag’ ag ‘Nollag’? (When to say “Nollaig” and when to say “Nollag” for the Irish word for ‘Christmas’) Posted by on Dec 11, 2015

(le Róislín) It’s that time of year again, and while the Christmas season may make us feel “holly jolly” and “berry merry,” but we might not always feel that way when confronted with the decision of “tuiseal ginideach” or not “tuiseal ginideach.” And what’s the “tuiseal ginideach,” anyway?  It’s the form of the word used…

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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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Who Says Irish Doesn’t Have Many Cognates with English? (Cuid a Dó/Pt. 2: Téarmaí Gaoil, Focail Ghaolmhara) Posted by on Apr 27, 2013

(le Róislín) Ascaill, axilla … in the last blog* we talked about how Irish may, in fact, have many focail ghaolmhara with other languages.  The words are just not always cognates with English, at least not basic everyday  English.  Most of us are more likely to say that “ascaill” means “armpit” than to say that…

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Ag Caint faoi Bhia (hunger, hungry, etc.) Posted by on Aug 28, 2010

Agus mé ag éisteacht leis an raidió le déanaí, chuala mé clár faoi neamhshlándáil bia.  Bhí an clár i mBéarla ach shocraigh mé ag an am go scríobhfainn blag faoi théarmaí Gaeilge a bhaineanns le bia.  Níl mé ag caint anseo faoi chineálacha áirithe bia mar thrátaí grianthromaithe nó vaiféil, ach go ginearálta, faoi bhia…

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Lá Fhéile Bríde (Lá ‘le Bríde): 1 Feabhra Posted by on Feb 1, 2010

Inniu (an chéad lá de mhí na Feabhra) Lá Fhéile Bríde.  Today (the first day of the month of February) is St. Bridget’s day.   Tá mé faoi dhubh-iontas ag breathnú ar an uimhir de shuímh Idirlín atá ag cur síos ar Naomh Bríd agus a féile.   I’m amazed looking at the number of websites…

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Lá na Máithreacha vs. Lá na Máthar (“Day of the Mothers” or “of the Mother”)? Posted by on May 10, 2009

(le Róislín) I’ve been following this debate in Irish circles for a good 10 or so years now, probably since the first time I wrote on the topic for my Irish language column for children in the Philadelphia-based Irish Edition newspaper (www.irishedition.com).  Are we celebrating one mother or all mothers?  I should probably qualify that to say…

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