Tag Archives: prefix
How to say “Merry Christmas” and “Happy New Year” in Irish AND Five Examples of Lenition (Séimhiú), to boot Posted by róislín on Dec 24, 2018
(le Róislín) Around this time of year, we often see the phrases “Nollaig Shona” and “Athbhliain faoi shéan agus faoi mhaise duit.” Today’s blogpost will look at how to pronounce these phrases and at the reasons why words like “sona” and “bliain” change to “shona” and “bhliain.” This change of the first letter is called…
More Irish Numbers Practice: Orduimhreacha i dTeidil Scannán — Aistrithe go Gaeilge Posted by róislín on Aug 16, 2017
(le Róislín) Since we’ve been on an “orduimhreacha” roll recently (nasc thíos), I thought it would be fun to try some more examples, this time embedded in Irish versions of famous (or not-so-famous) film titles. So I’ll provide the Irish phrase for context, and see if you can fill in the blank, using the ordinal…
In Irish, should we say “an enchilada fada” or “an t-enchilada fada” or “an enchilada fhada”? Posted by róislín on Jul 10, 2017
(le Róislín) Since I had so much fun in the last blogpost (nasc thíos) saying “enchilada fada” to myself, I thought you might enjoy playing around with the phrase also. Actually, there’s a very serious question to be addressed first. If we say “enchilada” in an Irish language sentence, should we consider the word to…
Leasmhac, Leasiníon, Leas-siblíní and the hypothetical Irish (or Martian) Leas-Taoiseach Posted by róislín on Nov 25, 2016
(le Róislín) The last entry (for now, at least), in our “leas-” terms series will cover the words “leasmhac” (stepson) and “leasiníon” (stepdaughter). Probably, in fact, these words will be more applicable for a lot of readers than some of the other “leas-” terms (like “Leas-PhríomhLeabharlannaí” — remember that one? If not, please see below). …
How to Pronounce Irish Words with the ‘Leas-‘ Prefix (Cuid/Part 2) Posted by róislín on Nov 22, 2016
(le Róislín) In the blogpost for November 12, 2016 (nasc thíos), we looked at various words with the prefix “leas-,” going beyond the typical meaning of “step-” (as in leasdeirfiúr and leasdeartháir). We got through about half the planned examples, like “leas-” before vowels, as in “leasainm” (nickname) and “leas-” before the consonants “c” and…
How to Pronounce Irish Words with the ‘Leas-‘ Prefix (Cuid/Part 1) Posted by róislín 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”…
More Meanings of the Irish Prefix ‘Leas-‘ (from ‘step-‘ to ‘vice,’ etc.) Posted by róislín on Nov 6, 2016
(le Róislín) Recently we’ve looked at a lot of Irish terms using the prefix “leas-” to say “stepmother,” “stepfather,” “stepgrandmother,” “stepgrandfather,” etc. In this blogpost, we’ll look at some of the other uses of the prefix “leas-.” First though, let’s review some “step-” terms for gaolta teaghlaigh (family relationships). The translations are given below: leasathair…