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Tag Archives: pronounce

Ó “Ó Cuileannáin” go “Bling” agus Smaointe Fánacha (Ramblings) Eile Posted by on Jun 8, 2012

(le Róislín) As I was mulling over the recent entries on “diamaint,” I decided to look a little further into diamond lore. I always wondered what exactly Koh-I-Noor meant (turns out to be “mountain of light” in Persian) and had a general curiosity about the largest known diamond ever. Hope? Taylor-Burton? Uncle Sam? Excelsior? So…

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Nótaí Fuaimnithe don Dá Bhlag faoi Liúdair Posted by on May 21, 2012

 (le Róislín) This blog will simply be a pronunciation guide to the last two blogs and some general pronunciation notes.  Pronunciation seems to be the eternal issue in Irish language learning, so, ó am go ham, I think it deserves a blog of its own.  So here’s a round-up for some of the longer and…

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Irish Pronunciation: Compound Words Like “Croíbhriste” and “Croíbhrúite” Posted by on Feb 8, 2012

(le Róislín) In addition to some of its inherently long words, like “(go) bhfaighidh” and “(na) haghaidheanna” (fuaimniú thíos), Irish has its share of longish words, which are actually compounds, with one or more prefixes, a root (or two), and/or one or more suffixes.  Fortunately, most of these words break down quite nicely, once you…

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Saying “I love you” in Irish and Minding Your Velar Fricatives Posted by on Oct 9, 2011

(le Róislín) We’ve recently been looking at different ways to say “I love you” in Irish.  Some of you might have been wondering how to pronounce them, especially the phrases where the straightforward “grá” [graw] changes to “ghrá” [γraw, to be explained below, note the IPA gamma symbol for the “gh”] and the straightforward “croí” changes…

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Mór? Críonna? or Sean? — Grandparents By Any Other Name! Posted by on Apr 9, 2009

(le Róislín)   I frequently get asked about the Irish word for “grandmother” or “grandma,” so children in Irish-American families can start using it as a pet name.  Sometimes the basic term “Grandma” has already been taken by one side of the family, so the other side may look for a different name, like “Nana” in…

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