Irish Language Blog

(le Róislín)   Nautical terms have always intrigued me, including such colorful ones as “scuttlebutt” and “three sheets to the wind.”  So today I thought I’d cover a few of the most basic terms pertaining to parts of a boat or ship.  If there’s interest, perhaps we can cover more such terms in the future…

(le Róislín) Cá bhfuil an tsráid seo?  Where is this street?  Perhaps you recognized it, Lombard Street in San Francisco.  Not quite the steepest residential street in the word — that honor belongs to Baldwin Street, Dunedin, NZ — but certainly one of the steepest  (ar cheann de na sráideanna cónaithe is géire ar domhan)…

(le Róislín) I have to admit that I was surprised at how many Irish words for “snowflake” I found as I researched the previous blog (nasc thíos).  Before we move on to some other topics, I thought it would be good to review them one more time, looking specifically at how to say “a snowflake”…

(le Róislín) Irish may not have as many different words for “snow” as the Inuit (estimated at between four and a hundred, depending on how we define “different”), but it does have a healthy range of words for “snowflake.” The Irish word for ‘snow,’ as many of you may already know, is “sneachta,” a nice…

(le Róislín) Remember the Irish for “unicorn” and “rhinoceros” from the last blog?  If not, freagraí thíos.  Last time we also included the Irish word “biorbheannach,” which refers to another horned quadruped (ceathairchosach).  Remember what that one was?  If not, freagra also thíos and a picture of it is thuas. Having looked at those animals…

(le Róislín) By now, you may have guessed — the Irish for unicorn is “aonbheannach,” (lit. one-horned”).  Or you may have picked up the word from reading _Harry Potter agus an Órchloch_ (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, aka Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) by J. K. Rowling and translated into Irish by Máire Nic…

(le Róislín) ‘Sea, an t-am sin den bhliain arís, aimsir na ndea-rún don bhliain nua.  In the word cloud (néal focal) above we see some common topics for “dea-rúin na hAthbhliana,” many of which have to do with health (sláinte).  How many of them do you recognize? Here they are again, with a few pronunciation…