Archive for October, 2011
Ag Comhaireamh Puimcíní (Counting Pumpkins in Irish) agus Beagán “Smashing” Freisin Posted by róislín on Oct 31, 2011
(le Róislín) What better íocón cultúrtha for both Mí Dheireadh Fómhair (agus Oíche Shamhna) and Mí na Samhna (November) than puimcíní? I Meiriceá, ar a laghad, ar ndóigh. Puimcíní snoite d’Oíche Shamhna – aghaidheanna scanrúla agus dradgháirí bagracha orthu! An tOllphuimcín [un TOL-FwIM-keen] (ó na scéalta faoi Charlie Brown agus Snoopy) Pióga puimcín á n-ithe…
Á, ÁI, AÍ, ÁÍ, (Not To Mention “Aghaidh”): More Irish Pronunciation Tips Posted by róislín on Oct 28, 2011
(le Róislín) Don’t blink, or you might miss the various long marks (síntí fada) in the vowel sounds above. Actually, it’s a lot easier to spot the long marks when the letters happen to be capitalized, rather than when they’re lower case: á, ái, aí, áí. And actually it’s really just over the letter “i”…
Foirmeacha Iolra le “-aithe” agus le “-aí” (Plural Forms) Posted by róislín on Oct 24, 2011
(le Róislín) In the last few blogs, we’ve used words like “zombaí” (plural: zombaithe) and “moncaí” (pl. moncaithe), as well as “stocamhoncaí” and “stocamhoncaithe,” for “sock monkey(s).” It may just be my memory, but I don’t remember stocamhoncaithe zombaí ever being so popular before this year’s Oíche Shamhna (Halloween 2011) In Irish, it would be…
A Zombaithe Go Léir, (Ná) Folaígí Bhur nAghaidheanna! (All You Zombies…!) Posted by róislín on Oct 21, 2011
(le Róislín) I’m rather stupefied by all the cultacha zombaí for Halloween this year, so couldn’t resist a few more mix’n’match phrases. Keep in mind that in all these cases, the word “zombaí” is functioning as an adjective, so it comes after the main noun. In this case, unlike the previous costume match-up, which was completing…
Cultacha Samhna don Bhliain 2011 Posted by róislín on Oct 18, 2011
(le Róislín) As some of you may recall, last year we did a little vocabulary match-up with Halloween costumes. Let’s try it again for 2011. Each costume name has two words or phrases in Irish, one in Colún A and the other in Colún B. One thing to remember is that word order in Irish…
Ag Tarraingt ar Oíche Shamhna (Halloween’s Coming!) Posted by róislín on Oct 15, 2011
(le Róislín) Halloween is, of course, a very Celtic topic, and you may be familiar with some of the basics of its role sa bhféilire Ceilteach. So in today’s blog, we’ll mostly focus on the phrase itself, its pronunciation and basic meaning. The word order of the Irish phrase is a reversal of the English. …
“Sweet Nothings” as Gaeilge Posted by róislín on Oct 12, 2011
(le Róislín) “Baothbhriathra mealltacha” – a curious phrase, especially since, as mentioned last time, it contains neither the word “sweet” nor the word “nothing.” First let’s discus the two words that aren’t in the Irish phrase (nothing like the roundabout route!). “Sweet” is most typically the adjective “milis” [MIL-ish], although there are other possiblities (cumhra, for…