Archive for January, 2012
Cúig Fhrása (Béarla) Gan Mhaith (De Réir Fhionntán Uí Thuathail aka Fintan O’Toole) (Cuid 2/4) Posted by róislín on Jan 8, 2012
(le Róislín) Remember what gátar, déine, and tarrtháil have in common? Hmmm, the first two have related meanings and are nearly interchangeable (beart gátair, austerity measure; cáinaisnéis déine, austerity budget) but “tarrtháil” is completely different in function as well as meaning. It’s an ainmfhocal briathartha, not a gnáthainmfhocal (ordinary noun). We could also note that…
Cúig Fhrása (Béarla) Gan Mhaith (De Réir Fhionntán Uí Thuathail aka Fintan O’Toole) (Cuid 1/4) Posted by róislín on Jan 4, 2012
(le Róislín) Noted journalist Fintan O’Toole recently published his list of five phrases that he thinks should be outlawed in 2012 (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0103/1224309734610_pf.html). Not that words are typically actually outlawed as such, but he feels these five phrases “distort or conceal” reality and are misleading. For example, we constantly discuss “austerity,” but meanwhile certain individuals are…
Cleamairí ‘gus Geamairí ‘gus Geocaigh, a Thiarcais! Posted by róislín on Jan 1, 2012
(le Róislín) There are three possible words for mummers in the title of this blog, cleamairí, geamairí, and geocaigh. There’s actually at least one more we could add, “cleathaire,” but that would break the tripartite catchiness of the phrase! (for more on “tripartite catchiness,” please see the note below). In this blog, we’ll look at…