Archive for May, 2012
The Nuts and Bolts of, well, Boltaí agus Cnónna (agus Scriúnna agus Tairní, for good measure!) Posted by róislín on May 30, 2012
(le Róislín) In the last blog, about “cluasa” (ears) I happened to mention the phrase “cluaisín scriú” (the wing of a screw), since it’s based on the word for ear. “Cluaisín” [KLOO-ish-een] literally means “little ear.” That got me thinking about how such items are made and categorized. This blog will just be skimming the…
Cuir Cluas Ort! Listen Up! (but where’s the “up”?) Posted by róislín on May 27, 2012
(le Róislín) Before we completely leave the topic of ears, eaves, and eavesdropping, let’s look a little closer at the word for “ear” itself — cluas [KLOO-uss]. First a pronunciation note, “ua” in Irish is pronounced as two syllables [oo-uh]. You may well have heard the sound in other words, such as “rua” [ROO-uh], “nua”…
Eavesdropping “as Gaeilge” But Not Exactly Under the Eaves Posted by róislín on May 24, 2012
(le Róislín) A few blogs ago, in the discussion of “rusticles” on the Titanic, we also talked about the various Irish words for “icicle.” For the full list, féach ar an nóta “Súil Siar” thíos. It does seem unusual to me to have that many words for “icicle” when I don’t associate icicles with the…
Nótaí Fuaimnithe don Dá Bhlag faoi Liúdair Posted by róislín 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…
Sula bhFágfaidh Muid Na Liúdair … Posted by róislín on May 18, 2012
(le Róislín) I ndáiríre, is é ábhar an bhlag seo ná “ainmneacha teangacha,” ní na liúdair iad féin. Why’s that? I found the word for “coalfish” in quite a few languages, so I figured we could do another match game. Several of the languages have more than one word for “coalfish” so please expect to…
Liúdair go dtí a) an Caisleán Nua, b) an Aithin nó go c) Toraigh? Posted by róislín on May 15, 2012
(le Róislín) As the final entry in this mionsraith ar chaint fhíortha, we’ll talk briefly about liúdair (coalfish) and their role in a traditional Irish expression. Of course, we could talk about figurative speech till the cows come home or till we’re all blue in the face, but there are other topics looming so we’ll…
Cé Mhéad Lá? Cé Mhéad Paorach? Posted by róislín on May 11, 2012
(le Róislín) A recent blog in this series on figurative speech in Irish mentioned “na laethanta go léir a bhí ag na Paoraigh.” Some of you probably recognized this as a reference to the well-known seanfhocal (proverb): Beidh lá eile ag an bPaorach (Mr. Power will have another day). So how does this seanfhocal break…