Archive for April, 2013
Who Says Irish Doesn’t Have Many Cognates with English? (Cuid a Trí/Pt. 3: Grian, Gealach, Sol, Luan) Posted by róislín on Apr 30, 2013
(le Róislín) Continuing the quest for cognates (naisc thíos), let’s look at another pair of words, sun and moon, each of which typically has many similar-looking cousins throughout the Indo-European language family. Given that the Irish word for sun is “grian” and the Irish for “moon” is “gealach,” it looks like we have a bit…
Who Says Irish Doesn’t Have Many Cognates with English? (Cuid a Dó/Pt. 2: Téarmaí Gaoil, Focail Ghaolmhara) Posted by róislín on Apr 27, 2013
(le Róislín) Ascaill, axilla … in the last blog* we talked about how Irish may, in fact, have many focail ghaolmhara with other languages. The words are just not always cognates with English, at least not basic everyday English. Most of us are more likely to say that “ascaill” means “armpit” than to say that…
Ascaill, Axilla, Armpit — Who Says Irish Doesn’t Have Many Cognates with English? (Cuid a hAon/Pt. 1) Posted by róislín on Apr 24, 2013
(le Róislín) Often students in my ranganna Gaeilge will say that one of the reasons that Irish seems hard is that words seem very unfamiliar, unrelated to other languages they know, and there’s very little to jog one’s memory. A basic example would be “madra” for “dog.” It’s short and straightforward enough in and of…
Cé Mhéad Tuíodóir? (How many thatchers?) Posted by róislín on Apr 21, 2013
(le Róislín) In the last blog, I raised the question of how many professional thatchers are out there, curious as to whether the trade growing or declining. Trying to search for numbers of thatchers in the US, Canada, and Australia proved a bit time-consuming. Computer searches mostly ended up giving me results for “dethatching” services…
If You’re Not a ‘Tuíodóir’ (Thatcher) by Trade, How About …? Posted by róislín on Apr 17, 2013
(le Róislín) In the last few blogs, we’ve been looking at tuí, tuíodóirí, and tuíodóireacht (thatch, thatcher, thatching). It’s an interesting topic in this day and age, both as an occupation and as a springboard for further discussion of Irish vocabulary (like “cíor thuí” and “sáiteoir,” or their intriguing English equivalents, “leggatt” and “spurtle”). But…
Ag Caint faoi Thuí agus faoi Thuíodóireacht (Speaking of Thatching) Posted by róislín on Apr 14, 2013
(le Róislín) Before moving away from tuíodóireacht to other topics, I thought it would be interesting to look at the tools used by a tuíodóir, and also to look briefly at the use of díonta tuí outside of Ireland and Britain. You might have just noticed the phrase “díonta tuí” (thatched roofs). And you might…
Bean an Tuíodóra (The Wife of the Thatcher) Posted by róislín on Apr 11, 2013
(le Róislín) Well, no, this blog is not going to be about the late Margaret Hilda Thatcher, An Banbharún Thatcher (13 Deireadh Fómhair 1925-8 Aibreán 2013). She actually only acquired the name “Thatcher” through marriage, having been born a “Roberts.” While it’s interesting to ponder the origin of the surname “Thatcher” in England, and the…