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Archive for September, 2016

Um, um, nasturtiums, geraniums, and chrysanthemums — oh my! (Ainmneacha Plandaí 5) Posted by on Sep 30, 2016

(le Róislín) Three more flower names this time around.  And what do they have in common?  Simply the fact that they end in “-um” in English.  So we’ll see if this gives us any sort of pattern for words borrowed from Latin, or do they all end up with different ending in Irish? It’s actually…

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Drúchta, Drúchtáin agus Drúchtíní — A Thiarcais! (Dewdrops, Little Dewdrops and Slugs — Definitely an ‘Oh-My’) [Ainmneacha Plandaí 4] Posted by on Sep 27, 2016

 (le Róislín) Another occasion for a three-part lions-tigers-and- bears-ish meme.   In this blogpost, we’ll look at the following words: drúcht, drúchtán, drúchtín, and móin (and its genitive case, móna) and the plant, drúchtín móna. First let’s do “dew” drúcht, usually meaning dew or a drop of a liquid (although the latter general usage is more…

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More Names for Dandelions in Irish (and in Welsh, too) [Ainmneacha Plandaí 3] Posted by on Sep 25, 2016

(le Roislin) Searbh … searbhán … caisearbhán.  That’s how the Irish language builds up its most basic term for dandelion (caisearbhán, say “kash-ar-uv-awn”) as we’ve seen in the most recent blogpost here, as well as a few earlier ones (naisc thíos). But wait there’s more!  In fact, four more ways to say “dandelion” in Irish…

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If ‘Dandelion’ Comes from “Dent de Lion,” Where does the Irish name ‘Caisearbhán’ come from?  [Ainmneacha Plandaí 2] Posted by on Sep 23, 2016

(le Róislín) Since we’ve recently been looking at luibhainmneacha (plant names) in Irish, I thought this would be a good time to revisit the dandelion, one of the mostly widely visible and easily recognizable plants of all, even for a “neamhluibheolaí” like myself.  You might remember cúpla iarbhlagmhír on this topic (naisc thíos), but here’s…

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Rós agus cúpla ainm eile air (a ‘rose’ and a couple of other names for it) [Ainmneacha Plandaí i nGaeilge: 1] Posted by on Sep 20, 2016

(le Róislín) It looks like this will be the beginning of another occasional series, this time on plant names, probably mostly flowers (bláthanna), but eventually trees (crainn), bushes (toim, srl.), grasses (féara), and that intriguing category, “weeds” (fiailí).  You might remember that we previously did a series of girls’ names based on flowers (nasc thíos)…

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Leaves, Limes, Lambs, and Goosefoots and Goose Feet: An Irish Language Botanical Discussion Posted by on Sep 17, 2016

(le Róislín) Plant names are probably intriguing in every language, and Irish is no exception.  When people first start Irish, they probably learn the more basic ones, ones that readily identifiable in nature, like “nóinín” and “caisearbhán.”  Even easier for the Anglophone learner are the ones that are similar in both languages, like “rós,” “tiúilip,”…

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How to say ‘leaves’ and ‘foliage’ in Irish  Posted by on Sep 12, 2016

 (le Róislín) ‘Tis the season, no, not ‘An Nollaig‘ yet, but the season for falling leaves, at least for ‘crainn‘ that are ‘duillsilteach.’  So today, let’s look at the forms of the word “leaf” and also “foliage.” Starting with the basics: duilleog [DIL-yohg, with the “ll” about like the “ll” in English “million”], a leaf…

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