Archive for July, 2018
Three ways to spell ‘August’ in Irish: historic, dated, and modern (Lúnasa et al.) Posted by róislín on Jul 31, 2018
(le Róislín) As you can see from the graphic above, there are three different ways to spell “August” in Irish: the modern way: Lúnasa a dated way, mostly found before 1960-ish: Lughnasa a historic way, going back to the Middle Ages: Lughnasadh. Even that is somewhat of an adaptation, as it originally would have been…
Séimhiú agus Urú agus an Áit inar Rugadh Thú (Saying Where You Were Born in Irish) Posted by róislín on Jul 28, 2018
(le Róislín) Since we’ve recently been talking about how to say where you were born, I thought a little more practice might be welcome. The graphic above shows a variety of combinations of place names, Irish and non-Irish, and the changes that occur when you use the word “in” with the place names. Remember, the…
Cár rugadh thú? Rugadh i … / in … mé. (The Irish for ‘Where were you born?’ ‘I was born in …’) Posted by róislín on Jul 25, 2018
(le Róislín) Since we just looked at the topic of breech birth (breith tóna) in the most recent blog (nasc thíos), I thought it might be good to look at a more general topic concerning birth – a question we often ask and answer: Cár rugadh thú? Where were you born? Now we’ll look at…
The Irish phrase for “breech birth” (yet another use of the Irish word ‘tóin’) Posted by róislín on Jul 23, 2018
(le Róislín) About 20 years ago, before the ease of using online dictionaries, I remember hunting high and low for the Irish for “breech birth.” I recently noticed the phrase included in focloir.ie and thought it might be of interest for this blog. There are at least three ways to express the concept. One is…
Ainmneacha Uaimheanna Clúiteacha in Éirinn agus i dTíortha Eile (Irish Names for Some Famous Caves) Posted by róislín on Jul 21, 2018
(le Róislín) Continuing with our recent “caves and caving” theme, today we’ll look at the Irish names of some famous caves, in Ireland and in other countries. I’ll provide the Irish and the challenge will be to see if you recognize the name of the cave and/or what it means. Some of them actually include…
Irish Words for Stalagmites and Stalactites Posted by róislín on Jul 18, 2018
(le Róislín) Since we recently looked at Irish words for caves (uaimheanna) and caving (uaimheadóireacht), in honor of the rescue of the Thai soccer team (nasc thíos), I thought this might be a good time to introduce the Irish words for “stalagmite” and “stalactite.” They’re really more straightforward and less technical-seeming than the English terms “stalagmite”…
Uaimheanna agus Uaimheadóireacht: Words for Caves and Caving in Irish Posted by róislín on Jul 15, 2018
(le Róislín) Given the recent amazing rescue of the Thai soccer team and their coach in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand, this seems like a good time to go over some Irish words for caves and caving. The most basic word, in my experience, for cave, is “uaimh,” pronounced roughly “OO-iv.” Additional forms of the word…