(le Róislín)

Continuing with our “téama” of “peataí” (naisc thíos), how about “pearóidí“?  Does anyone here have a parrot “mar pheata“?  Má tá, an bhfuil Gaeilge ag an bpearóid?  ‘S é sin a rá, an labhraíonn an phearóid, agus má labhraíonn, an labhraíonn an phearóid Gaeilge?

Bhuel, before we look for “freagraí” to that, did you notice that the first paragraph of this blogpost already had three forms of the word “pearóid” and that the caption for the graphic added one more.  So let’s review these before looking at the features of “ceann na pearóide.”

pearóid, a parrot

And it’s grammatically feminine, so:

an phearóid, the parrot

pearóide, of a parrot (ceann pearóide, a head of a parrot)

na pearóide, of the parrot (ceann na pearóide, the head of the parrot)

pearóidí, parrots

na pearóidí, the parrots

pearóidí, of parrots, NB: same form as above; (cosa pearóidí, feet of parrots)

na bpearóidí, of the parrots (cosa na bpearóidí, the feet of the parrots)

The form “bpearóid” is used in prepositional phrases like “ag an bpearóid” (at the parrot).

Now let’s look at the features of the parrot, as shown by the graphic.

baic: nape (of the neck, to be specific — although I’m not sure the word “nape” is used for anything but necks in English)

leiceann: cheek

éadan (or “clár éadain“): forehead

súil: eye

polláirí: nostrils

And here’s where it starts to get really interesting.  I would have thought of the beak of the parrot simply as “an gob.”  The word “gob” can also be used for a beak-like mouth on humans and shows up in expressions like “Dún do ghob,” which I’d say is more like “Shut your trap!” in English, rather than something reasonably civil, like “Bí ciúin, le do thoil!” or very polite like “Ar mhiste leat a bheith ciúin, le do thoil?”

Anyway, back to “an gob” and related terminology.  Although I’m sure we could simply say “gob,” the parrot anatomy chart I looked at didn’t give “beak” in general, but specifically “mandabal uachtarach” and “mandabal íochtarach.”  Of course, the chart was in English, and I’m simply translating here.  But if the chart had said “beak,” I would have said “gob.”

So, “mandabal” is the Irish for the English “mandible,” adapted for the Irish spelling system.   Remember — caol le caol agus leathan le leathan.  If we start with the vowel “a” in the first syllable of an Irish word (the “man-” of “mandabal“), we have to have a, o, or u, in the next syllable (not “e” or “i”  — it’s the vowel harmony rule in Irish).  And the same goes for the third syllable  — it can’t have an “e” or an “i” if the preceding syllable had an a, o, or u.

The word “uachtarach” means “upper,”  and you might recognize it from the phrase “Sráid Uí Chonaill Uachtarach” (Upper O’Connell Street).

And “íochtarach” is “lower,” which is used to say “Lower O’Connell Street” (Sráid Uí Chonaill Íochtarach)

“Uachtar,” in general, means “upper portion” and “íochtar,” in general, means “lower portion.”

Then  we have the interesting word “prócar” for “craw.”  As for “craw” being the definition, it’s pretty obscure in everyday modern English, except for things being “stuck in one’s craw.”  I’ve also read that “craw” can actually mean “stomach,” but I thought the animal-related term for that was “maw.”  So, má tá aon eolas agat faoin difear idir “maw” agus “craw,” scríobh isteach agus inis dúinn, le do thoil.

Anyway, that’s a preliminary look at “anatamaíocht na pearóide.” The two major remaining questions I have are:

a)) Do parrots have hyoid bones, and if so, is that what enables them to speak?

b)) An dtuigeann siad an méid a deir siad? (Do they understand what they say?).  Has anyone trained their parrot to say “Ní thuigim,” a very useful phrase for learners of the Irish language?

Bhuel, sin é don phearóid don bhlagmhír seo agus go dtí an chéad uair eile — Róislín

Naisc (previous pet-themed blogposts): cait agus madraí

Aghaidheanna Cat (Faces of Cats) — Their Main Features in Irish Posted by róislín on Jun 25, 2017 in Irish Language; An bhfuil peata agat?  Talking about Pets in Irish: Piscíní (Kittens) Posted by róislín on Jun 16, 2017 in Irish Language 

An bhfuil peata agat?  Talking about Pets in Irish: Madraí (Dogs) Posted by róislín on Jul 18, 2017 in Irish Language