Katie Taylor, dornálaí

(le Róislín)

Fad m’eolais, “Croílár na Féile” is the first Olympic-themed song in Irish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXZ0Z2CjogQ, uaslódáilte ar an 28ú lá de mhí Iúil, 2012.  It celebrates 26-year-old Katie Taylor, as Bré, Co. Chill Mhantáin.

If you haven’t heard an t-amhrán “Croílár na Féile” yet, I won’t trouble you with a bacóir (spoiler), but the familiar melody might well surprise you.   Leid bheag: the melody with the original words was first released in 1982.

The video shows shots of Katie and also of the 500 scolairí ag Coláiste Lurgan who came together to make this song.   At one point in the video, Katie says “Níl mé líofa, ach tá mé ag feabhsú, ceapaim.”  (I’m not fluent, but I’m improving, I think.)  Dá líofacht a cuid Gaeilge, way to go, a Cháit!

Here are the lyrics that are included with the YouTube posting, and a short glossary (d’fhoghlaimeoirí):

Breacadh an lae
‘S í fáil faoi réir
Dírí iomlán ar a dúshlán
Lán de dhíocas
Téann sí sa gcoimhlint
Lena crógacht neart ‘s a croí

Is í croílár na féile
Miongháir ar a haghaidh
‘S í ag troid ar son a tíre is a teanga
Lena misneach ‘s a crógacht
Tabhar’ sí léi an bonn óir
‘ S níl duine a stopas riamh í
Sin Katie Taylor

Nice to see the reference to both “a tír” (her country) and “a teanga” (her language).  After “ar son” (for, for the sake of), “tír” changes to “tíre.”

At the end of the video, an announcer refers to her as “an dornálaí punt ar phunt is sciliúla ar domhan” (lit. the boxer pound for pound most skilled in the world; NB:  just “on world,” no “the” in Irish, btw, for that last bit).  So there we have, in the height of Olympic frenzy, a nice grammatical example a second-declension adjective in the superlative form.   Á, an fiú bacadh le “foirm shárchéimeach” na gramadaí?  “Foirm shárchéimeach” Katie Taylor atá i gceist sna Cluichí Oilimpeacha.  An mbeidh tú ag breathnú ar a babhta (9 Lúnasa 2012, 4:45 pm GMT, .i. 11:45 am ET, 10:45 am CT, srl.).

Seo nasc eile le hagallamh le Katie a rinne Miriam O’Callaghan (“Miriam Meets”) le déanaí.  Chomh maith le Katie an lae inniu (sa bhliain 2012) tá agallamh ann le Katie nuair a bhi si aon bhliain déag (11) d’aois (ca. 1997)!  She also talks about learning Irish (another challenge) and how she hopes that some day she’ll be able to be interviewed as Gaeilge.  http://www.rte.ie/radio1/miriammeets/110710.html

Gluais: a haghaidh [uh hai, like “Hi!” or “high,” silent “g” and “d”], her face; bonn, medal; breacadh an lae, dawning (lit. “speckling”) of the day; coimhlint [KIV-lintch], contest, competition; crógacht, bravery; a croí [uh kree], her heart; croílár, lit. “heart-center;” díocas, eagerness; a dúshlán [uh DOO-hlawn, silent “s”], her challenge (this is a compound word, with the intensifier “dubh” (black) and “slán,” which normally means “health,” as in “Slán agat,” but which can also mean “challenge” or “defiance”); fáil, getting; féile, festival; lena, with her, in the possessive sense (can also mean “with his” or “with their” but here it’s “with her”); misneach, courage; neart, strength; (a) stopas, (who/that) will stop; súil, eye; tabhar’ (short for “tabharfaidh“), will get; tíogar, tiger (tíogair, of tiger); troid, fighting

Bhuel, what do you know, somehow the Irish words for the title of the original 1982 song crept into that gluais.  Did you spot them?

Nóta breise: the phrase ” ‘s í ”  is short for “agus í” (and she/her); the contraction ” ‘s ” on its own, at least in this text, is simply “agus”

Nóta gramadaí: second-declension adjectives typically end in “-iúil” as in “sciliúil,” “nimhniúil,” or “misniúil.”  For the comparative, they change to “níos sciliúla,” “níos nimhniúla,” “níos misniúla,” etc. (more skilled, more poisonous, more courageous).  For the superlative, the preceding word, instead of “níos” is “is” [remember, “hard s” pronunciation, as in English “miss” or “kiss,” not the “z” sound one sometimes finds for English “s”].   So that would give us “is sciliúla,” “is nimhniúla,” and “is misniúla” (most skillful, most poisonous, most courageous).  Notice that the endings for comparative  (more) and superlative (most) are the same; only the preceding word changes.  And yes, for an lucht líofa, the word “is” can also be used for comparative purposes, amanna, but let’s save that for blag éigin eile.