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25 Chulaith Oíche Shamhna and how to say them in Irish Posted by róislín on Oct 24, 2015
(le Róislín) The variety of Halloween costumes seems to grow greater and greater every year. Here are 25 possibilities and a handful of phrases for questions like: 1) Will you be a werewolf this year? An mbeidh tú i do chonriocht i mbliana? 2) Were you ever a werewolf? (for Halloween, or otherwise)? An raibh…
Irish language glossary for ‘Comhrá idir an dá iora ghlasa’ (Diarmaid agus Dearbháil), pt. 2 Posted by róislín on Oct 20, 2015
(le Róislín) It occurred to me that there might be a few more words worthy of definition or pronunciation deconstruction from the “Diarmaid agus Dearbháil” story (nasc thíos). So here’s beagáinín eile: Taighde, research. The “gh” is silent in the “taigh-” part of this word, so the vowel sound is as in the verb “faigh”…
Irish language glossary for ‘Comhrá idir an dá iora ghlasa’ (Diarmaid agus Dearbháil) Posted by róislín on Oct 15, 2015
(le Róislín) You may have recently read the dialóg bheag I wrote for practicing the slender “dh” sound (as in “a Dhiarmaid,” “a Dhearbháil,” “trí dhearcán,” “ar dheis,” srl.). In that post, I explained the names I created for the baby squirrels (Dealrúilín, Deannóidín, Deidimín, Dreochlóigín, Drithleóigín), but I didn’t have space to do additional…
Comhrá: Diarmaid agus Dearbháil agus Na Dearcáin Posted by róislín on Oct 10, 2015
(le Róislín) Here’s a little conversation to practice some of the sounds we saw in the blog post for 6 October 2015 (When Is ‘dh’ pronounced like ‘y’ in Irish words? Think ‘a Dhia’ and ‘a Dhiarmaid’ Posted by róislín in Irish Language; https://blogs.transparent.com/irish/when-is-dh-pronounced-like-y-in-irish-words-think-a-dhia-and-a-dhiarmaid/). As you can see, I’ve gone a bit out of my way to…
When Is ‘dh’ pronounced like ‘y’ in Irish words? Think ‘a Dhia’ and ‘a Dhiarmaid’ Posted by róislín on Oct 6, 2015
(le Róislín) We recently looked at some Irish words that start with “gh” followed by “e” or “i,” and noted that the “gh” now sounds like “y” as in “year” or “yet” (nasc thíos). In other words, nothing like a “broad” Irish “gh” (as in “a Ghráinne” or “a ghort“), and, needless to say, nothing…
When Is “gh” pronounced like “y” in Irish words? Think ‘gheobhaidh’ and ‘gheocaigh’ Posted by róislín on Sep 30, 2015
(le Róislín) So, we finally finished that mionsraith about Irish words starting with non-traditional letters in the Irish alphabet (v, w, x, y, z) and even threw in the “-cs-” spelling for “x” (as in “innéacs” or “tacsaí“) for good measure. We’ve previously noted that in Irish, “gh-” and “dh-” at the beginning of a word…
When Does ‘X’ Become ‘CS’? Freagra: In the Middle of Some Irish Words Posted by róislín on Sep 28, 2015
(le Róislín) Your first thought on looking at the combination “cs” might be the abbreviation for the element ‘cesium’ (caeisiam, i nGaeilge). Well, maybe not. Not exactly a “téarma laethúil.” Maybe “Csárdás,” the Hungarian dance? That’s “cardas,” i nGaeilge, by the way. Maybe CSI (an clár teilifíse)? Any way you look at it, “cs” as a…