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Catching Some ‘Z-Words’ in Irish: What Are The Others besides ‘Zú’ and ‘Zúnna’? Posted by róislín on Sep 25, 2015
(le Róislín) Bhuel, we’ve recently looked at Irish words starting with the letters v, w, x, and y. So logically enough, it’s time now to catch some zzz’s. Oops, not to put you to sleep, that is, but just to round up some examples. As with w, x, and y, there aren’t really that many…
Some Irish Words Starting with the Letter ‘Y’ (yóyó ina measc) Posted by róislín on Sep 21, 2015
(le Róislín) In the past few blagmhíreanna (naisc thíos), we’ve looked at some Irish words that start with letters not traditionally in the Irish alphabet (v, w, x). Today’s blog will deal with the letter “y” and soon we’ll do “z.” Someday we’ll get to the other three non-traditional letters (j, k, q), but for…
Some Irish Words Starting with the Letter ‘X’ (Part 2 of 2): xileafón agus xifisteirneam Posted by róislín on Sep 18, 2015
(le Róislín) As you might recall, the most recent blagmhír here was “Some Irish Words Starting with the Letter ‘X’ (Part 1 of 2)” (nasc thíos). Today we’ll look at Part 2, Irish words beginning with “x” where the single letter “x” isn’t a prefix. In other words, this is not the post dealing with words…
Some Irish Words Starting with the Letter ‘X’ (Part 1 of 2) Posted by róislín on Sep 14, 2015
(le Róislín) As you might suspect, there are relatively few words in Irish that start with the letter ‘x,’ since it wasn’t part of the traditional original Irish alphabet (which was a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, and u). We’ve seen something similar for…
Irish Words Starting with ‘w’ (dornán beag ach dornán acu ann!) Posted by róislín on Sep 9, 2015
(le Róislín) Bhuel, let’s start by saying there aren’t many words in Irish that start with “w”, since like “v,” this letter was not traditional in the Irish alphabet. But times change, languages change, and there are now at least a few words to note. I’ll also mention in passing that a fair number of…
From ‘vacsaín’ to ‘vuinsciú’ and some other Irish words that start with ‘v’ Posted by róislín on Sep 5, 2015
(le Róislín) From the English perspective, there’s nothing particularly unusual about words starting with the letter ‘v.’ After all, we can go from “vacancy” (casual, or otherwise, noted with homage to JKR) to “vyingly,” without batting a “fabhra” (eyelash). But the traditional Irish alphabet did not include the letter “v,” so most words you’ll find…
How to Pronounce ‘Leathbheart,’ ‘i mbeart,” and Other Consonant Clusters in Irish Posted by róislín on Aug 31, 2015
(le Róislín) In today’s blog we’ll look at how to pronounce words and phrases like “leathbheart” and “i mbeart.” “Leathbheart” is a classic example of “lenition,” or the “softening” (séimhiú) of the sounds of certain Irish consonants. And the phrase “i mbeart” is a classic example of “eclipsis” (urú), which is covering over the sound…