(le Róislín)

Some of you may remember the blog about Bo Obama, Céad Mhadra na Stát Aontaithe (First Dog of the United States).  Is Uisceadóir Portaingéalach é.  Foilsíodh an blag sin ar an 16ú lá de mhí na Bealtaine, 2009 (https://blogs.transparent.com/irish/bhuf-bhuf-an-chead-mhadra-%E2%80%93-bo-obama-%E2%80%93-the-first-dog/

Anois, tá deirfiúr aige, Sunny.  Leas-deirfiúr, is dócha, le bheith cruinn.  Is Uisceadóir Portaingéalach ise freisin. 

And now it does set me thinking.  What is the title for the “Second Dog of the United States?”  So let’s look briefly at na horduimhreacha i nGaeilge (first, second, third, etc.).

The Irish for “the first” is “an chéad” [un hyayd, with the “c” silent and the “h” is as in “Hugh,” “Huw,” “hew,” or “human,” not as in “hood” or “hoot.”].  Samplaí:

an chéad fhear [un hyayd ar, with the “a” of “ar” like English “Larry,” not like English “are” or “bar”], the first man

an chéad urlár, the first floor, which in Ireland and the UK, and probably much of the English-speaking world, is what Americans would call the “second floor.”  Ach sin scéal eile.

When the phrase “the first … of …” pertains to a proper noun (like “of the United States” or “of Henry VIII”), “an chéad” changes to simply “céad” and the definite article (“an“) is dropped, as in:

Céad Mhadra na Stát Aontaithe, The First Dog of the United States

There is another slight change for “The First Dog of the United States of America“:

Céad Mhadra Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá

As for mná céile Anraí VIII, we would start with:

céad bhean chéile Anraí VIII (a hOcht) [kyayd van HyAY-luh AHN-ree uh hokht], (now in lower case, since the phrase is not an official title), i. Caitríona Aragón

We could then continue with “dara bean chéile Anraí VIII (Anne Boleyn)” “tríú bean chéile Anraí VIII (Jane Seymour)” up to “séú bean chéile Anraí VIII (Catharine Parr),” but surely is ábhar blag eile é sin.   Muna bhfuil tú ag iarraidh fanacht go dtí go mbeidh stair ghairid faoi na mná anseo sa bhlag (lá den tsaol), b’fhéidir gur mhaith leat tosú le ceann de na leabhartha seo (http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/10071.Best_Books_about_Anne_Boleyn) nó anseo (http://www.amazon.com/The-Eternally-Fascinating-Anne-Boleyn/lm/RAOKUR308NB1L).  Níos mó ná daichead leabhar atá ann ach níl a fhios agam an bhfuil ceann ar bith acu i nGaeilge!  Ar ndóigh, níl ar na liostaí seo ach leabhartha i mBéarla. 

You might have noticed in the examples above that the phrase “an chéad” (“the first”) triggers lenition, which causes “fear” [say “far,”  like the “lar” of “Larry,”] to sound like “ar” (like the “-ar-” of “Larry”).  In other words, with lenition, the “f” of “fear” becomes “fh,” which is silent.  So “fhear” starts out with a vowel sound, not an “f” or an “h” sound.

But this sound change (lenition), doesn’t occur after “dara,” “tríú,” etc.   So we have:

an dara fear, the second man

an tríú fear, the third man (agus sin scéal freisin!)

srl.

Getting back to “Sunny,” the Irish for “The Second Dog of the United States” would be:

Dara Madra na Stát Aontaithe

And for “The Second Dog of the United States of America, ” we’d have:

Dara Madra Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá

If we just say “the second dog,” that’s “an dara madra,” and if it’s an official title (why not?), it would be “An Dara Madra” (capitalized).   That’s without the “United States” part, as described above.

And just as a reminder, if we go back to “Bo,” and just want to say “The First Dog,” we return to using lenition, “An Chéad Mhadra.”

So, at any rate, there we have it, Céad Mhadra na Stát Aontaithe and Dara Madra na Stát Aontaithe.  And what if we were to do a blog sometime on madraí na n-uachtarán eile?  Sin scéal.  Dhá mhadra dhéag ag Calvin Coolidge.  Deich madra ag John F. Kennedy agus ag Theodore Roosevelt.

But meanwhile, fáilte romhat, a Sunny, agus ná bíodh iompairc siblíní ort, a Bo!  Tá léana an Tí Bháin mór go leor don bheirt agaibh!  SGF, Róislín