Archive for 'Irish Language'
How To Say “Uncail” (Uncailín, Amhnair, etc.) i nGaeilge Posted by róislín on May 20, 2013
(le Róislín) First, let me clarify that in this blog we’ll just be saying “uncle” in a very straightforward way, no implication of “crying uncle” (yielding, giving in). Even though the Irish language is incredibly rich in idioms and figurative expressions, I haven’t really found much use of the word “uncail” in such expressions. Perhaps…
Ainteanna nó Aintíní? (Aunts or Aunties?) Posted by róislín on May 14, 2013
(le Róislín) We’ve recently mentioned Mother’s Day (Lá na Máithreacha) and Father’s Day (Lá na nAithreacha), and we’ve looked at various mother/father expressions (e.g. máthair na mballach, lus gan athair gan mháthair). For the next couple of blogs, we’ll check out na hainteanna (or should we say “na haintíní“?) and na huncailí (or the occasionally…
When Is An ‘Athair” Not A ‘Father’ (literally, that is) Posted by róislín on May 10, 2013
(le Róislín) In the last blog (nasc thíos), we first reviewed the basic words for “mother” (plus mom, mum, mam, mommy, mummy, mammy) in Irish (máthair, mam, mamaí, srl.). Then we looked at phrases like “máthair shúigh” and “teanga dhúchais,” where there is not a one-to-one correlation between máthair/mother and the translation of a phrase…
When Is A ‘Máthair” Not A ‘Mother’ (literally, that is) Posted by róislín on May 7, 2013
(le Róislín) No, this blog isn’t going to be about toircheas fireann (à la Trip Tucker and the Xyrillians in Star Trek: Enterprise, The Unexpected). Nor will it be about capaill mhara or snáthaidí mara or the possibilities of toirchis eachtópacha i bhfir as postulated in our homeworld or as speculated about i bhficsean eolaíoch…
Féilte Mhí na Bealtaine (May Day, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day) Posted by róislín on May 1, 2013
(le Róislín) There are three main holidays associated with mí na Bealtaine in the United States: Lá Bealtaine (1ú Bealtaine), Lá na Máithreacha (12ú Bealtaine sa bhliain 2013), agus Lá Cuimhneacháin (Luan deireanach na Bealtaine, 27ú Bealtaine sa bhliain 2013). Of course, in every month there are also many days of special recognition that are…
Who Says Irish Doesn’t Have Many Cognates with English? (Cuid a Trí/Pt. 3: Grian, Gealach, Sol, Luan) Posted by róislín on Apr 30, 2013
(le Róislín) Continuing the quest for cognates (naisc thíos), let’s look at another pair of words, sun and moon, each of which typically has many similar-looking cousins throughout the Indo-European language family. Given that the Irish word for sun is “grian” and the Irish for “moon” is “gealach,” it looks like we have a bit…
Who Says Irish Doesn’t Have Many Cognates with English? (Cuid a Dó/Pt. 2: Téarmaí Gaoil, Focail Ghaolmhara) Posted by róislín on Apr 27, 2013
(le Róislín) Ascaill, axilla … in the last blog* we talked about how Irish may, in fact, have many focail ghaolmhara with other languages. The words are just not always cognates with English, at least not basic everyday English. Most of us are more likely to say that “ascaill” means “armpit” than to say that…