Archive for 'Irish Language'
“An Fada Leat Uait Í, Uait Í?” Iníon Uí Chuileannáin agus a Cohórt Posted by róislín on Jun 11, 2012
(le Róislín) Before wrapping up our discussion of the Cullinans of diamond fame, it might be interesting to look at the name itself. Not only does it have several spellings in Irish, but it also has several anglicizations. And some noteworthy bearers of the name, in real life and in song. The main variations in…
Ó “Ó Cuileannáin” go “Bling” agus Smaointe Fánacha (Ramblings) Eile Posted by róislín on Jun 8, 2012
(le Róislín) As I was mulling over the recent entries on “diamaint,” I decided to look a little further into diamond lore. I always wondered what exactly Koh-I-Noor meant (turns out to be “mountain of light” in Persian) and had a general curiosity about the largest known diamond ever. Hope? Taylor-Burton? Uncle Sam? Excelsior? So…
Diamant = ∞ (or should that be “= diamant ∞”?) Posted by róislín on Jun 5, 2012
(le Róislín) In the last blog, we talked about diamonds, and the various forms of the word in Irish (diamant, diamaint, na ndiamant, srl.). Meanwhile, I’ve been racking my brain to come with a catchy translation of the now-classic phrase “A diamond is forever.” Here I was thinking it probably…
Diamaint (Sa Spéir? Ar Bhonn do Bhróige?) Posted by róislín on Jun 2, 2012
Seems like this would be an interesting time to discuss geamchlocha, given the Iubhaile and all that. So let’s start with the diamond, which is “an diamant” in Irish, a fairly clear-cut cognate to the English, and for that matter, to the Latin “adamas,” which can also mean “adamant,” originally a noun meaning an impenetrably…
The Nuts and Bolts of, well, Boltaí agus Cnónna (agus Scriúnna agus Tairní, for good measure!) Posted by róislín on May 30, 2012
(le Róislín) In the last blog, about “cluasa” (ears) I happened to mention the phrase “cluaisín scriú” (the wing of a screw), since it’s based on the word for ear. “Cluaisín” [KLOO-ish-een] literally means “little ear.” That got me thinking about how such items are made and categorized. This blog will just be skimming the…
Cuir Cluas Ort! Listen Up! (but where’s the “up”?) Posted by róislín on May 27, 2012
(le Róislín) Before we completely leave the topic of ears, eaves, and eavesdropping, let’s look a little closer at the word for “ear” itself — cluas [KLOO-uss]. First a pronunciation note, “ua” in Irish is pronounced as two syllables [oo-uh]. You may well have heard the sound in other words, such as “rua” [ROO-uh], “nua”…
Eavesdropping “as Gaeilge” But Not Exactly Under the Eaves Posted by róislín on May 24, 2012
(le Róislín) A few blogs ago, in the discussion of “rusticles” on the Titanic, we also talked about the various Irish words for “icicle.” For the full list, féach ar an nóta “Súil Siar” thíos. It does seem unusual to me to have that many words for “icicle” when I don’t associate icicles with the…