(le Róislín)

When we describe parts of a turkey’s body, it’s easy enough to reference cosa (feet / legs), sciatháin (wings), cleití (feathers), tail (eireaball OR ruball), ceann (head), and gob (beak).  These would be widely found on other animals, and to some extent, people (cosa and ceann, with sciatháin doubling for arms and gob as a somewhat disrespect-ful reference to someone’s mouth).

But some parts of a turkey’s anatomy are quite distinctive, although none, as far as I know, are completely unique to “turcaithe.”   Caruncles, for example, can also be found on “musclachain” and many animals have dewlaps (coiníní, madraí, múis, laghairteanna “anole”, séabúnna, srl.).

So here’s the breakdown of the distinctive features of a turkey’s head, as per the illustration above.  I have to admit that I find the terminology a bit overlapping and not a hundred percent clear, so if any éaneolaí or “*turceolaí” wants to add some clarification, bheadh fáilte mhór roimhe sin.  But, at any rate, I’ve matched the English up with the Irish:

1.. carancailí, caruncles. Cad is “caruncle” ann? “Fiafhás feolmhar”  — nothing like defining English words with Irish!  It’s all good practice!  Is féidir leis an bhfiafhás feolmhar a bheith ar cheann éin, mar shampla, an turcaí nó an mhusclacha.  Tá cineálacha eile carancailí ann freisin, úiréadach agus deorach, mar shampla, ach ní bhaineann siad leis an mblag seo.

 

2.. snúda, snood. As far as I can tell, “snúda” applies to all uses of “snood” in English–for turkeys, in women’s fashion, sports gear (neckwarmers), and in fishing. Focal deas ilúsáideach!

 

3.. sprochaille [SPROKH-il-yuh], wattle. This can also mean barb, dewlap, gill, and, for people, a bag or pouch under the eyes. All of those English words, though, have other Irish equivalents, which in some cases are are more typical and which can be found in the “nóta” below.  “Sprochaille” doesn’t mean the type of “wattle” used for building; that would be “caolach” (as in claí caolaigh) or “cliath” (as in Baile Átha Cliath).

 

4..príomhcharancail, major caruncle.  Well, actually, I can’t find this as such in any dictionary or anywhere online, but it seems like a logical combination.  “Príomh-” means “primary” or “main” or “major” and is constantly applied to make compound words as necessary (príomhbhóthar, príomhrud, príomhchathair, príomhlíne, príomhsmaoineamh, srl.)

 

5.. féasóg or perhaps meigeall, beard.  “Féasóg” is used for a beard on a human, and can be used for a “beard” on grain, like barley (an “awn,” in English).  But, in Irish, a beard on a barley or rye plant also has its own name, “colg,” which, additionally, can mean “awn,” “bristle,” “sword,” or even “dorsal fin.”  “Meigeall” is used for a goat’s beard and also for a goatee, and creid é nó ná creid é, I can’t seem to find any documentation for whether the word for a goat’s beard can be used for a turkey’s beard in Irish.  And I can’t find a full anatomical diagram of a turkey in Irish.  So, I’m inclined to go with “féasóg,” since it’s more general.

So, that’s the vocabulary for parts of a turkey’s head.

For better or for worse though, as Thanksgiving approaches in the US and as Christmas approaches in Ireland and Britain, people will be preparing to eat turkeys, not admire or analyze their anatomy.  So perhaps the phrases du jour should be:

lorga an turcaí, the drumstick of the turkey.  That’s actually a pretty big undertaking, for eating; often we just use this phrase for the drumstick of a chicken, “lorga sicín”

feoil gheal [f^yohl yal], white meat (remember, “geal” can mean “bright” or “white,” although “white” is usually “bán“)

feoil dhorcha [f^yohl  ɣor-uh-khuh], dark meat.  Pronunciation of “dhorcha” involves both the voiced velar fricative, represented by /ɣ/ (the “gamma” sign, from IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet), and the voiceless velar fricative, represented by “kh” in my rough guide to Irish pronunciation.  The “dh” of “dhorcha” is pronounced like the “dh” of “Ní Dhomhnaill” and the “gh” of “a ghort.”  This sound doesn’t occur in English, so it’s really hard to represent phonetically without using the IPA.  The “dho” of “dhorcha” and “Dhomhnaill” and the “gho” of “ghort” sound the same.

The “ch” of “dhorcha” is like the “ch” of German “Buch,” Welsh “bach,” Scottish “loch,” and, if Wikipedia serves me correctly, Romanian “hram“, which I would transcribe for sound as [khram], meaning “patron of a church.”  Ach níl Rómáinis agam; an bhfuil an míniú sin ceart, a Aindriú?  (Cé acu Aindriú?  Tá a fhios aige cé hé féin, Aindriú a bhfuil Gaeilge agus Béarla agus Fraincis agus Rómáinis aige, agus b’fhéidir teangacha eile faoi seo.  Bhuel, ar ndóigh, tá fáilte roimh chainteoir Rómáinise ar bith nóta tráchta a fhágáil).

Dála an scéil, in the US, more people seem to eat liamhás for Christmas than turcaí perhaps because they’ve been eating fuílleach turcaí since Thanksgiving.  Cén sórt fuílligh?  Ceapairí turcaí, anraith turcaí, seabhdar turcaí, casaróil thurcaí, curaí turcaí, tostados turcaí, vols-au-vent turcaí agus asparagas, agus cá mbeimis gan an “turcaí tetrazzini” (mí)c(h)áiliúl sin?  Ag caint faoi thurcaí tetrazzini, kudos do dhuine ar bith a scríobhfadh isteach le foinse ainm an chasaróil sin.  Agus ag caint faoi fhuílleach turcaí, b’fhéidir gur cuimhin leat an blag faoi sin, “Tar éis an turcaí, céard a bheas agat? An fuílleach! (the leftovers)” postáilte ar 25 Mí na Samhna 2014 (https://blogs.transparent.com/irish/tar-eis-an-turcai-ceard-a-bheas-agat-an-fuilleach-the-leftovers/)

Pé scéal é, sin sin don bhlag seo agus tá súil agam go mbeidh do chuid turcaí blasta!  Radharc an turcaí é féin, sin scéal eile!  SGF —  Róislín

Nóta: Focail eile ar “barb,” “dewlap,” “gill” agus “bag” nó “pouch” faoin tsúil.  For “barb” and “gill”, I’d say the additional Irish words shown below are likely more widely used than “sprochaille.”  For the “dewlap” and “bag under the eye,” I’d say the distribution is fairly equal.

barb: bairb (ar éan), frídín (ar dhuán, i gcomhair iascaireachta; a “barbless hook,” needless to say, is “duán gan frídín,” but, of course, there’s another way to say it, “duán lom“)

dewlap: meilleog, preiceall, seicimín, and for a cow, we can use either “slapar bó” (lit. flapping object of cow) or “sprochaille bó” (lit. wattle of a cow), clarifying, I guess, that it’s not a turkey-wattle.

gill: geolbhach

bag or pouch under the eye: meilleog (same as for “dewlap”).

Gluais bheag: éaneolaí, ornithologist; *turceolaí, a turkeyologist (not a very official word, but it got 413 Google hits in English)

Alt eile faoi thurcaithe:

http://www.gaeilge.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/L%C3%ADon_an_D%C3%BAlra-Geimhreadh_2013.pdf (trí alt: An Turcaí Fiáin, An as an Tuirc don turcaí?, agus “An Turcaí Tí”)