Cén Ghaeilge atá ar D-Day?  Freagra: “D-Day”

Yet another example of a “lá a bhfuil cuimhne air,” or maybe I should say “lá a mbíonn cuimhne air,” to emphasize the continuity.   

Amanna fágtar téarma iasachta sa teanga iasachta, mar huerta agus kloof agus “wadi,” agus sin é an scéal le “D-Day,” as far as I can tell.  Other times, by the way, foreign words are gaelicized, as in “íoglú,” “monsún,” and “sábhanna.”

The curious thing about this, to me, is that while “D-Day” and a number of other terms in English are accepted in Irish, other languages have adapted their word for “D-Day” according to their own vocabulary.  Examples include Jour J (sa Fhrancais), T-Tag (sa Ghearmáinis), agus E Eguna (sa Bhascais). 

I’ve seen “L-Lá” and even “D-Lá” proposed, but I tend toward the simplest solution (in most cases!), so will stick with “D-Day” (as Béarla) as the dictionaries suggest.  If the phrase were to be gaelicized, one wonders whether it should, in fact, be “L-Lá” (like English and German) or “Lá-L” (like the French).  Since the “L-“ is more or less adjectival, it could follow the normal pattern for Irish adjectives (following their noun). 

Or it could be construed as a prefix.  A parallel scenario can be seen with the word for “T-shirt.”  Generally, it’s “T-léine” in Irish, but sometimes one sees or hears “léine-T.” 

One final curious factor about all of this, IMBhU, is that VE Day and VJ Day have full-fledged terms in Irish, presumably because VE and VJ have clear meanings: Lá an Bhua san Eoraip and Lá an Bhua ar an tSeapáin.  

Gluais: fágtar, is left / are left; iasacht [EE-uss-ukht], loan, foreign, from outside; IMBhU, i mo bharúil umhal [ih muh WAHR-oo-il OO-ul] (which may be a new addition to acrainmneacha don Téacsais, though it may well be that others have started using it – ní théacsálaim go minic, gan a bheith ag trácht ar a bheith ag téacsáil i nGaeilge; léine [LAYN-yeh] shirt

Bunchialla do na téarma iasachta eile: huerta (gairdín); kloof (scoilt, altán mar “ravine”); wadi (leaba shrutháin). For details and nuances, please check the original languages!