(le Róislín)

Remember the abbreviations “lch.” and “lgh.“?  How would you say them out loud if you encountered them in a page of Irish text?   We saw them in a blog originally posted here on April 20, 2015 (nasc thíos) and recently reposted (http://ow.ly/QPmCU).

No great mysteries here.

The abbreviation “lch.”  stands for “leathanach” ([L^yA-huh-nukh], a page)

The abbreviation “lgh.” stands for “leathanaigh” ([L^yA-huh-nukh], pages)

Let’s look at some more forms of this word:

an leathanach, the page

an leathanaigh, of the page (barr an leathanaigh, the top of the page; lár an leathanaigh, middle of the page; bun an leathanaigh, the bottom of the page)

na leathanaigh, the pages (looks like the form just given above)

na leathanach, of the pages (imill na leathanach, the margins of the pages, same “-ach” ending as the basic form)

If you want to say the number of the page, you use the same form as when saying phone numbers, telling time, etc., i.e. the “maoluimhreacha.”  Some examples:

leathanach a haon, page one (as opposed to “an chéad leathanach,” the first page)

leathanach a dó, page two (as opposed to “an dara leathanach,” the second page, sometimes given as “an dóú leathanach“)

leathanach a trí, page three (as opposed to “an tríú leathanach,” the third page)

And speaking of page numbers, how about: Cé mhéad leathanach atá sa leabhar sin? (How many pages are in that book?).  And here’s a few for you to match up.  Of course, the numbers could change according to different editions, but these should stand out as among the world’s longest books (leabhartha, ní sraitheanna, dála an scéil–that would be opening up a real Pandora’s box of book lore).  I’ve translated the titles into Irish, le haghaidh an dúshláin [le hi un DOO-HLAW-in], even though, fad m’eolais, Irish versions of these tomes don’t exit (yet!).  Care to let us know if you’ve read any of them?  We’d love to know!

Banc Teideal:  Cogadh agus Síocháin, Greann Neamhthoranta, Ar Lorg Am Caillte

Na leathanaigh: a) 3031 leathanach   b) 1079 leathanach   c) 1440 leathanach

Leideanna uait?  Cogadh agus Síocháin le Leo Tolstoy, Greann Neamhtheoranta le David Foster Wallace, Ar Lorg Am Caillte le Marcel Proust

Here are a couple more examples of the word “page,” including a Stephen King quote, which I’ve translated into Irish.  Does it sound familiar?

“Ná tar ar nós cuma liom go dtí an leathanach bán.”  (Stephen King).  “Ar nós cuma liom” here means “lightly;” literally it means “in a manner of indifference to me.”  “Bán,” literally “white,” here means “blank.”  So the line, as King famously expressed it in English, is “Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”  (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/28/famous-authors_n_1165816.html).   By the way, although it has always struck me as a bit strange, the phrase “ar nós cuma liom” is basically fossilized with “liom” (i.e. with “me”), no matter who the reference is to (you, him, etc.).  Having said that, apparently it does occur occasionally with the various forms of “le” (leat, leis, léi, linn, libh, leo).  In the plural, for “blank pages,” we would have lenition plus the plural ending: leathanaigh bhána.

Leathanaigh Órga, golden pages, equivalent to the Yellow Pages in the United States

leathanach Facebook — tempting as is may be to try a compound word such as ” *aghaidhleabhar,” keeping the word “Facebook” in English seems to be the accepted usage.

And finally, some extra phrases with the words “page” or “pages.”  Can you fill in the extra words needed for these?  There will be a duplicate for one blank.

1. a) leathanach _________ (home page)
2. b) leathanach _________ (title page)
3. c) an _____ leathanach eile (the next page)
4. d) briseadh ______ leathanaigh (page break)
5. e) leathanach ____________ OR____________ (cache or cached page)
6. f) _________(-)leathanach (half page); NB: The fleiscín may or may not remain in the final answer depending on what prefix is used.
7. g) an leathanach __________ (the last page)
8. h) __________ na leathanach (the pagination)
9. i) __________ leathanach an leabhair sin (the pagination of that book)

And for good measure, here’s a phrase that uses “page” in English but not in Irish:

1. k) Tá muid go léir ar ____(-)thuiscint; NB: The fleiscín may or may not remain in the final answer depending on what prefix is used.

Hopefully that was informative but fun.  Slán go fóill — Róislín

Freagraí

1. a) leathanach baile (home page)
2. b) leathanach teidil (title page)
3. c) an chéad leathanach eile (the next page)
4. d) briseadh idir leathanaigh (page break, lit. break between pages)
5. e) leathanach taisce OR taiscthe (cache or cached page)
6. f) leathleathanach (half page) — that’s fun to say! Did you notice that the fleiscín isn’t needed? If the prefix is “leath-,” we’d only keep the fleiscín if the core word began with a “t” as in “leath-thon (semitone) or “leath-thonna” (half-ton)
7. g) an leathanach deireanach (the last page)
8. h) uimhriú na leathanach (the pagination)
9. i) uimhriú leathanach an leabhair sin (the pagination of that book)
10. k) Tá muid go léir ar comhthuiscint. (We are all on the same page, lit. We are all on “co-understanding”). Again, no fleiscín.  We’d only have the fleiscín if the core word began with an “m” and examples of that with “comh” seem to be pretty scarce.  In theory, we should have “comh-mhámas” ([KOH-WAWM-us], wedlock), but actually the only examples I find of that break the rule and don’t have the hyphen.

Nasc: Gnáthghiorrúcháin i nGaeilge: Everyday Abbreviations in Irish (not “textese”) Posted on 11. Apr, 2015 by róislín in Irish Language (https://blogs.transparent.com/irish/gnathghiorruchain-i-ngaeilge-everyday-abbreviations-in-irish-not-textese/)