(le Róislín)

The last blog alluded to Jack London as originating the concept of seeing eilifintí bándearga as part of a siabhránacht radhairc.

Out of curiosity, I checked online to see where a search for eilifintí bándearga would take me, in Irish and in English.  In the exact phrase “eilifintí bándearga,” which is plural, there was a grand total of cúig amas, two of which lead back to this blog series and three of which are from a fun-sounding children’s book as Gaeilge called Brioscaí Beo (ISBN 0790130548; níl mionrudaí ar bith eile agam).

To search for “pink elephant” as a singular noun, I made the three necessary changes.  What are they?  Leathfhreagraí anseo agus na leathchodanna eile de na freagraí thíos faoi “A” (mar dhúshlán!):

1) bain an foirceann iolra den ainmfhocal

2) bain an foirceann iolra den aidiacht

3) séimhigh an aidiacht mar tagann sí tar éis “eilifint,” ainmfhocal atá baininscneach

An t-iomlán glan (torthaí an chuardaigh) … trí amas do “eilifint bhándearg”!  Two of them lead back to the same question, “How to say ‘The little boy painted a pink elephant on the wall’ in your mother tongue (not English)?” (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101029034505AAdZ61R), posed about cúig mhí ago.  The poser got about a dozen responses, including Irish.  Go deas!  The sole remaining hit was someone wanting to name an elephant that was, apparently, in their garden.  The light-hearted responses included an inquiry as to whether the eilifint was, by any chance, bándearg. 

Mar achoimre air seo (as a summary of this), there isn’t much discussion of pink elephants in Irish!  I know there are a few more grammatical angles I could search for, like “her pink elephant,” “their pink elephants,” and examples sa tuiseal ginideach.  Agus cad iad na foirmeacha sin?  Freagraí thíos faoi “B.”  But somehow, I don’t think the number of hits will soar, even with all possible forms.  Finishing the search will be a rainy-day project.

Meanwhile, comparing the results of the search “i mBéarla” is a bit like comparing “úlla” to “oráistí,” since the number of hits is so vastly different.  “Pink elephant” (foirm uatha), thart fá 1,610,000 amas.  “Pink elephants” (foirm iolra), thart fá 450,000 amas.  Ar ndóigh, ina measc sin tá an t-amhrán Disney, scannán agus ceirnín a bhfuil an t-ainm “Pink Elephants” (go díreach mar sin) orthu, agus caint faoi eilifintí bána (fíor eilifintí, ní eilifintí ó shiabhránacht) a bhfuil dath scoth-bhándearg orthu i ndáiríre, nó mar a deir roinnt daoine, dath “scothphinc.”

Deireadh an bhlag seo, agus níor thosaigh mé ar na luchóga gorma fós.  An chéad bhlag eile, is dócha.  SGF, ó Róislín

Gluais: A thiarcais! Oh my!; amas, hit (in computer searches); dúshlán, challenge; foirceann, ending (in grammar, etc.); radhairc, of vision, visual; siabhránacht, hallucination, mental confusion; this is one of several words for “hallucination” but is the one most used in current medical terminology; scoth-bhándearg [SKUH-WAWN-DJAR-ug, note the silent “th,” the “bh” like “w” (or “v” in some dialects), and the extra vowel sound before the “g”]; pinkish, scothphinc [skuh-fink], pinkish

A: Freagraí: 1) bain an “-í” de “eilifintí” agus gheobhaidh tú “eilifint,” an fhoirm uatha (ní nach ionadh!); 2) bain an “-a” de “bándearga” agus gheobhaidh tú “bándearg,” bunfhoirm an fhocail; 3) scríobh an litir “h” tar éis an “b” ag tús an fhocail “bándearg” agus gheobhaidh tú “bhándearg” (uatha, baininscneach).  So the final result, converting “pink elephants” to “pink elephant” gives us “eilifint bhándearg.”

B: Foirmeacha eile: a heilifint bhándearg, a n-eilifintí bándearga, (cos mhór) na heilifinte bándeirge, srl.