(le Róislín)

Since de réir aibítre is a fun and convenient way to look at the information about almost any topic, I figured an A to Z guide to the Olympics would be a useful and timely blogpost.

Tricky thing, though, is that 8 letters of the English alphabet are not traditionally part of aibítir na Gaeilge.  So finding words to represent them is a bit tricky.  But, resorting to proper nouns and/or to “focail iasachta,” I figured out a way.  Actually, even in English, the x’s, y’s, and z’s can be tricky, especially as Stephen Moss pointed out in his 2006 Guardian article “The A-to-Z of the Winter Olympics” (nasc thíos).  He, too, used proper nouns, like Šárka Záhrobská (an sciálaí Seiceach), thanking her vicariously for having a last name that enabled him to complete his alphabetical guide.  The fact that she now goes by her married name, Strachová, doesn’t negate usefulness of the “z” for the possibilities for inclusion.  So I’ve included Záhrobská but also managed to come up with a few more “z-ainmneacha.”

Actually for most of the letters, my intention was just to list one item for each letter.  Maybe if people reading this are interested, they could send in at least one additional term in Irish and we could compiled a wiki-ish alphabetical “further” guide to the Olympics.  But for “z,” since it’s such a quirky word to work with, I included anything I could find or think of.

Two more “BTWs” here, before we start.  One is that there may be a few terms which more specifically related to Cluichí Oilimpeacha an Gheimhridh, rather than to Cluichí Oilimpeacha an tSamhraidh.  Ah, there’s that “tsamhraidh” [TOW-ree] word again  — see, it is really úsáideach to work on an tuiseal ginideach — that we’ve just included, fairly exhaustively in the last mionsraith of blagmhíreanna (nasc thíos).  

Two more “BTWs” here, before we start.  One is that there may be a few terms which more specifically related to Cluichí Oilimpeacha an Gheimhridh, rather than Cluichí Oilimpeacha an tSamhraidh.  Ah, there’s that “tsamhraidh” [TOW-ree] word again  — see, it is really úsáideach to work on an tuiseal ginideach — that we’ve just included, fairly exhaustively in the last mionsraith of blagmhíreanna here (nasc deireanach sa tsraith thíos — and it includes a complete webliography of the discussion of this word in this blog).

The other BTW is that this blagmhír also includes a webliography of previous blagmhíreanna about the 2012 Olympics, which includes one of the most popular blagmhíreanna in this blog ever, so I’ll give it its own nasc here, and it’s also included below: srl. How To Congratulate Someone in Irish: Comhghairdeas leat, a Katie, srl. Posted by róislín on Aug 9, 2012 in Irish Language.  As you might have guessed, it was about Katie Taylor, and at last glance had over 2000 views,  — not bad for a blog for a language with a relatively small speaker population.

Sin sin do na réamhullmhúcháin.  Anois — an liosta:

A: an Aithin, an chathair ina raibh an chéad Nua-Oilimpiad sa bhliain in 1896.  Note that “Athens” takes the word “the” in front of it in Irish, unusual for a city name, but similar to “An Háig” or “An Vatacáin.”

B: bailtín, as in “bailtín Oilimpeach,” Olympic village, although a more typical word for “village” is “sráidbhaile.”

C: canúáil, canoeing

D: dornálaíocht, boxing, based on “dorn” (fist).  So is that how the actor Michael Dorn got his name?  I’m sure that, like most Klingons, he has doirne an-láidir, but linguistically, of course, the query is just “teanga sa phluc.”

E: eachaíocht, equestrian sport, equitation, based on “each” (horse, steed, often in more literary usage than “capall,” the more typical word for “horse”).  Remember, for pronunciation, the “ea” is as in “deas” or “eas,” or, for an English analogy, the “a” of “back” or “cat.”  The “ch” is as in Irish “loch,” German “Buch,” or Welsh “bach.”

F: foireann, team, crew

G: gleacaíocht, gymnastics

H: hacaí, hockey

I: iomrascáil, wrestling  

J: júdó, judo (soiléir go leor, is dócha!)

K: keirin, so far I haven’t seen a gaelicization of this word, although many “k-words” do become “c-words” in Irish (citseap, citsire, An Chéinia, An Chóiré Theas, An Chóiré Thuaidh, srl.).   So, afaik, “keirin,” from the Japanese (競輪 / ケイリン) for ‘racing wheels’ still stands and can serve for our “k.”

L: líonpheil, netball

M: marcaíocht, riding, based on the Old Irish word “marc” (horse).  This is related to an old Welsh word for horse (“march,” pronounced with the guttural “ch,” like Irish “loch” or German “Buch“).  Once again, though, there is a more ordinary, basic word for horse in Welsh (ceffyl, a cognate of capall, and, in the Romance languages, of cheval, caballo, etc. ).  So Irish has at least three words for horse, not to mention specific terms for mare, stallion, pony, etc.  Ábhar blag eile?

N: nuapheantatlan or nuachoimhlint chúig mhír, modern pentathlon.  The second term literally means “new five-part conflict/competition”

O: Oilimpeach, Olympic

P: pionsóireacht, fencing

Q: quarte agus quinte (téarmaí pionsóireachta i bhFraincis).  Úsáidtear i nGaeilge agus i mBéarla iad seo.   Well, as you might suspect, finding any actual Irish words starting with “q” is well nigh impossible, since the letter traditionally wasn’t included in the Irish alphabet.  Recently, even the old standbys that I used to mention, quínín and quineol, have had their spellings changed to “cuinín“ and “cuineol,” so I’d say virtually nothing starts with “Q” in Irish now.  At least not officially.

R: rámhaíocht, rowing

S: staidiam, stadium

T: trí-atlan, triathlon

U: uiscíocht, aquatics

V: veirtige, vertigo (aka meadhrán).  It’s pretty hard to find Olympic sports words beginning with V in Irish so I put this in as a side-effect of what some of us might feel watching some of the competitions, perhaps more with some of the spóirt gheimhridh than spóirt shamhraidh.

W: Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984), snámhaí Oilimpeach (cúig bhonn óir) agus, le téarma a chumadh, “*féithluascaire” mar an carachtar Tarzan i scannáin sna 30aidí agus sna 40aidí

X: Oilimpiad X, XI, XII … XXXI, i gcóras uimhrithe na gCluichí Oilimpeacha, the 10th, 11th, 12th … 31st Olympiad, in the numbering system of the Olympic Games

Y: again, pretty rare in Irish, but we could introduce “y-chrómasóm,” since it’s relevant to issues of “idirghnéasacht” (intersexuality).

Z: All I could find for this was some prominent names, no actual sports terms:

Šárka Záhrobská, sciálaí Seiceach, Czech skier, now actually known as Šárka Strachová, her married name (nasc thíos).

Emil Zátopek (1922-2000), reathaí fadraoin Seiceach, Czech long-distance runner

Evangelis (nó Evangelos) Zappas (1800-1865), duine daonchairdiúil a bhfuil clú aige mar bhunaitheoir na gCluichí Oilimpeacha nua, philanthropist who is famous as the founder of the modern Olympic Games.  There must be some issues of interpretation going on here, though, because I ‘ve read in numerous places that the modern Olympics started in 1896, well after Zappas’ lifetime.  Looking into it further, I see that Zappas funded a revival in 1859 but if that’s the case, then why do we say “1896.” He also left a huge legacy for the games to continue after his lifetime.  Bhuel, it’s not our main concern here.  I was just looking for some words starting with “z” to complete the list.

Tá súil agam go raibh sé seo suimiúil dhuit, agus mar a dúirt mé, más mian le léitheoirí moltaí a sheoladh isteach, beidh muid ábalta aibítir eile a chumadh.  But additional examples for j, k, q, v, w, x, y, and z will probably be even harder to find.   As scarce as hen’s teeth, or to use an Irish idiom, chomh tearc le hiolar an eireabaill bháin (as rare as the white-tailed eagle) — an explanation of which might be ábhar blag eile.

So, I hope you enjoyed this, and if you’d like to contribute to creating a second list, well, I’m game (Olympically, that is)!

Or if you like to discuss some other aspect of this year’s Olympics, either in Irish or in English but emphasizing the Irish teams, please do write in.  An ndeachaigh duine ar bith agaibh ann? SGF — Róislín

 

Alt Stephen Moss: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2006/feb/10/winterolympics2006.winterolympics, “The A-to-Z of the Winter Olympics”

Alt faoi ainm Šárka Záhrobská:  http://www.fis-ski.com/alpine-skiing/news-multimedia/news/article=sarka-zahrobska-becomes-sarka-strachova.html

Seo an “Webliography” (iarbhlagmhíreanna ar na Cluichí Oilimpeacha ó Iúil agus ó Lúnasa 2012 ar shuíomh Transparent Language)

Cluiche Meaitseála faoi na Cluichí Oilimpeacha (An Olympics Matching Game)Posted by róislín on Jul 27, 2012 in Irish Language

Cóiriú Gruaige Tírghrách Venus Williams: Dearg, Bán, Gorm Posted by róislín on Jul 30, 2012 in Irish Language

An Spórt Oilimpeach Is Fearr Leat? Buanna Do Thírese? Posted by róislín on Aug 1, 2012 in Irish Language

An Chéad Amhrán Oilimpeach as Gaeilge: “Croílár na Féile” faoi Katie Taylor (aka KT)Posted by róislín on Aug 5, 2012 in Irish Language

How To Congratulate Someone in Irish: Comhghairdeas leat, a Katie, srl. Posted by róislín on Aug 9, 2012 in Irish Language

In Áit na mBonn: Cúig Bhonn d’Éirinn sna Cluichí Oilimpeacha Posted by róislín on Aug 12, 2012 in Irish Language

Agus seo an nasc don bhlag deireanach sa tsraith faoin bhfocal ‘samhradh’ (samhraidh, an tsamhraidh, samhraí) agus an stórfhocal in alt Uí Mhuirthile faoi shaoirí samhraidh, srl.: Deich bhFrása Shuimiúla as Alt Uí Mhuirthile (‘Saoirí Samhraidh’ san Irish Times), Cuid 4Posted by róislín on Aug 6, 2016 in Irish Language.  Tá liosta na nasc eile istigh ann.