Ó 0 go 10 (0 agus 10 agus na hUimhreacha Eatarthu)

Ó 0 go 10 (0 agus 10 agus na hUimhreacha Eatarthu) Posted by róislín on Aug 22, 2011 in Irish Language

(le Róislín)

Recently we’ve looked at how to count a “couple” of things and how to count “two” of something (cúpla caife Gaelach, dhá chaife Ghaelacha).

So you might be wondering about the numbers in between, and also zero (variously represented in Irish as “nialas,” “náid,” and, by implication, in the phrase “ar bith”).

If this blog is going to cover aon uimhir déag (0 – 10), there won’t be room for frásaí le haidiachtaí, as we’ve just been practicing. That will have to wait for blag éigin eile.

Many of you may have already worked on na huimhreacha in Irish, but there are always newcomers to the list, so this may be nua for some folks. And if not entirely new for all, perhaps some of the examples will be nua agus suimiúil.

Let’s start with zero. Probably the most typical way to say, “There are no boxes here,” is to actually reverse the negative aspect of the sentence, making the verb negative (“aren’t” instead of “are”) and adding “ar bith” (at all) to the noun:

Níl boscaí ar bith anseo. There are no boxes here, lit. there aren’t boxes at all (any boxes) here.

Some typical question-and-answer sequences, to indicate that nothing was available, would be:

An raibh ticéidí do choirmcheoil Billy Joel ar fáil? Ní raibh ticéad ar bith ar fáil, or, more succinctly, ticéad ar bith, or very Irishly, and bypassing all the typical words for “zero,” diabhal ticéad (divil a ticket, i.e. no ticket).

Cé mhéad ticéad a fuair tú? Ticéad ar bith (How many tickets did you get? No ticket, lit. a ticket at all)

More abstractly, when actually discussing matamaitic and related subjects, we use the word “nialas,” which also means “null” and sometimes “nil.” This isn’t usually used for actually counting things, even when the result turns out to be zero, but rather, in phrases like “fachtóir nialais” (zero factor, with “zero” in the genitive case), “fill ar nialas” (RZ or return to zero, a computing term), or “innilt nialais” (zero grazing, an agricultural term, now also applied to health issues, especially AIDS, with “zero” also in the genitive case).

And then there’s the phrase “nialas-óim” (zero ohms), which really caught my attention, not so much because I typically chat about leictreachas or an fhisic, but simply because of the structure of the phrase. Sometimes it may seem like all Irish words are long, complex, and full of silent letters, but this two-letter winner is, at least, the eisceacht that makes the riail.

The forms of the word “óm” in Irish are quite straightforward:

óm, an ohm

an t-óm, the ohm

an óim, of the ohm

óim, ohms

na hóim, the ohms

na n-óm, of the ohms

Can you tell what declension noun this is from looking at the endings and prefixes? (Leid: seo na roghanna : m1; m2, which very rare; m3; m4; m5). Not much of a leid if you’ve done a lot with gramadach na Gaeilge (it’s simply all the reasonable choices) but at least a pointer if this concept of categorizing nouns is new for you. Freagra thíos.

That’s just regular old ohms, of course, named after Georg Simon Ohm , nothing to do with the other “om” word which is running around my brain. Yes, that’s it, “om” from the famous if mysterious line “Jai Guru Deva om” in the Beatles’ song “Trasna na Cruinne” (not that they sang it in Irish, of course). Agus DAS, that “om” seems to have several interpretations, de réir Hiondúchais, ranging from an explanation of it (níl ann ach fuaim, gan chiall ar bith mar “chiall”) to various definitions, such as “Dia,” or “an focal is naofa sa chruinne” or “foinse beithe gach rud.” But the song (among many others) is engraved on my 1970s consciousness, so, well, hmm, I guess I’m just disambiguating. Like you’d really “ambiguate” the Sanskrit “om” with engineering “ohm” translated into Irish, but just ar eagla na heagla!

Anyway, I hope all that about “nialas-óim” makes sense to any innealtóirí or matamaiticeoirí reading this blog. My main interest is discussing the term in Irish and how the word “zero” is used. Caint ar fhriotaíocht, ar aimpéir, agus ar sheoltóirí (seachas i litríocht nó mar loingseoirí nó fiú mar sheoltóirí turscair) ní bhfaighidh tú uaim, ach fíorchorruair agus fiú ansin mar phlé na téarmaíochta, ní mar mhíniú ar an dóigh a n-oibríonn a leithéidí.

Ó, agus, DAS eile, fanann ainm Georg Simon Ohm mar “Ohm” sa bhfrása, “dlí Ohm” (Ohm’s law), cé go bhfuil litriú Gaeilge air mar théarma eolaíochta.

DAS a 3, úsáidtear an focal “náid” (zero, naught) mar mhaoluimhir i comhthéacsanna mar uimhreacha ticéidí (crannchur, srl.) agus uimhreacha fóin (a dó, a náid, a trí, do Chonnecticut, mar shampla) dá mbeifeá á rá os ard. Agus ag déanamh suimeanna os ard (a haon agus a náid, sin a haon, srl.).

So far we’ve only covered the number “zero.” A thorough coverage of 1 to 10 will have to wait for blag éigin eile, but here’s a preview: bó amháin, dhá bhó, seacht mbó, míle bó. Cuid de na próisis atá i gceist: ord na bhfocal, séimhiú, urú, agus easpa séimhithe agus easpa úraithe le hiolraithe ar an uimhir “10” thar an uimhir 10 í féin (deich mbó ach fiche bó, srl.)

Agus lá éigin, na frásaí sin le haidiachtaí. Ach ní féidir gach rud faoi na huimhreacha a chur in aon bhlag amháin. Blag amháin eile? Dhá bhlag? Ocht mblag? Idir an dá linn, SGF ó Róislín

Freagra (faoin bhfocal “óm”): an chéad díochlaonadh (m1)

Gluais: beith, existence; cruinne, universe (note the identical-looking word, cruinne, meaning “roundness”); DAS, dála an scéil, btw, by the way; de réir, according to; friotaíocht, resistance; fuaim, sound; idir an dá linn, meanwhile; iolraí, multiple (noun); is naofa, holiest; plé, discussion; seachas, except for; seoltóir, conductor (in electronics, lit. sender); seoltóir turscair, spammer, lit. sender of pig swill; trasna, across