Irish Pronunciation: Compound Words Like “Croíbhriste” and “Croíbhrúite” Posted by róislín on Feb 8, 2012
(le Róislín) In addition to some of its inherently long words, like “(go) bhfaighidh” and “(na) haghaidheanna” (fuaimniú thíos), Irish has its share of longish words, which are actually compounds, with one or more prefixes, a root (or two), and/or one or more suffixes. Fortunately, most of these words break down quite nicely, once you…
Tuilleadh Téarmaí faoin gCroí (More “Heart” Terms) Posted by róislín on Feb 5, 2012
(le Róislín) As you might imagine, there are lots more terms and phrases involving the heart besides the terms of endearment such as “A ghrá mo chroí!” “A chuisle mo chroí!” or “Mo chroí thú!” What better month to look into them than Feabhra, mí an chroí (i Meiriceá agus sa Bhreatain). Since there are…
Feabhra: Mí an Chroí i Meiriceá agus sa Bhreatain (February: Heart Month) Posted by róislín on Feb 2, 2012
(le Róislín) Nach deas an neas-suíomh é: Feabhra mar “Mhí an Chroí” (i Meiriceá agus sa Bhreatain) agus Feabhra mar mhí do leannáin (lovers) go ginearálta, mar gheall ar Lá Vailintín. I’ve actually been poking around online trying to find out what year February as American Heart Month started, but gan éifeacht (to no avail…
Téarmaí Geimhridh (Winter Terms) Posted by róislín on Jan 30, 2012
(le Róislín) This winter is proving to be unusually cold (fuar) in some parts of the world (an Eoraip) and unseasonably mild (bog) in others (Meiriceá, b’fhéidir Ceanada). Before we proceed, let’s look briefly at the pronunciation of the adjectives “fuar” and “bog.” For “fuar,” I’ll simply note that each vowel is pronounced, so it’s…
TSAGGSSL (An Gaeilge É Sin? Is That Irish?) Posted by róislín on Jan 26, 2012
(le Róislín) Bhuel, to answer the title question, braitheann sé. It depends. You might remember “TSAGGSSL” from the last blog. No, it’s not some permutation of “Yggdrasil” or a new companion to the smallish list of words with 8 letters but only one vowel. Yes, there are some examples of those 8-letter wonders in languages…
Nótaí Fuaimnithe don Bhlag “Cé Mhéad Lá sa Mhí?” (Pronunciation Notes) Posted by róislín on Jan 23, 2012
(le Róislín) Pronunciation notes always seem welcome here, so here’s another batch, this time for the discussion of na míonna, from the previous blog (nasc: https://blogs.transparent.com/irish/ce-mhead-la-sa-mhi-how-many-days-in-the-month/). That blog seems to have generated a lot of lenition (séimhiú), so we’ll certainly be looking at that here. Urú (eclipsis), hmm, I only see one example. An meas…
Cé Mhéad Lá sa Mhí? (How Many Days in the Month?) Posted by róislín on Jan 20, 2012
(le Róislín) A reader recently posted a question about how to say how many days a month has. Bhuel, ar mhaith leatsa na bearnaí sa chairt seo a lionadh isteach ? Oh, and dála an scéil, the months in this chart are not in chronological order. Don’t want it to be too much of a giveaway!…