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Irish Pronunciation Roundup for the Blog on “Carancailí an Turcaí” Posted by on Nov 9, 2015

(le Róislín) In the last blog, we looked at caruncles, wattles, snoods, and dewlaps, words which are almost as intriguing in English as they are in Irish.  A few of the Irish terms we used might deserve a little further attention for pronunciation: fiafhás [FEE-uh-AWSS; the second “f” is silent], outgrowth, excrescence (lit. large or outsize…

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Cén Ghaeilge atá ar … wattle? (Stór focal in am do Lá an Altaithe) Posted by on Nov 6, 2015

(le Róislín) When we describe parts of a turkey’s body, it’s easy enough to reference cosa (feet / legs), sciatháin (wings), cleití (feathers), tail (eireaball OR ruball), ceann (head), and gob (beak).  These would be widely found on other animals, and to some extent, people (cosa and ceann, with sciatháin doubling for arms and gob…

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What’s ‘Upside Down’ in Irish?  And what about the nuthatch? Posted by on Oct 31, 2015

(le Róislín) As soon as I saw the photo which I have embedded in this blog, I immediately thought, “Now that would be a fun blog topic.”  And I did look at the photographer’s description of the picture, to be sure it wasn’t just some Photoshop fun, with the picture really having been inverted.  But…

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Irish Pronunciation Redux — with lenition — for “25 Chulaith Oíche Shamhna” (25 Halloween Costumes) Posted by on Oct 29, 2015

(le Róislín) In the most recent blog (nasc thíos), we looked at the pronunciations and translations for 25 Irish words or phrases for popular, or at least hypothetical, Halloween costumes.  In reviewing these, I mentioned that I was undoing the lenition that sometimes occurs when we use these terms.  In this blog, we’ll look at…

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Pronunciation Guide for “25 Chulaith Oíche Shamhna” (25 Halloween Costumes, in Irish) Posted by on Oct 27, 2015

 (le Róislín) We recently looked at the Irish for 25 different types of cultacha Oíche Shamhna (nasc thíos), some fairly traidisiúnta (vaimpír, taibhse) and some fairly far-fetched (héilics dúbailte d’aigéad dí-ocsairibeanúicléasach).  This post will give some pronunciation tips for them. But first, let’s look at the word “culaith” [KUL-uh OR KUL-ee] itself.  “The suit” is…

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25 Chulaith Oíche Shamhna and how to say them in Irish Posted by on Oct 24, 2015

(le Róislín) The variety of Halloween costumes seems to grow greater and greater every year.  Here are 25 possibilities and a handful of phrases for questions like: 1) Will you be a werewolf this year?  An mbeidh tú i do chonriocht  i mbliana? 2) Were you ever a werewolf? (for Halloween, or otherwise)? An raibh…

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Irish language glossary for ‘Comhrá idir an dá iora ghlasa’ (Diarmaid agus Dearbháil), pt. 2 Posted by on Oct 20, 2015

(le Róislín) It occurred to me that there might be a few more words worthy of definition or pronunciation deconstruction from the “Diarmaid agus Dearbháil” story (nasc thíos).  So here’s beagáinín eile: Taighde, research.  The “gh” is silent in the “taigh-” part of this word, so the vowel sound is as in the verb “faigh”…

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