(le Róislín)

In a recent blog post, we briefly discussed einceifileapaite spúinseach bhólachta, which is also known as ‘galar na bó buile‘ (nasc thíos).  In other words, bovine spongiform encephalopathy aka mad cow disease.  It’s a bit of a mouthful in Irish as it is in English, so why don’t we take a closer look at the Irish terms for the disease, both the “einceifileapaite” term and the “galar” term.”  And along the way, we’ll be practicing some more basic vocabulary, like “cow,” “cows,” “legs,” and “herd.”

“Galar na bó buile” is a little more straightforward than einceifileapaite spúinseach bhólachta, so let’s start with that.

The word “galar” has a variety of meanings, such as disease, illness, sickness, and a little more abstractly, misery, distress, trouble or affliction

You may already know “bó,” since it tends to be taught very early on in most Irish courses.  It’s an interesting word, irregular in its forms and in having so little change when showing possession (an tuiseal ginideach).  It appears as follows:

bó, a cow

an bhó [un woh OR un voh, depending on dialect], the cow

bó, of a cow; galar bó, a disease of a cow

na bó, of the cow; note there’s no change to the word ‘bó‘ itself; ruball na bó, the tail of the cow

ba [bah], cows; Tá ba sa pháirc.

na ba, the cows; Tá na ba sa pháirc.

bó, of cows, galar bó, a disease of cows.  This looks the same as the singular form, “galar bó” (a disease of a cow), no discernible difference, but does it really matter?  Generally, a disease that one cow might get could be gotten by many cows — unfortunately.

na mbó [nuh moh], of the cows.  Here, the letter “m” tells us clearly that the phrase is plural, so we can distinguish;

cosa na bó, the legs of the cow

cosa na mbó, the legs of the cows

Of course, if we were dealing with the “ruball” (aka eireaball), context would probably tell us if we were talking about one cow or more than one:

ruball na bó, the tail of the cow

rubaill na mbó, the tails of the cows

We probably wouldn’t ever need to say “rubaill na bó” (the tails of the cow) because we would assume each cow has only one tail.  Likewise, we would probably never need to say “ruball na mbó” (the tail of the cows), because, we would hope that each cow has its own tail!  Of course, if we had a “Pin The Tail on the Donkey” kit, which came with a replacement tail in case the kids playing the game lost or destroyed one of the tails, we might have some reason to say, “rubaill an asail” (the tails of the donkey), but even then, I admit, my example is a bit áiféiseach (far-fetched).

Thereby, no doubt, hangs a tale, or in the case of the donkey, a tail, but we’ll save further discussion of rubaill, eireabaill, and fimíní, and related words like glibeanna, moingeanna and pónaithe, for some other future blog post.

Getting back to the basic issue, is “bó” singular or plural in the phrase, “galar na bó buile,” we know it’s singular because the phrase is “na bó,” not “na mbó.”  The phrasing is singular, indicating one cow, lit. the disease of the mad cow.  This is as it is in English–we don’t say “mad cows disease.”

The final keyword of our phrase is “buile,” which you might know from the popular song, “An Poc ar Buile” (The Mad Billy-Goat).  It’s a fun song to sing, and many people especially like singing it because in one line, the word “pocán” (basically the same as “poc,” a buck-goat, puck-goat, or billy-goat) gets lenited, meaning it’s spelled “ph,” and sounds like, well, you can imagine what it sounds like.  The line is “Is é dúirt gurbh é an diabhal ba dhóigh leis a ghaibh an treo ar phocán buile.”  You can hear Séamus Ennis singing the song, from a 1965 recording, at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrXsmfmqcFA&feature=player_embedded (posted by Gravel Walks)

So that takes care of the everyday name for the disease.  Now, let’s get medical.

einceifileapaite [en-KEF-il-YAHP-itch-uh], encephalopathy.  Note that the “-ph-” of the English becomes “f” in Irish, reflecting the pronunciation.  Also, in English the “c” of the “cephalo-” element is pronounced like an “s,” but in Irish, it’s a “k” sound.

spúinseach [SPOON-shukh] spongy,  spongiform, and occasionally, “sponge” as an adjective.  Often the ending “-chruthach” (lit. -shaped) is used in Irish for English “-iform,” as in “croschruthach,” “fearsaidchruthach,” “fungaschruthach,” and the charming “péistchruthach.”  But, for whatever reason, the Irish for “spongiform” is the same as the Irish for “spongy,” much like “srathach” means  “stratiform” and “drólannach” means “coliform” without having the “-chruthach” ending.

The word “bólacht” brings us back into a more traditional realm of Irish rural life.  It means “cattle” in general.  Grammatically, the word is singular but it refers to the plural idea of “cows” in a herd, much like the archaic English word “kine,” which itself is a cousin of the Scots “kye.”  Recognize “kine”?  How about Deuteronomy 32:14: “butter of kine and milk of sheep.”  Of course, that’s the King James version.  Probably more recent translations have updated the term.

The Irish Bible (An Bíobla Naofa), BTW, uses our same word, “bólacht,” for this line (Deotranaimí 32:14): “gruth ón mbólacht, bainne ón tréad” (lit. curds from the kine/cows, milk from the herd).  Why “gruth” and not “im” (the usual word for “butter”), I wonder.  But that would probably involve going back to the language of the original, Eabhrais, and the intricacies the Hebrew roots of the cow/kine concept, areas which are beyond my ken.

Actually a similar question arises with “tréad” (herd), since it could mean a herd of cows (ba), sheep (caoirigh), pigs (muca), or presumably, also, animals from further afield, like eilifintí and gasailí.  Should it refer specifically to sheep here?  How did the KJV come up with “sheep.”  The original Hebrew?  Regardless of the outcome of those inquiries, readers might find the word “tréidlia” to be some useful vocabulary for today.  Even for those of us who live urban and suburban lives, far from tréada ainmhithe ar bith, we still might visit the tréidlia for our city-dwelling pets, be they madraí, cait, éin, firéid, ioguánaí, or faoileoirí siúcra (that last one’s for you, a Bhicí, if you’re still following the blog)

In our phrase, “bólacht” shows up as “bhólachta” [WOH-lukh-tuh], for “of cattle.”   It’s lenited (“b” becoming “bh”) and in the genitive case (giving us the “-a” ending).

So that’s the breakdown of BSE (Irish “ESB“) in its formal and informal terms.

And what’s up next, while we’re on the subject of galair agus tinnis?  An Ghaeilge ar “Pneumono­ultra­microscopic­silico­volcano­coniosis?”  B’fhéidir, or perhaps some more ordinary afflictions like slaghdáin or tinnis chinn de dheasca bia fuar a ithe.  Why the latter term doesn’t specify ice-cream as the culprit, I don’t know.  But it’ll be interesting food for thought, anyway.  As long as I don’t end up with brain freeze.  SGF – Róislín

Nasc: https://blogs.transparent.com/irish/if-bron-can-be-orm-in-irish-phrases-like-tbo-what-else-can-be-ort/ (If ‘brón’ can be ‘orm’ in Irish phrases like ‘TBO,’ what else can be ‘ort’? Posted on 28. Apr, 2015 by róislín in Irish Language)