Irish Language Blog
Menu
Search

Tag Archives: Albain

Séimhiú agus Urú agus an Áit inar Rugadh Thú (Saying Where You Were Born in Irish) Posted by on Jul 28, 2018

(le Róislín) Since we’ve recently been talking about how to say where you were born, I thought a little more practice might be welcome.  The graphic above shows a variety of combinations of place names, Irish and non-Irish, and the changes that occur when you use the word “in” with the place names.  Remember, the…

Continue Reading

Spleáchas vs. Neamhspleáchas Hotting Up in Scotland Posted by on Sep 18, 2014

(le Róislín) A timely time to look at the Irish word for ‘independence’ as the “vótáil” for the Scottish Referendum comes down the home stretch. Much like the English word “independence,” the Irish equivalent, “neamhspleáchas,” is also a compound word. Knowing that probably makes it a lot easier to pronounce, and, as it were, digest…

Continue Reading

How to say ‘Scottish,’ ‘Scotland,’ and ‘Scot’ in Irish (and how about ‘scot-free’?) Posted by on Sep 12, 2014

(le Róislín) As the Scottish Referendum vote comes ever closer, let’s look at some of the basic terms for Scotland itself, the Scottish people, and some specifically Scottish things.  For the latter, I mean things actually labeled Scottish, or as it sometimes occurs, “Scotch.”  I don’t mean things we simply associate with Scotland, like “haggis.”…

Continue Reading

Logainmneacha Ceilteacha agus Náisiúntachtaí a Sé: Celtic Place Names and Nationalities 6 – Cornwall and the Cornish Posted by on May 22, 2009

We’ve recently discussed the place names Albain, Éire, An Bhreatain Bheag, Oileán Mhanann, and An Bhriotáin.  Today we’ll turn to Cornwall.  Below you’ll find some examples of how to use the place name and how to indicate that a person or thing is Cornish.  Cornwall is called “Corn na Breataine” (horn of Britain) or sometimes…

Continue Reading

Logainmneacha Ceilteacha agus Náisiúntachtaí a Ceathair: Celtic Place Names and Nationalities 4 – The Isle of Man (Mann) and the Manx Posted by on May 6, 2009

We’ve recently discussed the place names Albain (Scotland), Éire (Ireland), and An Bhreatain Bheag (Wales).  Today we’ll turn to the Isle of Man (IOM), an island which is not part of Britain nor of the United Kingdom, but which has been a British crown possession since 1828.  Under the auspices of the British Home Office…

Continue Reading

Logainmneacha Ceilteacha agus Náisiúntachtaí a Trí: Celtic Place Names and Nationalities – Wales and the Welsh Posted by on May 3, 2009

We’ve recently discussed the place names Albain (Scotland) and Éire (Ireland).  Now we’ll turn to ”An Bhreatain Bheag” (Wales).  Since “Breatain” is a feminine noun, the adjective that modifies it, “beag” (little) becomes “bheag.”  And since this country name includes the definite article “an” (the), it also causes “Breatain” to change to “Bhreatain,” pronounced with…

Continue Reading

Logainmneacha Ceilteacha agus Náisiúntachtaí a hAon: Celtic Place Names and Nationalities – Scotland and the Scots Posted by on Apr 15, 2009

  We recently saw “Albain” (Scotland) as one of Transparent Language’s Word of the Day features.  This is based on the word “Alba,” which is what the Scots call their country in their own Celtic language, Gàidhlig.  Why not a word that sounds something like “Scotland” (like Italian “Scòzia” or French “Ecosse” or German “Schottland”)? …

Continue Reading