Tag Archives: bior
Speaking of Water-Lilies, whether you know them as bual-lilí, bior-rósanna, duilleoga báite, or póicíní locha Posted by róislín on Jun 30, 2019
(le Róislín) Our most recent post showed some amazingly large water-lilies and looked at the terminology for them. Researching that, I also found the amazing illustration above. Who could resist turning this into a teachable moment – how to say “girl,” “standing,” and “on a water-lily” in Irish? For the second part of today’s blog, we’ll…
How to say ‘water-lily’ in Irish, without using the word ‘uisce’ (water) Posted by róislín on Jun 17, 2019
(le Róislín) Intriguingly, Irish has quite a few words for water-lily. For water-lilies in general, we have bual-lile, bior-rós, duilleog bháite, and póicín locha. More specifically, for distinct types, we have bacán bán or duilleog bháite bhán, for the white, and cabhán abhann, duilleog bháite bhuí, and liach-loghar, for the yellow. With compound words like…
More Names for Dandelions in Irish (and in Welsh, too) [Ainmneacha Plandaí 3] Posted by róislín on Sep 25, 2016
(le Roislin) Searbh … searbhán … caisearbhán. That’s how the Irish language builds up its most basic term for dandelion (caisearbhán, say “kash-ar-uv-awn”) as we’ve seen in the most recent blogpost here, as well as a few earlier ones (naisc thíos). But wait there’s more! In fact, four more ways to say “dandelion” in Irish…
An Caisearbhán (The Dandelion), Cuid 2: Other Names for ‘Dandelion’ in Irish Posted by róislín on May 27, 2016
(le Róislín) Last time we looked at the word most typically taught for “dandelion” (caisearbhán [kah-SHAR-uh-vawn]) and checked out its interesting etymology (cos, foot, or maybe gas, stem + searbh, bitter + -án). Today we’ll look at the different ways this word can be used in sentences or phrases, and then we’ll move on to…
Irish “From Head to Toe” but without the “Head” (ceann) or the “Toe” (méar coise)! Posted by róislín on Sep 13, 2009
(le Róislín) It’s interesting how languages can have similar idioms but with slightly different vocabulary. In Irish there are two ways to express the idea of “from head to toe,” but neither of them uses the word “head” or the word “toe.” Both offer some useful vocabulary, although admittedly, none of these keywords has quite…