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Tag Archives: bird

Dhá fhocal shuimiúla eile ón leagan Gaeilge den “Star-Spangled Banner” Posted by on Jul 8, 2015

(le Róislín) So far, we’ve looked a little closer at the Irish word for “spangle” and at when “spéir” (sky) becomes “spéartha” (skies), based on ”Ó Abair An Léir Dhuit” (the Irish version of “The Star-Spangled Banner”).  Before we leave the topic for this year, let’s take a closer look at a couple more “focail…

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Agus Muid sna Fritíortha (While We’re in the Antipodes) Posted by on May 31, 2014

(le Róislín) Cíobhaí (an t-éan) (nasc ag bun an leathanaigh)    While we’re on an antipodal tear (naisc thíos), we might as well look at An Nua-Shéalainn also.  As with An Astráil, first the place name itself, then a few ki-words (úúps – deacair sin a sheachaint!). So, first, the country name.  Before we look…

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Speaking of Pigeons (Colúir) Posted by on Dec 14, 2013

(le Róislín) I’ll leave journalists Sean Dunne (IrishCentral) and Liz Alderman (New York Times) to “squabble” over the accuracy of the recent reference in the New York Times to “pigeon-eating” in Ireland.  But it does seem to me like a good opportunity to explore the related Irish vocabulary (naisc do na hailt thíos).  So we’ll…

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How To Say ‘Tweet’ and ‘Twitter’ in Irish Posted by on Sep 30, 2013

(le Róislín) Remember when “tweets” and “twittering” mostly referred to birds, especially the “spideog” or the “smólach imirce“?  Or perhaps the sound of “caint eachtardhomhandach” (the speech of extra-terrestrials) as in H. G. Wells’ insect-like Selenites?  You might recall that they made “a slight elusive twittering,” as observed by Messrs. Bedford and Cavor (The First…

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The Case of the Missing ‘P’ or, Ó ‘Tharmachan’ (Irish) go ‘Ptarmigan’ (English) Posted by on Jun 23, 2013

(le Róislín) In the last blog, we looked at a few of the more unusually spelled words in the Irish language (aghaidh, bratach/bhratach, buachar/bhuachair lámh/láimhe, Saoirse/Shaoirse and saoirse/shaoirse, sráid/tsráid).  Not that these are overly long or unusual words in Irish.  They’re mostly very basic vocabulary, except perhaps for “buachar” (cow-dung) which is no doubt ordinary…

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