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Tag Archives: definite article

Uachtarán: The Irish Word for “President” (uachtar, “upper portion, cream” + -án, a suffix) Posted by on Oct 28, 2012

(le Róislín) I guess that “teideal an bhlag seo” pretty much explains the Irish word for president, “uachtarán” [OO-ukh-tar-awn].  “Uachtar” [OO-ukh-tar] actually means “upper portion,” widely used today to mean “cream” (as in “uachtar reoite,” ice-cream).  That is, of course a throwback to the days before homaiginiú, when the cream rose to the top of…

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Laethanta na Seachtaine i bhFrásaí le “Dé” (Days of the Week, with Pronunciation, in “Dé” Phrases) Posted by on Sep 27, 2011

(le Róislín) As alluded to in the previous blog, there are two main ways to refer to the days of the week in Irish.  One is when the day is the subject of the sentence, as in “Inniu an Luan” (Today is Monday).  The other form is preceded by the word “Dé” instead of the…

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Laethanta na Seachtaine (Days of the Week, in Irish, with pronunciation) Posted by on Sep 24, 2011

(le Róislín) And one more féilire-related topic: laethanta na seachtaine.  Which could also be called “laethe na seachtaine.”  Both plural forms of “lá” are widely used, “laethanta” and “laethe.” You’ve already noticed the use of “an tuiseal ginideach” in this phrase, right?  That accounts for the “-e” ending to the word “seachtain.”  Since we’re saying…

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Logainmneacha le “an” agus Guta (a, e, i, o, u): An Afraic, An Aird Mhóir, srl. Posted by on Jul 30, 2011

(le Róislín) The last major segment of this logainmneacha series will deal with place names that have the definite article “an” and where the actual place names starts with a vowel.  So far, for a quick review, we’ve seen samplaí of the various other combinations, like: i (ins) + an + consan: An Ghearmáin, sa…

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Logainmneacha a Thosaíonn le Gutaí (a, e, i, o, u) agus “in” Posted by on Jul 19, 2011

(le Róislín) Our last blog dealt with places names like Ceanada and Cúba, which take “urú,” and additional place names like Meicsiceo or Sasana, which are not subject to “urú” because of the letters they happen to start with.  As you may recall, the “urú” examples work like this: Tá sé ina chónaí i gCeanada. …

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Logainmneacha Eile: Urú agus Ainmneacha gan “An” Posted by on Jul 15, 2011

(le Róislín) Here are some more possibilities for saying where you live, according to country, to follow up on the flurry of interest after the recent “ghost-town” blog (an blag faoin scáilbhaile).  This blog will just deal with ainmneacha tíortha that don’t include the definite article, like Ceanada, Meicsiceo, Sasana, Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá.  Irish, unlike…

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Cineálacha Stoirmeacha (Kinds of Storms) Posted by on Sep 3, 2010

Last blog we discussed hairicíní, for which the Irish word is an adaptation of either the Carib for “God of Evil” or the name of a Mayan storm god, Hurakan – the sources for this don’t agree on which.  Either way, the word went through a couple of filters before reaching Irish, namely Spanish “huracán”…

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