Tag Archives: dubh
What Color Hair Do They Have? Talking about ‘Dath Gruaige’ in Irish Posted by róislín on Jun 5, 2015
(le Róislín) Recently we’ve been looking at “dath gruaige” (hair color) in Irish, emphasizing “fionnrua” (“strawberry” or “Venetian” blond) and, because of the emoji issue, “rua” (red). We also practiced some of the other typical colors: donn, dubh, and liath. With phrases like “fear donn” or “bean fhionnrua” [ban IN-ROO-uh, silent “fh”], we’re using the…
Gnáthghiorrúcháin i nGaeilge: Everyday Abbreviations in Irish (not “textese”) Posted by róislín on Apr 11, 2015
(le Róislín) Long before we started playing with symbols and phrases like “a#” (for “a thaiscidh,” pronounced “HASH-kee, which means “darling” in Irish), we were using giorrúcháin for their most basic purpose, to save space on paper and time in writing or typing. Here are a few quite straightforward ones, which you will likely encounter…
Don’t Be Silent, Even If It Was The Cat: A Pronunciation Round-up for the Irish Black Cat Blogs Posted by róislín on Nov 5, 2014
(le Róislín) Even some seemingly simple Irish words may benefit from a few pronunciation tips, so this blog will look at some of the terms that come up as we go through the forms of the phrases “an cat” and “an cat dubh” in Irish, as discussed in some previous blogs (naisc thíos). First, let’s…
Cé mhéad “Shades of Gray” (Grey … Liath … Léith … de Grae, srl.)? Posted by róislín on Jul 22, 2014
(le Róislín) I was recently reminded of a rather infamous episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, entitled “Shades of Gray.” B’fhéidir gur cuimhin leat é. That got me thinking of other uses of the phrase, “Shades of Gray (Grey),” even aside from the current tie-in by E. L. James. I’ve been pondering how to…
Bígí Ciúin! Ba é an cat é! Or Should That Be “Ba Iad Na Deich gCat Dhubha Iad”? Posted by róislín on Oct 15, 2012
(le Róislín) Just when you may have thought there couldn’t possibly be any more rialacha for comhaireamh in Irish, there is at least one more point to be addressed — the use of adjectives with the nouns being counted (e.g. two big dogs, five small cats). Given the season, let’s count black cats. As you’ll…
Na Míonna, Na Mìosan, Ny Meeghyn (in Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx), Cuid 4 as 4 Posted by róislín on Sep 27, 2012
(le Róislín) Gotta love the etymology–each one of these months could be a blog in and of itself! But for now, I’ll post this as a summary chart, with some notes for each month below. The Irish is still on the far left, the Scottish Gaelic next, the English meaning next, and finally related words…
Deir an Dúmheidic (Black Medick): “Ba mhaith liomsa a bheith i m’iomaitheoir freisin!” Posted by róislín on Mar 13, 2012
(le Róislín) In the last blog (blogs.transparent.com/irish/an-tseamrog-the-shamrock/), I noted that there were at least eight contenders for the title of “shamrock,” including seamsóg (wood-sorrel) and various types of seamair (clover). The blog I cited (www.naturalistsalmanac.com/0317stpat.html) mentioned there being eight possibilities, but only elaborated on six (five types of clover and the wood-sorrel). So what are the other…