Tag Archives: English
How to Say ‘Happy New Year’ in Irish and How to Pronounce the Consonant Cluster “thbhl” Posted by róislín on Dec 31, 2014
(le Róislín) Athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise duit. Happy New Year to you. Athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise daoibh. Happy New Year to you (plural). So how do we pronounce that, what does it literally mean, why are the actual words “happy” and “new” not in the phrase, and where does a consonant…
The Irish word for ‘October’ and other words related to ‘fómhar’ and ‘fómhair’ Posted by róislín on Oct 6, 2014
(le Róislín) In some previous blogs (naisc thíos), we’ve looked at the names of the months (míonna) and seasons (séasúir) in Irish, including a discussion specifically of “September” and “October.” So let’s try a little mixing and matching for review of “September,” “October,” and the Fall or Autumn season. Given the word “fómhar” and its…
Beagán Eile de Bhéarla na hAstráile (A Little More Aussie English, translated into Irish) Posted by róislín on May 28, 2014
(le Róislín) Given our recent “turas focal go dtí an Astráil,” I thought it would be interesting to add a few more basics, going beyond just the “-ie” ending ones we just looked at, like “barbie” and “tallie” (nasc thíos). These will include the word “Australia” itself and the Irish versions of some iconic Aussie…
Droichead na Cónaidhme nó ‘Réise na mBeann Glas’ (Mar a Dúradh) Posted by róislín on Feb 22, 2014
(le Róislín) I couldn’t resist spending a little more time with bridges (droichid) since Canada’s Confederation Bridge has such a clever nickname, as bestowed by …, hmm, which Irish person? (freagra thíos). Just a quick review of the phrase “Droichead na Cónaidhme,” before we get to the nickname: droichead [DRIH-hud], bridge na [nuh], here it…
Ag Caint faoi Thuí agus faoi Thuíodóireacht (Speaking of Thatching) Posted by róislín on Apr 14, 2013
(le Róislín) Before moving away from tuíodóireacht to other topics, I thought it would be interesting to look at the tools used by a tuíodóir, and also to look briefly at the use of díonta tuí outside of Ireland and Britain. You might have just noticed the phrase “díonta tuí” (thatched roofs). And you might…
Is Éan É! Is Eitleán É! Ní Hea — Dreige Atá Ann! (Sorry, Clark!) Posted by róislín on Feb 16, 2013
(le Róislín) Or should that be “dreigít“? Or “dreigeoideach“? Bhuel, all three really, I guess, depending on what stage of the event you’re talking about. I thought I had learned all that téarmaíocht réalteolaíoch, at least the buntéarmaí, years ago, but when the news reports start coming in about the Chelyabinsk event, I realized I…
Cleamairí ‘gus Geamairí ‘gus Geocaigh, a Thiarcais! Posted by róislín on Jan 1, 2012
(le Róislín) There are three possible words for mummers in the title of this blog, cleamairí, geamairí, and geocaigh. There’s actually at least one more we could add, “cleathaire,” but that would break the tripartite catchiness of the phrase! (for more on “tripartite catchiness,” please see the note below). In this blog, we’ll look at…