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Tag Archives: Fionn

Speaking of ‘Féasóga’ — What Color Is His ‘Féasóg’ in Irish? Posted by on Jun 12, 2015

(le Róislín) Lately we’ve been talking a lot about dath gruaige in Irish, including the following: rua, fionnrua, órdhonn, donn, dubh, fionn, liath, and even, as in bréagfholt Phyllis Diller, gorm). We also practiced saying someone “has” a certain color hair in Irish.  Remember, to say the person “has” that color hair, we don’t use…

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When Is ‘Strawberry Blonde’ Not ‘Strawberry’?  When It’s ‘Fionnrua’ (An Introduction to Hair Color in Irish) Posted by on May 31, 2015

(le Róislín)   In the last blog post, we looked at the issue of redhead emojis, or the lack thereof.  In the past, when we just had simple hand-typed emoticons or basic yellow smileys, hair color wasn’t so much of an issue.  But now that we have a wide variety of choices for hair color and…

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Ó ‘Uncail Oscar’ go garmhac Fhionn Mhic Cumhaill: The Irish Roots of the Name ‘Oscar’ Posted by on Feb 25, 2015

(le Róislín) Hmm, I was going to continue writing about “bombogenesis” and the guairneáin associated with aimsir gheimhriúil, but the timely topic of the Oscars was too tempting!  The last blog (nasc thíos) addressed that subject, and we’ll return to it in another blog or two. So, “Oscar” was the grandson of Fionn Mac Cumhaill and…

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How to say ‘How are you?” in Irish — not quite 100 ways but maybe 50-ish.  And which are the top 5(-ish)? Posted by on Jan 4, 2015

(le Róislín) Some of you may have seen the recent article “Did you know there are 100 ways to say ‘How are you?’ as Gaeilge?” in The Daily Edge, based on a dialect map posted on Twitter (naisc thíos).  As comments to the Daily Edge article pointed out, about half of the examples are from Scotland…

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Falling Leaves, Falling in Love: The Verb “to fall” in Irish Posted by on Oct 3, 2011

(le Róislín) Thit a lán duilleoga sa ghairdín (sa chlós) agus anois tá orm iad a rácáil. Thit Seán i ngrá le Sinéad. Notice anything interesting about those sentences?  For an English-speaker, I think it seems fairly normal to expect that in Irish one could say “many leaves fell” or “Seán fell in love” using…

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What’s the “Tuiseal” of “an Tuiseal Ginideach” Anyway? Posted by on Apr 5, 2011

(le Róislín) By now, you’ve probably heard the term “tuiseal” quite a bit in discussing Irish nouns.  It’s generally translated as “case” as in “an tuiseal gairmeach” (“a Shinéad” for “Sinéad” in the “vocative” case) or as in “an tuiseal ginideach” (“cóta Sheáin” for “John’s coat” in the “genitive” case), etc. Of course, this isn’t…

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Beagáinín Eile faoi Théarmaí Vailintín: “Macushla” Mar Ainm Bó Posted by on Feb 23, 2011

(le Róislín) CGL, Hollywood atá i gceist anseo.  GRMA do Christín as an tagairt (reference) don bhó “Macushla” a sheoladh isteach.  Tá a nóta sna nótaí tráchta (comments) don bhlag seo, 2/17/11 “Níos Mó Téarmaí Vailintín”.    Cuirfidh mé Gaeilge ar ainm an scannáin ina bhfuil “Macushla” in “bónaisteoir tacaíochta” agus b’fhéidir go n-aithneoidh sibhse…

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