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Tag Archives: Gaelic

More Names for Dandelions in Irish (and in Welsh, too) [Ainmneacha Plandaí 3] Posted by on Sep 25, 2016

(le Roislin) Searbh … searbhán … caisearbhán.  That’s how the Irish language builds up its most basic term for dandelion (caisearbhán, say “kash-ar-uv-awn”) as we’ve seen in the most recent blogpost here, as well as a few earlier ones (naisc thíos). But wait there’s more!  In fact, four more ways to say “dandelion” in Irish…

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Five More Irish Names for Girls: Lil / Lile, Pt. 3 of ‘Names with a Flower Theme (Bláth / Bláithín / Bláthnaid, Daifne / Dafnae, Lil / Lile, Nóinín, Róisín / Róis / Róise, and, sort of, Mairéad / Maighréad)’ Posted by on May 6, 2016

(le Róislín) Continuing with our series of flower-themed names for girls (naisc thíos), let’s look now at the names “Lil” and “Lile (Líle),”  which may be equated with Lily or Lelia, or which may be pet forms of the names “Elizabeth” and/or “Cecilia.”  That latter derivation is from the late Irish names authority, Patrick Woulfe…

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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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How To Say ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ in Irish – Let Me Count The Ways Posted by on Sep 15, 2014

(le Róislín) Actually I can’t really count the number of ways. As I mentioned in a recent blog, there are thousands of ways to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in Irish. Remember, almost every verb in Irish can be used to formulate a yes- or no-answer. And the good news is … some of them are…

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Seamus Heaney and the Irish Language (Cuid a Trí as Trí) Posted by on Sep 22, 2013

(le Róislín) The previous two blogs in this “mionsraith” discussed Seamus Heaney’s use of Irish in writing poetry in English.  We discussed the Irish titles of some of his poems (e.g. “Aisling,” “Maighdean Mara“) and the implied Irish in “The Backward Look,” where he incorporates folk expressions for “snipe” into the body of a poem…

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You Just Call Out My Name (sa Tuiseal Gairmeach, of course, in Irish) (Pt. 1) Posted by on May 31, 2013

(le Róislín)   “Dia duit, a …” — hmm, what’s next, after “hello”?  We could ask the same question for “Slán agat, a (ainm duine),” when saying “goodbye”!   In most other languages I’ve studied, once you learn the words for “hello” and “goodbye,” putting people’s names into the phrase presents no particular challenge.  That is…

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Is Éan É! Is Eitleán É! Ní Hea — Dreige Atá Ann! (Sorry, Clark!) Posted by 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…

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