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Tag Archives: hound

Cineálacha eolaithe (síceolaí agus bitheolaí, mar shampla … agus mar nuafhocal–*Pottereolaí) Posted by on Jul 31, 2014

(le Róislín) Ó “agraimeitéareolaí” go “zó-eolaíocht” tá a lán téarmaí leis na foircinn “-eolaí” agus “-eolaíocht” sa Ghaeilge.  To back up, just as English has many “-ologists” and “-ologies,” Irish has many words based on “eolaí” (scientist) and “eolaíocht” (science), all related to an even more basic word, “eolas.”  You might recognize “eolas” from phrases…

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Ascaill, Axilla, Armpit — Who Says Irish Doesn’t Have Many Cognates with English? (Cuid a hAon/Pt. 1) Posted by on Apr 24, 2013

(le Róislín) Often students in my ranganna Gaeilge will say that one of the reasons that Irish seems hard is that words seem very unfamiliar, unrelated to other languages they know, and there’s very little to jog one’s memory.  A basic example would be “madra” for “dog.”  It’s short and straightforward enough in and of…

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Ainmhithe Eile (ón Iolra go dtí an tUatha, from Plural to Singular) Posted by on Sep 12, 2012

(le Róislín) In the last blog, we created a chart with the names of various types of ceathairchosaigh chrúbacha (ungulate quadrupeds), going from the plural form to the singular form.  Why an t-iolra go dtí an t-uatha?  Just for a change of pace, is dócha.  So often we see an fhoirm uatha first, and then…

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Saol an Mhadaidh Bháin — The (Good) Life of the White Dog Posted by on May 8, 2012

(le Róislín) Last blog we looked at the expression “ar muin (ar dhroim) na muice” (being “on the pig’s back,” i.e. well off).   The blog before that also referred to several other examples of figurative speech, including “madraí  bána.”  As with the ‘dromanna muc” (or “muiní muc”), that general reference to “madraí bána” was in…

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Pronunciation tips for Mamó, Móraí, and Daideo (Grandma/Granny and Grandpa) Posted by on Jun 5, 2009

 (le Róislín) There have been numerous inquiries on how to pronounce these words, since the previous blogpost on this topic came out (nasc thíos), so here are some tips: To pronounce Mamó: the final vowel is long, so it gets extra emphasis: mam-OH To pronounce Móraí: the emphasis is on the first syllable, which sounds like…

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