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Tag Archives: máthar

When Is A ‘Máthair” Not A ‘Mother’ (literally, that is) Posted by on May 7, 2013

 (le Róislín) No, this blog isn’t going to be about toircheas fireann (à la Trip Tucker and the Xyrillians in Star Trek: Enterprise, The Unexpected).  Nor will it be about capaill mhara or snáthaidí mara or the possibilities of toirchis eachtópacha i bhfir as postulated in our homeworld or as speculated about i bhficsean eolaíoch…

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“Comharsa,” “Monarcha,” “Pearsa”: An Cúigiú Díochlaonadh Arís Posted by on Jun 10, 2011

(le Róislín) We’ve recently seen several patterns for 5th-declension nouns in Irish. One small group, which contains some very important kinship terms, looks like this: athair (father), athar, aithreacha máthair (mother), máthar, máithreacha Another group sometimes also has the “-air” ending but works slightly differently when you create the possessive form (adding “-ach”) and includes…

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An Iarmhír “-ach” sa Chúigiú Díochlaonadh: Beoir (Beer) vs. Beorach (of Beer), srl. Posted by on Jun 3, 2011

(le Róislín) We’ve recently seen one pattern for the 5th category of Irish nouns (an cúigiú díochlaonadh), which involved dropping the “i” of words like máthair, athair, deartháir, and bráthair. As you may recall, that change results in phrases like the following (aistriúcháin thíos): a) gach mac máthar b) in ainm an Athar c) carr…

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Lá na Máithreacha vs. Lá na Máthar (“Day of the Mothers” or “of the Mother”)? Posted by on May 10, 2009

(le Róislín) I’ve been following this debate in Irish circles for a good 10 or so years now, probably since the first time I wrote on the topic for my Irish language column for children in the Philadelphia-based Irish Edition newspaper (www.irishedition.com).  Are we celebrating one mother or all mothers?  I should probably qualify that to say…

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