Irish Language Blog
Menu
Search

Tag Archives: naomhluan

St. Bridget and St. Valentine in Irish (1 Feabhra agus 14 Feabhra) Posted by on Jan 31, 2015

(le Róislín)   While, yes, there is at least one saint for every day of the year, February is remarkable in celebrating two saints quite prominently.  This is especially true in Ireland. February 1st is celebrated as “Lá Fhéile Bríde” in Ireland, and to some extent, in other Celtic areas or diasporas.  Anciently, it was…

Continue Reading

Luan Glas (or should it be ‘Luan Uaine’?): Green Monday Posted by on Dec 8, 2014

(le Róislín) I recently saw an article from WHEC (nasc thíos) that happened to sort of sum up my view on “coined shopping days.”  It starts out, “Just when you thought all the coined shopping days were over, today is Green Monday.”  The article stops just short of being a jeremiad about the commercialization of…

Continue Reading

Beirt Naomh Mhí na Feabhra: Naomh Bríd agus San Vailintín Posted by on Feb 3, 2014

(le Róislín) Irish has two words for “saint.”  I wonder if any other language is similar in this regard, but for now, we’ll just look at the two Irish words, “naomh” and “san.”  For most purposes, they are not interchangeable.  February celebrates both “Naomh Bríd” and “San Vailintín,” so let’s look at why they have…

Continue Reading

Who Says Irish Doesn’t Have Many Cognates with English? (Cuid a Trí/Pt. 3: Grian, Gealach, Sol, Luan) Posted by on Apr 30, 2013

 (le Róislín) Continuing the quest for cognates (naisc thíos), let’s look at another pair of words, sun and moon, each of which typically has many similar-looking cousins throughout the Indo-European language family.  Given that the Irish word for sun is “grian” and the Irish for “moon” is “gealach,” it looks like we have a bit…

Continue Reading