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Tag Archives: water

How to say ‘water-lily’ in Irish, without using the word ‘uisce’ (water) Posted by on Jun 17, 2019

(le Róislín) Intriguingly, Irish has quite a few words for water-lily.  For water-lilies in general, we have bual-lile, bior-rós, duilleog bháite, and póicín locha.  More specifically, for distinct types, we have bacán bán or duilleog bháite bhán, for the white, and cabhán abhann, duilleog bháite bhuí, and liach-loghar, for the yellow. With compound words like…

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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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Cúig Fhrása (Béarla) Gan Mhaith (De Réir Fhionntán Uí Thuathail aka Fintan O’Toole) (Cuid 2/4) Posted by on Jan 8, 2012

(le Róislín) Remember what gátar, déine, and tarrtháil have in common?   Hmmm, the first two have related meanings and are nearly interchangeable (beart gátair, austerity measure; cáinaisnéis déine, austerity budget) but “tarrtháil” is completely different in function as well as meaning.  It’s  an ainmfhocal briathartha, not a gnáthainmfhocal (ordinary noun).  We could also note that…

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