{"id":10027,"date":"2017-12-31T21:15:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-31T21:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=10027"},"modified":"2018-01-06T03:11:45","modified_gmt":"2018-01-06T03:11:45","slug":"irish-fill-in-the-blanks-for-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-dha-la-dheag-na-nollag-cuid-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/irish-fill-in-the-blanks-for-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-dha-la-dheag-na-nollag-cuid-part-2-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish ‘Fill in the Blanks’ for ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ (Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag) (cuid\/part 2 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

(t\u00e9acs Gaeilge le R\u00f3isl\u00edn, 2016; image: http:\/\/publicdomainvectors.org\/en\/free-clipart\/Lady-milking-a-cow\/36458.html<\/a>)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Now that we’ve practiced filling in the blanks for the first six lines of the “Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag” (The Twelve Days of Christmas), let’s try the last six.\u00a0 As before, each phrase has just the right number of blank spaces for the intended word, including a space for any punctuation marks needed (Leid! Leid!<\/strong>), so that will give you roinnt leideanna<\/strong>.\u00a0 The freagra\u00ed<\/strong>, as usual, are th\u00edos<\/strong>.\u00a0 For more leideanna<\/strong>, you can check the previous blogposts in which the song “Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag” was discussed.\u00a0 Heads up — there are s\u00e9 iarbhlagmh\u00edr d\u00e9ag (16) <\/strong>on this topic!<\/p>\n

Today’s post will only deal with the last six lines of the “Twelve Days.”\u00a0 The first six were done in the most recent blogpost (nasc th\u00edos, blagmh\u00edr 28 M\u00ed na Nollag 2017<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

As in the previous blogpost, the answer key will include a few pronunciation tips and a brief note explaining the structure involved for each answer.<\/p>\n

And once again, In the interests of space, I won’t try to write out each line fully, but just the key points.\u00a0 For the middle “chunk” of each line, I’ve seen at least two versions (thug mo leann\u00e1n dom<\/strong> OR thug mo r\u00fanach dom<\/strong>, and of course, the “dom<\/strong>” could be “dhom<\/strong>” or “domh<\/strong>,” depending on dialect — ach sin \u00e1bhar blag eile<\/strong>).\u00a0 So I won’t include the middle part, just the day (an seacht\u00fa, srl<\/strong>.) and the key word (like “ag sn\u00e1mh<\/strong>” or “ble\u00e1na\u00ed<\/strong>” from the previous post).<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. ar an seacht\u00fa l\u00e1 den Nollaig<\/strong> … seacht __ __ __ __ __ __ ag sn\u00e1mh<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. ar an ocht\u00fa l\u00e1 den Nollaig<\/strong> … ochtar __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ble\u00e1na\u00ed<\/strong> (or “ag ble\u00e1n<\/strong>“)<\/li>\n
  3. ar an nao\u00fa l\u00e1 den Nollaig<\/strong> … naon\u00far __ __ __ ag damhsa<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. ar an deichi\u00fa l\u00e1 den Nollaig<\/strong> … deichni\u00far __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ag l\u00e9imneach<\/strong> (or “ag l\u00e9im<\/strong>” or “ag l\u00e9imnigh<\/strong>“)<\/li>\n
  5. ar an aon\u00fa l\u00e1 d\u00e9ag den Nollaig<\/strong> … aon __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ dh\u00e9ag ag p\u00edobaireacht<\/strong> (or just “ag seinm<\/strong>,” which is shorter and easier to sing)<\/li>\n
  6. ar an dara l\u00e1 d\u00e9ag den Nollaig<\/strong> … dh\u00e1r\u00e9ag __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ag drumad\u00f3ireacht<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    T\u00e1 s\u00fail agam gur bhain t\u00fa sult as sin!\u00a0 SGF\u00a0 — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Freagra\u00ed<\/strong><\/p>\n

    7..seacht n-eala ag sn\u00e1mh<\/strong>, For “swan,” “eala<\/strong>” is the singular form, which is usually used after numbers in Irish, as we’ve discussed before.\u00a0 The plural is “eala\u00ed<\/strong>,” but that’s not used here.\u00a0 The “n-” is because we have the process of “ur\u00fa<\/strong>” (eclipsis), which “covers” the original vowel sound with an “n-.”\u00a0 The fleisc\u00edn<\/strong> (hyphen) shows that the “n” is not part of the original word.<\/p>\n

    8.. ochtar cail\u00edn\u00ed ble\u00e1na\u00ed<\/strong> (or “ag ble\u00e1n<\/strong>“) There are various interpretations of what should come after the personal numbers.\u00a0 Personal numbers are used for counting people, e.g. “beirt<\/strong>” (two people), tri\u00far<\/strong> (three people), etc.\u00a0 But I like to follow the established pattern of “beirt mhac<\/strong>” (two sons) and “tri\u00far ban<\/strong>” (three women), which both use the genitive plural after the personal number.\u00a0 So, ochtar cail\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong> (not just “ocht<\/strong>” and not just “cail\u00edn<\/strong>,” at least in my experience). \u00a0It’s a bit like saying “an octet of girls.”\u00a0 As far as I can tell, Irish doesn’t have a one-word term for milkmaid, and there’s nothing particularly “maid” about it — it’s just “girl milking” or “girl of milking,” if you take it literally.<\/p>\n

    9.. naon\u00far ban ag damhsa<\/strong>.\u00a0 Remember: “ban<\/strong>” means “of women,” so this phrase is close to saying “a nonet of women,” although the English word “nonet” is mostly limited to describing musical groups.\u00a0 Pronunciation: don’t be misled by the English word “ban” — the Irish one rhymes with, hmm, well, “con” (as in “con artist”), I guess “Flin-Flon” (the town in Manitoba), Tron<\/em> (the movie), and Autobahn.<\/p>\n

    10.. deichni\u00far tiarna\u00ed ag l\u00e9imneach<\/strong> \u00a0(or “ag l\u00e9im<\/strong>” or “ag l\u00e9imnigh<\/strong>“).\u00a0 Pretty straightforward, since “tiarna\u00ed<\/strong>” (lords) and tiarna\u00ed<\/strong>” (of lords) are spelled the same.\u00a0 So it’s like saying a “dectet of lords,” not that I’ve ever really used the word “dectet” in real life.\u00a0 Sounds like it could be fun for an Enid Blyton parody though.\u00a0 Enid Blyton (1897-1968) gave us the “Famous Five” and the “Secret Seven.”\u00a0 How about the “Decadent Dectet”?\u00a0 That would be a nice parallel to the new spoof Ladybird Books, like The Ladybird Book of Red Tape<\/em> or The Ladybird Book of the Zombie Apocalypse<\/em> (marketed to adults, of course). \u00a0Actually, I grew up loving the adventurous characters in Enid Blyton’s books, but yeah, I have to admit they were pretty formulaic.\u00a0 And I’d have to say the same about Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, the Happy Hollisters, the Bobbsey Twins, and even, delving into the older syndicated series, Frank Merriwell, the Motor Maids (whose series lasted from 1911 to 1914), and virtually anything by Horatio Alger.<\/p>\n

    Do I digress, well, yes, I guess, but all in the name of teaching vocabulary.\u00a0 Remember it was translating “deichni\u00far<\/strong>” that started all that.\u00a0 “Dectet,” indeed! \u00a0Oh, yeah, “dectet” is really mostly for musicians, but for “duo” and “trio, at least, the musical terms are pretty well generalized in English (Dynamic Duo, the Ghostly Trio, which was Casper et al., or the Trio from Buffy).\u00a0 I feel like there should be some non-musical quartet out there, but I can’t think of anything except the Fantastic Four and the Fearsome Foursome.\u00a0 And, of course, many groups of four are described<\/em> as “quartets,” like the animated characters in Pig Goat Banana Cricket,<\/em> but I was trying to think of a non-musical foursome that’s actually called<\/em> a quartet.\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 Suffice it to say that Irish has special words for groups of people from two to ten and for groups of twelve (but not eleven).\u00a0 Furthermore, it has a whole separate set of words for groups of musicians, from “d\u00edsreach<\/strong>” to “naoir\u00e9ad<\/strong>” but I haven’t found dectet, hendectet, or duodecet, yet.<\/p>\n

    11.. aon ph\u00edobaire dh\u00e9ag ag p\u00edobaireacht<\/strong> (or just “ag seinm<\/strong>,” which is shorter and easier to sing).\u00a0 As just mentioned in the answer to no. 10, there’s no special word in Irish for groups of eleven people, so no “hendectets” (or “undectets”), AFAIK.\u00a0 So we can just say that we start with “aon<\/strong>” (one), insert the type of person, leniting it where possible (p\u00edobaire<\/strong> becomes ph\u00edobaire<\/strong>), keeping it singular, and, if the noun ends in a vowel, add “dh\u00e9ag<\/strong>” or if the noun ends in a consonant, add “d\u00e9ag<\/strong>” (aon mh\u00fainteoir d\u00e9ag<\/strong>).\u00a0 If it’s raining and Tuesday, we start all over … nah, just “ag magadh<\/strong>” there.\u00a0 But sometimes Irish language rules do seem incredibly complicated, with some of the steps depending on how the word involved happens to be spelled (what initial consonant, what final consonant, etc.).<\/p>\n

    12.. dh\u00e1r\u00e9ag drumad\u00f3ir\u00ed ag drumad\u00f3ireacht<\/strong>.\u00a0 “Dh\u00e1r\u00e9ag<\/strong>” is the special word for “12 people” in Irish and is derived from “dh\u00e1<\/strong>” +\u00a0 “fhear<\/strong>” + dh\u00e9ag<\/strong>.”\u00a0 “Drumad\u00f3i<\/strong>r” is pretty self-explanatory, “druma<\/strong>” plus and “agent” or “occupational” suffix (-\u00f3ir<\/strong>).\u00a0 Pronunciation: remember that “drum-<\/strong>” in Irish isn’t quite like the English “drum.”\u00a0 The vowel “u” in the Irish is more like the English “put” while in English, “drum” and “to putt” have the same vowel sound (remember, in English, “put” and “putt” sound different).\u00a0 I mo chuid B\u00e9arlasa, ar a laghad.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Bhuel,<\/strong> if you’ve made it this far, comhghairdeas<\/strong>, and I hope you enjoyed it!<\/p>\n

    Webliography (naisc don amhr\u00e1n “Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag”:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2010: \u00a0<\/strong>Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/a>(The Twelve Days of Christmas)<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0Posted on 25. Dec, 2010<\/p>\n

    2010: \u00a0Cearca Francacha agus Lonta Dubha (Cuid a D\u00f3 don tSraith: Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag)<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Posted on 29. Dec, 2010<\/p>\n

    2010: \u201c\u00d3r,\u201d \u201c\u00d3ir\u201d or \u201c\u00d3rga\u201d? \u201cF\u00e1inne\u201d or \u201c\u00c9an\u201d? \u00c9an?! (Cuid a Tr\u00ed: Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag)<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Posted on 31. Dec, 2010<\/p>\n

    2011: G\u00e9anna agus Eala\u00ed (Cuid a Ceathair: Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag)<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Posted on 04. Jan, 2011<\/p>\n

    2011: Na hUimhreacha Pearsanta i nGaeilge\u00a0<\/em><\/a>(Irish Personal Numbers and<\/em>\u00a0Cuid a C\u00faig<\/em>\u00a0or the Last Installment of\u00a0<\/em>Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag<\/em>)<\/em><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Posted on 06. Jan, 2011<\/p>\n

    2012: B<\/u><\/strong><\/em>unuimhreacha, Orduimhreacha is Maoluimhreacha \u2014 A Thiarcais!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/a>(Oh my!)<\/em><\/a>\u00a0Posted on 25. Dec, 2012<\/p>\n

    2013:\u00a0Speaking of Pigeons (Col\u00fair)<\/a><\/strong>Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Dec 14, 2013 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/p>\n

    2013: (C\u00e9 Mh\u00e9ad Patraisc? C\u00e9 Mh\u00e9ad Drumad\u00f3ir? (or \u201912 L\u00e1 na Nollag\u2019 Redux and an Irish Counting Lesson to boot)<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Posted on 18. Dec, 2013 by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/p>\n

    2015:\u00a0The Irish Twelve Days of Christmas Redux Redux with a Blogliography of Other Blogs on the Song<\/a><\/strong> Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Dec 25, 2015 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/p>\n

    2016:\u00a0 C\u00e9n s\u00f3rt \u00e9in? C\u00e9n s\u00f3rt crainn? \u2014 Learning Irish from the Christmas Carol \u2018Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag\u2019 (12 Days of Christmas)<\/a><\/strong>Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Dec 20, 2016 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/p>\n

    Ar an 2\u00fa agus\u00a0 an 3\u00fa l\u00e1 den Nollaig \u2013 dh\u00e1 fhear\u00e1n, tr\u00ed chearc fhrancacha (2 turtledoves, 3 French hens, for the 2nd and 3rd days of Christmas)<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Posted by r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a> on Dec 24, 2016<\/p>\n

    Ar an 4\u00fa, an 5\u00fa, an 6\u00fa agus an 7\u00fa l\u00e1 den Nollaig (birds, rings, and poultry for the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th days of Christmas) Cuid\/Part 1\/2<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Posted by r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a> on Dec 27, 2016<\/p>\n

    Ar\u00a0<\/em>an 4\u00fa, an 5\u00fa, an 6\u00fa agus an 7\u00fa l\u00e1 den Nollaig (birds, rings, and poultry for the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th days of Christmas) Cuid \/ Part 2: Some Pronunciation Tips<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Posted by r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a> on Dec 29, 2016<\/p>\n

    Ar an 4\u00fa, an 5\u00fa, an 6\u00fa agus an 7\u00fa l\u00e1 den Nollaig (birds, rings, and poultry for the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th days of Christmas) Cuid \/ Part 3\/3: Whatcha sayin\u2019, a gh\u00e9anna?<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Posted by r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a> on Dec 31, 2016<\/p>\n

    2017: Ar an 8-12\u00fa L\u00e1 den Amhr\u00e1n \u2018Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag\u2019 (milkmaids, musicians, and lords and ladies for the 8-12th days of Christmas)<\/a> <\/em><\/strong>Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Jan 6, 2017 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/p>\n

    Irish \u2018Fill in the Blanks\u2019 for \u2018The Twelve Days of Christmas\u2019 (Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag) (cuid\/part 1 of 2)<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Dec 28, 2017 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

    (le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Now that we’ve practiced filling in the blanks for the first six lines of the “Dh\u00e1 L\u00e1 Dh\u00e9ag na Nollag” (The Twelve Days of Christmas), let’s try the last six.\u00a0 As before, each phrase has just the right number of blank spaces for the intended word, including a space for any punctuation marks…<\/p>\n

    Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":10030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[9031,508680,508681,4933,255485,5802,254984,6273,6274,6323,6731,508682],"class_list":["post-10027","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-9031","tag-aon-x-deag","tag-aon-x-dheag","tag-deichniur","tag-dhareag","tag-la","tag-naonur","tag-nollag","tag-nollaig","tag-ochtar","tag-seachtar","tag-zo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10027"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10037,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10027\/revisions\/10037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}