{"id":10543,"date":"2018-05-13T15:11:19","date_gmt":"2018-05-13T15:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=10543"},"modified":"2018-06-01T18:59:59","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T18:59:59","slug":"which-irish-speaker-visited-oirthear-na-gearmaine-east-germany-in-1960-cuid-pt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/which-irish-speaker-visited-oirthear-na-gearmaine-east-germany-in-1960-cuid-pt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Irish Speaker Visited ‘Oirthear na Gearm\u00e1ine’ (East Germany) in 1960? (cuid\/pt. 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>

map: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/East_Germany#\/media\/File:Soviet_Sector_Germany.png<\/a>, cropped, public domain; Lip\u00e9id agus t\u00e9acs Gaeilge le R\u00f3isl\u00edn, 2018<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

As you may recall, the most recent blogpost was about the Irishman (an t\u00c9ireannach) who went to East Germany (Oirthear na Gearm\u00e1ine) in the year 1960, a time when very few tourists (turas\u00f3ir\u00ed) were visiting the country (an t\u00edr).\u00a0 The “\u00c9ireannach” in question was Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Maoilbhr\u00edde, who wrote an article in Irish about his experience (“\u00c9ireannach in Oirthear na Gearm\u00e1ine”).\u00a0 The article (an t-alt) was published in the journal Comhar<\/em> in 1961 (naisc th\u00edos, don alt agus don iarbhlagmh\u00edr).<\/p>\n

As mentioned previously, the sketchy biographical picture that I have been able to put together for him is that he was a schoolteacher in England, probably Birmingham or the vicinity, that he had an M.A. degree, and that he was interested in the relationship between Ireland, England, and the rest of Europe, including the parts of Europe that were “ar an taobh thall den Ch\u00fairt\u00edn Iarainn<\/strong>,” to use his own phrase.\u00a0 Another Irish speaker with the surname (sloinne) “\u00d3 Maoilbhr\u00edde” also wrote for Comhar<\/em> at around the same time, and also on the topic of teaching school in England, so it seems quite likely that they were brothers.<\/p>\n

I don’t have a birth date for \u00d3 Maoilbhr\u00edde, but since his first article for Comhar was published in 1946, I’m going to estimate around 1920.\u00a0 As I requested in the previous blogpost (iarbhlagmh\u00edr), if anyone knows any further details about this man’s life, it would be fascinating to find out.\u00a0 Iarmhic l\u00e9inn ar bith (Any former students)?\u00a0 P\u00e1ist\u00ed (children)?\u00a0 Comhghleacaithe (colleagues)?<\/p>\n

Before we look at our next five vocabulary words, selected from \u00d3 Maoilbhr\u00edde’s article, let’s also look at the words for East and West, for Germany, for Berlin, and in general — since this blogpost (an bhlagmh\u00edr seo) is part of a mini-series (mionsraith) on the points of the compass (airde an chomp\u00e1is).\u00a0 For relative newcomers to the Irish language, by the way, that “airde” isn’t the word “airde” that you may know for “height” (based on “ard,” high, tall).\u00a0 Instead, it’s the plural of “aird,” which means “direction” or “point of a compass.”\u00a0 This is the word that’s related to the Scots “airt,” as used by, among others, Robert Burns, in his song, “O Tibbie, I hae seen the day” (Altho’ a lad were\u00a0 e’er sae smart,\u00a0\/ If that he want the yellow dirt, \/ Ye’ll cast your head anither\u00a0airt,\u00a0\/ And answer him\u00a0fu’\u00a0dry.)<\/p>\n

For East and West Germany, as the country was formerly divided, we have the two terms:<\/p>\n

Oirthear na Gearm\u00e1ine<\/strong>, East Germany (with “oir-” being the core element that means “east”, as also found in soir, anoir, and thoir),<\/p>\n

Iarthar na Gearm\u00e1ine<\/strong>, West Germany (with “iar-” being the core element that means “east,” as also found in siar, aniar, and thiar)<\/p>\n

But remember, we also talked about the use of “Thoir” and “Thiar” in place names, e.g. T\u00edom\u00f3r Thoir (East Timor) and An Sah\u00e1ra Thiar (Western Sahara).\u00a0 I double-checked the usages for East and West Berlin, and, lo and behold, I found about equal distribution online for “Oirthear Bheirl\u00edn” and “Beirl\u00edn Thoir” and for “Iarthar Bheirl\u00edn” and “Beirl\u00edn Thiar.”\u00a0 So far, I haven’t found any one source that seems to be completely authoritative for this, or that acknowledges the two styles, and gives preference.\u00a0 So, I assume, at least for the time being, that it’s up to the user. At any rate, for the general reader, I’d say be prepared to see either style.\u00a0 And if you yourself are writing, with the “Oirthear” and “Iarthar” forms, remember that the country name is in the genitive case — that explains the final “-e” of “Gearm\u00e1ine,” (from An Ghearm\u00e1in, Germany, in the subject form).<\/p>\n

Having said all that, here are five additional vocabulary words that may be of interest.\u00a0\u00a0 Please remember, I’m not reproducing the entire article here, for copyright reasons, but there is a link to it on JSTOR at the end of this blogpost.<\/p>\n

Agus seo c\u00faig fhocal eile \u00f3n alt sin<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

a l\u00edon daoine<\/strong>, its population; normally I’d expect to see “daonra” these days for “population,” but “l\u00edon daoine” also makes perfect sense (lit. “complement or fill or measure of people”)<\/p>\n

amh\u00f3g<\/strong>, often spelled “abh\u00f3g” these days: a bound or a jump.\u00a0 \u00d3 Maoilbhr\u00edde uses the phrase “de thri amh\u00f3g a chuamar ann,” which we might translate as, “in three stages we went there” or “there were three legs to our journey there.”\u00a0 “Three jumps” in Irish is about as logical as “three legs” in the English expression.\u00a0 \u00a0As he elaborates, they flew from London to Brussels, Brussels to Berlin, and were driven to Erfurt.<\/p>\n

s\u00e1r-bh\u00f3ithre m\u00f3tair<\/strong>, motor highways (lit. super-motor-roads)<\/p>\n

ar fuaid na Gearm\u00e1ine<\/strong>, often written as “ar fud na Gearm\u00e1ine” these days: throughout Germany<\/p>\n

na picti\u00fair\u00ed reatha<\/strong> — a phrase you probably wouldn’t hear much today, lit. the running pictures (i.e. the moving pictures), mostly today we hear “scann\u00e1in” (films, movies, singular scann\u00e1n; btw, “scann\u00e1n” also means “membrane”).<\/p>\n

Once again, I hope you’re following along with the article in JSTOR.org, or if you have the 1961 issue, in Comhar<\/em> itself.\u00a0 And I hope you find this man’s “turas” as fascinating as I do.\u00a0 SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/p>\n

nasc<\/strong>: http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/20550939?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents<\/a>, retr’d o5\/25\/18\u00a0 Comhar<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Iml. 20, Uimh 2, Feb., 1961<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0JOURNAL ARTICLE\u00a0 \u00c9ireannach in oirthear na gearmaine\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Maoilbhr\u00edde\u00a0 Comhar\u00a0 <\/em>Iml. 20, Uimh 2<\/strong> (Feb., 1961), pp. 11-12, 14\u00a0\u00a0 Published by:\u00a0Comhar Teoranta<\/a>\u00a0 DOI: 10.2307\/20550939\u00a0\u00a0 Stable URL: http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/20550939<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Page Count: 3<\/p>\n

iarbhlagmh\u00edr faoi She\u00e1n\u00a0\u00d3 Maoilbhr\u00edde<\/strong> :\u00a0Which Irish Speaker Visited \u2018Oirthear na Gearm\u00e1ine\u2019 (East Germany) in 1960? (cuid\/pt. 1)<\/a>Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on May 8, 2018 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Naisc faoi airde an chomp\u00e1is:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saying \u2018East\u2019 and \u2018West\u2019 in Irish, or, de r\u00e9ir an tseanfhocail, \u2018Soir gach\u00a0siar,\u00a0faoi\u00a0dheireadh\u00a0thiar\u2019<\/a> (le\u00a0R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/p>\n

Saying \u2018North\u2019 and \u2018South\u2019 in Irish (A Follow-up to the Blogpost on North and South Korea)<\/a>Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Apr 28, 2018 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) As you may recall, the most recent blogpost was about the Irishman (an t\u00c9ireannach) who went to East Germany (Oirthear na Gearm\u00e1ine) in the year 1960, a time when very few tourists (turas\u00f3ir\u00ed) were visiting the country (an t\u00edr).\u00a0 The “\u00c9ireannach” in question was Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Maoilbhr\u00edde, who wrote an article in Irish…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":10550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[513242,12441,513240,12430,513215,513214,508790],"class_list":["post-10543","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-ghearmain","tag-iarthar","tag-oirthear","tag-siar","tag-soir","tag-thiar","tag-thoir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10543","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=10543"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10551,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10543\/revisions\/10551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}