{"id":1661,"date":"2012-01-08T11:25:24","date_gmt":"2012-01-08T11:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=1661"},"modified":"2012-01-24T04:31:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-24T04:31:25","slug":"cuig-fhrasa-bearla-gan-mhaith-de-reir-fhionntan-ui-thuathail-aka-fintan-o%e2%80%99toole-cuid-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/cuig-fhrasa-bearla-gan-mhaith-de-reir-fhionntan-ui-thuathail-aka-fintan-o%e2%80%99toole-cuid-24\/","title":{"rendered":"C\u00faig Fhr\u00e1sa (B\u00e9arla) Gan Mhaith (De R\u00e9ir Fhionnt\u00e1n U\u00ed Thuathail aka Fintan O\u2019Toole) (Cuid 2\/4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Remember what g\u00e1tar<\/strong>, d\u00e9ine<\/strong>, and tarrth\u00e1il<\/strong> have in common?\u00a0\u00a0 Hmmm, the first two have related meanings and are nearly interchangeable (beart g\u00e1tair<\/strong>, austerity measure; c\u00e1inaisn\u00e9is d\u00e9ine<\/strong>, austerity budget) but \u201ctarrth\u00e1il<\/strong>\u201d is completely different in function as well as meaning.\u00a0 It\u2019s\u00a0 an ainmfhocal briathartha<\/strong>, not a gn\u00e1thainmfhocal<\/strong> (ordinary noun).\u00a0 We could also note that \u00a0\u201cg\u00e1tar<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cd\u00e9ine<\/strong>,\u201d are \u201cabstract nouns\u201d (ainmfhocail theib\u00ed<\/strong>), making them even more different from \u201ctarrth\u00e1il,<\/strong>\u201d which is primarily an action.\u00a0 \u201cTarrth\u00e1il<\/strong>\u201d expresses a fairly physical concept of \u201csaving.\u201d\u00a0 This could be contrasted to other concepts of saving (anamacha, srl<\/strong>.) for which, please see an n\u00f3ta <\/strong>below.<\/p>\n

So what do<\/em> \u201cg\u00e1tar<\/strong>,\u201d \u201cd\u00e9ine<\/strong>,\u201d and \u201ctarrth\u00e1il<\/strong>\u201d have in common?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t have to do with ciall<\/strong> per se; these three words are simply my choice of how to translate two of the five terms that leading Irish journalist Fintan O\u2019Toole thinks should be outlawed in 2012, as he wrote \u00a0in\u00a0http:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/newspaper\/opinion\/2012\/0103\/1224309734610_pf.html<\/a> [SPOILER ALERT: I encourage you to read O\u2019Toole\u2019s article but you might want to wait until after you finish this blog, or even this mini-series of blogs, since the rest of this article is set up as a challenge to discover what English words O\u2019Toole is thinking of, via Irish.]<\/p>\n

The charge against these words, according to O\u2019Toole?\u00a0 Distortion, concealing reality, etc.\u00a0 Not that he probably expects that the words will literally be exiled, but he does raise some interesting points, best expressed by O\u2019Toole himself, as you can read in his article.<\/p>\n

Why did I offer three Irish words for O\u2019Toole\u2019s two?\u00a0 The question really is why do I include two words for \u201causterity\u201d?\u00a0 Because I think it would be unfair to \u201cg\u00e1tar<\/strong>\u201d (if a word can sense unfairness) to only list \u201cd\u00e9ine<\/strong>\u201d for \u201causterity,\u201d and likewise, it would be unfair to \u201cd\u00e9ine<\/strong>\u201d to only list \u201cg\u00e1tar<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 For \u201ctarrth\u00e1il<\/strong>,\u201d I\u2019d say the choice was more straightforward, without so many tempting comhainmneacha<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So that brings us up to focal a tr\u00ed<\/strong> on O\u2019Toole\u2019s list.\u00a0 Again, we\u2019ll try the same approach.\u00a0 I\u2019ll offer a group of Irish synonyms and a variety of Irish equivalents, but I won\u2019t give the translation that completely reveals O\u2019Toole\u2019s third term.\u00a0 That\u2019s the d\u00fashl\u00e1n<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Achrannach? Anr\u00f3iteach? Deacair? Doici\u00fail? Doiligh? Duaisi\u00fail?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, as I said, I\u2019m not<\/em> going to cut right to the chase and simply offer up one Irish word to correspond to O\u2019Toole\u2019s list.\u00a0 Instead, we\u2019ll look at some possibilities and their additional meanings.<\/p>\n

achrannach<\/strong>: entangled, intricate, quarrelsome, rocky (regarding terrain); cf. achrann<\/strong>, tangled growth<\/p>\n

anr\u00f3iteach<\/strong>: distressing, hard, inclement (of weather), severe, weather-beaten; cf. anr\u00f3<\/strong>, hardship<\/p>\n

deacair<\/strong>: hard, reluctant, troublesome; cf. deacracht<\/strong>, distress, discomfort<\/p>\n

doici\u00fail<\/strong>: hard to manage, impeding; cf. doic<\/strong>, impediment, hesitation, reluctance<\/p>\n

doiligh<\/strong>: distressing, hard, hard to bear, hard to deal with, intractable, reluctant; cf. doil\u00edos<\/strong>, affliction, reluctance, sorrow<\/p>\n

duaisi\u00fail<\/strong>: distressing, laborious, tedious, troublesome, wearying; cf. duais<\/strong>, dejection, distress, gloom, sorrow (not the perhaps more familiar \u201cduais<\/strong>,\u201d a prize, gift, or reward, which is a different word altogether \u2013 comhainmneacha<\/strong>!)<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s always \u201ccrua<\/strong>\u201d (hard), which can either describe something physical (cl\u00fadach crua<\/strong>, for a book, as opposed to \u201ccl\u00fadach bog<\/strong>\u201d) or something more abstract (obair chrua<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

What is the key word that could be used to translate all of the above?\u00a0 \u201cDifficult,\u201d and that\u2019s no. 3 on O\u2019Toole\u2019s list.<\/p>\n

Which one probably matches O\u2019Toole\u2019s meaning the best?\u00a0 \u201cDeacair<\/strong> (or \u2018doiligh<\/strong>\u2019) a r\u00e1<\/strong>,\u201d I\u2019d say! \u00a0\u201cDeacair<\/strong>\u201d appears to be the most widely used, and therefore is probably the best choice.\u00a0 \u00a0One point of comparison could be Google hits:<\/p>\n

269,000 for \u201cdeacair<\/strong>,\u201d by far the most prevalent of the six words for \u201cdifficult,\u201d and, as far as I checked through the amais<\/strong> ([AH-mish], hits), \u201cdeacair<\/strong>\u201d doesn\u2019t seem to overlap with any words in other languages.\u00a0 When that overlap does occur, it may give false high results for a search.\u00a0 Examples of false highs include \u201cnach<\/strong>,\u201d with 2,330,000,000 hits (!), including, among others, 1) Nach, the Spanish rapper (short for Ignacio), ca. 5 million hits, 2) the German \u201cnach<\/em>\u201d as in \u201cDrang nach Osten<\/em>,\u201d which itself accounts for about 930,000 of those hits, and finally, the Irish \u201cnach<\/strong>,\u201d which can either be the conjunction, as in \u201cDeir s\u00e9 nach bhfuil<\/strong> \u2026,\u201d or the verbal particle, as in \u201cNach bhfuil<\/strong> \u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n

18,100 for \u201cdoiligh<\/strong>,\u201d which is also more typical of Northern Irish, and therefore somewhat limited in the total amount of use<\/p>\n

6,790 for \u201cachrannach<\/strong>,\u201d including several hundred (apparently) for the phrase \u201cachrannach <\/strong>liked this\u201d (interesting in that it shows usage of the word as someone\u2019s screen name, but that\u2019s not our main focus here)<\/p>\n

502 for \u201canr\u00f3iteach<\/strong>,\u201d narrowed to 165<\/p>\n

158 for \u201cduaisi\u00fail<\/strong>,\u201d narrowed to 46<\/p>\n

139 for \u201cdoici\u00fail<\/strong>,\u201d narrowed to 26<\/p>\n

Not that volume of hits necessarily makes a word the best choice for a particular context, but in this case it seems to point to the word \u201cdeacair<\/strong>\u201d covering the idea of \u201cdifficult\u201d in the broadest possible sense.\u00a0 So I\u2019ll nominate \u201cdeacair<\/strong>\u201d as most applicable to O\u2019Toole\u2019s focal a tr\u00ed<\/strong>.\u00a0 Do bhar\u00failse<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

All that to deal with just the single word \u201cdifficult\u201d?\u00a0 But wait, there\u2019s more!\u00a0 Dh\u00e1 n\u00f3ta th\u00edos<\/strong>.\u00a0 Which leads me to conclude that this mini-series should be four parts, not three, since this blog has already gotten quite long enough, thank you very much.\u00a0 So please stay tuned for Cuid a Tr\u00ed agus Cuid a Ceathair.\u00a0 SGF, R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

N\u00f3ta 1 (re: tarrth\u00e1il agus focail eile ar<\/strong> \u201csaving\u201d):\u00a0 Tarrth\u00e1il<\/strong> overlaps somewhat with the word \u201cs\u00e1bh\u00e1il<\/strong>,\u201d but \u201cs\u00e1bh\u00e1il<\/strong>\u201d can mean \u201csave\u201d either in the physical sense (\u201c\u00e9 a sh\u00e1bh\u00e1il ar an mb\u00e1s<\/strong>\u201d) or in the spiritual (\u201canam a sh\u00e1bh\u00e1il<\/strong>\u201d).\u00a0 Other words for \u201csave\u201d or \u201csaving\u201d also tend to be on the abstract, or at least the non-physical side (anam a shl\u00e1n\u00fa<\/strong>, which is another way to say \u201cto save a soul;\u201d \u00e9 a shl\u00e1n\u00fa air<\/strong>, to indemnify him against it; banc taisce<\/strong>, savings bank).\u00a0 \u201cTarrth\u00e1il<\/strong>\u201d is more typically \u201csave\u201d in the sense of \u201crescue\u201d (\u00e9 a tharrth\u00e1il \u00f3na bh\u00e1 \/ \u00f3na bh\u00e1s<\/strong>, to save him from drowning \/ death; gl\u00e9as tarrth\u00e1la<\/strong>, life-saving apparatus; tuga tarrth\u00e1la<\/strong>, a salvage-tug; rafta tarrth\u00e1la<\/strong>, a life-raft; seaic\u00e9ad tarrth\u00e1la<\/strong>, life-jacket, etc.).<\/p>\n

In summary, then:<\/p>\n

Tarrth\u00e1il<\/strong>, to save, usually in the physical sense<\/p>\n

S\u00e1bh\u00e1il<\/strong>, to save, physically or spiritually<\/p>\n

Sl\u00e1n\u00fa<\/strong>, to save, usually spiritually (cf. Sl\u00e1naitheoir<\/strong>, Savior, Redeemer)<\/p>\n

Taoscadh<\/strong>, to bail out, pump out, drain, shovel, earth up<\/p>\n

I\u2019d have to acknowledge \u00a0that using the word \u201csave\u201d (tarrth\u00e1il<\/strong>) for \u201cbailout\u201d doesn\u2019t have quite the edgy sense of desperation evoked by the image of the sinking boats.\u00a0 Not that our budget planners are literally out there in a sinking ship (hmmm?), getting bailed out with buckets (that would be \u201ctaoscadh<\/strong>\u201d) but the expression is used figuratively in English.\u00a0 To appropriate \u201ctaoscadh<\/strong>\u201d for \u201cbailout\u201d in the economic sense in Irish would be a really big stretch; at any rate, modern Irish usage gives us \u201ctarrth\u00e1il<\/strong>\u201d for this purpose.<\/p>\n

[And now for the \u201cfon\u00f3ta<\/strong>,\u201d which is now beagnach chomh fada le blag f\u00e9in<\/strong>!]<\/p>\n

Fon\u00f3ta:<\/strong> Speaking of \u201cbailing,\u201d just a reminder here that this is \u201cbail\u201d spelled with an \u201ci.\u201d\u00a0 As we can see from the abundant commentary on the topic (http:\/\/www.beedictionary.com\/common-errors\/bail_vs_bale<\/a>, http:\/\/public.wsu.edu\/~brians\/errors\/bail.html<\/a>, or [Bryan] Garner\u2019s Modern American Usage<\/em>, http:\/\/www.oup.com\/us\/catalog\/general\/?view=usa&ci=9780195382754<\/a>, under bail\/bale, m. sh.<\/strong>), there\u2019s a lot of confusion on this spelling issue, and considerable leeway as well, depending on if you\u2019re using British or American English.\u00a0 \u201cBaling\u201d or \u201cto bale\u201d is usually for hay, cotton, or packages (baling wire, etc.).\u00a0 \u00a0At any rate, don\u2019t try \u201cbaling\u201d the water in the boat, or you might end up with the liquid version of the \u201cs\u00fag\u00e1n sneachta<\/strong>,\u201d as immortalized by Mair\u00e9ad N\u00ed Ghr\u00e1da in her 1959 dr\u00e1ma<\/strong> of the same name and by Tadhg Mac Dhonnag\u00e1in in his amhr\u00e1n<\/strong> of the same name on his album \u201cIm\u00edonn an tAm<\/em>\u201d (2004:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.cdbaby.com\/cd\/tmdhonnagain3<\/a>).\u00a0 S\u00fag\u00e1n sneachta<\/strong> \u2013 now that\u2019s a topic that deserves a bhlag f\u00e9in<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

N\u00f3ta 2 (re: fhuaimni\u00fa):<\/strong> Isn\u2019t it nice when English homophones generate all kinds of confusion and the corresponding Irish words are nice and straightforward and logically spelled?\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of any other Irish word that sounds like \u201ctaoscadh<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 Hur\u00e1<\/strong>!\u00a0 It\u2019s also interesting to consider how much of the homophone problem in English is caused by that ever-present silent \u201ce\u201d (as in \u201cbale,\u201d bate\/bait, cane\/Cain, Dane\/deign, pane\/pain, bore\/boar, brake\/brake, etc.).\u00a0 Irish, quite logically, doesn\u2019t have that silent \u201ce\u201d issue; final e\u2019s, while not stressed (aiceanta<\/strong>), are usually articulated, unless the speaker is talking a mile a minute and the final \u201ce\u201d is glommed onto a following word that starts with a vowel (T\u00e1 p\u00e1iste anseo<\/strong> [taw PAWSH-tchun-shuh]). \u00a0In that case, it\u2019s not officially \u201csilent;\u201d it\u2019s just swallowed.\u00a0 There was an old lady who swallowed a guta neamhaiceanta<\/strong> — nah, that would truly be a digression.<\/p>\n

Final e\u2019s in Irish also don\u2019t have that perplexing habit we find in English, where they sometimes cause the previous vowel to be pronounced long (can\/cane, ban\/bane, kit\/kite, con\/cone) and sometimes not (have, give, one, and the double-agent \u201clive\/live\u201d).\u00a0 What, you ask, what about all those silent letters, and consonant and vowel clusters, in Irish?\u00a0 Yes, it does have its fair share, as in bhfuil, aghaidh, bhfaighidh, fhadhb,<\/strong> and aoi \/ a\u00edonna, <\/strong>which was formerly aoighe \/ aoigheadha (!).\u00a0 <\/strong>Yeah, I get it, consain chi\u00fain go leor, consain a fhuaimn\u00edtear mar ghuta, tr\u00ed ghuta i gcrobhaing, s\u00e9imhi\u00fa, ur\u00fa!<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, to that, I can simply say, each language has its leithleachais<\/strong>, or should I say \u201c\u00c0 chacun son go\u00fbt<\/em>\u201d (or should that be \u201c\u00c0 chacun son<\/em> \u2018guta<\/strong>\u2019\u201d?).\u00a0 Ba-dum-bum-ching (and that\u2019s probably the same in any language, at least in any language that has a stand-up comedy tradition)!\u00a0 \u201cBuille imill<\/strong>,\u201d to be technical about it.<\/p>\n

Gluais: ainmfhocal briathartha<\/strong> [AN-yim-OK-ul BREE-uh-hur-huh, with both t\u2019s silent], verbal noun; anam<\/strong>, soul; b\u00e1<\/strong>, drowning; b\u00e1s<\/strong>, death (ar an mb\u00e1s<\/strong> [err un mawss], here: \u201cfrom death\u201d); ciall,<\/strong> meaning; crobhaing<\/strong>, cluster; d\u00fashl\u00e1n<\/strong>, challenge; imeall<\/strong>, rim, border (genitive form: imill<\/strong>); leithleachas<\/strong>, idiosyncrasy; neamhaiceanta<\/strong>, unstressed; \u00f3na<\/strong>, from his (\u00f3<\/strong>, from + a<\/strong>, his)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Remember what g\u00e1tar, d\u00e9ine, and tarrth\u00e1il have in common?\u00a0\u00a0 Hmmm, the first two have related meanings and are nearly interchangeable (beart g\u00e1tair, austerity measure; c\u00e1inaisn\u00e9is d\u00e9ine, austerity budget) but \u201ctarrth\u00e1il\u201d is completely different in function as well as meaning.\u00a0 It\u2019s\u00a0 an ainmfhocal briathartha, not a gn\u00e1thainmfhocal (ordinary noun).\u00a0 We could also note that…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[111839,66239,111828,4074,111837,111833,111851,111843,111844,111849,111846,32913,111836,111835,111831,111829,111830,61184,111834,111832,111819,5271,111845,111841,111823,111838,111824,111825,11,111850,111848,111842,29421,9388,1401],"class_list":["post-1661","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-111839","tag-66239","tag-achrannach","tag-amhran","tag-anro","tag-anroiteach","tag-ba-dum-bum-ching","tag-bail","tag-bale","tag-buille-imill","tag-cotton","tag-deacair","tag-deacracht","tag-doic","tag-doiciuil","tag-doiligh","tag-doilios","tag-drama","tag-duais","tag-duaisiuil","tag-fintan-otoole","tag-fuaimniu","tag-hay","tag-imionn-an-tam","tag-irish-times","tag-mairead-ni-ghrada","tag-otoole","tag-outlaw","tag-pronunciation","tag-rimshot","tag-silent-e","tag-sugan-sneachta","tag-tadhg-mac-dhonnagain","tag-water","tag-words"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661","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=1661"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1669,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661\/revisions\/1669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}