{"id":1910,"date":"2012-02-29T17:33:52","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T17:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=1910"},"modified":"2016-03-01T16:13:52","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T16:13:52","slug":"leaplings-an-tearma-as-gaeilge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/leaplings-an-tearma-as-gaeilge\/","title":{"rendered":"“Leaplings?” An T\u00e9arma As Gaeilge?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>

Is “leapling” beag mise! \u00a0An ‘leapling’ beag tusa?<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Just when I thought I had a pretty good handle on the vagaries of st\u00f3rfhocal an Bh\u00e9arla, <\/strong>another word popped up.\u00a0 Maybe I should I say it entered mo bhandaleithead<\/strong>, or it came isteach i\u00a0\u00a0mo radar<\/strong>, or some other trendier expression.\u00a0 At any rate, it caught my eye.\u00a0 Or really, mo chluas<\/strong>, since I heard it ar an raidi\u00f3<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u201cLeapling.\u201d\u00a0 How could I have missed it?<\/p>\n

So, first port of call i gc\u00e1s mar seo.\u00a0 <\/strong>I checked it on the Internet and found 3,790 hits for \u201cleapling.\u201d\u00a0 Not bad, but not ginormous. \u00a0In contrast, \u201cleap year baby\u201d yielded a whopping 1,970,000.\u00a0 So at least I must have some company in having used the latter term.\u00a0 \u201cLeap year baby\u201d is what I\u2019ve always heard.<\/p>\n

In Irish, \u201cleap year baby\u201d should translate quite straightforwardly to one of the following, which also give us a run down on most of the Irish words for \u201cbaby\u201d:<\/p>\n

leanbh bliain bhisigh (<\/strong>lit. child\/baby of leap year)<\/p>\n

na\u00edon\u00e1n bliain bhisigh <\/strong>(lit. baby\/infant of leap year)<\/p>\n

leanb\u00e1n bliain bhisigh (“leanb\u00e1n”<\/strong> [LYAN-uh-bawn] is more a term of endearment, like \u201cdarling,\u201d than a term used for officially designating babies as such, with \u201ca leanb\u00e1in<\/strong>\u201d in direct address, but I figured I should at least check it; Joyce used it, anglicized as \u201clambabaun,\u201d just for regular darling babies though, not leap year ones)<\/p>\n

baba\u00ed bliain bhisigh (<\/strong>baby of leap year)<\/p>\n

bun\u00f3c bhliain bhisigh <\/strong>(very young infant\/new-born baby of leap year)<\/p>\n

b\u00e1b\u00e1n bliain bhisigh (<\/strong>small baby of leap year)<\/p>\n

b\u00e1b bhliain bhisigh<\/strong> (baby of leap year).\u00a0 \u201cB\u00e1b<\/strong>\u201d also means \u201ca maiden.,\u201d Hmm, could it be a prototype of the English \u201cbabe\u201d?\u00a0 That\u2019s as in \u201cYou Got Me,\u201d not as in damh gorm Paul Bunyan <\/strong>or an \u201cmhuc chaorach\u201d i sc\u00e9al Dick King-Smith<\/strong>, although I guess there\u2019s a connection, semantically.<\/p>\n

B\u00e1b\u00e1in\u00edn bliain bhisigh<\/strong> (little baby of leap year)<\/p>\n

But I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve found\u00a0a mhacasamhail\u00a0<\/strong>in use in Irish, partly, perhaps, because the Irish concept of leap year isn\u2019t based on \u201cleaping\u201d or \u201cjumping.\u201d\u00a0 But \u201cleanbh bliain bhisigh<\/strong>\u201d should do.\u00a0 That would be my choice of all the options given above.<\/p>\n

Oh, and I checked na foirmeacha iolra <\/strong>also.\u00a0 Tada (n\u00f3 m\u00e1s mian leat, faic! rud ar bith! amas ar bith!)!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Getting back to “leapling” as a newish word, well, I always welcome new vocabulary into the fold, and I think I\u2019ve heard lots of special terms over the years.\u00a0 <\/strong>\u201cChime child,\u201d yes.\u00a0 (That\u2019s a child born between the strokes of midnight on Christmas Eve (or is that technically Christmas morning, once you get past the first stroke?).\u00a0 Words made with the suffix of diminution (-ling), yes. Yeanlings and weanlings, inklings and princelings (no princessling, ach sin sc\u00e9al eile<\/strong>), bantlings and changelings, and ducklings and goslings, yes.\u00a0 But \u201cleapling\u201d was a new one for me.\u00a0 So I tracked it down a bit further and found it was coined around 2000.\u00a0 I feel partly reprieved, at least!\u00a0 And further by the fact that out of an c\u00faigear mac l\u00e9inn <\/strong>I asked about \u201cleapling,\u201d none had heard of it.\u00a0 And now we\u2019re all so much the wiser.<\/p>\n

An leanbh bliain bhisigh th\u00fa<\/strong>?\u00a0 If so, care to write in and tell us how (and when) you celebrate your\u00a0laethanta breithe<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

The term \u201cleapling\u201d does offer some interesting possibilities:<\/p>\n

Would an only child born on Leap Day be a \u201cleaplingleton\u201d?\u00a0 Hmm, and the Irish for \u201csingleton\u201d \u2013 well, we\u2019d revert to the term for an only child, \u201cp\u00e1iste aonair\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Would leaplings qualify for lascain\u00ed l\u00e1 breithe <\/strong>on Irish airline tickets if they fly Aer Leaplingus?\u00a0 (Leaplings\u00a0Aer Us?\u00a0 – yes, I know, I’m\u00a0ducking!)<\/p>\n

One leapling\u2019s favorite term of endearment to another, at least sa Ghearm\u00e1in?\u00a0 <\/strong>\u201cMein liebling!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And I guess a study of the way leaplings talk would have to be called \u201cLeaplinguistics.\u201d\u00a0 Hmm, straying very close to the trendy new Jeremy Lin territory here.\u00a0 Better end this blog now, sula bhfaighidh m\u00e9 saighead sa ghl\u00fain <\/strong>(before I get an arrow in the knee, or in this case, it might be sa teanga).\u00a0 SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Just when I thought I had a pretty good handle on the vagaries of st\u00f3rfhocal an Bh\u00e9arla, another word popped up.\u00a0 Maybe I should I say it entered mo bhandaleithead, or it came isteach i\u00a0\u00a0mo radar, or some other trendier expression.\u00a0 At any rate, it caught my eye.\u00a0 Or really, mo chluas, since…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":1924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[411176,411181,411177,191024,411159,411169,411160,411184,207252,384416,411183,411170,411163,411171,5148,411172,411185,411166,229909,359216,315790,411180,13057,411173,411158,411157,411156,411162,207261,111894,207260,207259,207262,411179,411155,411186,411175,304940,411167,411168,411161,411174,411165,411164,306233],"class_list":["post-1910","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-bab-damh-gorm","tag-babai","tag-babainin","tag-baby","tag-bandaleithead","tag-bantling","tag-bhandaleithead","tag-bhliain-bhisigh","tag-biseach","tag-bliain-bhisigh","tag-bunoc","tag-changeling","tag-chime-child","tag-duckling","tag-feabhra","tag-gosling","tag-infant","tag-inkling","tag-iolra","tag-james","tag-joyce","tag-king-smith","tag-la-breithe","tag-laethanta-breithe","tag-lambabaun","tag-leanbain","tag-leanban","tag-leanbh","tag-leanbh-bliain-bhisigh","tag-leap-year","tag-leaper","tag-leapling","tag-leaplinguistics","tag-muc-chaorach","tag-naionan","tag-new-born","tag-paiste-aonair","tag-paul-bunyan","tag-princeling","tag-princessling","tag-radar","tag-singleton","tag-weanling","tag-yeanling","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t