{"id":2280,"date":"2012-05-15T23:15:37","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T23:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=2280"},"modified":"2017-09-11T13:48:03","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T13:48:03","slug":"liudair-go-dti-a-an-caislean-nua-b-an-aithin-no-go-c-toraigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/liudair-go-dti-a-an-caislean-nua-b-an-aithin-no-go-c-toraigh\/","title":{"rendered":"Li\u00fadair go dt\u00ed a) an Caisle\u00e1n Nua, b) an Aithin n\u00f3 go c) Toraigh?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>

Li\u00fadar ar stampa \u00cdoslannach<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

As the final entry in this mionsraith ar chaint fh\u00edortha<\/strong>, we’ll talk briefly about li\u00fadair<\/strong> (coalfish) and their role in a traditional Irish expression.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course, we could talk about figurative speech\u00a0 till the cows come home or till we’re all blue in the face, but there are other topics looming so we’ll wrap the topic up with this blog for now.\u00a0 But if any of you have been mulling over some interesting samhlacha, meafair<\/strong>, or other tr\u00f3ip chainte<\/strong>, please do write in about them.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, let’s start with beag\u00e1n meaitse\u00e1la<\/strong>.\u00a0 Which product goes with which destination to indicate m\u00ed-\u00e9ifeacht<\/strong> or d\u00edomhaointeas<\/strong> or \u00e9adairbhe<\/strong> (all words for futility); freagra\u00ed th\u00edos, mar is gn\u00e1ch:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
1. gual<\/strong><\/td>\na. Toraigh<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2. ulchabh\u00e1in<\/strong><\/td>\nb. an Caisle\u00e1n Nua<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3. samav\u00e1ir<\/strong><\/td>\nc. M<\/strong>\u00fcnchen<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4. li\u00fadair<\/strong><\/td>\nd. an Aithin<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5. beoir<\/strong><\/td>\ne. Tula<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So what exactly is this “li\u00fadar<\/strong>” in the Irish expression “ag breith li\u00fadar go Toraigh<\/strong>“? A coalfish, particularly, a large coalfish.\u00a0 “Small coalfish?”\u00a0 That’s a topic I’ll have to research later, not being much of an iascaire <\/strong>or an iasceola\u00ed<\/strong>.\u00a0 They’re also called “coley,” in English, not surprisingly. \u00a0Apparently they are fairly abundant around Tory, but one recent fishing blog I looked at didn’t seem to indicate that the piscine population was doing very well.\u00a0 A iascair\u00ed?<\/strong>\u00a0 “Coalfish” primarily refers to Pollachius virens<\/em>, a pollack (aka pollock) with a black back, although it can also refer to a sablefish, which, presumably is also somewhat dark in color.<\/p>\n

There are two other words for “coalfish” in Irish, “glas\u00e1n<\/strong>” and “mangach<\/strong>,” and it’s not clear to me exactly what the difference is between all these species, if in fact they are different species.\u00a0 Eolas ag duine ar bith agaibhse?<\/strong>\u00a0 Just to add to the mix, “glas\u00e1n<\/strong>” (lit. “green one” or “greenish-grayish one”) can also refer to a plant (sea-lettuce), and a bird (finch).\u00a0 “Mangach<\/strong>,” sometimes spelled “mongach<\/strong>,” can be “pollack” in general and can also refer to a maned animal.<\/p>\n

Although the flesh of the coalfish is dark-colored, apparently it turns orange when salted and smoked, resembling salmon in color.\u00a0 It is sold in Germany under the name “Seelachs<\/em>” (lit. sea-salmon) although it is not at all connected to salmon.\u00a0 “Lachs<\/em>” is the German for salmon; related words include “lax<\/em>” (Icelandic, Swedish), “laks<\/em>” (Danish, Norwegian), and laex<\/em> (Old English), all of which are also linguistically related to the “Leix” of Leixlip”, in Co. Kildare, Ireland, whose name means “salmon leap (Irish: L\u00e9im an Bhrad\u00e1in<\/strong>). \u00a0Not to mention the “lox” (brad\u00e1n deataithe<\/strong>) and cream cheese (c\u00e1is uachtair<\/strong>) one might have with one’s bagel (b\u00e9igeal<\/strong>) and \u00a0“kawfee” (“caife<\/strong>,” le blas an <\/strong>“\u00daill Mh\u00f3ir<\/strong>“),\u00a0especially around Nua-Eabhrac.<\/b><\/p>\n

So taking coalfish to Tory apparently is no more useful than taking coal(s) to Newcastle, owls to Athens, etc.<\/p>\n

I suppose that one could make up tons of these expressions, based on famous products or associations, but time seems to sort out the catchiest.\u00a0 For some reason, we never seem to talk about carrying p\u00f3nair\u00ed b\u00e1c\u00e1ilte<\/strong> to Bost\u00fan<\/strong> or c\u00e1is uachtair<\/strong> to Filideilfia<\/strong> or lachain<\/strong> to Beijing.<\/strong>\u00a0 Probably no great loss!<\/p>\n

Freagra\u00ed: <\/strong>1b. gual, an Caisle\u00e1n Nua<\/strong> (referring to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, not the various other Newcastles); 2d. ulchabh\u00e1in, an Aithin<\/strong> (cf. \u03b3\u03bb\u03b1\u1fe6\u03ba\u03b1\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u1f08\u03b8\u1fc6\u03bd\u03b1\u03c2 \u03ba\u03bf\u03bc\u03af\u03b6\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd<\/a>, glaukas eis Ath\u0113nas komizein; Eulen nach Athen tragen<\/em>; mostly known in Greek and German, but sometimes also used in English); 3e. samav\u00e1ir, Tula<\/strong> (cathair sa R\u00fais, cl\u00fa uirthi mar \u00e1it ina nd\u00e9antar (f\u00f3s?) a l\u00e1n samav\u00e1r)<\/strong>; 4a. li\u00fadair, Toraigh<\/strong>; 5c. beoir, M\u00fcnchen<\/strong> (Munich)<\/p>\n

P.S. Now if only the folk expression had involved another type of fish found in the Tory waters, called “Tope,” the Galeorhinus galeus<\/em> or related species, we could have had some fun talking about “tope tropes,” but c’est la vie<\/em>!\u00a0 That “tope,” btw, presumably has nothing to do with being a “toper,” otherwise we’d be back to one of our favorite previously discussed topics, p\u00f3iteanna<\/strong> (hangovers).\u00a0 And the Irish for “tope” (the fish), while interesting, doesn’t lend itself to this rhyme — it’s “gearrth\u00f3ir<\/strong>” (lit. cutter)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) As the final entry in this mionsraith ar chaint fh\u00edortha, we’ll talk briefly about li\u00fadair (coalfish) and their role in a traditional Irish expression.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course, we could talk about figurative speech\u00a0 till the cows come home or till we’re all blue in the face, but there are other topics looming so we’ll…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":2282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[489790,211679,4337,489788,4710,489787,489792,2135,211680,489785,489786,489655,935,489791,5437,390315,10688,489793,173302,460889,211675,337701,337702,211677,211678,207353,489796,489794,489782,489780,489783,211674,289817,489784,207358,211676,489795,489789,365368],"class_list":["post-2280","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-aithin","tag-athens","tag-beoir","tag-caislean-nua","tag-coal","tag-cutter","tag-eulen-tragen","tag-fish","tag-futility","tag-galeorhinus","tag-galeus","tag-gearrthoir","tag-german","tag-glaukas","tag-greek","tag-gual","tag-hangover","tag-komizein","tag-like","tag-liudair","tag-liudar","tag-munchen","tag-munich","tag-newcastle","tag-owls","tag-poit","tag-ruis","tag-samavar","tag-samhail","tag-samhlacha","tag-simile","tag-taking-coalfish-to-tory","tag-thoraigh","tag-tope","tag-toper","tag-toraigh","tag-tula","tag-tyne","tag-ulchabhan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280","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=2280"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9614,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280\/revisions\/9614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}