{"id":2574,"date":"2012-07-15T19:24:24","date_gmt":"2012-07-15T19:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=2574"},"modified":"2012-07-17T22:58:43","modified_gmt":"2012-07-17T22:58:43","slug":"pairtghluais-don-bhlag-failte-na-madrai-roimh-lennox-2005-2012-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/pairtghluais-don-bhlag-failte-na-madrai-roimh-lennox-2005-2012-rip\/","title":{"rendered":"P\u00e1irtghluais don Bhlag: F\u00e1ilte na Madra\u00ed roimh Lennox (2005-2012, RIP)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>

Madra\u00ed ag an Droichead<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s a little further background on some of the words used in “F\u00e1ilte na Madra\u00ed roimh Lennox<\/strong>” (https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/failte-na-madrai-roimh-lennox-the-dogs-welcome-to-lennox\/<\/a>). A full gluais<\/strong> and\/or aistri\u00fach\u00e1n<\/strong> may be “ar an bhfeadh mh\u00f3r<\/strong>” (in the offing).<\/p>\n

We’ll start with a key term in the blog, Droichead an Tuar Ceatha<\/strong>, which will actually give us three main words to explore (droichead, tuar<\/strong>, and cith\/ceatha<\/strong>), and then we’ll see how much am\/sp\u00e1s<\/strong> is left\u00a0 to continue the gluais<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

First, let’s briefly consider the origin of the term in English, “The Rainbow Bridge,” in the context of pet loss.\u00a0 It dates to ca. 1990-92.\u00a0 It’s hard to be absolute about an t-\u00fadar<\/strong> and an d\u00e1ta<\/strong> since the poem and concept got so quickly swooped up into the Idirl\u00edon<\/strong>, which was then fairly new for most users.\u00a0 Three possible original authors are Paul C. Dahm, William N. Britton, and Dr. Wallace Sife; in addition, Canadian author Margaret Marshall Saunders (1861-1947) pioneered the coincheap<\/strong> in Beautiful Joe’s Paradise<\/em> (1902).\u00a0 Total hits for “Rainbow Bridge animal” as of today’s blog: 543,000 (total hits for “Rainbow Bridge,” approximately 9,310,000, which \u00a0include the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls and other uses).\u00a0 So it’s a widely used term.<\/p>\n

Now let’s look at our three key words.\u00a0 First some pronunciation notes:<\/p>\n

droichead<\/strong> [DRIH-hyud]\u00a0 The “c” is silent, leaving the “ch” sound similar to the “h” in “human,” “hew,” “hue,” “Hugh,” or “Huw,”<\/p>\n

tuar<\/strong> [TOO-ur] Two syllables, though very smoothly glided together.\u00a0 The vowel sound is not like “guar gum” or “guard” or Spanish “Juan.”<\/p>\n

ceatha<\/strong> [KYA-huh].\u00a0 The “ea” sound is like the short “a” of “bat,” “cat,” etc.\u00a0 The “t” is silent.\u00a0 This is the genitive-case form of “cith<\/strong>” [kyih, silent “t,” with the final “-th” being basically just breath; it’s not like English “with” or “kith”].\u00a0 The initial “ky-” is like the initial “c” of “cute” or “cucumber,” not like “kite” or “coot” or “kook.” ]<\/p>\n

On to meanings, and they’re all basic enough:<\/p>\n

1) droichead, <\/strong>bridge, pl. droichid<\/strong>.\u00a0 You might recognize this one from a variety of place names in Ireland, most notably Drogheda, pronounced in Hiberno-English roughly as “DRAH-hud-duh,” with a slight guttural (throaty) rumbling for the “-gh-,” depending on the speaker.\u00a0 What about that final “-a” in “Drogheda,” since it’s not part of “droichead<\/strong>” as such?\u00a0 It’s the shortened anglicized form of “\u00e1tha<\/strong>” ([AW-huh], “of a ford,” but you knew that anyway, from Baile \u00c1tha<\/em> Cliath<\/strong>, right?\u00a0 Your own private “\u00e1tha<\/strong> moment,” nach \u00e9<\/strong>?).\u00a0 So the full place name in Irish is Droichead \u00c1tha<\/strong> (bridge of the ford).<\/p>\n

Hmm, why do we have a bridge if the river is\/was fordable?\u00a0 Is there still a part of the river that would be considered fordable?\u00a0 Seems unlikely give the town’s growth, ach is fada \u00f3 bh\u00ed m\u00e9 ann.\u00a0 Duine ar bith?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Welsh learners might be relieved that their word for “bridge,” which is “pont<\/em>,” is so conveniently related to Latin (pons<\/em>) and all its offspring (puente<\/em>, etc.).\u00a0 The origin of the word “droichead<\/strong>,” on the other hand, is pretty murky.\u00a0 In Old Irish, we can safely say it’s “drochet<\/em>,” but it has no connection to the more widely known “pons\/pontis<\/em>” family.\u00a0 “Droichead<\/strong>” may be related to “dr\u016dkol\u016d<\/em>” (a cudgel; Slav\u00f3inis Eaglaiseach<\/strong>), and if that didn’t exactly press your “Sure!-I-recognize-that-word!” button, it may also be related to “trough” (an focal B\u00e9arla<\/strong>), and, hmm, hence to “trug,” I wonder.\u00a0 The key connecting point is that all were originally made of wood.<\/p>\n

2) an<\/strong>: most readers will, by now, recognize an t-alt (cinnte)<\/strong> as “an<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Here I’ll simply provide the reminder that in the phrase, “Droichead an Tuar Ceatha<\/strong>,” the word “an<\/strong>” (the) covers both instances of “the” in English (the Bridge of the Rainbow), just as “hata an chail\u00edn<\/strong>” means “the hat of the girl” and “bean an fhir rua<\/strong>” means “the wife (or “woman”) of the red-haired man.”<\/p>\n

3) tuar: “tuar”<\/strong> doesn’t mean “bow,” so “tuar ceatha<\/strong>” isn’t exactly “bow of rain” (although “bogha b\u00e1ist\u00ed<\/strong>,” a synonym, is, literally, “bow of rain.”).\u00a0 “Tuar<\/strong>,” in this phrase, means “sign” or “omen,” so the reference is to the effect of the rain, which causes the “bow,” not to the shape of the “omen” or “sign” itself.\u00a0 I usually think of an “omen” as coming before the event, but, clearly, that isn’t actually how rainbows work.\u00a0 I can live with that.<\/p>\n

The plural of “tuar<\/strong>” is “tuartha<\/strong>” (TOO-ur-huh), so “rainbows” is “tuartha ceatha<\/strong>.”\u00a0 “Tuar b\u00e1ist\u00ed<\/strong>” can also be used for “rainbow” (lit. sign of rain), and, as just mentioned, “bogha b\u00e1ist\u00ed.<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

4) cith<\/strong>: the basic meaning is “a shower” and it gives us a variety of interesting phrases, from the straightforward (cith cloch sneachta<\/strong>) and the practical (“cithfholcadh a ghlacadh<\/strong>,” to take a shower) to the metaphoric “Aon chith amh\u00e1in a d’fhliuch iad uile<\/strong>” (lit. It’s just one shower that wetted them, but implying the same thing as the traditional English saying, “They are all tarred with the same brush”). \u00a0Pronunciation? \u00a0“ayn hyih uh-WAW-in uh djlukh EE-ud IL-luh”; note that silent “-fh-“.<\/p>\n

The genitive case of “cith<\/strong>” is “ceatha<\/strong>” (of a shower) as we have in today’s phrase (tuar ceatha).\u00a0 The vowel change also occurs in the plural (ceathanna<\/strong>, showers).<\/p>\n

So, the whole phrase, in literal sequence, is “(the) bridge of the sign of shower.”<\/p>\n

And it looks like that’s fi\u00fa blag amh\u00e1in<\/strong>, one blog’s worth, so SGF<\/strong>, and it looks like this glossary will just have to continue one with blag n\u00f3 dh\u00f3 eile<\/strong>. – R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

P.S. How to pronounce “p\u00e1irtghluais<\/strong>“?\u00a0 Not so bad, when you remember it’s “p\u00e1irt<\/strong>” as a prefix and “gluais<\/strong>” lenited: PAWRTCH- \u03b3LOO-ish.\u00a0 The “gh” part is the voiced velar fricative, previously discussed in several other blogs in this series, like https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/saying-i-love-you-in-irish\/<\/a> (whose subtitle is “and minding your velar fricatives”).\u00a0 The \/\u03b3\/ is the “gamma” sign, borrowed from Greek for the International Phonetic Alphabet, and I can’t seem to make it rest on the baseline, as I would like it to, so please don’t read it as a “y.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Here’s a little further background on some of the words used in “F\u00e1ilte na Madra\u00ed roimh Lennox” (https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/failte-na-madrai-roimh-lennox-the-dogs-welcome-to-lennox\/). A full gluais and\/or aistri\u00fach\u00e1n may be “ar an bhfeadh mh\u00f3r” (in the offing). We’ll start with a key term in the blog, Droichead an Tuar Ceatha, which will actually give us three main words…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":2579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[2390,229522,4331,229524,229523,229552,229553,229551,229511,229557,229542,229558,229566,5395,229520,5966,229565,229550,229549,229561,229562,229563,229547,229559,229560,229555,229554,229546,229556,229537,7296],"class_list":["post-2574","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-phrase","tag-barnes","tag-belfast","tag-breed-specific-legislation","tag-bsl","tag-ceatha","tag-ceathanna","tag-cith","tag-cymraeg","tag-droichead","tag-droichead-an-tuar-ceatha","tag-droichid","tag-failte-na-madrai-roimh-lennox","tag-gluais","tag-lennox","tag-madra","tag-memorial-tribute","tag-pairtghluais","tag-partial-glossary","tag-pons","tag-pontis","tag-puente","tag-rainbow-bridge","tag-trough","tag-trug","tag-tuair","tag-tuar","tag-tuar-ceatha","tag-tuartha","tag-welcome","tag-welsh"],"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