{"id":2984,"date":"2012-08-12T18:33:33","date_gmt":"2012-08-12T18:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=2984"},"modified":"2017-05-06T14:03:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T14:03:13","slug":"in-ait-na-mbonn-cuig-bhonn-deirinn-sna-cluichi-oilimpeacha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/in-ait-na-mbonn-cuig-bhonn-deirinn-sna-cluichi-oilimpeacha\/","title":{"rendered":"In \u00c1it na mBonn: C\u00faig Bhonn d’\u00c9irinn sna Cluich\u00ed Oilimpeacha"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Boinn Oilimpeacha<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

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

We all know the results of the 2012 Olympics by now, and Ireland’s impressive showing.\u00a0 Let’s try a little Irish vocabulary based on Olympic themes and honoring an c\u00faig\u00e9ar buaiteoir\u00ed boinn \u00f3 \u00c9irinn<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

First let’s match them with their sport (freagra\u00ed th\u00edos, mar is gn\u00e1ch<\/strong>):<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nBoinn<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\nL\u00fathchleasaithe<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.<\/td>\nbonn \u00f3ir<\/strong><\/td>\na.<\/td>\nPaddy Barnes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.<\/td>\nbonn airgid<\/strong><\/td>\nb.<\/td>\nCian O’Connor<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.<\/td>\nbonn cr\u00e9-umha<\/strong><\/td>\nc.<\/td>\nJohn Joe Nevin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.<\/td>\nbonn cr\u00e9-umha<\/strong><\/td>\nd.<\/td>\nKatie Taylor<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.<\/td>\nbonn cr\u00e9-umha<\/strong><\/td>\ne.<\/td>\nMichael Conlan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

OK, right, that probably wasn’t all that difficult, since two of Ireland’s three bronzes were in boxing.\u00a0 But, at least according to what most of my students indicate, every bit of practice helps.<\/p>\n

You noticed what happened to the words describing the type of medal (and the type of metal!), right?\u00a0 An tuiseal ginideach<\/strong> — you can’t escape it!<\/p>\n

\u00f3r<\/strong>, gold, changed to “\u00f3ir<\/strong>” (of gold)<\/p>\n

airgead<\/strong>, silver, or money, changed to “airgid<\/strong>” (of silver, or, in other contexts, “of money”)<\/p>\n

cr\u00e9-umha<\/strong>, bronze, well, “cr\u00e9-umha<\/strong>” is a fourth-declension noun, which means it doesn’t change for the genitive case.\u00a0 So “cr\u00e9-umha<\/strong>” stays as “cr\u00e9-umha<\/strong>.”\u00a0 \u00a0Unless, of course, it’s the second part of a compound word like “fead\u00e1n fosfar-chr\u00e9-umha<\/strong>” (phosphor-bronze tube) or if it follows a feminine singular noun, in which case it gets lenited (miod\u00f3g chr\u00e9-umha<\/strong>, a bronze dagger).<\/p>\n

Actually, I’ve never fully understood how “umha<\/strong>” by itself is sometimes used for bronze (umha mangain\u00e9ise<\/strong>, manganese bronze), and at other times it is used for “copper” (ampaill umha<\/strong>, an ampulla of copper).\u00a0 There is another word for “copper” (copar<\/strong>, as in “mian chopair<\/strong>” (copper ore). A related word, the actual adjective “umhai<\/strong>,” can mean “of bronze,” “of copper,” or “brazen,” as in “nathair umha\u00ed<\/strong>” (a brazen serpent).\u00a0 As far as I know, however, it’s not used for “bold brazen articles” like “giddy schoolgirls”! \u00a0Those bold creatures would need a separate blog of their own.\u00a0 BTW, how many of you have been called a “bold brazen article” (if you care to admit it)?\u00a0 The term comes up over and over again in my Irish classes, when we discuss the word “d\u00e1na<\/strong>” (bold as in \u00a0brazen, but not King-Arthur-type-bold).<\/p>\n

Anyway, back to the more metallic aspect of all this.\u00a0 The second main element of bronze, besides copper, is tin (st\u00e1n<\/strong>, in Irish).\u00a0 But, as you’ve just seen, the compound word for “bronze” in Irish is “cr\u00e9-umha<\/strong>,” nothing to do with “st\u00e1n<\/strong>.”\u00a0 “Cr\u00e9<\/strong>” means “clay,” or “clayey,” “earthy,” or if you like, “argillaceous.”\u00a0 So, metallurigically, \u00a0I’m stumped.\u00a0 Why “cr\u00e9<\/strong>“? Does “cr\u00e9<\/strong>” refer to early brick furnaces (as opposed to today’s metal ones)?\u00a0 N\u00edl a fhios agam<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

At any rate, sin iad, \u00f3r (bonn amh\u00e1in), airgead (bonn amh\u00e1in), agus cr\u00e9-umha (tr\u00ed bhonn<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

How about one more matching game, l\u00fathchleasa\u00ed agus sp\u00f3rt?<\/strong>\u00a0 In this case, since four of the medals were for dorn\u00e1la\u00edocht<\/strong>, the weight categories will be included. \u00a0Freagra\u00ed th\u00edos. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nSp\u00f3irt\/Leibh\u00e9il<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\nL\u00fathchleasaithe<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.<\/td>\nDorn\u00e1la\u00edocht (\u00e9adrom-mhe\u00e1chan)<\/strong><\/td>\na.<\/td>\nPaddy Barnes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.<\/td>\nDorn\u00e1la\u00edocht (coileachmhe\u00e1chan)<\/strong><\/td>\nb.<\/td>\nCian O’Connor<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.<\/td>\nDorn\u00e1la\u00edocht (cuilmhe\u00e1chan)<\/strong><\/td>\nc.<\/td>\nJohn Joe Nevin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.<\/td>\nDorn\u00e1la\u00edocht (cuilmhe\u00e1chan \u00e9adrom)<\/strong><\/td>\nd.<\/td>\nKatie Taylor<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.<\/td>\nL\u00e9imneach Se\u00f3 (aonair)<\/strong><\/td>\ne.<\/td>\nMichael Conlan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the title of this blog, “In \u00c1it na mBonn<\/strong>,” it’s actually a sort of portmanteau or juxtaposition of two different Irish words, spelled alike and sounding alike, i.e. a pair of Irish comhainmneacha<\/strong> (homonyms).<\/p>\n

So far in this blog, we’ve been talking about the word “bonn<\/strong>,” meaning “coin” (bonn airgid<\/strong>, a silver coin; bonn b\u00e1n<\/strong>, a groat) or “medal “(bonn coisricthe<\/strong>, a consecrated medal; bonn m\u00edleata<\/strong>, a military medal).\u00a0 But there is another word “bonn<\/strong>,” also widely used, whose meanings include “sole” (bonn coise, bonn br\u00f3ige<\/strong>), “footing” (ar aon bhonn<\/strong>, on equal footing), “foundation” (bonn col\u00fain<\/strong>), and “tire”\/”tyre” (bonn aeir<\/strong>).\u00a0 Based on this latter “sole\/footing\/foundation” sense, we have the expressions “in \u00e1it na mbonn<\/strong>” and “ar \u00e1it na mbonn<\/strong>,” which both basically mean the same as “l\u00e1ithreach bonn<\/strong>,” i.e. “immediately.”<\/p>\n

If we interpret “In \u00c1it na mBonn<\/strong>” as being based on “bonn<\/strong>” (coin, medal), however, we have a new possible meaning: “in the place of the medals.” \u00a0Plausible enough!<\/p>\n

Interestingly, both “bonn<\/strong>” (sole, footing, foundation, etc.) and “bonn<\/strong>” (coin, medal) have the same set of plural and possessive forms:<\/p>\n

bonn<\/strong> 1) sole, 2) medal, etc.; an bonn<\/strong> 1) the sole\u00a0 2) the medal<\/p>\n

boinn<\/strong> 1) of a sole, 2) of a medal; an bhoinn<\/strong> [un win] 1) of the sole, 2) of the medal<\/p>\n

boinn<\/strong> 1) soles, 2) medals; na boinn<\/strong> 1) the soles, 2) the medals<\/p>\n

bonn<\/strong> 1) of soles, 2) of medals; na mbonn<\/strong> [nuh mun] 1) of the soles, 2) of the medals<\/p>\n

Hmm, maybe I could have used “C\u00faigear \u00c9ireannach: Tagtha Chun Boinn<\/strong>” as a title, with similar effect.\u00a0 This is based on another “bonn<\/strong>” phrase, “teacht chun boinn<\/strong>” (to come forward, very literally, I suppose, to come “on footing”). \u00a0So we could call it a “bonn<\/strong> pun.” \u00a0Certainly, though, these s\u00e1rl\u00fathchleasaithe<\/strong> did indeed come “to medals” and they fulfilled the original meaning of the phrase “to come forward.” \u00a0The Olympics have generated their own jargon (“to medal,” “to gold,” in English), so why not i nGaeilge<\/strong> as well? \u00a0For more on Olympicspeak, you might like to check out http:\/\/wordability.net\/2012\/06\/22\/to-gold-or-not-to-gold\/<\/a>, which also refers to the paroxysms of rage that the newish verb “to medal,” widely used during the Olympics, \u00a0has been creating.\u00a0 \u00a0Linguistic food for thought — our era’s propensity for “verbifying” nouns (to tase, to Google, to GoDaddify) and “nounifying” verbs (his team’s asks, 300 likes).\u00a0 On that note, comhghairdeas , comhghairdeachas, maith sibh, maith gach fear, maith an bhean, agus go maire sibh \u00e9<\/strong>.\u00a0 In short, well done (plus your wins gave us a chance to stretch our Irish vocabulary)! SG<\/strong>F, R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Freagra\u00ed (Boinn):<\/strong> 1d, Taylor; 2c, Nevin, 3a, Barnes, 4b, O’Connor, 5e, Conlan<\/p>\n

Freagra\u00ed (Sp\u00f3irt)<\/strong>: 1d (light), 2c (bantam), 3e (fly), 4a (light fly), 5b (individual jumping)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) We all know the results of the 2012 Olympics by now, and Ireland’s impressive showing.\u00a0 Let’s try a little Irish vocabulary based on Olympic themes and honoring an c\u00faig\u00e9ar buaiteoir\u00ed boinn \u00f3 \u00c9irinn. First let’s match them with their sport (freagra\u00ed th\u00edos, mar is gn\u00e1ch): Boinn L\u00fathchleasaithe 1. bonn \u00f3ir a. Paddy Barnes…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":2989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[229651,229666,229649,229648,229647,4420,1946,229654,489337,229662,229599,2021,229652,229668,229660,5412,229672,229661,229670,229632,229669,229667,229650,489338,218903,229664,229581,2360,6367,229663,229671,229653,229657,229658,229659,7293],"class_list":["post-2984","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-airgead","tag-bantamweight","tag-bhoinn","tag-bhonn","tag-boinn","tag-bonn","tag-boxing","tag-bronze","tag-chun","tag-cian-oconnor","tag-cluichi-oilimpeacha","tag-coin","tag-cre-umha","tag-flyweight","tag-footing","tag-gold","tag-individual-jumping","tag-john-joe-nevin","tag-jumping","tag-katie-taylor","tag-light-flyweight","tag-lightweight","tag-mbonn","tag-meachan","tag-medal","tag-michael-conlan","tag-oilimpeacha","tag-olympics","tag-or","tag-paddy-barnes","tag-show-jumping","tag-silver","tag-sole","tag-tire","tag-tyre","tag-weight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984","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=2984"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9185,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984\/revisions\/9185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}