{"id":437,"date":"2010-09-29T23:16:51","date_gmt":"2010-09-29T23:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=437"},"modified":"2010-10-01T15:25:33","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T15:25:33","slug":"how-to-say-%e2%80%9cbefore%e2%80%9d-in-irish-%e2%80%93-let-me-count-the-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/how-to-say-%e2%80%9cbefore%e2%80%9d-in-irish-%e2%80%93-let-me-count-the-ways\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Say \u201cBefore\u201d in Irish \u2013 Let Me Count the Ways"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of this blog\u2019s readers, Seanch\u00e1n, has written in with an interesting question.\u00a0 Cad \u00e9 an difear idir na focail seo: cheana, roimh, sula, thar, os coinne, os comhair agus ar tosach.\u00a0 Cialla\u00edonn siad go l\u00e9ir <\/strong>\u201cbefore.\u201d\u00a0 Most have many other meanings as well.\u00a0\u00a0 And before we finish the topic, we might be adding a few more entries to\u00a0the list.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One aspect of the answer is that some are different parts of speech (ranna cainte<\/strong>).\u00a0 And then there is always nuance, idiom, tradition and context to explain other differences.\u00a0 So let\u2019s take the translations of \u201cbefore\u201d one by one.<\/p>\n

The two that are probably most widely used are \u201croimh<\/strong>\u201d and \u201csula<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRoimh<\/strong>\u201d is used before nouns or with a pronoun ending in phrases like:<\/p>\n

T\u00e1 f\u00e1ilte romhat<\/strong> (one of the ways to say \u201cYou\u2019re welcome,\u201d lit. \u201ca welcome is before you\u201d)<\/p>\n

Bh\u00ed eagla orm roimh an mbean s\u00ed<\/strong> (I was afraid of the banshee).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cr\u00edost romham<\/strong> (loosely translated, \u201cMay Christ lead me,\u201d lit. \u201cChrist before me,\u201d one of the lines of St. Patrick\u2019s famous lorica (breastplate) prayer).\u00a0<\/p>\n

roimh a seacht a chlog<\/strong>, before seven o\u2019clock<\/p>\n

an rud a bh\u00ed rompu<\/strong>, what was before them<\/p>\n

Since \u201croimh<\/strong>\u201d is a preposition, it has seven forms with pronoun endings: romham, romhat, roimhe, roimpi, romhainn, romhaibh, rompu <\/strong>(before me, before you, etc.).\u00a0 For pronunciation, remember the \u201cmh\u201d is pronounced either like a \u201cw\u201d (romham [ROH-wum]) or like a \u201cv\u201d (roimhe [RIV-uh]).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSula<\/strong>\u201d is used before verbs, as in:<\/p>\n

Sula bhfaca s\u00ed an corp\u00e1n, chonaic an bhean l\u00f3ist\u00edn an fhuil ag sileadh tr\u00edd an ts\u00edle\u00e1il<\/strong> (Before she saw the body, the landlady saw the blood trickling through the ceiling).\u00a0 Why that scene from Tess<\/em> occurred to me to represent one incident happening before another incident, I have no idea, ach is scann\u00e1n maith \u00e9<\/strong>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Caithfidh muid sin a dh\u00e9anamh sula n-imeoidh muid<\/strong> (We have to do that before we go).\u00a0<\/p>\n

As you might have noticed, \u201csula<\/strong>\u201d causes eclipsis, even of vowels.\u00a0 \u201cSula<\/strong>\u201d also changes to \u201csular<\/strong>\u201d before regular past tense verbs and some of the irregulars:\u00a0<\/p>\n

D\u2019\u00f3l s\u00e9 gloine uisce sular ith s\u00e9 an b\u00e9ile<\/strong> (He drank a glass of water before he ate the meal).<\/p>\n

L\u00e9igh s\u00e9 na n\u00f3ta\u00ed sular thosaigh s\u00e9 an obair<\/strong> (He read the notes before he started the work).<\/p>\n

And a sula<\/strong> + roimh<\/strong> combo:<\/p>\n

Bh\u00ed \u00e1thas air gur l\u00e9igh s\u00e9 Ulysses sular l\u00e9igh s\u00e9 Finnegans Wake in ionad Finnegans Wake a l\u00e9amh roimh Ulysses <\/strong>(He was glad he read Ulysses before he read Finnegans Wake instead of reading Finnegans Wake before Ulysses).\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Imagine my surprise a few years ago when I saw book promotions for \u201cSula<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cAha!\u201d I thought, \u201csomeone has finally named a novel after an Irish conjunction.\u201d\u00a0 Not that I\u2019d been holding my breath for such an occurrence.\u00a0 Turns out, as you may know, that \u201cSula\u201d happens to also be a girl\u2019s name, meaning \u201cpeace\u201d (cf. Shulamit) or \u201cthe sun\u201d (cf. sol, Old Norse for \u201csun\u201d) or \u201clittle bear\u201d (cf. ursa, ursula) depending on your source, Arabic, Icelandic, and Latin respectively.\u00a0 And the book was actually the leabhar m\u00f3r\u00e9ilimh<\/strong> by Toni Morrison, about a girl named Sula.\u00a0 So the opportunity to write the novel is still open \u2013 a conjunktionsroman<\/em>, anyone?\u00a0 Written in the conjunctive mood \u2013 there actually are possibilities, with sub-plots of the conjunctive-imperative and subordination.\u00a0 Hmmm!<\/p>\n

Looks like this topic will be another mionsraith ar an mblag<\/strong>, since this one is long enough, already.\u00a0 And that last little twist of phrase is a r\u00e9amhthagra<\/strong> to the next blog, so please stay tuned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gluais: eagla<\/strong>, fear; fuil<\/strong>, blood; r\u00e9amhthagra <\/strong>[RAYV-HAHG-ruh], flash-forward, prolepsis; sileadh<\/strong>, dripping, trickling; sraith<\/strong>, series<\/p>\n

P.S. Hope I got that German possessive ending correct.\u00a0 Muna bhfuil s\u00e9 ceart, an scr\u00edobhfadh Geam\u00e1nach ar bith ar an liosta chugam lena cheart\u00fa?\u00a0 Go raibh maith agat roimh r\u00e9.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of this blog\u2019s readers, Seanch\u00e1n, has written in with an interesting question.\u00a0 Cad \u00e9 an difear idir na focail seo: cheana, roimh, sula, thar, os coinne, os comhair agus ar tosach.\u00a0 Cialla\u00edonn siad go l\u00e9ir \u201cbefore.\u201d\u00a0 Most have many other meanings as well.\u00a0\u00a0 And before we finish the topic, we might be adding a…<\/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":[1],"tags":[11653,11654],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-roimh","tag-sula"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","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=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":443,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}