{"id":4876,"date":"2014-01-27T20:59:06","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T20:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=4876"},"modified":"2015-07-30T03:58:58","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T03:58:58","slug":"dha-ainmhi-dheag-dha-bhliain-deag-agus-cen-fhoirm-den-alt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/dha-ainmhi-dheag-dha-bhliain-deag-agus-cen-fhoirm-den-alt\/","title":{"rendered":"Dh\u00e1 Ainmh\u00ed Dh\u00e9ag, Dh\u00e1 Bhliain D\u00e9ag, agus C\u00e9n Fhoirm den Alt?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"Bliain<\/a>

Bliain an Chapaill<\/p><\/div>\n

Seo (2014) Bliain an Chapaill de r\u00e9ir fh\u00e9ilire na S\u00edneach.\u00a0 Agus cad faoi na blianta eile?\u00a0 Agus na hainmhithe a bhaineanns leo?\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n

So we’ve all heard that this (2014) is the Year of the Horse (Bliain an Chapaill<\/b>) in the Chinese calendar.\u00a0 But how would we say the other eleven Chinese years in Irish?\u00a0 And what happens to the phrase “of the” as we go from masculine to feminine? \u00a0Grammatically, that is!\u00a0 The biological gender of a specific animal isn’t really relevant for this exercise. \u00a0While it’s good to know that Irish has the usual differentiations for male and female animals (stail\/l\u00e1ir; tarbh\/b\u00f3; reithe\/f\u00f3isc; poc <\/strong>or pocaide\/minseach, srl.<\/strong>), grammatical gender is, well, a “capall<\/strong>” of a different color.<\/p>\n

Here are the other eleven animals of the Chinese calendar and below that, a fill-in-the-blank exercise.\u00a0\u00a0 An interesting aspect of all of this that didn’t occur to me until just now is whether the Chinese word for horse (m\u01ce<\/em> ) used for “Year of the Horse” is specifically male or female (a mare) or whether it’s for “horse” as a species in general, neither male or female.\u00a0 But the words below are the most basic Irish words for each animal even if there are other subcategories like l\u00e1ir, minseach <\/strong>or cr\u00e1in<\/strong>.\u00a0 When we get to “rooster,” we know it’s the male of the species. \u00a0And for a lot of animals, especially wild ones or those not native to Ireland, we often simply use “fireann<\/strong>” (male) and “baineann<\/strong>” (female), as in “cangar\u00fa baineann<\/strong>.” \u00a0At any rate, here are the other eleven animals sa bhf\u00e9ilire S<\/strong>\u00edneach<\/b>:<\/p>\n

francach<\/b>, rat<\/p>\n

damh<\/b> [dahv], ox<\/p>\n

t\u00edogar<\/b> [TEE-gur], tiger<\/p>\n

coin\u00edn<\/b>, rabbit<\/p>\n

dragan<\/b>, dragon<\/p>\n

nathair<\/b> [NAH-hirzh], snake<\/p>\n

gabhar<\/b> [GOW-ur, with the “ow” as in “cow” or “now,” not as in “bow-tie”), goat<\/p>\n

monca\u00ed<\/b>, monkey<\/p>\n

coileach<\/b> [KWIL-yukh], rooster<\/p>\n

madra<\/b> (or “madadh<\/strong>” [MAH-duh] or “gadhar<\/strong>” [GYE-ur, rhyming with “tire” or “wire”]), dog<\/p>\n

muc<\/b> [muk, the “u” is close to English “book” but not like English “muck” or “moon”], pig<\/p>\n

And what happens to all these words when they come after “Year of the”?\u00a0 And what happens to the word “the,” which can appear as either “an<\/strong>” or “na<\/strong>“? \u00a0Remember: “an<\/strong>” if the noun is masculine, “na<\/strong>” if the noun is feminine, and leid mh\u00f3r<\/strong>, only two from this group are grammatically feminine:<\/p>\n

Bliain ___ Fhrancaigh<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bliain ___ Daimh<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bliain ___\u00a0 T\u00edogair<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bliain ___ Choin\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bliain ___ Dragain<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bliain ___ Nathrach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bliain ___\u00a0 Ghabhair<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bliain ___\u00a0 Mhonca\u00ed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bliain ___ Choiligh<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bliain ___\u00a0 Mhadra <\/strong>(or “Bliain <\/strong>__ \u00a0Mhadaidh”<\/strong> or “Bliain \u00a0<\/strong>__ \u00a0Ghadhair”)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bliain ___ Muice<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bhuel, “Athbhliain faoi mhaise” faoi dh\u00f3<\/strong> (since we just wished everyone that about a month ago) and, fingers crossed that this spelling is an adequate romanization, “Kung Hei Fat Choy<\/em>!”\u00a0 Maybe by next year, I’ll have learned what each of the four words means separately and made a stab at learning “ceithre thon na S\u00ednise.”\u00a0 Idir an d\u00e1 linn, SGF – R\u00f3isl\u00edn <\/b><\/p>\n

Agus na freagra\u00ed: <\/b><\/p>\n

Bliain … 1) an Fhrancaigh, 2) an Daimh, 3) an T\u00edogair, 4) an Choin\u00edn, 5) an Dragain, 6) na Nathrach (focal baininscneach a haon sa tsraith seo), 7) an Ghabhair, 8) an Mhonca\u00ed, 9) an Choiligh, 10) an Mhadra (<\/b>or “Bliain an Mhadaidh” <\/b>or “Bliain an Ghadhair”), 11) na Muice (focal baininscneach a d\u00f3 sa tsraith). \u00a0Uimhir 12, ar nd\u00f3igh, “Bliain an Chapaill.” \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Nasc don phicti\u00far<\/strong>:\u00a0http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Horse.svg<\/span><\/p>\n

Gluais: baininscneach,<\/strong> (grammatically) feminine; sraith,<\/strong> series<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Seo (2014) Bliain an Chapaill de r\u00e9ir fh\u00e9ilire na S\u00edneach.\u00a0 Agus cad faoi na blianta eile?\u00a0 Agus na hainmhithe a bhaineanns leo?\u00a0 So we’ve all heard that this (2014) is the Year of the Horse (Bliain an Chapaill) in the Chinese calendar.\u00a0 But how would we say the other eleven Chinese years in…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":4877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[229914,307111,307123,307115,65808,13547,390292,5667,229736,390295,390293,390294,376453,229735,229839],"class_list":["post-4876","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-ainmhithe","tag-bliain","tag-bliain-an-chapaill","tag-blianta","tag-bo","tag-chinese-new-year","tag-foisc","tag-irish","tag-lair","tag-minseach","tag-poc","tag-pocaide","tag-reithe","tag-stail","tag-tarbh"],"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