{"id":515,"date":"2010-11-23T09:34:49","date_gmt":"2010-11-23T09:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=515"},"modified":"2012-12-02T14:35:14","modified_gmt":"2012-12-02T14:35:14","slug":"la-an-altaithe-cen-tearma-i-ngaeilge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/la-an-altaithe-cen-tearma-i-ngaeilge\/","title":{"rendered":"L\u00e1 (an) Altaithe: C\u00e9n T\u00e9arma i nGaeilge?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Last year, as some of you may recall, I compared the usage of four different terms for saying \u201cThanksgiving Day\u201d in Irish.\u00a0 The total number of hits, based on Google searching, was about 100, which is, of course, quite small compared to the word \u201cThanksgiving\u201d in English.\u00a0 Admittedly, the difference in the number of hits in Irish as opposed to English is pretty much a foregone conclusion.\u00a0 Thanksgiving Day is not an Irish holiday, so even though it might be discussed by anybody anywhere, it\u2019s not likely to generate a lot of commentary in Irish.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s results for the word \u201cThanksgiving Day\u201d in English?\u00a0 Two different searches a few minutes apart, using the exact same search term, gave me 27,700,000 first and then 28,300,000 hits.\u00a0 Either way, the difference between the results for English and Irish are staggering, but, as I said above, not surprising.\u00a0 Why there should be a difference of 600,000 hits for the English results, within a few minutes, I can only chalk up to Google analyzing what I had been doing just before the second search before and working that into the search.\u00a0 Dearth\u00e1ir m\u00f3r ag breathn\u00fa orainn<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

A plus or minus difference of 600,000 for the Irish search would be mindboggling, but in the English context it shouldn\u2019t raise any eyebrows.<\/p>\n

The total chat about Thanksgiving Day in Irish, for 2010, that I\u2019ve been able to track, is minuscule compared to the hits for English.\u00a0 About 200 compared to about 28,000,000.\u00a0 Not even a drop in the bucket, but maybe a m\u00f3il\u00edn<\/strong> of that drop in the bucket.\u00a0 And of course, this search doesn\u2019t claim to represent the entire picture \u2013 it would take many searches on the same topic to even approach that.\u00a0 It does give a good idea, though, as to which the more popular terms are.\u00a0 And it also shows, quite nicely, that at least there is more online chat about the topic this year than last.\u00a0 And a further \u201cof course\u201d is that some of this increase points to last year\u2019s Thanksgiving articles in this Transparent Language blog.\u00a0 But that\u2019s how the system works!<\/p>\n

So how do this year\u2019s results compare to last year\u2019s?<\/p>\n

L\u00e1 an Altaithe<\/strong> \u2013 99 (2010) as opposed to 44 hits (2009)<\/p>\n

L\u00e1 Altaithe<\/strong> \u2013 115 (2010) as opposed to 45 hits (2009)<\/p>\n

L\u00e1 Bu\u00edochais<\/strong> \u2013 9 hits (2010) as opposed to 5 hits (2009)<\/p>\n

an L\u00e1 Gabh\u00e1la Bu\u00edochais<\/strong> \u2013 4 hits (2010, by general Google searching) as opposed to 1 hit (2009, found by \u201cguided browsing,\u201d not by \u201cGoogle\u201d as such)<\/p>\n

In addition, another term surfaced this time that I hadn\u2019t searched last year<\/p>\n

F\u00e9ile an Altaithe<\/strong> 5 hits, dating as far back as 2004<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a quick breakdown of the vocabulary the different phrases are based on:<\/p>\n

altaithe<\/strong>, from the verb \u201caltaigh<\/strong>\u201d (give thanks, generally implying to God, as opposed to thanking a person, which is typically, \u201cGo raibh maith agat<\/strong>\u201d),<\/p>\n

bu\u00edochas<\/strong> [BWEE-uh-khuss], thanks, gratitude.\u00a0 In the possessive, as used in \u201cL\u00e1 Bu\u00edochais<\/strong>,\u201d this is pronounced \u201cBWEE-uh-khush\u201d<\/p>\n

gabh\u00e1il, <\/strong>taking, giving, catching, invading, seizing, assuming, and accepting.\u00a0 A truly multi-purpose verb!\u00a0 On the surface, adding the word for \u201cgiving\u201d could make the phrase an even more accurate rendition of\u00a0 \u201cThanksgiving.\u201d\u00a0 But clearly, to look at the 2009 and 2010 results, this phrase is staying in the minority.\u00a0 Perhaps just because it\u2019s longer, maybe a bit unwieldy, and requires two nouns to be converted to the genitive case.<\/p>\n

f\u00e9ile<\/strong>, festival (f\u00e9ile an altaithe<\/strong>, festival of giving thanks).\u00a0 The word \u201cf\u00e9ile<\/strong>\u201d is typically used with saints\u2019 feast days, as in \u201cL\u00e1 Fh\u00e9ile P\u00e1draig<\/strong>\u201d and is often shortened to beyond immediate recognition as in \u201cL\u00e1 \u2018le P\u00e1draig<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cF\u00e9ile<\/strong>\u201d can also mean \u201cfestival\u201d in general, as in \u201cF\u00e9ile an Phobail<\/strong>\u201d (i mB\u00e9al Feirste Thiar<\/strong>).\u00a0 If you want to talk about moveable feasts, this is the word you\u2019d use (f\u00e9ile aistritheach<\/strong>), not the other words for \u201cfeast\u201d in Irish, such as \u201cf\u00e9asta<\/strong>\u201d or \u201cfle\u00e1<\/strong>\u201d or \u201ccoirm<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 That last word, \u201ccoirm<\/strong>\u201d is really an \u201cale-feast\u201d or \u201cdrinking-party,\u201d so would be an unlikely candidate to go with \u201caltaithe<\/strong>\u201d! \u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a great word to know, though, and is a cognate of the Welsh \u201ccwrw<\/em>,\u201d which can mean \u201cale\u201d or \u201cbeer.\u201d\u00a0 Now that may sound surprising, depending on whether you think of \u201cbeer\u201d as the \u201cumbrella term,\u201d consisting of ale and lager, or whether you think of beer as lager.\u00a0 Much food for thought there, the liquid variety, of course, but enough to be \u00e1bhar blag eile<\/strong>, not crammed into Blag L\u00e1 an Altaithe<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

By the way, this isn\u2019t meant to imply that one shouldn\u2019t be thankful for ale-feasts, just that trying to come up with a phrase like \u201can ale-feast of thanks\u201d would seem counterproductive when discussing Thanksgiving as it is generally understood.<\/p>\n

By the way, a d\u00f3<\/strong>, if I were going to refer to the actual food served at a Thanksgiving dinner as a \u201cfeast,\u201d I would use \u201cf\u00e9asta<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cF\u00e9asta L\u00e1 an Altaithe<\/strong>\u201d would refer to the food, not the holiday in general.<\/p>\n

Next up, still no \u201csuccotash\u201d i nGaeilge<\/strong> but plenty of ways to discuss \u201cp\u00f3nair\u00ed m\u00f3ra<\/strong>\u201d and \u201carbhar Indiach<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Please stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Last year, as some of you may recall, I compared the usage of four different terms for saying \u201cThanksgiving Day\u201d in Irish.\u00a0 The total number of hits, based on Google searching, was about 100, which is, of course, quite small compared to the word \u201cThanksgiving\u201d in English.\u00a0 Admittedly, the difference in the number…<\/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":[3898],"tags":[255530,255531,12671,12667,12668,12666,12669,5285,5667,12665,12664,12670,2567,255529],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-2009-research","tag-5-ways-to-say-thanksgiving-in-irish","tag-an-la-gabhala-buiochais","tag-coirm","tag-feasta","tag-feile-an-altaithe","tag-flea","tag-gaeilge","tag-irish","tag-la-altaithe","tag-la-an-altaithe","tag-la-buiochais","tag-thanksgiving","tag-update"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515","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=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3532,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions\/3532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}