{"id":537,"date":"2010-11-30T18:12:24","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T18:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=537"},"modified":"2010-12-06T07:59:49","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T07:59:49","slug":"ag-caint-faoin-euro-speaking-of-the-euro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/ag-caint-faoin-euro-speaking-of-the-euro\/","title":{"rendered":"Ag Caint faoin Euro (Speaking of the Euro)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last blog I suggested that we might discuss c\u00farsa\u00ed airgeadais <\/strong>for a while, given the recent developments with the euro.\u00a0 Nothing too \u201cteicni\u00fail<\/strong>\u201d or \u201cteib\u00ed,\u201d <\/strong>since, maidir leis an eacnama\u00edocht agus leis an ngeilleagar, n\u00ed hiad m\u2019iomaire iad.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>But I\u2019ll do my best \u201can iomaire sin a threabhadh,\u201d <\/strong>anyway.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with one of the most basic terms for discussing the current situation, the euro.\u00a0 Blog by blog we might get a little more in depth, but for starters, we\u2019ll just deal with the word \u201ceuro\u201d itself, and how to count them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the late 90s, as the euro-era approached Ireland, I found myself wondering if this new word would be subject to the usual rules for counting things in Irish.\u00a0 These rules include lenition, eclipsis, sometimes the h-prefix, and sometimes special endings.\u00a0 I also wondered whether the word \u201ceuro,\u201d once borrowed into Irish, would have the long mark that its pronunciation appeared to suggest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As it turned out, in Irish, the word \u201ceuro<\/strong>\u201d is exempt from all of these features, including having no long mark.\u00a0 I\u2019ll do a quick review here of how these features work, using nouns that begin with vowels, as \u201ceuro<\/strong>\u201d does.\u00a0 For contrast, I\u2019ll simply pick a traditional noun like \u201c\u00fall<\/strong>\u201d (apple).\u00a0 I\u2019ll also show an example of an Irish noun that fits the special \u201cunits of measurement\u201d pattern.\u00a0 There\u2019s only about a dozen of these special units-of-measurement nouns, at least in common use, and fortunately for today\u2019s purpose, at least one, \u201cuair<\/strong>\u201d (hour), also begins with a vowel.\u00a0 Seeing what can happen to the nouns \u201c\u00fall<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cuair<\/strong>,\u201d when counting, the word \u201ceuro<\/strong>\u201d seems much less complicated.\u00a0 But in some ways, I also think it\u2019s equally challenging to remember not<\/em> to apply the rules that are ingrained for Irish after years of practice counting apples, hours, and just about anything else under the sun.<\/p>\n

For all the examples below, keep in mind that nouns in Irish almost always stay singular after numbers.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if you\u2019re saying \u201ctwo apple,\u201d \u201cthree hour,\u201d etc.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s how you use numbers 1 to 6 with the words \u201ceuro<\/strong>,\u201d \u201d\u00fall<\/strong>,\u201d and \u201cuair<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 Remember that for \u201cone,\u201d the number comes after the noun (\u00fall amh\u00e1in<\/strong>), for the other numbers it comes before (dh\u00e1 \u00fall<\/strong>).\u00a0 We\u2019ll do more with the numbers from seven to ten in a later blog, since there is a change in the pattern (except for euro<\/strong>, which doesn\u2019t really have a pattern, period):<\/p>\n

\u00fall amh\u00e1in, dh\u00e1 \u00fall, tr\u00ed \u00fall, ceithre \u00fall, c\u00faig \u00fall, s\u00e9 \u00fall <\/strong><\/p>\n

euro amh\u00e1in, dh\u00e1 euro, tr\u00ed euro, ceithre euro, c\u00faig euro, s\u00e9 euro <\/strong><\/p>\n

Piece o\u2019 cake, so far, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not really as if what happens with the word \u201cuair<\/strong>\u201d is all that remarkable, given the number of initial mutations and special endings in Irish in general.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a bit different, and yes, it\u2019s one more pattern to learn.\u00a0 And here, the new pattern is for a very very widely used word, meaning \u201chour\u201d or sometimes \u201ctime\u201d in phrases like \u201cone time\u201d or \u201cthree times.\u201d\u00a0 So you can\u2019t ignore it.\u00a0 Counting hours, from one to six, is:<\/p>\n

uair amh\u00e1in<\/strong> (no change yet)<\/p>\n

dh\u00e1 uair<\/strong> (still no change, but n\u00e1 b\u00ed ar neamhaire<\/strong>!)<\/p>\n

tr\u00ed huaire, ceithre huaire, c\u00faig huaire, s\u00e9 huaire<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not really that big a deal.\u00a0 You just prefix an \u201ch,\u201d as you also do in Irish for a variety of other reasons, and you add an ending, which for this word is \u201c-e.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the euro is a unit of measurement, but it doesn\u2019t follow the \u201cunit of measurement\u201d rules in Irish, though other units of currency did, like \u201cpingin<\/strong>\u201d (pence, penny), and in even earlier days, \u201cscilling.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

Seven through ten (apple, hour, euro)<\/p>\n

seacht n-\u00fall, ocht n-\u00fall, naoi n-\u00fall, deich n-\u00fall<\/strong> (prefix n- before vowels)<\/p>\n

seacht n-uaire, ocht n-uaire, naoi n-uaire, deich n-uaire<\/strong> (prefix n- before vowels and add \u201c-e\u201d ending)<\/p>\n

seacht euro, ocht euro, naoi euro, deich euro<\/strong> (no changes anywhere)<\/p>\n

So, seeing all the possibilities, it makes the word \u201ceuro\u201d seem very easy to work with, grammatically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the way, I deliberately stuck with nouns beginning with vowels for this blog since they compare most readily with the word \u201ceuro<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 Introducing consonant-initial words would simple introduce a lot more initial changes (like b to bh, or b to mb), which we can save for another day, m\u00e1 t\u00e1 suim agaibh ann.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

By the way, a d\u00f3, the word \u201ceuro<\/strong>\u201d does have a plural, euronna<\/strong>.\u00a0 But, as covered above, you don\u2019t usually use it after numbers (the same as for most regular Irish nouns).\u00a0 It has no gender, unlike just about every other Irish noun.\u00a0 To say \u201cthe euro,\u201d it\u2019s \u201can euro<\/strong>,\u201d but this doesn\u2019t imply anything about grammatical gender.\u00a0 In many cases, you can tell the gender of an Irish noun by what happens after the definite article (\u201can<\/strong>\u201d) as in \u201can t-amad\u00e1in<\/strong> (a fool, masculine, with t-prefix before vowel) as opposed to \u201can \u00f3inseach<\/strong>\u201d (a female fool, feminine, with no t-prefix before vowel).\u00a0<\/p>\n

As you might expect, there was some controversy with the advent of the euro about how it would work as an Irish noun.\u00a0 Some articles were written, proposing that it should behave like a regular Irish noun.\u00a0 But, for better or for worse, it has it\u2019s own set of rules.\u00a0 Food for thought?<\/p>\n

Gluais: amh\u00e1in<\/strong> [uh-WAW-in, note stress on the 2nd<\/sup> syllable; the WAW-in part is barely more than one syllable, but breaking the transcript in two helps suggest the slenderness of the final \u201cn\u201d], one; g\u00e9<\/strong>, goose; geilleagar<\/strong>, economy; iomaire<\/strong>, ridge (in a field), but here \u201cforte;\u201d neamhaire<\/strong>, lack of attention; neart,<\/strong> strength, power (\u201cN\u00edl neart agam air<\/strong>\u201d means \u201cI can\u2019t help it\u201d); teib\u00ed<\/strong>, abstract; treabhadh<\/strong>, to plow\/plough, used figuratively in the expression \u201can iomaire sin a threabhadh<\/strong>,\u201d to tackle the task facing you.<\/p>\n

Fuaimni\u00fa: pingin<\/strong> [PING-in, like \u201csinging\u201d but not like \u201cfinger,\u201d at least for non-Inis Fada English OR, simply, with no \u2013ng- sound at all just \u201cpeen\u201d]; scilling<\/strong> [SHKIL-ing], shilling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last blog I suggested that we might discuss c\u00farsa\u00ed airgeadais for a while, given the recent developments with the euro.\u00a0 Nothing too \u201cteicni\u00fail\u201d or \u201cteib\u00ed,\u201d since, maidir leis an eacnama\u00edocht agus leis an ngeilleagar, n\u00ed hiad m\u2019iomaire iad.\u00a0\u00a0 But I\u2019ll do my best \u201can iomaire sin a threabhadh,\u201d anyway.\u00a0 Let\u2019s start with one of the…<\/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":[12909,251,12908,12910],"class_list":["post-537","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dha-euro","tag-euro","tag-euronna","tag-seacht-euro"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537","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=537"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":542,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions\/542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}