![\"Reithe?](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2015\/02\/Zodiac_sheep_statue-landis-creative-commons-e1424553241153.jpg\")
<\/a>Reithe? Caora? Gabhar? Leathreithe? Leathchaora? Leathghabhar? Leathdhaonna\u00ed? Dealbh i Waikoloa, Hav\u00e1\u00ed (Grianghraf: By Geoffrey.landis (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)<\/p><\/div>(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/strong><\/p>\n Bliain Nua na S\u00edneach agus Parthas na nGramad\u00f3ir\u00ed<\/strong>.\u00a0 Chinese New Year and this year, 2015, a grammarian’s paradise.<\/p>\n C\u00e9n f\u00e1th<\/strong>?\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n Because unlike previous years, 2015 offers us two, perhaps even three, animals as the symbol for the year.<\/p>\n But choosing between animals would mostly be vocabulary, not grammar, right?\u00a0 Like “sheep” vs. “goat”?<\/p>\n True, but grammar comes into play when we want to say “of the,” as in “Year of the … .”<\/p>\n Since English doesn’t have grammatical gender, except for pronouns and a handful of inanimate objects (like ships), there’s no difference in the “of the” part of expressions like “the hat of the man” and the “hat of the woman.”<\/p>\n But in Irish, for these Chinese New Year animal symbols, we need to know the grammatical gender of the animal involved. \u00a0Biological gender (ermm, sheep vs. ram) isn’t an issue here.<\/p>\n I’ve seen three different translation of this year’s Chinese New Year animal: goat, sheep, ram.<\/p>\n The original Chinese is\u00a0\u7f8a<\/a> (pinyin<\/a>:\u00a0y\u00e1ng) <\/em>which apparently refers to both sheep and goats. \u00a0As for why “ram” is sometimes specified, and other times “sheep,”\u00a0 I don’t know, but if there’s anyone on this list who also knows S\u00ednis<\/strong>, perhaps you could help us out.\u00a0 A Yu Ming<\/strong> (aka Daniel Wu), c\u00e1 bhfuil t\u00fa<\/strong> (when we need you)?<\/p>\n Anyway, here’s some of the basic vocab for all three animals.\u00a0 I’m saving the “tuiseal ginideach<\/strong>” as a challenge for the fill-in-the-blank part.<\/p>\n gabhar<\/strong>, a goat<\/p>\n an gabhar<\/strong>, the goat<\/p>\n caora<\/strong>, a sheep<\/p>\n an chaora<\/strong>, the sheep<\/p>\n reithe<\/strong>, a ram<\/p>\n an reithe<\/strong>, the ram<\/p>\n It does seem like this is a real translator’s dilemma.\u00a0 Which to pick, since the Chinese usage itself seems to vary?<\/p>\n But let’s go ahead and try all three (The Year of the Goat, The Year of the Sheep, The Year of the Ram).\u00a0\u00a0 The phrases below include the exact number of letters needed so watch out for any inserted letters or added endings.\u00a0 Freagra\u00ed th\u00edos, mar is gn\u00e1ch<\/strong>.\u00a0 I’ve also added slightly more space between the words, just to make the layout clearer.<\/p>\n Now, to go above and beyond the call of duty, and just for practice, let’s put the animals in the plural.\u00a0 And that will take us to the Irish “tuiseal ginideach, iolra<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Here we go!<\/p>\n I’ve lower-cased these last three because they wouldn’t come up in the Chinese calendar as proper nouns, fad m’eolais<\/strong> at any rate.\u00a0 My understanding of the tradition is that it’s always one animal per year.<\/p>\n Bhuel, t\u00e1 s\u00fail agam gur bhain t\u00fa sult as sin.\u00a0 T\u00e1 na freagra\u00ed th\u00edos.\u00a0 SGF agus Bliain Nua na S\u00edneach faoi sh\u00e9an agus mhaise duit! – R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n (le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Bliain Nua na S\u00edneach agus Parthas na nGramad\u00f3ir\u00ed.\u00a0 Chinese New Year and this year, 2015, a grammarian’s paradise. C\u00e9n f\u00e1th?\u00a0 Why? Because unlike previous years, 2015 offers us two, perhaps even three, animals as the symbol for the year. But choosing between animals would mostly be vocabulary, not grammar, right?\u00a0 Like “sheep” vs…<\/p>\n\n
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