{"id":6435,"date":"2015-02-28T12:54:05","date_gmt":"2015-02-28T12:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=6435"},"modified":"2019-06-16T00:21:54","modified_gmt":"2019-06-16T00:21:54","slug":"orlai-agus-troithe-measurements-in-irish-in-the-inchesfeet-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/orlai-agus-troithe-measurements-in-irish-in-the-inchesfeet-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Orla\u00ed agus Troithe (Measurements in Irish in the ‘inches\/feet’ system)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Even though the world has become increasingly m\u00e9adrach<\/strong> over the last half-century, there are still many reasons to use the words “inch” and “feet” in measuring, or at least to recognize them in older texts.<\/p>\n

One main reason is that a few countries still use inches (orla\u00ed<\/strong>), feet (troithe<\/strong>), and yards (slata<\/strong>), as the main unit of measurement, namely, St\u00e1it Aontaithe Mheirice\u00e1<\/strong>, Burma\/Maenmar agus an Lib\u00e9ir<\/strong>.\u00a0 A lot of other areas also have the c\u00f3ras impiri\u00fail<\/strong> either i ngn\u00e1th\u00fas\u00e1id na ndaoine<\/strong> or for feidhmeanna \u00e1irithe (mar shampla, airde eitle\u00e1n \u00a0agus “pionta\u00ed beorach” in ionad “leathl\u00edtir”)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Another reason is simply that as the weather seems to get increasingly stranger, it seems we’re constantly talking about the depth of snow or the amount of rainfall or the sea level, all around the world.\u00a0 Even if you’re in a metric country, it’s good to have a sense of what seven feet of snow is like, for example, if you’re talking to a relative i mBost\u00fan, i mbliana (2015) ar a laghad<\/strong>.\u00a0 Or what difference a 2-inch increase in the water level means sa Bhanglaid\u00e9is<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In today’s blog, we’ll look at the words “orlach<\/strong>” (inch) and “troigh<\/strong>” (foot, in measuring).\u00a0 Both have the special forms that are used with certain units of measurement in Irish.\u00a0 Some of the other words with this same system are “bliain<\/strong>,” “uair<\/strong>,” “seachtain<\/strong>,” and “pingin<\/strong>,” and in slightly older terminology, “scilling<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Counting years and hours are typically taught even before basic measuring, so you might remember such patterns as:<\/p>\n

bliain amh\u00e1in <\/strong>(one year), dh\u00e1 bhliain, tr\u00ed bliana … seacht mbliana<\/strong>, where the special ending “-ana<\/strong>” is used.\u00a0 Sampla: T\u00e1 mo mhadra ceithre bliana d’aois<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

or<\/p>\n

uair amh\u00e1in<\/strong> (one hour OR one time), dh\u00e1 uair, tr\u00ed huaire … seacht n-uaire<\/strong>, where the special ending “-e<\/strong>” is used.\u00a0 Sampla: Bh\u00ed m\u00e9 ar rollchost\u00f3ir dh\u00e1 uair i mo shaol (agus b’fhuath liom \u00e9) ach bh\u00ed m’fhear c\u00e9ile ar rollchost\u00f3ir naoi n-uaire, b’fh\u00e9idir, agus n\u00ed miste leis ar chor ar bith \u00e9<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Remember, most nouns in Irish simply stay singular after numbers, so these special “units of measurements” features don’t apply at all to the vast majority of situations.\u00a0 But they do apply to “year,” “hour,” “week” and “penny,” all quite important vocabulary words, as well as to “orlach<\/strong>” and “troigh<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

So how about those “orla\u00ed<\/strong>” agus “troithe<\/strong>“?\u00a0 Almost there, just let me mention one more thing, that unlike English, where “foot” can be used for measuring or for the “foot” of the body, the Irish word “troigh<\/strong>” (foot) is almost exclusively used for measuring.\u00a0 A completely different word, “cos<\/strong>,” is\u00a0 usually used when talking about the body. Having said that, it seems there’s a resurgence of “troigh<\/strong>” for the body these days as well, since “cos<\/strong>” can also mean “leg.”\u00a0 Ach sin \u00e1bhar blag eile<\/strong>.\u00a0 Our concern here is simply “foot” for measuring.<\/p>\n

Before we actually start counting inches and feet, let’s look at the full set of forms for each word:<\/p>\n

orlach<\/strong>, inch<\/p>\n

an t-orlach<\/strong>, the inch<\/p>\n

orlaigh<\/strong>, of an inch<\/p>\n

orla\u00ed<\/strong>, inches<\/p>\n

na horla\u00ed<\/strong>, the inches<\/p>\n

na n-orlach<\/strong>, of the inches (admittedly, probably a little challenging to find a practical application for that phrase)<\/p>\n

And for “foot,” we have:<\/p>\n

troigh<\/strong>, a foot (mostly for measuring)<\/p>\n

an troigh<\/strong>, the foot<\/p>\n

na troighe<\/strong>, of the foot (“fad na troighe<\/strong>,” mar shampla<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

troithe<\/strong>, feet (used to be spelled “troighthe<\/strong>, which showed the original ending)<\/p>\n

na troithe<\/strong>, the feet<\/p>\n

na dtroithe<\/strong>, of the feet<\/p>\n

Now let’s put “orlach<\/strong>” and “troigh<\/strong>” with numbers and see what happens:<\/p>\n

orlach amh\u00e1in<\/strong>, no real issue here, just like a normal noun<\/p>\n

dh\u00e1 orlach<\/strong>, still no change, just the regular process<\/p>\n

tr\u00ed horla\u00ed, ceithre horla\u00ed, c\u00faig horla\u00ed, s\u00e9 horla\u00ed<\/strong> (3 through 6 inches; the ending looks plural, but technically isn’t plural, it’s just “special,” and we have the h-prefix, as we did with uair \/ s\u00e9 huaire<\/strong>, etc., because both “orlach<\/strong>” and “uair<\/strong>” start with a vowel<\/p>\n

seacht n-orla\u00ed, ocht n-orla\u00ed, naoi n-orla\u00ed, deich n-orla\u00ed<\/strong> (7 through 10 inches; special ending plus “n-<\/strong>” to “eclipse” the vowel)<\/p>\n

And for feet:<\/p>\n

troigh amh\u00e1in<\/strong><\/p>\n

dh\u00e1 throigh<\/strong><\/p>\n

tr\u00ed troithe, ceithre troithe, c\u00faig troithe, s\u00e9 troithe\u00a0<\/strong>(3 through 6\u00a0feet, special ending and note there’s NO lenition, as opposed to say “c\u00faig theach<\/strong>” or “s\u00e9 thobar<\/strong>,” which have the usual lenition)<\/p>\n

seacht dtroithe, ocht dtroithe, naoi dtroithe\u00a0deich dtroithe<\/strong> (7 through 10 feet, special ending, plus the usual eclipsis)<\/p>\n

For phrases like “twenty inches” or “twenty feet,” we’re back to the basic form, since multiples of ten don’t cause mutations in Irish:<\/p>\n

fiche orlach<\/strong><\/p>\n

fiche troigh<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, having said all that, let me add that this special system is very widely used, but it’s not absolute.\u00a0 In some areas, inches, feet, years, hours, etc. are counted like regular nouns.\u00a0 In that case, just stick to the singular forms and follow the normal lenition, h-prefixing, and eclipsis rules. \u00a0As one example, \u00a0I just happened to notice the phrase, “diosca tr\u00ed horlach go leith<\/strong>,” a “floppy” disk size which admittedly I haven’t used in years, though I have boxes of them somewhere.<\/p>\n

As for the whole issue of metric conversion in the US, it seems the phrase “a liter bottle of Coke” or “a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi” has taken root, but not much else, except in scientific contexts.\u00a0 I wonder why the terminology for soft drinks converted so quickly.\u00a0 Ach sin \u00e1bhar blag eile, n\u00f3 b’fh\u00e9idir \u00e1bhar blag taobh amuigh den tsraith seo ar fad.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hmmm, so thinking metrically, “A half-liter of ‘Plain’ is your only man”?\u00a0 Paraphrasing the popular refrain from the great Irish writer Flann O’Brien’s poem, “The Workingman’s Friend.”\u00a0 Or, for that matter, how about “568 milliliters of ‘Plain’ are your only man?”\u00a0 N\u00f3 do “phionta” sa ch\u00f3ras Meirice\u00e1nach<\/strong>, “475 milliliters of ‘Plain’ are your only man” — do bhar\u00fail<\/strong>?\u00a0 B\u00edodh cuimhne agat, n\u00ed hionann an pionta impiri\u00fail agus an pionta sna<\/strong> “US customary units” mar a thugtar ar an gc\u00f3ras tomhais at\u00e1 in \u00fas\u00e1id i Meirice\u00e1.\u00a0 T\u00e1 an pionta impiri\u00fail n\u00edos m\u00f3 n\u00e1 an pionta Meirice\u00e1nach.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Agus an<\/strong> “Plain” sa chomhth\u00e9acs seo?\u00a0 Pionta<\/strong> “stout” (leann dubh<\/strong>) at\u00e1 i gceist ag Flann O’Brien ina dh\u00e1n.\u00a0 Is \u00e9 sin a r\u00e1, pionta Guinness.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, that’s some food for thought, especially since there’s supposed to be a “ceapaire<\/strong>” (sandwich), in every glass of Guinness, nutritionally! \u00a0Mianra\u00ed<\/strong>, and all that! \u00a0\u00a0SGF – R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Even though the world has become increasingly m\u00e9adrach over the last half-century, there are still many reasons to use the words “inch” and “feet” in measuring, or at least to recognize them in older texts. One main reason is that a few countries still use inches (orla\u00ed), feet (troithe), and yards (slata), as…<\/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":[376804,376803,4606,376807,251493,111694,8292,117709,5464,376801,115739,376485,376486,376809,8233,376802,376783,376751,376482,376483,274889,6463,6468,376800,6953,298558,376484,298562,376808,376806,376799],"class_list":["post-6435","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-475-milliliters","tag-568-milliliters","tag-ceapaire","tag-customary","tag-feet","tag-flann","tag-foot","tag-glass","tag-guinness","tag-half-liter","tag-imperial","tag-inch","tag-inches","tag-leann-dubh","tag-measurement","tag-millileter","tag-obrien","tag-onolan","tag-orlach","tag-orlai","tag-pint","tag-pint-of-plain","tag-pionta","tag-plain","tag-stout","tag-troigh","tag-troighthe","tag-troithe","tag-unit","tag-us-customary-unit","tag-workingmans-friend"],"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