{"id":6598,"date":"2015-04-20T12:20:24","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T12:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=6598"},"modified":"2019-09-07T11:12:18","modified_gmt":"2019-09-07T11:12:18","slug":"misteir-an-fhrasa-o-chorchtacht-sic-in-an-beal-bocht-reitithe-an-irish-typo-solved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/misteir-an-fhrasa-o-chorchtacht-sic-in-an-beal-bocht-reitithe-an-irish-typo-solved\/","title":{"rendered":"Mist\u00e9ir an Fhr\u00e1sa ‘\u00f3 chorchtacht’ [sic] in ‘An B\u00e9al Bocht’ — R\u00e9itithe (An Irish typo — solved)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"An<\/a>

An B\u00e9al Bocht, an ch\u00e9ad eagr\u00e1n, foilsithe i 1941 (http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:AnBealBocht.jpg)<\/p><\/div>\n

When I first read the delightful Irish satirical classic, An B\u00e9al Bocht<\/strong><\/em>, (The Poor Mouth), one phrase that puzzled me was “…\u00a0i bpriacal do mharfa \u00f3 chorchtacht na t\u00edre<\/strong>” (p. 14).\u00a0 Literally, it would mean, “… in danger of being killed from the “corchtacht<\/strong>” [sic] of the land.”\u00a0 The official translation gives “from the steep gradient” for “\u00f3 chorchtacht<\/strong>.”\u00a0 But I was never able to find the basic word “corchtach<\/strong>t,” as such, in any dictionary.<\/p>\n

The closest word was “crochtacht<\/strong>” (steepness), which would certainly make sense.\u00a0 But I always wondered why we had “\u00f3 chorchtacht<\/strong>” in both recent editions of the Irish language text (Mercier, 1986 and Mercier 1999).\u00a0 I pondered the possibilities.\u00a0 Was this a dialect spelling? \u00a0Or a different word?\u00a0 Or some kind of word play on “Corca Dorcha<\/strong>,” the fictitious Gaeltacht setting of An B\u00e9al Bocht<\/strong><\/em>?\u00a0 But “Corca Dorcha<\/strong>” has the “ch” in “Dorcha<\/strong>,” not in “Corca<\/strong>,” so why would there be a word like ” *corch<\/strong>” as the root of “corchtacht<\/strong>,” even for imeartas focal<\/strong> (word play)?<\/p>\n

Or was it just a typo (bot\u00fan cl\u00f3)<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

So I finally got to see one of the earliest editions of the work, the version printed by “An Press N\u00e1isi\u00fanta<\/strong>” in 1942, printed in the seanchl\u00f3<\/strong> (old print).\u00a0 DAS<\/strong>, yes, it’s “press” not “preas<\/strong>.”\u00a0 And, lo and behold (or could I say, “cl\u00f3<\/strong> and behold”), there was my long-awaited word in its original spelling.\u00a0 As I had suspected, it was “crochtacht<\/strong>,” so the phrase read, in the original spelling, as “i bpeiriceal do mharbhtha \u00f3 chrochtacht na t\u00edre<\/strong>” (lch<\/strong>. 14).\u00a0 It appears that the author had the usual spelling, but that the letters got reversed in the more recent editions.<\/p>\n

Well, maybe that was all much ado about nothing much, just a typo.\u00a0 I hope you don’t think I’ve made a mountain (however steep the gradient) out of a molehill (hmm, the steepness gradient of a molehill?).\u00a0 But the question did plague me for over 20 years, and I was glad to finally be able to check the earlier printing.<\/p>\n

Of course, there is much more to absorb about An B\u00e9al Bocht<\/strong><\/em> than the issue of a single typo.\u00a0 Who wrote this wit-laden and wonderfully clich\u00e9-cluttered faux autobiography?\u00a0\u00a0 The author was Brian \u00d3 Nuall\u00e1in (Brian O’Nolan, 1911-1966), who had two main pen names, no less!\u00a0 The first was “Myles na gCopaleen”(an Irish name in anglicized spelling).\u00a0 The second was “Flann O’Brien,” the name under which he wrote some of his other classic works, such as At Swim Two-Birds<\/em> and The Hard Life<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0At Swim Two-Birds<\/em>, was recently rumored to have been optioned for a movie, but last I looked online, there was nothing very definitive about it.\u00a0 T\u00e1 m\u00e9 ag fanacht f\u00f3s<\/strong>!\u00a0 BTW, O’Nolan also had a couple other “ainmneacha cleite<\/strong>,” which don’t seem to be as well known, like “George Knowall” (leagan de<\/strong> “\u00d3 Knowall\u00e1in,” is d\u00f3ch<\/strong>a).<\/p>\n

And by the wayX2, where else do we know this author from, a bit more on the side of popchult\u00far<\/strong>?\u00a0 ABC’s TV program Lost<\/em> included some references to yet another Flann O’Brien novel, The Third Policeman<\/em>, and apparently sales of the book spiked around that time.\u00a0 Lost<\/em>‘s use of The Third Policeman<\/em> \u00a0is doubly interesting because O’Brien\u00a0 (i.e. O’Nolan) couldn’t find a publisher for the original manuscript, more or less gave up on it, and when the topic came up, he claimed he had, errmm, lost it.\u00a0 It wasn’t lost, just sitting, waiting for another attempt.\u00a0 It was published posthumously.\u00a0 GRMMA, a Lost<\/em>, as an tagairt agus a “MacGibbon & Kee” as \u00e9 a fhoilsi\u00fa i 1967<\/strong>!\u00a0 One wonders, how much research did the Abrams-Lieber-Lindelof team do in planning to use The Third Policeman <\/em>in their Lost.<\/em>\u00a0Food for thought!<\/p>\n

Before finishing up this post, let’s look at a few of the Irish or anglicized Irish words used above:<\/p>\n

Copaleen, in the ainm cleite<\/strong>, Myles na gCopaleen: little horse, from “capaill\u00edn<\/strong>” (pony), which in turn is from “capall<\/strong>” (horse), a nice cognate of “cheval<\/em>” (Fraincis<\/strong>), “caballo<\/em>” (Sp\u00e1innis<\/strong>), and “caballus<\/em>” (Laidin<\/strong>), among others.<\/p>\n

In the pen name, instead of “Copaleen,” we see “na gCopaleen,” which makes the word plural and genitive, meaning “of the ponies” or “of the little horses.”\u00a0 I’ve always wondered why it’s not closer to “na gCapaill\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong>,” since we’d normally have the “-\u00ed” ending in Irish.\u00a0 But maybe ending the word at “-een” just sounded better.\u00a0 Eolas ag duine ar bith<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

priacal<\/strong>, peril; i bpriacal<\/strong> [ib-Rzh<\/sup>EE-uh-kul, the “p” becomes silent], in peril<\/p>\n

do mharfa<\/strong> [duh WAHR-uh-fuh], your killing, i.e. the killing of you, from “mar\u00fa<\/strong>” (to kill, killing)<\/p>\n

na t\u00edre<\/strong> [nuh TEERzh<\/sup>-uh], of the land, from “t\u00edr<\/strong>” [teerzh<\/sup>], land<\/p>\n

And regarding the pronunciation of the author’s original name, just remember that, in Irish, “Brian<\/strong>” sounds like “BRzh<\/sup>EE-un”, not like “BRY-un” (with the “bry” like English “my” or “cry”). \u00a0The “zh” in my transcription stands for the buzzy “slender” Irish “r” sound that we also hear in “M\u00e1ire<\/strong>” [MOYRzh<\/sup>-uh] and “tirim<\/strong>” [TIRzh<\/sup>-im].<\/p>\n

“\u00d3 Nuall\u00e1in<\/strong>” is the Irish original of the surname “Nolan” and is pronounced “OH NOO-uh-law-in.”<\/p>\n

Well, there’s much much more one could say about O’Brien \/ na gCopaleen \/ \u00d3 Nuall\u00e1in, but I hope that this little linguistic detail will prove helpful to other readers of An B\u00e9al Bocht<\/strong><\/em>, since I imagine others have been puzzled by the corchtacht\/crochtacht<\/strong> dilemma as well.\u00a0 SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) When I first read the delightful Irish satirical classic, An B\u00e9al Bocht, (The Poor Mouth), one phrase that puzzled me was “…\u00a0i bpriacal do mharfa \u00f3 chorchtacht na t\u00edre” (p. 14).\u00a0 Literally, it would mean, “… in danger of being killed from the “corchtacht” [sic] of the land.”\u00a0 The official translation gives “from…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":6604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[24554,9785,11600,376755,4020,207494,11605,376794,376792,359048,359046,229689,359047,376797,376798,255632,4719,376786,376759,376757,376758,376760,2132,111694,5307,376754,376756,11598,376795,376787,376789,376796,376788,107,376752,376753,376785,376784,376783,376751,376793,376791,376750,376790,11601,376810],"class_list":["post-6598","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-24554","tag-9785","tag-abc","tag-abrams","tag-ainm","tag-an-beal-bocht","tag-at-swim-two-birds","tag-bpeiriceal","tag-bpriacal","tag-caballo","tag-caballus","tag-capall","tag-cheval","tag-chorchtacht","tag-chrochtacht","tag-cleite","tag-cognate","tag-copaleen","tag-corca","tag-corchtacht","tag-crochtacht","tag-dorcha","tag-film","tag-flann","tag-gaeltacht","tag-lieber","tag-lindelof","tag-lost","tag-marbhtha","tag-marfa","tag-maru","tag-mharbhtha","tag-mharfa","tag-movie","tag-myles","tag-na-gcopaleen","tag-nolan","tag-o-nuallain","tag-obrien","tag-onolan","tag-peiriceal","tag-peril","tag-poor-mouth","tag-priacal","tag-third-policeman","tag-typo"],"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