{"id":751,"date":"2011-04-02T13:49:07","date_gmt":"2011-04-02T13:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=751"},"modified":"2019-06-12T15:13:29","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T15:13:29","slug":"of-mice-of-men-of-newt-of-frog-a-prose-ode-to-%e2%80%9can-tuiseal-ginideach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/of-mice-of-men-of-newt-of-frog-a-prose-ode-to-%e2%80%9can-tuiseal-ginideach\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Mice, Of Men, Of Newt, Of Frog (A Prose Ode to \u201cAn Tuiseal Ginideach”)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Now that we\u2019ve started this mionsraith <\/strong>on an tuiseal ginideach, <\/strong>we may as well dul go bun an angair.\u00a0 <\/strong>That latter phrase is an Irish idiom that literally means \u201cto go to the end (top) of the want,\u201d and is roughly equivalent to \u201cto go whole hog\u201d or \u201cto the bitter end.\u201d\u00a0 Why B\u00e9arl\u00f3ir\u00ed <\/strong>ever started the expression \u201cto go whole hog\u201d is \u00e1bhar blag eile, <\/strong>probably best left to the same folks who will explain phrases like \u201chogs on ice\u201d and \u201cin a pig\u2019s eye.\u201d\u00a0 But maybe we\u2019ll have an Irish addendum to that some day, given that Irish has some catchy pig idioms as well.\u00a0 Can you think of any, offhand? (Freagra amh\u00e1in th\u00edos)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, an tuiseal ginideach.\u00a0 <\/strong>And I can already see that this will take i bhfad n\u00edos m\u00f3 n\u00e1 blag amh\u00e1in, <\/strong>so settle in for workout over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

First let\u2019s consider the English word \u201cof,\u201d often used to show possession or ownership, although it has other meanings as well, like \u201cabout\u201d or \u201cfrom.\u201d\u00a0 To show possession in Irish, we change the noun involved from its basic (dictionary-entry) form to \u201can tuiseal ginideach\u201d <\/strong>(the genitive case).\u00a0 Other languages that work this way include German (das Buch des Mannes, <\/em>the book of the man) and Latin (liber pueri<\/em>, the book of the boy).\u00a0 In Irish, German, and Latin, we don\u2019t use the preposition \u201cof\u201d to show possession; instead, we change the ending (Mannes <\/em>instead of Mann, pueri <\/em>instead of puer<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019ve established that the word \u201cof\u201d will not be involved in these phrases in Irish, let\u2019s check out some sampla\u00ed<\/strong>.\u00a0 For right now, we\u2019ll leave off the adjectives, even though we had gotten started with them a few blogs back; we\u2019ll get back to those n\u00edos moille<\/strong> (later).<\/p>\n

ruball<\/strong> (tail) + luch\u00f3g<\/strong> (mouse):<\/p>\n

ruball luch\u00f3ige<\/strong>: a tail of a mouse, a mouse\u2019s tail<\/p>\n

rubaill luch\u00f3g<\/strong>: tails of mice, mice\u2019s tails<\/p>\n

And for a specific mouse, or specific mice:<\/p>\n

ruball na luch\u00f3ige<\/strong>: the tail of the mouse, the mouse\u2019s tail<\/p>\n

rubaill na luch\u00f3g<\/strong>: the tails of the mice, the mice\u2019s tails (back to \u201csquare one,\u201d since \u201cluch\u00f3g<\/strong>\u201d is also genitive plural, meaning \u201cof mice\u201d as a possessive)<\/p>\n

That would be especially useful if we’re discussing Reepicheep in C. S. Lewis’s Narnia series.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s a more practical example:<\/p>\n

hata <\/strong>(hat) + fear <\/strong>(man):<\/p>\n

hata fir<\/strong>: a man\u2019s hat, a hat of a man<\/p>\n

hata\u00ed fear<\/strong>: men\u2019s hats, hats of men<\/p>\n

hata an fhir: <\/strong>the man\u2019s hat, the hat of the man<\/p>\n

hata\u00ed na bhfear: <\/strong>the men\u2019s hats, the hats of the men<\/p>\n

Likewise we could have: br\u00f3ga fir, br\u00f3ga fear, br\u00f3ga an fhir, <\/strong>and br\u00f3ga na bhfear, <\/strong>which would mean: a man\u2019s shoes, men\u2019s shoes, the man\u2019s shoes, and the men\u2019s shoes.<\/p>\n

How\u2019s that for praitici\u00fail?<\/strong><\/p>\n

But, as you might have guessed from teideal an bhlag seo<\/strong>, thinking of catchy phrases that use the possessive with \u201cof\u201d in English, I thought it would be fun to translate the memorable lines \u201ceye of newt\u201d and \u201ctoe of frog,\u201d so here goes:<\/p>\n

s\u00fail <\/strong>(eye) +\u00a0ni\u00fat <\/strong>(newt)<\/p>\n

s\u00fail\u00a0ni\u00fait: <\/strong>eye of newt, a newt\u2019s eye<\/p>\n

And, even though it doesn\u2019t have the literary resonance:<\/p>\n

s\u00faile\u00a0ni\u00fat: <\/strong>eyes of newts<\/p>\n

A little more than Shakespeare ever bargained for, is d\u00f3cha!\u00a0 <\/strong>To continue:<\/p>\n

ladhar <\/strong>(toe) + losc\u00e1n <\/strong>(frog, could also use \u201cfrog\u201d <\/strong>as is, with \u201cfroig\u201d <\/strong>as the genitive singular and \u201cfroganna\u201d<\/strong> for the plural, but that doesn\u2019t offer quite as much d\u00fashl\u00e1n<\/strong>, or the alliteration we see below)<\/p>\n

ladhar losc\u00e1in: <\/strong>toe of frog, a frog\u2019s toe<\/p>\n

ladhracha losc\u00e1n: <\/strong>toes of frogs, frogs\u2019 toes<\/p>\n

Hmmm, I wonder, an bhfuil blas sic\u00edn ar na ladhracha chomh maith?\u00a0 <\/strong>That\u2019s what they always say about cosa losc\u00e1n (aka cosa froganna <\/strong>or even, for more variation, cosa loscann, <\/strong>where \u201closcann\u201d <\/strong>is a variant of \u201closc\u00e1n,\u201d \u00e1bhar blag eile<\/strong>, it\u2019s safe to say).\u00a0 Bhuel, ar an n\u00f3ta blasta sin <\/strong>(on that tasty (?) note), sgf, \u00f3 R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Freagra: fr\u00e1sa traidisi\u00fanta leis an bhfocal \u201cmuc\u201d<\/strong> (pig, hog): a bheith ar m(h)uin na muice, <\/strong>lit. to be on the (upper) back of the pig, which is understood to mean \u201cto be in luck.\u201d\u00a0 Some versions have the “h” (mhuin) and some have no “h” (muin).\u00a0 The second way gives for alliteration, which is always fun.<\/p>\n

Gluais<\/strong>: chomh maith<\/strong>, as well; blas<\/strong>, taste, accent; d\u00fashl\u00e1n<\/strong>, challenge; i bhfad<\/strong>, far (used adverbially); mionsraith, <\/strong>mini-series; n\u00edos m\u00f3,<\/strong> more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Now that we\u2019ve started this mionsraith on an tuiseal ginideach, we may as well dul go bun an angair.\u00a0 That latter phrase is an Irish idiom that literally means \u201cto go to the end (top) of the want,\u201d and is roughly equivalent to \u201cto go whole hog\u201d or \u201cto the bitter end.\u201d\u00a0 Why…<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751","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=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11074,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions\/11074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}