{"id":76,"date":"2009-09-16T22:29:05","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T02:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=76"},"modified":"2013-11-27T01:42:04","modified_gmt":"2013-11-27T01:42:04","slug":"toe-head-and-the-hag%e2%80%99s-footstep-co-cork-the-foot-of-the-sea-co-galway-and-other-geographical-footnotes-plus-some-more-straightforward-vocabulary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/toe-head-and-the-hag%e2%80%99s-footstep-co-cork-the-foot-of-the-sea-co-galway-and-other-geographical-footnotes-plus-some-more-straightforward-vocabulary\/","title":{"rendered":"Toe Head and the Hag\u2019s Footstep, Co. Cork; The Foot of the Sea, Co. Galway, and Other Geographical Footnotes, Plus Some More Straightforward Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Well, as promised, today\u2019s blog has a pedal theme, hopefully not too pedantic and at least as entertaining as it is pedagogic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the actual word for “toe.”<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Oops, not so fast. the actual <\/span>words<\/em> for “toe” (I think I\u2019ll christen this the TMTM premise in vocabulary \u2013 “the more, the merrier,” except sometimes in the first few months of study!)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1)<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>m\u00e9ar coise<\/span><\/strong>, plural: m\u00e9ara coise<\/strong>, which literally means \u201cfinger(s) of the foot\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

2)<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>ladhar<\/span><\/strong>, plural: ladhracha<\/strong>, toe, or for good measure, the space between the toes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

3)<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>barraic\u00edn<\/span><\/strong>, plural: barraic\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong>, is really the tip of the toe, and is used for the expression \u201cag si\u00fal ar bharraic\u00edn\u00ed na gcos<\/strong>\u201d (walking on tiptoe).\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s also used for the \u201ctoe\u201d of a golf club.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But a toe clip, for cycling, is different again:\u00a0<\/span><\/span>f\u00e1isc\u00edn<\/span><\/strong> (fastener) bairb\u00edn<\/strong> (toe, toe-cap, barbule)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You might have noticed the words \u201c<\/span>coise<\/strong>\u201d and \u201c<\/span>na gcos<\/strong>\u201d used in two of these phrases.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>These both come from \u201c<\/span>cos<\/strong>\u201d (foot).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Cos<\/strong>\u201d can be used in various compound words and phrases.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>In place names, we have<\/span><\/p>\n

Coisc\u00e9im na Caill\u00ed,<\/span><\/strong> which literally means, \u201cthe footstep of the hag.\u201d\u00a0 This place name is anglicized phonetically though, as Kishkeam.\u00a0 \u201cC\u00e9im<\/strong>\u201d actually means \u201cstep,\u201d but it can also mean \u201cdegree\u201d or \u201crank,\u201d so adding \u201ccois<\/strong>\u201d makes it clear we\u2019re talking about footsteps. Why the change from \u201ccos<\/strong>\u201d to \u201ccois<\/strong>\u201d?\u00a0 So the ending of \u201ccos<\/strong>\u201d would become slender, by adding the slender vowel \u201ci,\u201d and therefore match the slender quality of the root word, c\u00e9im<\/strong>.\u00a0 Remember, Irish has vowel harmony, and an \u201ce\u201d or \u201ci\u201d on one side of consonant is almost always matched by an \u201ce\u201d or \u201ci\u201d on the other side of that consonant.\u00a0 The two slender vowels are \u201ce\u201d and \u201ci\u201d and they are not considered to \u201charmonize\u201d with the three broad vowels, \u201ca,\u201d \u201co,\u201d and \u201cu.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cois Fharraige<\/span><\/strong> is actually a place name starting with a noun (cos<\/strong>) that here functions as a preposition (cois<\/strong>), meaning \u201cat the foot of.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cFarraige<\/strong>\u201d is simply the word for \u201csea.\u201d\u00a0 Other similar phrases that don\u2019t really use the word \u201cat\u201d but imply it are \u201ccois na tine<\/strong>\u201d (by the fire, at the foot of the fire) and \u201ccois cnoic<\/strong>\u201d (at the foot of a hill).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And finally, and just <\/span>le haghaidh an chraic<\/strong> really, we have <\/span>Ceann Tuaithe<\/strong>, a headland in Co. Cork.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But \u201ctoe\u201d and behold, (<\/span>och<\/strong>, groan, another <\/span>imeartas focal uaf\u00e1sach<\/strong>), this place name has nothing to do with toes or feet.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201c<\/span>Tuaithe\u201d <\/strong>comes from \u201c<\/span>tuath,\u201d <\/strong>which means \u201ctribe,\u201d \u201ccountry,\u201d \u201cterritory,\u201d or \u201crural district.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But this is a typical example of how many Irish place names were semi-transliterated when they were adapted to English.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>In other words, if the original Irish word sounded roughly like \u201ctoe\u201d to an English-speaking cartographer, it would become \u201ctoe,\u201d regardless of what the Irish means.<\/span>\u00a0 The standard pronunciation of “<\/span>tuaithe<\/strong>” is more like “TOO-ih-huh” but one can sort of see how someone could hear it as “toe.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sl\u00e1n go f\u00f3ill, R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Well, as promised, today\u2019s blog has a pedal theme, hopefully not too pedantic and at least as entertaining as it is pedagogic. Let\u2019s start with the actual word for “toe.”\u00a0\u00a0Oops, not so fast. the actual words for “toe” (I think I\u2019ll christen this the TMTM premise in vocabulary \u2013 “the more, the merrier,”…<\/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":[305830,305832,305825,305826,289855,305827,305833,305839,305838,305836,4731,4799,305834,305828,305829,305835,305837,229852,305824,6051,305823,289856,7142,7143,305831,305840,7278],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-bairbin","tag-barbule","tag-barraicin","tag-barraicini","tag-broad","tag-ceann-tuaithe","tag-cois","tag-cois-cnoic","tag-cois-na-tine","tag-coisceim-na-cailli","tag-coise","tag-cos","tag-cosa","tag-faiscin","tag-fastener","tag-gcos","tag-kishkeam","tag-ladhar","tag-ladhracha","tag-mear-coise","tag-meara-coise","tag-slender","tag-toe","tag-toe-head","tag-toe-cap","tag-tuath","tag-vowel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","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=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4623,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/4623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}