{"id":8094,"date":"2016-06-26T22:20:15","date_gmt":"2016-06-26T22:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=8094"},"modified":"2016-07-07T03:18:21","modified_gmt":"2016-07-07T03:18:21","slug":"irish-phrases-and-idioms-using-red-white-and-blue-dearg-ban-gorm-pt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/irish-phrases-and-idioms-using-red-white-and-blue-dearg-ban-gorm-pt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish Phrases and Idioms Using ‘Red,’ ‘White,’ and ‘Blue’ (Dearg, B\u00e1n, Gorm), pt. 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Most recently, we looked at the Irish for “red” (dearg<\/strong>) inspired by the timely red, white and blue color schemes one sees a lot around this time of year, sna St\u00e1it Aontaithe, ar a laghad<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Hmm,<\/a>

Hmm, an bhfuil difear ar bith idir “splat” agus “splotch” i mB\u00e9arla? Thabharfainn “smeartha\u00ed” orthu seo i nGaeilge. (na grafaic\u00ed: http:\/\/www.clker.com\/clipart-49390.html; http:\/\/www.clker.com\/clipart-white-10.html; http:\/\/www.clker.com\/clipart-blue-4.html)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

So that was “dearg<\/strong>,” and we had lots of examples: Cl\u00f3ic\u00edn Dearg, l\u00e9ine dhearg, cuir\u00edn\u00ed dearga, b\u00e1id dhearga<\/strong>, and b\u00e1da\u00ed dearga<\/strong>, as well as, of course, the combination “dearg, b\u00e1n, agus gorm<\/strong>,” for the American and French flags, among others.<\/p>\n

Today we’ll look at the color “white,” some of its basic forms and some specialized or idiomatic meanings.<\/p>\n

Na bunruda\u00ed, ar dt\u00fas: b\u00e1n<\/strong> [bw<\/sup>awn], bh\u00e1n<\/strong> [wawn OR vawn], b\u00e1na<\/strong> [Bw<\/sup>AWN-uh], bh\u00e1na<\/strong> [WAWN-uh OR VAWN-uh]<\/p>\n

a) b\u00e1n<\/strong>, white, can also mean: fair (complexion, hair), white-headed, pale, blank, empty, fallow, etc.<\/p>\n

capall b\u00e1n<\/strong>, a white horse<\/p>\n

p\u00e1ip\u00e9ar b\u00e1n<\/strong>, a white paper<\/p>\n

\u00e1it bh\u00e1n<\/strong>, an empty place (but note: bosca folamh<\/strong>, an empty box)<\/p>\n

talamh b\u00e1n<\/strong>, fallow land<\/p>\n

torann b\u00e1n<\/strong>, white noise<\/p>\n

NB: for “white” as in Caucasian skin tone, the word “geal<\/strong>” is generally used (duine geal, cine geal<\/strong>), and “geal<\/strong>” is also used in describing White Slave Trafficking (G\u00e1inne\u00e1il ar Scl\u00e1bhaithe Geala<\/strong>).\u00a0 However, we also do have the word “b\u00e1nach<\/strong>” (a white person, also, outside of the racial context, “a fair-haired person”).\u00a0 “Albino,” though, is “ailb\u00edneach<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Sampla\u00ed:<\/strong><\/p>\n

C\u00e9n dath a bh\u00ed ar chapall b\u00e1n George Washington?\u00a0 \u00c1, t\u00e1 br\u00f3n orm–t\u00e1 a fhios agam gur “seanchast\u00e1n” at\u00e1 ann, ach n\u00ed<\/strong> “old chestnut” mar “chapall rua” n\u00f3 mar “chapall bu\u00ed” at\u00e1 i gceist, ach<\/strong> “old chestnut” mar “seansc\u00e9al agus meirg air.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

R\u00f3is\u00edn B\u00e1n agus R\u00f3is\u00edn Dearg<\/em> (leagan Mh\u00e1ir\u00e9ad N\u00ed Ghr\u00e1da den fabhalsc\u00e9al)<\/strong>. \u00a0Curious how “Snow” is no longer in the title, and we actually have a tale of “beirt R\u00f3is\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong>” completely different from that told by S\u00e9amus \u00d3 Grianna in his Mo Dh\u00e1 R\u00f3is\u00edn<\/em>.<\/p>\n

b) bh\u00e1n<\/strong>, with an inserted “h,” changing the initial sound to a “w” or a “v”: in phrases like:<\/p>\n

dair bh\u00e1n<\/strong>, white oak<\/p>\n

l\u00e9ine bh\u00e1n<\/strong>, a white shirt<\/p>\n

p\u00e9isteog bh\u00e1n<\/strong>, a grub or a pot worm, lit. a small white worm<\/p>\n

put\u00f3g bh\u00e1n<\/strong>, white pudding (a type of sausage)<\/p>\n

Or , a little more abstractly:<\/p>\n

p\u00e1irc bh\u00e1n<\/strong>, a lea or bawn, lit. an empty\/white field<\/p>\n

l\u00e9arsc\u00e1il bh\u00e1n<\/strong>, an empty map<\/p>\n

t\u00e9ip bh\u00e1n<\/strong> (in recording): blank tape (aka t\u00e9ip ghlan<\/strong>, lit. “clean” tape)<\/p>\n

t\u00e9ip bh\u00e1n<\/strong> (in sports), white tape<\/p>\n

Sampla<\/strong>: “A \u00dana Bh\u00e1n, ba r\u00f3s i ngaird\u00edn th\u00fa, \/ Ba choinnleoir \u00f3ir ar bhord na banr\u00edona th\u00fa<\/strong> …” (“Fair \u00dana, you were a rose in a garden \/ You were a candlestick of gold on the table of the queen …” from the song “\u00dana Bh\u00e1n”)<\/p>\n

What do all of those all have in common?\u00a0 They’re all feminine and singular.\u00a0 The patterns will change for the plural, as in the next section (c):<\/p>\n

c) b\u00e1na<\/strong>, white (the plural form), used the majority of the time when the noun is plural–I’d estimate about 95%, but that is just a rough guess. Examples include:<\/p>\n

bosca\u00ed b\u00e1na<\/strong>, white boxes<\/p>\n

l\u00e9inte b\u00e1na<\/strong>, white shirts<\/p>\n

br\u00f3ga b\u00e1na<\/strong>, white shoes<\/p>\n

na Buachaill\u00ed B\u00e1na<\/strong>, the Whiteboys<\/p>\n

br\u00e1ithre b\u00e1na<\/strong>, bee grubs or bee larvae; presumably one such grub would be a “br\u00e1thair b\u00e1n<\/strong>,” but the phrase seems to more widely used in the plural.\u00a0 “Larbha<\/strong>” can also be used for larva, in general.<\/p>\n

And, curiously, for anyone who actually owns a Brocaire B\u00e1n na nGarbhchr\u00edoch<\/strong>, or some other white dog (Meas\u00e1n M\u00e1ltach, Spitse Seap\u00e1nach, n\u00f3 Meas\u00e1n Catach<\/strong> .i. Bichon Frise, to name just a few), we have:<\/p>\n

madra\u00ed b\u00e1na<\/strong>, beetle grubs, and again, presumably a “madra b\u00e1n<\/strong>” could be one beetle grub.\u00a0 Sort of sheds new light on the phrase “t\u00e1 d\u00f3igh an mhadra bh\u00e1in orm<\/strong>,” doesn’t it?\u00a0 “Madra\u00ed b\u00e1na<\/strong>” literally means “white dogs.”<\/p>\n

d) And finally, there’s “bh\u00e1na<\/strong>” used for nouns (like p\u00e1ip\u00e9ar<\/strong> or b\u00e1d<\/strong>) made plural by removing the second “a” and inserting an “i” just before the end.<\/p>\n

b\u00e1id bh\u00e1na<\/strong> (but remember the alternate plural, b\u00e1da\u00ed<\/strong>, in the phrase “b\u00e1da\u00ed b\u00e1na<\/strong>,” which would take us back to the previous form, just plain “b\u00e1n<\/strong>a,” with no “h,” i.e. no lenition.<\/p>\n

Sampla\u00ed<\/strong>: P\u00e1ip\u00e9ir Bh\u00e1na is P\u00e1ip\u00e9ir Bhreaca<\/em>, a book by M\u00e1irt\u00edn \u00d3 Cadhain (also author of the Gaeltacht classic, Cr\u00e9 na Cille<\/em>)<\/p>\n

So that’s a sampler anyway, avoiding the forms used with possessive nouns, since that would take up least another full blog (the lid of the white box, etc.)<\/p>\n

BTW, the widely-used Irish word “ban<\/strong>” is a near “comhainm<\/strong>” for “b\u00e1n<\/strong>” but remember that although the two words look and sound similar, they are completely different in meaning, and reasonably different in pronunciation.\u00a0 The similarity is no more that what we might find with the pair “l\u00f3n<\/strong>” (lunch) and “lon<\/strong>” (ouzel).\u00a0 “Ban<\/strong>,” as you may remember, means “of women,” and shows up in phrases like hata\u00ed ban<\/strong> or, with an initial “m,” Sliabh na mBan<\/strong> (Slievenamon).<\/p>\n

The “tuiseal ginideach<\/strong>” forms will have to wait for another blogpost.<\/p>\n

Anyway, that’s one more color down in our trio of “dearg, b\u00e1n, agus gorm<\/strong>” as found in the American “Na R\u00e9alta\u00ed agus na Riabha<\/strong>” and in France’s Tr\u00eddhathach<\/strong>. \u00a0“B\u00e1n<\/strong>,” done, “gorm<\/strong>,” le teacht.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

P.S. And, let’s see, hmm, how many other nations’ flag have an dath b\u00e1n<\/strong> in them.\u00a0 Cuid mh\u00f3r, s\u00edlim.\u00a0 Bratach do th\u00edre f\u00e9in<\/strong>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Most recently, we looked at the Irish for “red” (dearg) inspired by the timely red, white and blue color schemes one sees a lot around this time of year, sna St\u00e1it Aontaithe, ar a laghad. So that was “dearg,” and we had lots of examples: Cl\u00f3ic\u00edn Dearg, l\u00e9ine dhearg, cuir\u00edn\u00ed dearga, b\u00e1id dhearga…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":8097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[1894,4268,460459,460460,255702,390684,229594,4435,290025,290026,315968,238379,460462,89881,287,460463,289961,11,229593,32950],"class_list":["post-8094","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-american","tag-ban","tag-bana","tag-bhain","tag-bhan","tag-bhana","tag-blue","tag-bratach","tag-dath","tag-dathanna","tag-empty","tag-fair","tag-fallow","tag-flag","tag-french","tag-gainneail","tag-geal","tag-pronunciation","tag-red","tag-white"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8094","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=8094"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8104,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8094\/revisions\/8104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}