{"id":86,"date":"2009-10-11T16:48:34","date_gmt":"2009-10-11T20:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=86"},"modified":"2011-03-25T11:42:54","modified_gmt":"2011-03-25T11:42:54","slug":"what%e2%80%99s-the-opposite-of-%e2%80%9cdeochanna-meisciula%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/what%e2%80%99s-the-opposite-of-%e2%80%9cdeochanna-meisciula%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s The Opposite of \u201cDeochanna Meisci\u00fala\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thinking about the term \u201csoft drinks,\u201d I got to pondering over how and when we use phrase \u201chard drinks\u201d in English.\u00a0 <\/span>I just compared the number of Google citations for \u201chard drinks\u201d vs. \u201csoft drinks\u201d in English, ca. 46,800 (hard) to ca. 5,780,000 (soft) \u2013 an interesting contrast.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cHard liquor\u201d gives about 581,000 hits but \u201csoft liquor,\u201d an actual but obscur-ish term, gives only about 330.\u00a0 <\/span>How about a comparison of the Irish terms?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Actually, I don\u2019t really see any evidence for Irish using a term \u201chard (intoxicating) drinks\u201d that\u00a0literally \u00a0uses any of the main adjectives for \u201chard\u201d in Irish.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>So, let\u2019s see what the basic terms for \u201chard\u201d would be, and if they\u2019re ever<\/em> used regarding beverages: <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

crua<\/span><\/strong>, used in both the physical sense, as in \u201cuisce crua<\/strong>,\u201d \u201ccruabhruite\u201d<\/strong> (if speaking of an ubh, <\/strong>but probably not regarding detectives!), and \u201ccrua le moth\u00fa<\/strong>,\u201d and in the abstract sense, as in obair chrua<\/strong> or geimhreadh crua<\/strong>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

deacair<\/span><\/strong>, mostly in the abstract sense, similar to \u201cdifficult,\u201d as in \u201cT\u00e1 sin deacair a thuiscint<\/strong>\u201d (That\u2019s hard to understand).\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

doiligh<\/span><\/strong>, similar to \u201cdeacair,\u201d <\/strong>but mostly found, in my experience, more in Donegal or Northern Irish), as in \u201cT\u00e1 sin doiligh a thuigbhe\u00e1il<\/strong>\u201d (That\u2019s hard to understand). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Just to double-check, I also looked for any references online to \u201cdrinks\u201d with \u201ccrua<\/strong>\u201d and found only one hit, in an unusual site, \u201cepaloids,\u201d that appears to be half in a Pilipino language and half in Irish, with a lot of the Irish strictly following English word order (\u201ci an<\/strong>\u201d instead of \u201csa<\/strong>,\u201d etc.).\u00a0 <\/span>The Irish I found there isn\u2019t such to make me think that \u201ccrua<\/strong>\u201d has really entered the lexicon for describing beverages in Irish.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

So, we\u2019ll be sticking to the phrase, \u201cdeochanna meisci\u00fala<\/strong>\u201d here and end up comparing that to \u201cdeochanna neamh-mheisci\u00fala,<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cdeochanna boga,<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cdeochanna glasa<\/strong>.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

A rough search on the Idirl\u00edon<\/strong> yields about 1090 hits for the phrase \u201cdeochanna meisci\u00fala<\/strong>,\u201d many of which have to do with \u201cAn tAcht Deochanna Meisci\u00fala<\/strong>\u201d (The Intoxicating Liquor Act), or the related \u201cbille<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Removing those, from the search leaves me with about 39 actual hits concerning \u201cdeochanna meisci\u00fala<\/strong>\u201d in a more general sense.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

A search for \u201cdeochanna boga<\/strong>\u201d gives me about 79 results.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cDeochanna glasa<\/strong>\u201d seems to be fading out of use as a term, since its hits are remarkably fewer, five, in fact.\u00a0 <\/span>And two of those are from previous blaganna<\/strong> in this series!\u00a0 <\/span>The other three are from government statistical orders from the 1970s and 1980s. \u00a0<\/span>\u201cDeochanna neamh-mheisci\u00fala<\/strong>,\u201d admittedly a bit of a mouthful compared to either \u201cboga<\/strong>\u201d or \u201cglasa<\/strong>,\u201d gives me 13 hits and is a more formal term. \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Why were drinks \u201cglas<\/strong>\u201d anyway?\u00a0 <\/span>The adjective \u201cglas<\/strong>\u201d normally means \u201cgreen\u201d (leaves, plants, etc.) or \u201cgray\u201d (animals), so this use is presumably from its extended meanings, like \u201cunseasoned,\u201d \u201cimmature,\u201d \u201craw,\u201d or \u201csickly-hued.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

How about in the singular? \u00a0<\/span>The trend is similar although the pool of results is far smaller: deoch bhog<\/strong> (19 hits, after eliminating duplicates, etc.) and deoch ghlas<\/strong> (5 hits).\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cDeoch neamh-mheisci\u00fail<\/strong>\u201d gave a grand total of faic, n\u00e1id, nialas, <\/strong>or as we like to add to such enumerations in English, zip, zilch, or jack (leaving out the less savory, i.e. sweet, variations of such phrases)! <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

So the upshot of it all seems to be that English tends to prefer the phrases \u201chard liquor\u201d and \u201csoft drinks\u201d although both \u201csoft liquor\u201d and \u201chard drinks\u201d do exist, at least as terms.\u00a0 <\/span>Irish seems to see the alcoholic drinks as \u201cintoxicating\u201d (meisci\u00fail<\/strong>) rather than \u201chard\u201d as such.\u00a0 <\/span>Nonetheless, \u201cbog<\/strong>\u201d (soft), as an opposite to the term \u201ccrua<\/strong>\u201d even though \u201ccrua<\/strong>\u201d isn\u2019t used. has entered the language to describe non-alcoholic drinks, and seems to gradually be displacing the more traditional concept of \u201cglas<\/strong>.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

As for the \u201cshot\u201d itself, as opposed to the \u201cupshot,\u201d that\u2019s a \u201cglinc\u00edn<\/strong>,\u201d but more on the measurements and containers for all these deochanna<\/strong> in another blog.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Some day, I\u2019ll extend this research to cover biot\u00e1ill\u00ed <\/strong>(\u201cspirituous\u201d liquor) and the term for alcohol itself, but this is go leor<\/strong> for now.\u00a0 <\/span>And yes, I know that Googling terms like this certainly doesn\u2019t cover the whole spectrum of word usage today or in the past, but it is one sort of practical and insightful linguistic bar(GROAN!)ometer, at any rate!\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

N\u00f3ta\u00ed: acht<\/strong><\/span><\/strong>, act (in government);<\/span>\u00a0bruite<\/span><\/strong>, boiled or cooked; le moth\u00fa<\/strong>, to touch; geimhreadh <\/strong>[GYEV-ruh] winter; neamh-<\/strong>, non-; <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thinking about the term \u201csoft drinks,\u201d I got to pondering over how and when we use phrase \u201chard drinks\u201d in English.\u00a0 I just compared the number of Google citations for \u201chard drinks\u201d vs. \u201csoft drinks\u201d in English, ca. 46,800 (hard) to ca. 5,780,000 (soft) \u2013 an interesting contrast.\u00a0 \u201cHard liquor\u201d gives about 581,000 hits but…<\/p>\n

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