{"id":9499,"date":"2017-07-27T14:42:51","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T14:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=9499"},"modified":"2017-08-17T03:12:17","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T03:12:17","slug":"an-bhfuil-peata-agat-talking-about-pets-in-irish-seirbili-agus-muca-guine-gerbils-and-guinea-pigs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/an-bhfuil-peata-agat-talking-about-pets-in-irish-seirbili-agus-muca-guine-gerbils-and-guinea-pigs\/","title":{"rendered":"An bhfuil peata agat?\u00a0 Talking about Pets in Irish: Seirbil\u00ed agus Muca Guine (Gerbils and Guinea Pigs)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>We could say that “Peata\u00ed go leor<\/strong>” has been our recent “t\u00e9ama<\/strong>,” and we’ve covered the following so far: cait, pisc\u00edn\u00ed, madra\u00ed, pear\u00f3id\u00ed, hamstair.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Next we’ll take up a couple more popular pets: seirbil\u00ed agus muca guine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Actually, for years, I checked all the available Irish dictionaries for the Irish for “gerbil” and all I could find was “gearb\u00fa<\/strong>” (jerboa), which has virtually nothing in common with “seirbil\u00ed,<\/strong>” except for both being part of the order Rodentiae<\/em>.\u00a0 Gearb\u00fanna<\/strong> are not widely kept as pets, at least not outside of their natural habitat, since there are restrictions against importing them (at least to the US) and they apparently do not breed well in captivity.\u00a0 But somehow, the body of the jerboa reminds me a bit of a gerbil, so today’s post will cover the words for all three animals: an tseirbil, an mhuc ghuine<\/strong>, and, for good measure, an gearb\u00fa<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Starting with seirbil\u00ed<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

an tseirbil<\/strong>, the gerbil<\/p>\n

na seirbile<\/strong>, of the gerbil; eireaball na seirbile<\/strong>, the tail of the gerbil<\/p>\n

na seirbil\u00ed<\/strong>, the gerbils<\/p>\n

na seirbil\u00ed<\/strong>, of the gerbils (same spelling as above), eireabaill na seirbil<\/strong>\u00ed, the tails of the gerbils<\/p>\n

Note that the letter “t-” is prefixed to the basic form, for saying “the gerbil” but the “t” is not used for “of the gerbil” or for the plural forms.<\/p>\n

An bhfuil seirbil\u00ed mar pheata\u00ed ag duine ar bith ar an liosta seo?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Next, na muca guine<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

an mhuc ghuine<\/strong>, the guinea pig (note the change from “guine<\/strong>,” the Irish for “guinea,” to “ghuine<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because “muc<\/strong>” (pig) is grammatically feminine and causes the same mutation for all adjectives that might follow it: muc mh\u00f3r, muc bheag, muc bh\u00e1ndearg<\/strong>, etc.)<\/p>\n

na muice guine<\/strong>, of the guinea pig; fiacla na muice guine<\/strong>, the teeth of the guinea pig<\/p>\n

na muca guine<\/strong>, the guinea pigs<\/p>\n

na muc guine<\/strong>, of the guinea pigs; fiacla na muc guine<\/strong><\/p>\n

An bhfuil muca guine mar pheata\u00ed ag duine ar bith ar an liosta seo?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Caveat: I just Googled “muice guine<\/strong>” to look for some in-context examples and came up with a very odd assortment of probably machine-translated phrases scrambling all different combinations of muc, mhuc, muice<\/strong>, and muca<\/strong>, with guine<\/strong> and ghuine<\/strong>. While I don’t want to dwell on the issues of the accuracy of informal Irish on the Internet, I will say that I notice things like putting “guine<\/strong>” before “muc<\/strong>” (breaking Irish word order) or using the masculine form (“an<\/strong>“) of “the” in a possessive phrase, when it should be the feminine form (“na<\/strong>“), remember, because “muc<\/strong>” itself is grammatically feminine. So I have a new theory — maybe the cuter the animal that people want to write about (and a lot of the examples I found are associated with playful games and cute videos), the more prone people are to just grabbing any form of some words they can find and putting them in the sentence structure of their native language (often English), disregarding rules of grammatical gender, singular and plural matching, and position within the sentence.\u00a0 And then they post it, and at first it might look like, oh, cool, there’s an animated video of a cute gerbil dancing, with some text in Irish, and then you analyze the caption and realize it’s like a word salad.\u00a0 Well, anyway, so much for the “clamhs\u00e1n<\/strong>” and back to foirmeacha na bhfocal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I didn’t originally intend to include jerboas in this post, but they’re gleoite<\/strong> and they are creimir\u00ed<\/strong>, even if they’re not widely owned as pets around here, so why not:<\/p>\n

an gearb\u00fa<\/strong>, the jerboa<\/p>\n

an ghearb\u00fa<\/strong>, of the jerboa, cosa fada iontacha an ghearb\u00fa<\/strong>, the amazing long legs of the jerboa<\/p>\n

na gearb\u00fanna<\/strong>, the jerboas<\/p>\n

na ngearb\u00fanna<\/strong>, of the jerboas; cluasa m\u00f3ra iontacha na ngearb\u00fanna fadchluasacha<\/strong>, the amazing big ears of the long-eared jerboas<\/p>\n

An bhfuil gearb\u00fanna mar pheata\u00ed ag duine ar bith ar an liosta seo?\u00a0 M\u00e1 t\u00e1, c\u00e9 na hainmneacha a chuir t\u00fa orthu?\u00a0 De r\u00e9ir na f\u00edse seo<\/strong> (https:\/\/www.sciencefriday.com\/videos\/jump-in-jerboas\/), tugtar leasainm a chialla\u00edonn “n\u00fadal-l\u00e9im-l\u00e9im” ar na gearb\u00fanna sa teanga Casaicise.\u00a0 C\u00e9ard faoi “n\u00fadal” mar ainm do cheann acu agus “l\u00e9im-l\u00e9im” don cheann eile (m\u00e1 t\u00e1 p\u00e9ire agat)?\u00a0 Ach, ar nd\u00f3igh, is annamh a choinn\u00edtear mar pheata\u00ed iad taobh amuigh dena ngn\u00e1th\u00f3ga n\u00e1d\u00fartha.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interesting, to me at least, that in gaelicizing the words “gerbil” and “jerboa,” which have the same initial “g\/j” sound as in “giant” or “jug,” we end up with a slender inital “s” (pronounced like English “sh”) for “seirbil<\/strong>” and initial “g” (pronounced like the “g” in “argue”) for “gearb\u00fa<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Well, as I’m fond of saying, wonders never cease.<\/p>\n

By the way, the captions for the graphic above mean:<\/p>\n

Which is bigger — the gerbil or the guinea pig?\u00a0 The guinea pig answers, “[It is] me that is bigger.”<\/p>\n

The jerboa asks, “Hey!\u00a0 What about me?” [since he wasn’t part of the original question].<\/p>\n

The gerbil wonders [in his thought balloon], “What is that strange animal in the box below?”<\/p>\n

SGF agus n\u00e1 b\u00edodh aon leisce ort scr\u00edobh isteach m\u00e1 bh\u00edonn seirbil n\u00f3 muc ghuine n\u00f3 gearb\u00fa mar pheata agat.\u00a0 N\u00f3 peata ar bith, fi\u00fa.\u00a0 B’fh\u00e9idir gur mhaith leat picti\u00far de do pheata a bheith mar ghn\u00e9ghrianghraf i mblagmh\u00edr \u00e9igin anseo sa todhcha\u00ed.\u00a0 M\u00e1s f\u00e9idir leat nasc de do phicti\u00far de do pheata a sheoladh chugam, s\u00edlim go mbeidh m\u00e9 \u00e1balta \u00e9 a phost\u00e1il.\u00a0 Hmm, b’fh\u00e9idir go mbeidh liosta feithimh againn, fi\u00fa.\u00a0 — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

gluais\u00edn: feitheamh<\/strong>, waiting; fi\u00fa<\/strong>, for that matter, even; gn\u00e9,<\/strong> feature; todhcha\u00ed<\/strong>, future<\/p>\n

Blagmh\u00edreanna faoi hamstair agus peata\u00ed eile:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

An bhfuil peata agat?<\/strong> Talking about Pets in Irish: Hamstair<\/strong> (hamsters)<\/a>\u00a0Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Jul 24, 2017 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Which Celtic Language Has 5 Words for \u2018Hamster\u2019 (Leid: N\u00ed h\u00ed an Ghaeilge \u00ed!)<\/strong>?<\/a>Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Jan 28, 2016 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/p>\n

Comhr\u00e1: Searbh\u00e1n an tSeirbil agus Hamalt\u00fan an Hamstar ag caint faoina gc\u00e1sanna<\/a> <\/strong>Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Jan 31, 2016 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/p>\n

Irish Vocabulary Round-up for<\/a> \u2018Comhr\u00e1 idir Hamstar agus Seirbil\u2019<\/a> <\/strong>Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Feb 6, 2016 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/p>\n

Naisc <\/strong>(previous pet-themed blogposts): cait agus madra\u00ed agus pear\u00f3id\u00ed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aghaidheanna Cat <\/a><\/strong>(Faces of Cats) \u2014 Their Main Features in Irish<\/a> Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Jun 25, 2017 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a>; An bhfuil peata agat? \u00a0Talking about Pets in Irish: Pisc\u00edn\u00ed (Kittens)<\/a> <\/strong>Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Jun 16, 2017 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

An bhfuil peata agat? \u00a0<\/strong>Talking about Pets in Irish: Madra\u00ed <\/strong>(Dogs)<\/a> Posted by r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a> on Jul 18, 2017 in\u00a0<\/span>Irish Language\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

An bhfuil peata agat? <\/a><\/strong>Talking about Pets in Irish:<\/a> Pear\u00f3id\u00ed (parrots)<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Jul 21, 2017 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) We could say that “Peata\u00ed go leor” has been our recent “t\u00e9ama,” and we’ve covered the following so far: cait, pisc\u00edn\u00ed, madra\u00ed, pear\u00f3id\u00ed, hamstair. Next we’ll take up a couple more popular pets: seirbil\u00ed agus muca guine. Actually, for years, I checked all the available Irish dictionaries for the Irish for “gerbil” and…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":9502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[489691,306278,489690,489687,489688,489689,306277],"class_list":["post-9499","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-gearbu","tag-gerbil","tag-guine","tag-guinea-pig","tag-jerboa","tag-muc-ghuine","tag-seirbil"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9499","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=9499"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9511,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9499\/revisions\/9511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}