{"id":985,"date":"2011-06-20T08:47:07","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T08:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=985"},"modified":"2015-07-07T18:17:19","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T18:17:19","slug":"stella-etoile-estrella-stea-%e2%80%a6-realta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/stella-etoile-estrella-stea-%e2%80%a6-realta\/","title":{"rendered":"Stella, \u00c9toile, Estrella, Stea \u2026 R\u00e9alta!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Sandwiched between L\u00e1 na Brata\u00ed<\/strong> (an American holiday celebrated on June 14th<\/sup>) and L\u00e1 na Saoirse<\/strong> (4 I\u00fail<\/strong>) might be a good time to talk about \u201cr\u00e9alta\u00ed agus <\/strong>riabha<\/strong>\u201d (stars and stripes).\u00a0 So we\u2019ll take a sos<\/strong> (break) from the d\u00edochlaonta\u00ed<\/strong> for a while, and address, first, the \u201cr\u00e9alta<\/strong>\u201d component.\u00a0 The \u201criabha<\/strong>\u201d will have to wait for another blog.<\/p>\n

An interesting aspect of the word \u201cr\u00e9alta<\/strong>\u201d is that it is completely separate from both series of cognates for \u201cstar\u201d in the Romance and Germanic languages.\u00a0 Often words for things that our ancestors held in common (sun, moon, stars, horses, cows, mothers, fathers, etc.) are quite similar as you traverse the Indo-European panorama of languages.\u00a0 So you may have recognized \u201cstella\u201d<\/em> (Laidin, Iod\u00e1ilis<\/strong>), \u201c\u00e9toile<\/em>\u201d (Fraincis<\/strong>), \u201cestrella<\/em>\u201d (Sp\u00e1innis<\/strong>), or \u201cstea<\/em>\u201d (R\u00f3m\u00e1inis<\/strong>), in the title of this blog, but \u201cr\u00e9alta<\/strong>\u201d clearly just \u201cdoesn\u2019t belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

How \u2018bout the Germanic series: \u201cstjerne<\/em>\u201d (Danmhairgis<\/strong>), \u201csteorra<\/em>\u201d (SeanBh\u00e9arla<\/strong>), \u201cster<\/em>\u201d (Ollainis<\/strong>), and \u201cstern<\/em>\u201d (Gearm\u00e1inis<\/strong>), mar shampla<\/strong>.\u00a0 Again, a lot of internal consistency, but nothing resembling the Irish \u201cr\u00e9alta<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as though the word \u201cstar\u201d is the only one that presents us with this quandary.\u00a0 While the word for \u201csun\u201d is also fairly consistent throughout the Indo-European languages (sol, sole, soleil, soare, haul, heol, solnce, <\/em>and, most historically of all, suar<\/em> in Sanskrit, etc.), Irish gives us \u201cgrian<\/strong>,\u201d perhaps based on a word that means \u201cheat.\u201d\u00a0 For \u201cmoon,\u201d we bridge the gap a bit.\u00a0 The most widely used Irish word, \u201cgealach<\/strong>\u201d (moon, lit. bright thing), is not tied into the Indo-European set, but there is a second Irish word, mostly reserved for literary usage, \u201cluan<\/strong>,\u201d which is tied in with \u201cluna<\/em>,\u201d \u201clune<\/em>,\u201d etc.\u00a0 Some of this linguistic uniqueness is due to Ireland being an island, with some natural isolation, but some of it is simply inexplicable, with origins lost in the mists of preliterate prehistory.\u00a0 In certain other cases, though, Irish clearly shares its vocabulary with other Indo-European languages (capall<\/strong>, horse, cf. caballus, <\/strong>cheval, caballo, ceffyl<\/em>, etc., and m\u00e1thair<\/strong>, mother, cf. mater, m\u00e8re, madre<\/em>, and Sanskrit \u201cmatar-<\/em>,\u201d etc.).\u00a0 Whenever this linguistic sharing occurs, it certainly makes vocabulary-building easier.\u00a0 Where it exists in Irish, I\u2019d say relish it.\u00a0 Where it doesn\u2019t, with words like \u201cr\u00e9alta<\/strong>\u201d (or \u201cgrian<\/strong>\u201d or \u201cgealach<\/strong>,\u201d etc.), it just makes the challenge of learning Irish all the more interesting, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Do we have any idea about the history of the word \u201cr\u00e9alta<\/strong>?\u201d\u00a0 There is at least one theory \u2013 that\u2019s it\u2019s a compound of very old forms of the words \u201crud<\/strong>\u201d (thing) and \u201cglan<\/strong>\u201d (clean, bright, pure).\u00a0 Seems plausible to me, though probably hard to prove.<\/p>\n

Getting back to \u201cr\u00e9alta\u201d <\/strong>itself, the plural is \u201cr\u00e9alta\u00ed.\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong>It\u2019s a 4th<\/sup> declension noun, so (hur\u00e1<\/strong>!), the endings for possessive forms are the same as the singular and plural forms themselves.\u00a0 It\u2019s feminine, so to describe a star further, you could say:<\/p>\n

an r\u00e9alta bheag<\/strong><\/p>\n

an r\u00e9alta mh\u00f3r<\/strong><\/p>\n

an r\u00e9alta gheal<\/strong><\/p>\n

an r\u00e9alta thimpholach<\/strong><\/p>\n

etc.<\/p>\n

To make the same phrases plural, you\u2019d say:<\/p>\n

na r\u00e9alta\u00ed beaga<\/strong><\/p>\n

na r\u00e9alta\u00ed m\u00f3ra<\/strong><\/p>\n

na r\u00e9alta\u00ed geala<\/strong><\/p>\n

na r\u00e9alta\u00ed timpholacha<\/strong><\/p>\n

etc.<\/p>\n

All well and good, and quite predictable.<\/p>\n

To show possession:<\/p>\n

m\u00e9id na r\u00e9alta<\/strong>, the size of the star<\/p>\n

ainm na r\u00e9alta<\/strong>, the name of the star<\/p>\n

m\u00e9id na r\u00e9alta\u00ed<\/strong>, the size of the stars<\/p>\n

ainmneacha na r\u00e9alta\u00ed<\/strong>, the names of the stars<\/p>\n

Some related words are:<\/p>\n

r\u00e9alteola\u00ed, <\/strong>astronomer<\/p>\n

r\u00e9alteola\u00edocht, <\/strong>astronomy<\/p>\n

r\u00e9alta, <\/strong>star (in movies)<\/p>\n

s\u00e1r-r\u00e9alta, <\/strong>super-star (celebrity)<\/p>\n

r\u00e9ilt\u00edn, <\/strong>starlet, also, an asterisk<\/p>\n

r\u00e9altbhreac, <\/strong>star-spangled (lit. star-specked, since the actual word for a \u201cspangle\u201d in Irish is \u201cspaglainn\u201d<\/strong>!)<\/p>\n

r\u00e9altbhliain<\/strong>, sidereal year<\/p>\n

r\u00e9altbhu\u00edon<\/strong>, constellation<\/p>\n

r\u00e9altfhisic<\/strong>, astrophysics.<\/p>\n

One of my favorites is:<\/p>\n

r\u00e9alt\u00f3ireacht<\/strong>, star-gazing, which also means \u201cmental confusion\u201d and \u201cabsent-mindedness.”<\/p>\n

And so, would that last entry shed some new light on how to translate the intriguingly named \u201cstarry-gazy pie\u201d into Irish?\u00a0 It\u2019s actually a Cornish specialty, as immortalized in at least one children\u2019s book, The Mousehole Cat,<\/em> but that\u2019s no reason for it not to have an Irish name. \u00a0If \u201cstarry-gazy pie\u201d sounds delightfully philosophical, it\u2019s actually quite a down-to-earth phenomenon.\u00a0 The “starry-gazy” aspect is caused by fish heads sticking up through the pie\u2019s crust, as if they\u2019re gazing at the sky.\u00a0 So despite its celebrated iconic Cornishness (featured in Poldark<\/em>, etc.), it also showed up in the New York Daily News\u2019s <\/em>series, \u201cYuck! Disgusting Things People Eat!\u201d based on Neil Setchfield’s\u00a0book of the same name (tagairt th\u00edos)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A quick search through all the dictionaries, online and hard-copy, that I have at my disposal fails to yield a name for this pie in Irish, or for that matter, even in Cornish.\u00a0 So may I suggest, for Irish, *pi\u00f3g r\u00e9alt\u00f3ireachta<\/strong>? \u00a0Part of me keeps wanting to specify the main ingredient, typically pils\u00e9ir<\/strong> or scad\u00e1in<\/strong>, but I have to remind myself that the English name doesn\u2019t specify the fish either, so, just \u201cstarry-gazy,\u201d no details!\u00a0 And may I inquire of any cainteoir\u00ed Cornaise<\/strong> on this list, if they know how to say \u201cstarry-gazy\u201d pie in Cornish?\u00a0 Just curious!<\/p>\n

As for \u201cstar-spangled,\u201d to return to our flag theme, there is at least one other way that this concept has been expressed in Irish: gealr\u00e9altach<\/strong> (lit. brightly-starred).<\/p>\n

Generally, when using either \u201cr\u00e9altbhreac<\/strong>\u201d or \u201cgealr\u00e9altach<\/strong>,\u201d the basic word for \u201cflag\u201d (bratach<\/strong>) is used.\u00a0 The English phrase \u201cstar-spangled banner\u201d feels extra poetic, substituting \u201cbanner\u201d for \u201cflag.\u201d\u00a0 In Irish however, the most specific word for a \u201cbanner,\u201d is \u201cmeirge<\/strong>\u201d (also a \u201cstandard\u201d or \u201censign\u201d), but I don\u2019t see any evidence of it in discussion of the American \u201cStars and Stripes,\u201d or in fact, of the American national anthem.<\/p>\n

And finally, fol\u00e1ireamh homagraif<\/strong>.\u00a0 There is another word in Irish, r\u00e9alta<\/strong>, which is an adjective meaning \u201creal\u201d or \u201cdeveloped\u201d (in photography, etc.).\u00a0 This is based on the verb \u201cr\u00e9aladh<\/strong>\u201d (to make clear or manifest, to develop).\u00a0 No relation to r\u00e9alta<\/strong> (star) \u2013 it\u2019s just that the \u201c\u2013ta\u201d ending of this adjective mimics the \u201c\u2013ta\u201d ending of the noun.<\/p>\n

Next up, \u201criabha<\/strong>,\u201d and perhaps some other vexillogical vagaries.\u00a0 SGF, \u00f3 R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Gluais: bratach,<\/strong> flag; brateola\u00edocht,<\/strong> vexillology; fol\u00e1ireamh<\/strong>, an alert; pils\u00e9ar<\/strong>, pilchard; saoirse<\/strong> [SEER-shuh] freedom, independence; scad\u00e1n<\/strong>, herring; timpholach<\/strong>, circumpolar<\/p>\n

Nasc don tsraith sa<\/strong> New York Daily News:<\/p>\n

www.nydailynews.com\/lifestyle\/galleries\/yuck_disgusting_things_people_eat\/yuck_disgusting_things_people_eat.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) Sandwiched between L\u00e1 na Brata\u00ed (an American holiday celebrated on June 14th) and L\u00e1 na Saoirse (4 I\u00fail) might be a good time to talk about \u201cr\u00e9alta\u00ed agus riabha\u201d (stars and stripes).\u00a0 So we\u2019ll take a sos (break) from the d\u00edochlaonta\u00ed for a while, and address, first, the \u201cr\u00e9alta\u201d component.\u00a0 The \u201criabha\u201d will…<\/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":[289902,359014,359005,359025,35324,359012,4435,359057,359048,359046,229689,359049,1999,359047,359061,229684,4783,359018,4840,359054,290004,290003,359017,89881,5256,283519,332048,359032,5444,359042,359043,8113,2211,9466,5813,207475,359034,359055,359056,359035,359050,6022,359052,359013,24625,94610,359022,359020,111415,359058,359019,359051,82455,289946,33047,359009,359006,229681,359024,359026,359011,111418,359003,82625,359031,10454,6686,359000,359059,359023,359010,359041,283867,229657,12401,359044,359008,332053,359053,111419,289970,359007,359004,359016,111412,290005,290002,359037,359038,359039,359036,359045,27752,209379,359015,359029,359028,359030,7268,359021],"class_list":["post-985","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-4-iuil","tag-absent-mindedness","tag-asterisk","tag-astronomer","tag-astronomy","tag-astrophysics","tag-bratach","tag-brateolaiocht","tag-caballo","tag-caballus","tag-capall","tag-ceffyl","tag-celebrity","tag-cheval","tag-circumpolar","tag-constellation","tag-cornish","tag-cornishness","tag-crust","tag-ensign","tag-estrella","tag-etoile","tag-fish-heads","tag-flag","tag-freedom","tag-gealach","tag-gealrealtach","tag-glan","tag-grian","tag-haul","tag-heol","tag-herring","tag-independence","tag-la-na-bratai","tag-la-na-saoirse","tag-luan","tag-madre","tag-make-clear","tag-make-manifest","tag-matar","tag-mater","tag-mathair","tag-meirge","tag-mental-confusion","tag-mere","tag-moon","tag-neil","tag-new-york-daily-news","tag-pilchard","tag-pilsear","tag-poldark","tag-realadh","tag-realta","tag-realtai","tag-realtai-agus-riabha","tag-realtbhliain","tag-realtbhreac","tag-realtbhuion","tag-realteolai","tag-realteolaiocht","tag-realtfhisic","tag-realtoireacht","tag-reiltin","tag-riabha","tag-rud","tag-sanskrit","tag-saoirse","tag-sar-realta","tag-scadan","tag-setchfield","tag-sidereal-year","tag-soare","tag-sol","tag-sole","tag-soleil","tag-solnce","tag-spaglainn","tag-spangle","tag-standard","tag-star-gazing","tag-star-spangled","tag-star-specked","tag-starlet","tag-starry-gazy","tag-starry-gazy-pie","tag-stea","tag-stella","tag-steorra","tag-ster","tag-stern","tag-stjerne","tag-suar","tag-sun","tag-super-star","tag-the-mousehole-cat","tag-thimpholach","tag-timpholach","tag-timpholacha","tag-vexillology","tag-yuck-disgusting-things-people-eat"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985","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=985"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6892,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions\/6892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}