Here are two recordings of a verse from an Irish song that I learnt this week in the sean-nós class in Gleann Cholm Cille. The first recording is spoken by the sean-nós tutor, Gearódín Breathnach, and the second recording is sung by Gearódín and the class.
Recording 1:
Recording 2:
Your challenge is to identify the song and have a go at transcribing the words, either in Irish, or in the IPA or your own phonetic spelling system.
Here’s a recording of the whole song:
We were discussing Irish idioms involving colours today and one of the ones I really liked was buíú na bliana*, which literally means “the yellowing of the year” and refers to the time when spring is becoming summer and the light becomes yellower and warmer.
Red or dearg is used in expressions such as: deargbhréag, a barefaced or blatant lie; deargamadán, an utter fool; dearg-ghráin, intense hatred; and deargiomaíocht, cutthroat competition.
Black or dubh is used in such expressions as: dubh le daoine, swarming with people; and ó dhubh go dubh (from black to black), round the clock or from dawn to dusk.
I’ll put together a page of these idioms for the colours section on Omniglot.
* As I didn’t see it written down, I’m not totally sure that it’s written like this.
One of the things we discussed in class today was Irish idioms involving parts of the body. Some interesting ones include:
Today’s word, uachtar [‘uəxtˠəɾˠ], means “top, upper part, cream or surface (of water)” in Irish. It is used in such expressions as:
Uachtar comes from the Old Irish úachtar or ochtar, which have the Proto-Indo-European root *eu@g or ve@g (to rise, increase). The Irish word uasal (noble) probably comes from the same root, as do the Welsh uchel and the Breton uhel, both of which mean “high” [Source].
Other words containing the root uachtar include:
The President of Ireland, an Uachtarán na hÉíreann, is currently here at Oideas Gael studying Irish in the same class as me.
I’m off to Gleann Cholm Cille in Dongal in the northwest of Ireland later today. I’m going there for the Scoill Shamhraidh i dTeanga agus Cultúr (Language & Culture Summer School) at Oideas Gael, a week of speaking and singing in Irish, seeing old friends and making new ones, listening to and playing music, and enjoying the wonderful scenery of Columba’s magical glen. The craic will be mighty and I’m really looking forward to it.
While I’m there I’ll probably have limited access to the web and email, so posts on this blog might become somewhat sporadic.
épouvantail (nf)
For some reason we were talking about scarecrows or épouvantails at the French conversation group last night. It’s not a word that comes up in conversation very often, but I like the sound of it.
Related words include:
Words for scarecrow in other languages include:
Here’s an Old Irish joke I found today that’s been translated into many languages, including Classical Nahuatl, Sanskrit and Cherokee.
This is the Modern Irish version:
Triúr manach a thug diúltú don saol.
Téann siad ins an fhásach chun aithrí a dhéanamh ina gcuid peacaí roimh Dhia.
Bhí siad gan labhairt lena chéile go ceann bliana.
Ansin dúirt fear díobh le fear eile bliain amháin ina dhiaidh sin, “Táimid go maith,” ar seisean.
Mar sin go ceann bliana.
“Is maith go deimhin,” arsa an dara fear.
Bhí siad ann ina dhiaidh sin go ceann bliana.
“Dar m’aibíd,” arsa an treas fear, “mura ligeann sibh ciúnas dom fágfaidh mé an fásach uile daoibh!”
And the English version:
Three monks turned their back on the world.
They went into the wilderness to repent their sins before God.
They did not speak to one another for a year.
At the end of the year, one of them spoke up and said, “We’re doing okay.”
Another year passed in silence.
“Yes we are,” said the second man.
And so another year passed.
“I swear by my robe,” said the third man, “if you two don’t be quiet I’m out of here!”
There is also background information about the joke in English, Irish, French, Spanish and a number of other languages, and even a recording of it in Old Irish (mp3).
Listening to Raidió na Gaeltachta today I heard the word babysiteáil, in a sentence something like “Tá sé ag Babysiteáil dúinne.” (He babysits for us). This caught my attention because I don’t seem to hear as many English words made into verbs like this in Irish as I do in Welsh. The Welsh equivalent is babysitio, or gwarchod.
There are ways of saying baby-sit in Irish: páistí a fheighil (to care for children) and aire a thabhairt do pháistí (to give care to children).
If you put baby-sit into Google Translate, the Irish comes out as leanbh-suí – a literal translation. The Welsh version, baban-sefyll, is also a literal translation. For other languages the translations are perhaps better: e.g. garder les enfants (French) and cuidar niños (Spanish).
One thing we were discussing last week at the French conversation group was words for animals and their meat. In French the words for meat are also used for the animals: bœuf means beef and ox, porc means pork and pig, mouton means mutton and sheep, while in English there are different words for these things.
The popular explanation for the different English words for the animals and their meat is that after the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066, the animals were reared by the English, who called them cý, pecges and scéapes (cows, pigs and sheep) and eaten by the Normans, who called them boef, porc and motun (beef, pork and mutton). However the distinction between the names for the meat and the animals didn’t become set until the 18th century, and mutton and beef were used to refer to sheep and cows for many centuries after the Norman Conquest.
Bœuf comes from the Latin bos (ox, cow), the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root of which is gwóu (cow). This is also the root of vache, the French word for cow, via the Latin vacca (cow), and of the English word cow, via the Old English cú (pl. cý) and the reconstructed Proto-Germanic word kwom. In fact many of the words for cow, bull or cattle in Indo-European languages probably come from the PIE root gwóu. Examples include: bó (Irish and Scottish Gaelic), booa (Manx), buwch (Welsh), bugh (Cornish), buoc’h (Breton), govs (Latvian), կով (kov) (Armenian), گاو (gav – Persian) and Kuh (German).
As well as ox or steer and beef, bœuf also means (a) surprising; unusual; (b) stupid (in Swiss French); (c) (musical) jam session / jazz improvisation.
Idioms containing bœuf include:
Meanings of mouton include: (a) sheep; (b) mutton; (c) sheep / lamb (someone easily led); (d) stool pigeon / grass; (e) moutons = white horses (on waves) / fluff / fluffy or fleecy clouds. Mutton and mouton possibly come from the Gaulish multo (ram) via the Middle Latin multonem and the Old French moton (ram, wether, sheep).
Idioms containing mouton include:
Sources
http://www.anglo-norman.net/
http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb04.html
http://www.indo-european.nl/
http://www.le-dictionnaire.com/
http://www.etymonline.com/
http://indoeuro.bizland.com/project/phonetics/word28.html
An interesting Irish expression I came across recently is Eastáit na Sí (“Fairy Estates”), which are known as Ghost Estates in English. These are housing estates full of empty houses that nobody can afford thanks to the disappearance of the Celtic Tiger.
The Irish version refers to the Sí (fairies or little people) from Irish folklore. The writer of the article suggests a solution to this problem – making the empty estates into new Gaeltachtaí [source].
The old spelling of sí is sídhe; in Old Irish it’s síde; in Scottish Gaelic it’s sìth, and in Manx it’s shee, and the English word banshee comes from the Irish bean sí (fairy woman).
The fairy folk are often referred to be other names and it is consider unlucky to call them fairies. Instead they might be known as wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair folk, good neighbours or little people in English. In Welsh they’re known as the tylwyth teg (fair tribe), in Manx they’re the mooinjer veggey (little people), and in Cornwall they’re known as piskies or the pobel vean (little people).
The word fairy comes from the Late Latin fata (one of the Fates) via the Old French faerie, which means the land, realm, or characteristic activity (i.e. enchantment) of the people of folklore called faie or fee [source].
Lá Fhéile Pádraig Shona Daoibh / Happy St Patrick’s Day!