Month: March 2010

Eastáit na Sí

By Simon

Eastáit na Sí

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!

Grubstake

By Simon

I came across the word grubstake in a book I’m reading at the moment and it caught my attention because I haven’t seen it before. It appears in the following context:

“From the moment I first arrived back in New York, my father has wanted me to leave the city. He would be happy to grubstake my move to greener pastures.”

From this I can guess that grubstaking probably involves providing financial support, though without the context one might guess that it might be a kind of food.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, grubstake means:

1 : supplies or funds furnished a mining prospector on promise of a share in his discoveries
2 : material assistance (as a loan) provided for launching an enterprise or for a person in difficult circumstances

The American Heritage Dictionary provides the following definition:

1. noun Supplies or funds advanced to a mining prospector or a person starting a business in return for a promised share of the profits.
2. transitive verb To supply with funds in return for a promised share of profits.

The site Take Our Word For It defines a grubstake as

“a supply of food (grub) which a wealthy investor would provide a gold prospector in exchange for a share (stake) in whatever gold might be found.”

It was probably coined during the California gold rush of 1849 and first appeared in writing in 1863.

Grub has been as a slang word for food since at least 1650 and is still used in this way in the UK. Is it used in other Anglophone countries?

Script charts

By Simon

I decided to improve the script charts on the hiragana and katakana pages on Omniglot today – something I’ve been meaning to do to a long time.

Here’s one of the new charts:

Hiragana chart

As well as put improved charts of the kana online, I’ve also put links to Word and PDF versions of the charts for handy offline reference.

Do you think such downloadable charts are useful? Would you like to similar ones for other writing systems?

Berreenyn ghryle

By Simon

Picau ar y maen

Ren mee berreenyn ghryle Vretnish er yn chied cheayrt jea. Er lhiam dy chur mee red beg rour bainney ayndaue as va y teayst feer ghleiynagh, as lhiann eh rish dagh ooilley red – y rollian fuinnee, my veir as y gryle, agh myr shen hene v’ad mie as blasstal.

Cácaí gridille Bhreatnacha

Rinne mé cácaí gridille Bhreatnacha air an chead uair inne. Tá mé ag smaoineamh go chuir mé barraíocht bainne iontu, dá bhrí sin bhí an taos an-ghreamaitheach agus ghreamaigh sé de gach rud – an crann fuinte, mo mhéar agus an ghrideall, ach mar sin féin bhí siad go maith agus an-bhlásta.

Picau ar y maen

Mi nes i bicau ar y maen am y tro cyntaf ddoe. Dw i’n meddwl roes i tipyn bach gormod o lefrith ynddynt ac roedd y toes yn ludiog iawn, ac mi lynodd o i bopeth – i’r rholbren, i fy mysedd ac i’r gradell, ond er hynny roedden nhw yn dda ac yn blasus.

Kionnaghey arasane

By Simon

Hoshee mee arasane y chionnaghey jea. T’eh ayns shenn cabbal faggys da laaragh Bangor, as ta tree shamyr lhiabbagh ayn – ram reaynys dooys!

Capel Tabernacl

Árasán a cheannach

Thosaigh mé árasán a cheannach inné. Tá sé i shean séipéal in aice leis lár Bangor, agus tá trí seomra leapa ann – neart spás domhsa!

Prynu fflat

Mi ddechreues i brynu fflat ddoe. Mae o yn hen gapel yn ymyl canolfan Bangor, ac mae tri ystafell wely ynddo – digon o le i mi!

Na’vi

By Simon

I finally got round to seeing Avatar this week and really enjoyed it. Na’vi, the constructed language used in the film was devised by Paul Frommer, sounds intriguing and there seems to be quite a bit of interest in it. Here are some websites where you can find out more:

– Learn Na’vi contains Na’vi-English dictionary, and notes on pronunciation and grammar

– Talk Na’vi has videos of the language being used in the film, and about the creation of the language.

– Some highlights of Na’vi on language log.

– On YouTube there are a number of videos with details of the language.

– and there’s a page about Na’vi on Wikipedia.

If anyone feels inspired to put together a collection of phrases in Na’vi for Omniglot, please feel free to do so. Here are a few:

Kaltxì – Hello
Ngaru lu fpom srak? – How are you?
Oel ngati kameie – I see you (greeting)
Tsun oe ngahu nìNa’vi pivängkxo a fì’u oeru prrte’ lu – It’s a pleasure to be able to chat with you in Na’vi
Fìskxawngìri tsap’alute sengi oe – I apologise for this moron
Irayo – thank you
Uniltìrantokx – Avatar