Irish Blog

You may have noticed Transparent’s recent Word of the Day, bliain (year) or an bhliain (the year).  Care to guess how many forms of this word are in common use?

 

Well, there’s the lenited form (an bhliain), the special form used after the numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6 (bliana), the eclipsed “special” form used after the numbers 7, 8, 9, and 10 (mbliana), the possessive form (also bliana), and the plural form (blianta). 

 

Examples, you cry?  Coming up!

 

Tá mo hamstar bliain d’aois.  My hamster is a year old. 

Tá mo hamstar bliain amháin d’aois.  My hamster is one year old (emphasizing the “one” bit)

Tá mo hamstar dhá bhliain d’aois.  (dhá bhliain, two years).

Tá mo hamstar trí bliana d’aois.  Just like I promised, a change kicks in at number three.

Tá mo hamstar seacht mbliana d’aois.  (seacht mbliana, seven years, showing “eclipsis” or covering of the letter “b”). 

 

How long do hamsters live anyway?  Maybe I’d better switch to pearóidí (parrots).

Tá mo phearóid trí bliana déag d’aois.  My parrot is thirteen years old. 

Tá mo phearóid fiche bliain d’aois.  My parrot is twenty years old. Time for an osna faoisimh (sigh of relief) – no change to the word “bliain” for multiples of ten!

 

And how about that possessive form?

Beidh sé anseo go ceann bliana. He’ll be here for a year (lit. “until the head of a year”)

 

And the plural:

Ní fhaca mé le blianta é.  I haven’t seen him for years.

 

And speaking of not seeing someone le blianta (for years), one phrase that has “years” in English but not in Irish, is “donkey’s years.”  As in, “I haven’t seen a Slinky in donkey’s years.”  For all of the presence of Equus africanus asinus in Ireland, this particular idiom doesn’t have an exact equivalent in Irish.  To say “I haven’t seen him for a long time,” you just substitute “fada” (long) in the phrase “le blianta,” giving:

 

Ní fhaca mé le fada é.  Literally, I didn’t see him with “long.” 

 

So why do we drag the word “donkey” into expressions like this in English. It’s sort of like rhyming slang, although in this case almost a reverse rhyming slang. The idea behind the expression is “donkey’s ears,” which are, well, you guessed it, long. Add a little word play to the mix and you have “donkey’s years.”  Maybe there’s also a little insinuation that donkeys may take a long time to move along, or, if not a long time, their own sweet time. 

 

It wouldn’t hurt to learn the actual phrase for “donkey’s ears:” One of these days, I plan to blog about the tearmainn asail, donkey sanctuaries in Ireland, which I hope to visit sometime, so I’m sure we’ll return to the topic of donkey’s ears eventually.  At that point we can discuss more features of donkeys – ears, fur, hoofs, their vulnerable hind legs, etc.*

 

The phrase “donkey’s ears” is basic enough as far as vocabulary goes:

 

cluas, ear

cluasa, ears

cluasa asail, donkey’s ears

 

 I just read in one of the documents for University College Cork’s Irish Department that, “… is fada siar a théann an ceangal idir chluasa asail agus rí.”  That means “The connection between donkey’s ears and kings goes back a long time,” and on that intriguing nóta, I’ll leave you for now.  Slán ach ní go ceann fada!

 

Leideanna Fuaimnithe (Pronunciation Tips)

 

bhliain – VLEE-in, the “bh” is pronounced like a “v”

mbliana – MLEE-un-nuh

ní fhaca – nee AHK-uh, the “fh” is completely silent

 

*I’ll have to remember to keep the “hupcoming” donkey blog short and succinct, otherwise I might be accused of “talking the hind leg off the (proverbial) donkey.”  By the way, the Irish for “hup!” is (drumroll) “hup!”  ‘Nuff said! 

 

 

There are several ways to ask in Irish if someone plays music.  Probably the most general is “An bhfuil ceol agat?”  This literally means “Is there music at you” and refers to playing or singing.  The construction where an activity is “at you” is widely used to ask about skills or abilities.  Some more examples of the construction are “An bhfuil snámh agat?” (Can you swim?) and “An bhfuil Gaeilge agat?” (Do you know Irish?).  The “yes” answer for these is “tá” and the “no” answer is “níl.”  Many people will tend to modify the answer a bit, as in, “Tá beagán Gaeilge agam” (I know a little Irish). 

 

The verb “ag seinm” (playing) is specifically used for playing music.  Unlike English, Irish doesn’t use a single word for playing music, sports (ag imirt) and in general (ag súgradh).  If you’re asking someone if they play an instrument, the question starts “An seinneann tú …?”  The positive answer will be “seinnim” and the negative answer “ní sheinnim.” 

 

Here are some samples.  See if you recognize the instruments:

 

An seinneann tú an giotár?  Seinnim.

 

An seinneann tú an basúcaí?  Ní sheinnim.

 

An seinneann tú an tiúba?  Ní sheinnim, ach seinnim an súsafón.

 

An seinneann tú an fhidil?  Seinnim.

 

Here are a few more examples that combine saying what music you like and the instrument you play:

 

Is maith liom rac-cheol agus seinnim an dordghiotár.

 

Is maith liom ceol clasaiceach agus seinnim an pianó.

 

Is maith liom ceol Ceilteach agus seinnim an chláirseach.

 

Is maith liom ceol traidisiúnta agus seinnim an giotár, an fhidil, an maindilín, agus an bainseó.

 

And yes, for the teideal of this blog, I was looking for a musical instrument that would begin with the letter “z” in Irish, to get the full sense of “a to z,” but there doesn’t seem to be any, ní nach ionadh.  Even the “z” of “zither” gets converted to an “s” in Irish, giving “siotar,” a frequent occurrence with “z”-initial borrowings.  Cf. séabra, sinc and sip for more examples.  Tá an Béarla atá orthusan thíos.  Níl mórán focal a thosaíonn le “z” sa Ghaeilge ar chor ar bith ach seo ceann acu: zú (zoo).

 

Nóta deireanach amháin: Normally after the prefix “alt-“ there would be séimhiú (lenition), but remember that generally the letters d, t, and s do not lenite after d, t, and s.  So for other instruments, like “fliúit” or “clairnéid,” what would the “alto” forms be?  (See freagra, thíos).

 

This blog has mostly focused on instruments.  For all you amhránaithe out there, Á.B.E.

 

Béarla: zebra, zinc, zip

Freagra: altfhliúit, altchlairnéid (Since both of these are feminine nouns, you’d say “an altfhliúit” and “an altchlairnéid” for the definite forms.  With “sacsafón,” you add the letter “t” since the noun is masculine, giving “an t-altsacsafón” or, if capitalized, as in a title, “an tAltsacsafón”).

Pronunciation Tips: bhfuil – sounds like “wil”; an fhidil – sounds like “un idj-il” (the “fh” is silent).