Posts tagged with "dialect"

Frásaí Eile leis an bhFocal “Lochlannach”

Posted by róislín No Comments
Jan 20 2010

Recently we discussed various usages of the word “Lochlannach,” which can be translated in various ways, including “Scandinavian” and “Norse.”  It’s used for Norway Spruce (sprús Lochlannach) and for Swedish goosefoot (blonagán Lochlannach).  I promised at least one more example, tastily potable, if it can be found to exist!  That was before the géarchéim happened in Haiti.  Today, there was an iarchrith, so I may return to the subject, but for now, back to “an bheoir Lochlannach.”  So how would we know if it tastes good if it might not exist?  Lean ort ag léamh!  Read on!

 

First the legend, in brief, then the term.  Between about 1000 and 2000 years ago, depending on whether your version of the legend concerns Vikings/Danes or Picts, the recipe for “beoir Lochlannach” was well-known to a certain tribe.  However that tribe was defeated and almost entirely killed in battle.  The last marthanóir who knew the recipe refused to yield it up, leading to his death and the loss of the oideas (recipe).  For those of you who know the story, I’m deliberately leaving out the emotional tension of the story, to avoid spoilers. 

 

By the time the legend as we know it had evolved, this “beoir” had acquired mythical stature, as fantastic as the fountain of eternal youth or ambróise Oilimpeach.   It may well have continued to be produced in remote areas, but it didn’t evolve into a commercial product.  If you haven’t read the legend before, there are many versions online and in print, including Robert Louis Stevenson’s. 

 

Now, to the téarmaí.  There are at least two names in Irish for this beverage: beoir Lochlannach and leann fraoigh.  The latter is literally “ale of fraoch, heather.  In English, this beverage is generally referred to as “heather-ale,” not a “beoir” and not using any ethnic reference in its name.  “Beoir” normally means “beer,” though we’ll have reason to question that here, as you’ll see. 

 

I imagine all you grúdairí baile and *símeoirí out there might have something to say about using “beoir” for “ale,” which is normally “leann.”  I can only say that I didn’t invent the term, and that the second phrase, “leann fraoigh,” does use the word for “ale.” 

 

But there’s an interesting twist to this story. You can read more about the possible derivation of the use of the word “beoir” in this context at http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/heather-ale-scots-or-irish/. The author proposes that “beoir Lochlannach” isn’t really beer OR ale as we know it, but rather a sweet mead, which would be “meá” in Irish.  If you need to clarify it as being sweet, you could say “meá mhilis,” but I’ve never heard of a mead that wasn’t sweet, so that might be iomarcach (redundant). 

 

And of course, if the beoir/leann/meá (beer/ale/mead) is really Pictish, then we shouldn’t be using “Lochlannach” at all, but rather “Piochtach” or “Cruithneach.”  But scéal na bPiochtaí, nó scéal na gCruithneach, sin scéal eile.  Ábhar blag eile.

 

For the final assessment, we’re almost at the 25th anniversary of the commercial revival of heather ale.  You can check it out further and, if you’re in An Ríocht Aontaithe (UK, mainland only, the site says) order some at http://www.williamsbrosbrew.com/ which also has ales made with feamainn, péine, and caor throim (seaweed, pine, and elderberry).  The website http://www.beermenus.com/beers/fraoch-heather-ale lists pubs in Nua-Eabhrac, Filideilfia, and Siceagó that stock Fraoch Heather Ale. 

 

*Zymurgists.  Sadly, I can’t find any actual existing Irish term for zymurgy or its partner term, zymology.   But, to boldly coin a term where no one has coined before (fad m’eolais), we could have something like “símeoiracht” for the art or process of fermenting, based on “miotalóireacht,”  the art or process of metallurgy.  And we could have “símeolaíocht” for “zymology,” based on “miotaleolaíocht,” metallurgy as a field of study.  A parallel coinage would be “síomáis,” based on “zymase,” the enzyme which is the root of all these terms.  All these, and the word “enzyme” itself seem to be based on the Greek “zumē” (leaven).  But I’ll leave that to the blagálaithe Gréigise. 

 

Nótaí: géarchéim [gyayr-hyaym] crisis; iar-, post-; iarchrith [EE-ur-HRIH, silent c and t] aftershock; fraoch [freekh or frookh, depending on dialect] heather; fraoigh [free] of heather; grúdairí baile, home-brewers; fad m’eolais [fahd MOHL-ish] AFAIK.

 

Do watch out for the word “meá” since it has dhá chomhainm (two homonyms): “meá” (a scale, measure, or weight) and “meá” (fishing-ground).  All are pronounced the same, with the initial “m” like “mute” or “muse.”    

Nótaí Fuaimnithe don Bhlag Roimhe (Pronunciation Notes for the Previous Blog)

Posted by róislín No Comments
Dec 31 2009

This blog is mostly pronunciation notes for the previous entry, since pronunciation is one of the aspects of Irish that many of my students keep asking about.  As usual, I’ll be concentrating on the words that have silent letters or that tend to raise questions.   

 

I hope this will be useful for relative beginners.  For advanced readers, please hold tight, and we’ll have the blogs on the Christmas “wrap-up” and the New Year’s theme shortly. 

 

Since many of the silent letters result from changes to the first letter of a word, let’s look at some of those first, including one example from the title of today’s entry:

 

don bhlag [dun vlahg], for the blog; while “bh” followed by a broad vowel (a, o, u) can be pronounced as either “w” or “v,” depending on dialect, it’s always pronounced “v” before the consonants “l” or “r.”  An additional example, “an bhróg” [un vrohg]

 

If you’ve been working on Irish for a while, you may have noticed a variant of this phrase, “don mblag” [dun mlahg], which is also correct.  Some dialects, and Standard Irish, use lenition after “don” (giving “bhlag”); other dialects use eclipsis (giving “mblag”).

 

bleathach [BLÆ-ukh] grist, or, the “flip/nog” part of egg-flip, eggnog; the silent “th” gives a slight breathy pause in the middle of this word, but it’s barely two syllables.  The vowel sound of the Irish “ea,” transcribed here with “Æ” is like American English “cat” or “bat.”  The vowel sound here is important, since it’s the main thing that distinguishes this word from “bláthach” [blawukh], buttermilk.  For “bláthach,” I’d treat it as one syllable; the long vowel (á) sort of swallows up that breathy pause.

 

With the definite article, those become “an bhleathach” [un VLÆ-ukh] and “an bhláthach” [un vlawch].  In both cases, “bhlea” and “bhlá,” the “bh” is pronounced like “v” although “bhlea” has a slender vowel and “bhlá” is broad. 

 

uibhe [IV-eh], of an egg; from “ubh” [uv] (egg).  Remember that the “-eh” I’m using at the end of a lot of these pronunciation guides is short and unstressed, like the “e” of “pet” or “met.”  If I just transcribe it with the single letter “e,” I find that many people read it as “ee.”  As is often the case, one could use a pronunciation guide to the pronunciation guide!  Anyway, it’s not the Canadian or Down East, “ehhh-uh”!

 

fíor [fee-ur], fíoracha [FEER-ukh-uh], figure(s); the singular form is basically like the more well known homonym “fíor,” which means “true.”  With the definite article, the singular form becomes “an fhíor” [un ee-ur], the figure. 

 

sinséir [SHIN-shayrzh], of ginger, from “sinséar,” ginger (the noun).

 

nach bhfuil [nahkh wil] that isn’t, that aren’t; probably familiar to seasoned learners, but since about a hundred people have joined this on Facebook since I last blinked (well, that’s a bit exaggerated, but in a very short time), I’m giving the pronunciation, ar eagla na heagla (just in case).  Another case of “bhf” being pronounced as “w.”   

 

féin [hayn or fayn, depending on dialect, both are fine].  The vowel sound comes close to English “rain,” or for an even more exact rhyme, English “fain,” a word that I can safely say I’ve probably never used in actual English conversation.   

 

I’m nearly running out of space again, but I’ll finish with the adjectives for “male” and “female” and their lenited (+h) forms: ” fireann [FIRzh-un], baineann [BWIN-yun], fhireann [IRzh-un], bhaineann [WIN-yun or VIN-yun, depending on dialect]. For the latter, I use the “win” version, partly because of the Gaeltachtaí I’ve stayed in and partly because I think it helps to cement the broad/slender distinction in Irish pronunciation.

 

The “zh” is used to indicate a slender “r,” which we can discuss more later (please let me know in “comments” on the Transparent page, if you want more detail).  This sound is also in Czech.  That’s the only European counterpart I know of; it’s definitely a new sound for most English speakers. 

 

Of course, all of this is just a “treoir gharbh” [TRORzh γAHR-uv] (rough guide), but I hope it helps.  The Irish “gh” is transcribed here with the gamma sign, standard linguistic practice, since there’s no way to “roughguide” it.  I know it looks like “v” but it does have that loop at the bottom, distinguishing it from a “v.”  At any rate, for many more examples of Irish pronunciation, you can always check out Transparent Language’s fine products for learning Irish, which are listed at http://www.transparent.com/languagepages/irish/irish.htm  

 

Athbhliain [AH-VLEE-in] faoi mhaise!  Happy New Year!         

“Ga-sheol go Filideilfia nó go Detroit mé, a Scotty! Tá mé ag iarraidh an Taispeántas (Exhibition) ‘RéaltAistear’ a fheiceáil.”

Posted by róislín No Comments
Aug 4 2009

Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil daoine (agus b’fhéidir neacha eile!) amuigh ansin a bhfuil suim acu sa Ghaeilge agus sna cláracha agus sna scannáin RéaltAistear (Star Trek).  Faoi láthair tá an taispeántas i bhFilideilfia ag an Institiúid Franklin (www.fl.edu) agus i nDetroit ag an Detroit Science Center (www.detroitsciencecenter.org).

 

Seo cúpla frása ón seó, aistrithe go Gaeilge (or could I say “RéaltAistrithe” since the Irish word for “Trek,” aistear, is a cognate of “aistrigh,” which means “translate,” “transfer,” or “journey.”  “Ochlán” (groan), you say?  I don’t blame you – that was fíordhroch-chomhfhoclacht, really bad punning).  Pé scéal é:

 

1) “Ga-sheol aníos mé, a Scotty!”  Tá a fhios, tá a fhios, tá a fhios agam.  De réir an staidéir atá déanta ar an ábhar seo, ní dúradh go díreach mar seo é riamh, ach “Scotty, beam us up!,” srl.  Ach sin mar atá an frása sa phopchultúr agus is leor sin don chás seo. 

 

Astute observers may notice that I’m flying the face of the punctuation reforms in Irish over the last few decades, by adding a fleiscín between the words “ga” (ray, beam) and “seol” (send, sail, here lenited to “sheol”).  It makes the pronunciation clearer [gah-hyohl, silent “s”] and shows the components of the comhfhocal (compound word), since it is indeed a comhfhocal in Irish.  Being inflected, Irish traditionally hasn’t had quite the flexibility that English has for changing parts of speech around without adding suffixes or prefixes (“I’ll ‘friend’ you, etc.). 

 

Keeping the fleiscín also differentiates “ga-sheol!” (beam!) from Gasheol in World of Warcraft!  To boldly gaelicize Gasheol’s character type, he is an abhacshagart (dwarf priest), at least, fm’e (fad m’eolais, as far as I can tell).  That differentiation is helpful, at least for those of us who constantly search for how new Irish words are being used on the Idirlíon and have to wade through acrainmneacha (acronyms), comhtheagmhasachtaí bréige (flukes), and ainmneacha ar leith do charachtair (specific character names), which may or may not be related to the Irish term in question.  If anyone knows whether the WoW character is named after the Irish word or whether he does any beaming himself, I’d be interested to hear.   “Ga-sheol aníos Gasheol, a Scotty!”  Úúps, I’m commingling my réaltachtaí ailtéarnacha! 

 

One would be hard pressed to find a ready-made verb in Irish for the type of “beaming” Scotty does.  “Beam” as a transitive verb in Irish (spalp) is somewhat uncommon to begin with, and the meaning is more like “burst forth” or “pour out.”  One could always resort to the widely used verb ending “-áil” (as in páirceáil, péinteáil, and sciáil) and add it to “bíoma” to get a verb very similar to the English, but “ga-sheol” is the word that has been well entrenched in Irish-medium Star Trek fandom since at least 1996, when I first saw the term.   

 

I was going to do the “intelligent life” bit here, but it will have to wait for blag eile.

 

2) “Saol fada agus rath ort!” It may be a hard to prove a direct link, but this traditional Irish phrase certainly serves the purpose for “Live long and prosper!” (lit. long life and prosperity on you).

 

Some of the other phrases I had in mind will take up at least one more blog, so here’s a closer, hopefully straightforward:

 

3) “Dochtúir agus ní brícléir atá ionam,” a dúirt _____.  Cé a dúirt é sin?  Whoever sends the correct answer in first (via “comments”) will get to nominate another Star Trek catchphrase for translation here, or if you prefer, to send the phrase and your own translation in.  Of course, you could do that anyway!

 

Gluaisín agus/nó Fuaimniú: RéaltAistear [RAYLT-ASH-tcherr]; neacha [NYAKH-uh] beings; faoi láthair, currently; seó [note the long “ó”] show; abhacshagart [OWK-HAHG-urt, note silent “s”]; comhtheagmhasachtaí [KOH-HAG-wass-ukh-tee]; fíordhroch-chomhfhoclacht [FEER-GHROKH-KHOH-OK-lukht, congratulations – that was three prefixes in a row].

 

Nótaí:

ní dúradh [nee DOOR-uh], that’s “door” like the Scots “dour,” or probably the Scots “door” of the “hoos,” for that matter, i.e. not like the English “door” or “dower;” I’m trying to keep my pronunciation guide consistent, with “oo” as in “food” or “mood,” not as in “good” or “wood.”  Best practice, of course, is to listen to native speakers, as you’ll find on Transparent’s Word of the Day and their other programs.

 

sciáil [SHKEE-aw-il, don’t forget the slender “s” sound, like English, hmm, well, that “shkee” sound isn’t very common in American English. You’ll find it in Yiddish “Shkapeh” (worthless object).  You’ll also find it in some dialect or light-hearted English, like an ad I saw mentioned in a Ballybunion website that commented on the pronunciation “for all of your shkeeing needs” (skiing in Ballybunion? uisce-sciáil, b’fhéidir, ach sin Á.B.E.).  Also spotted in a humorous piece in the Independent (March 8, 2009) entitled “Whishkey on a Shunday.”  Perhaps, to “nutshell” it and take it back to standard Irish, the sound is like the Irish “sc” in “scian” (but not the way the Scots often pronounce their version of the word, as in “sgian dubh,” which is more like “skean” or “sgeen” with no “sh” quality).  So, nine lines to describe one non-standard English sound!  I hope I didn’t just make a “míol mór” (whale) from a “míoltóg” (midge), or as English has it, a mountain from a mole-hill, but if it is a mountain of detail, at least you can “sciáil” down it next time around (for words like sceach, sceadamán, scige, or sciúch, all of which have same “shk” sound. 

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