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.
Deir seachtar (7) i nGaeilge gur “Gael-Mheiriceánaigh” iad ach deir 2805, “I’m (an) Irish-American,” de réir cuardach Google
Posted by róislín No CommentsIs Meiriceánach mé. I am an American.
Is Gael-Mheiriceánach mé. I am an Irish-American (note m -> mh change after “Gael-“)
“Gael-Mheiriceánach” can also be used as an adjective to say that a person, thing, or concept is “Irish- American,” as opposed to the person being an Irish-American. For example, “Is nós Gael-Mheiriceánach é a bheith ag díol béigeal uaine le Lá Fhéile Pádraig a cheiliúradh” (It is an Irish-American custom to sell green bagels to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day).
To say “I am Irish (of Irish nationality), most people would say “Is Éireannach mé.” A future blog will discuss the compound word “Éireannach-Mheiriceánach,” which is also in use, with a slightly different nuance from “Gael-Mheiriceánach.” No “hits” at all were found searching for the phrase “Is Éireannach-Mheiriceánach mé” (I am an Irish-American) so, for current purposes, we’ll emphasize the word “Gael” to express Irish-Americanness. Very few people would officially label themselves solely as a “Gael” these days, but there are many useful related terms and phrases, such as:
Glór na nGael (www.glornangael.ie), lit. “The Voice of the Gaels,” a group dedicated to promoting the Irish language
Fíorghael, lit. “a true Gael,” a term typically used to mean an “over-the-top” Irish person, and, since 2005, a comic Irish-medium short directed by Macdara Vallely and produced by Zanzibar Films (www.imdb.com/title/tt0887139)
In this cuardach Google (Google search), there were only seven self-identifying statements of Irish-American ethnicity given in Irish but there were about 2800 where the speaker says “I am Irish-American” or “I am an Irish-American” in English. Now juxtapose that with the fact that about 40 million Americans claim some Irish heritage. Certainly, many millions of these may think of themselves as being Irish-American without necessarily saying so in a manner searchable by Google, but we can use the search as a rough benchmark of identity. About one in every 5.5 million Irish-Americans bothers to say in a searchable manner and in Irish, “Is Gael-Mheiriceánach mé.” And that’s assuming that the seven statements collected are actual facts about the speakers; they could just be statements created for other purposes, such as examples of grammar using the Irish verb “is.” But with a sampla (sample) of seven, I’ll just go ahead and claim all of them for present purposes.
About 400 times as many people say, online and searchably, that they are Irish-American in English as say it in Irish. That’s the 2805 as opposed to the seven!
Next comparison, na Franc-Mheiriceánaigh (French-Americans), who number about 11 million, about a quarter the number of Irish-Americans. How many of these write online, searchably and in French, that they themselves are French-American, again as of May 24th? 172, including both the masculine and feminine forms. That’s 24 times the number who proclaim their Irish-American identity in Irish.
How many of these 11 million say they are “Franco-“ or “French-American,” writing online in English? 118. So, when it comes to discussing identity, the French-Americans are much more likely to state their ethnicity in French than in English. I know it’s a small sample and should be repeated on different dates and with different search engines for better accuracy, but nonetheless, the treocht (trend) is clear. If anyone would like to rerun the search and report the results in the “comments” section, bheadh suim agamsa agus ag na léitheoirí go léir ann, tá mé cinnte (All the other readers and I would be interested, I’m sure).
What does this tell us? There are about four times as many Irish-Americans as French-Americans in the U.S. but they are far less likely to talk about their identity in Irish than the French-Americans are to discuss their identity in French. Yes, I know–we all know–that French has been a much more accessible language than Irish for decades, perhaps centuries. But, finally, perhaps we could say, it’s a good time to be learning Irish, talking about one’s identity in Irish, and generally giving the Irish language a cibearphróifil (cyber profile) that’s at least comparable to that of other languages. So, chugam bhur mbarúlacha, le bhur dtoil. So, send me your opinions, please. And yes, one of these days, I’ll tackle the compound identities many of us have on this side of the lochán (pond).
Pronunciation Tip a hAon: m -> mh (say: v): Remember that after the words “Gael” or “Éireannach” used as prefixes, there is softening (lenition) of the next consonant. Traditionally, these words are written in Irish with fleiscíní (hyphens). They used to be in English, as well, but that technicality seems to be dying out, as we see in phrases such as, “I am Irish American” or “He is African American.” At any rate:
Gael-Mheiriceánach: GAYL-VER-ik-yawn-ukh (Irish-American)
Éireannach-Mheiriceánach: AYR-un-ukh-VER-ik-yawn-ukh (Irish-American)
Those identities would be opposed to the phrases “Gael Meiriceánach” or “Éireannach Meiriceánach,” which would mean “an American Irishman,” normally understood as an Irish person residing in the U.S. Among other places, this distinction is carefully noted in the book, The Legend of Being Irish-American, edited by David Lampe, which includes “Irish-American” and “American-Irish” poetry. Please note that in Irish there is no fleiscín (hyphen) or lenition in the phrases “Gael Meiriceánach” or “Éireannach Meiriceánach,” since here, “Meiriceánach” is the adjective, modifying “Gael” or “Éireannach.”
Sometimes, looking around at printed English, I think that I’m one of the last people on earth who believes in the use of hyphens and apostrophes. If you’re of the same mind-set, maybe you could send a comment and let me know you agree! Our slogan, perhaps: Fleiscíní agus Uaschamóga Abú!, which could loosely be translated as “Up hyphens and apostrophes” or “Hyphens and apostrophes rule!” Why are they important? As the Irish example above shows, they can change meanings!
Pronunciation Tip a Dó: The Irish verb “is,” while it may look like the English verb “is,” is pronounced differently; it rhymes with “hiss” or “miss,” while the English “is” rhymes with “fizz” or “quiz.”
Bhur mblagálaí – Róislín
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