Posts tagged with "Gael-Mheiriceánach"

Being a Gael-Mheiriceánach, Gael-Cheanadach, or Gael-Astrálach, or Any Other Nationality “as Gaeilge”

Posted by róislín 2 Comments
May 31 2009

We recently discussed the various ways to use the word “Gael-Mheiriceánach” to say something is “Irish-American” or “I am an Irish-American.” Let’s go global and discuss some more possibilities.

 

If you’re one of about 4.5 million Canadians with Irish ancestry, you could say, “Is Gael-Cheanadach mé.”  If you’re one of almost 2 million Irish-Australians, you could say, “Is Gael-Astrálach mé.”

 

Please keep in mind as you read this, that the main goal in today’s blog is to show how to say that one is an Irish-American, an Irish-Canadian, etc. It would take a book, or more, to thoroughly discuss Irish identity, including such terms as Gael-Mheiriceánach (Irish-American), Gael Meiriceánach or Éireannach Meiriceánach (American-Irish), náisiúnaigh Éireannacha (Irish nationals), Éireannaigh eitneacha (ethnic Irish), easaoránaigh (ex-pats), and what, if any, difference it makes if one is from an chéad ghlúin (first generation) or an tríú glúin (third generation). In fact, even the term “first generation,” regarding inimirce (immigration), is in dispute, since it can refer to either the immigrants themselves, or, more commonly in my experience, to the first generation born in the new homeland.  So the goal here is not to tell people how to self-identify themselves, but to give them the Irish vocabulary to say what they want to say about themselves. Requests welcome! Admittedly, some will give me pause to reflect, especially if I haven’t seen them used before.  Gael-Nua-Eabhracach for an Irish-New Yorker, srl.?

 

And here are a few more straightforward examples, i.e. unhyphenated, using some of terms from the previous places on Celtic place names and nationalities:

 

Is Éireannach mé. I’m an Irishman.

 

Is Breatnach mná í Catherine Zeta-Jones, agus ban-aisteoir iontach. Catherine Zeta-Jones is a Welshwoman and a wonderful actress.

 

Is Briotánach é Alan Stivell, agus cláirseoir den scoth. Alan Stivell is a Breton, and a top-notch harpist.

 

Ba Chornach é William Golding (1911-1993).  William Golding was a Cornishman.

 

Is Albanach é Seán Connery, agus sáraisteoir.  Seán Connery is a Scot and a great actor.

 

Is Manannach é an príomhcharachtar in The Manxman, scannán de chuid Alfred Hitchcock, ní nach ionadh. The main character in The Manxman, an Alfred Hitchcock movie, is a Manxman, not surprisingly. 

 

And for good measure:

Is Ceanadaigh iad Gordon Lightfoot agus Loreena McKennitt, agus sáramhránaithe. Gordon Lightfoot and Loreena McKennitt are Canadians, and great singers.

 

Is Astrálach í Nicole Kidman, agus ban-aisteoir iontach. Nicole Kidman is an Australian and a wonderful actress. I know, she has saoránacht dhúbáilte (dual-citizenship) and dúchas (heritage) Astrálach-Haváíoch-Mheiriceánach but that’ll be Á.B.E.

 

Pronunciation tips:

as Gaeilge: “in Irish.” Remember the preposition “as” has a “hard” s-sound, like “floss,” or “DOS” in computer lingo. Or like “Bossy the Cow” but not “a bossy boss,” at least in my English pronunciation. The vowel sound is “aaahh.” Although this word looks like the English “as,” it isn’t!

 

Chornach: when the sentence is in the past tense, the verb “is” changes to “ba” and the word Cornach changes to Chornach, meaning you have a double dose of pronouncing the Buch-Achtung-Chutzpah “ch” 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 Comments
May 28 2009
Well, that should be an attention-getter!  Not that Google searches are “bun agus barr an scéil” (the be-all and end-all) of information gathering, but this search result does provide food for thought.  This article shows the results of searches limited by quotation marks, so only the phrase sought is reported.  In other words, the results don’t include, for example, all instances of “American,” only those preceded by “Irish-.”   
On May 24, in the entire cyber-universe searched by Google, a total of seven sources were found that used a statement with the speakers saying, in the first person, that they were “Gael-Mheiriceánach.”  This is a compound word based on “Gael” (an Irish person, mostly used now in a cultural sense) and “Meiriceánach” (American).  You can say:

 Is 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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Logainmneacha Ceilteacha agus Náisiúntachtaí a Sé: Celtic Place Names and Nationalities 6 – Cornwall and the Cornish

Posted by róislín No Comments
May 22 2009

We’ve recently discussed the place names Albain, Éire, An Bhreatain Bheag, Oileán Mhanann, and An Bhriotáin.  Today we’ll turn to Cornwall.  Below you’ll find some examples of how to use the place name and how to indicate that a person or thing is Cornish.  Cornwall is called “Corn na Breataine” (horn of Britain) or sometimes “An Corn” in Irish. 

 

Cornach, a Cornishman or person.  Like the terms “Éireannach,” “Albanach,” “Breatnach,” “Manannach,” and “Briotánach,” it can be made feminine, “Cornach mná,” but, as I’ve previously mentioned, this form is rarely used.  The feminine form basically means “a woman Cornishman.” 

 

an Cornach, the Cornishman.  Cornach is also the adjective form.

 

 Some phrases with the place name “Corn na Breataine” include:

 

i gCorn na Breataine: in Cornwall

 

go Corn na Breataine: to Cornwall

 

muintir Chorn na Breataine: the residents of Cornwall

 

 In an interesting twist, the mineral cornwallite is “cornuaillít” in Irish, adapting the “-wall” suffix into Irish spelling. 

  

In a further interesting twist, the two main plant names that in English are designated as pertaining to Cornwall, Cornish heath and Cornish moneywort, lose the Cornish element in their Irish names, which are, respectively, “fraoch gallda” (lit. foreign heather – remember, the perspective is Irish here) and “pingin Dhuibhneach” (lit. penny from Corca Dhuibhne, a region in Co. Kerry).  I’ll let the Cornaigh and the Duibhnigh hash out the plant’s true origins among themselves – our concern here is terminology!

  

“Cornish hen,” the term I thought would be a “shoo-in” to exemplify Cornishness in popular culture and the lenition of feminine singular adjectives in Irish grammar, turns out to be a “shoo-out.”  The situation’s not straightforward at all.  One might think we’d simply use “cearc” (hen) plus “Chornach” (the feminine form of the adjective).  Mícheart (incorrect)!  First of all, this cearc goes by at least four other names (Cornish game hen, poussin, Rock Cornish hen, and Rock Cornish), thickening the plot considerably.  Secondly, it may refer to a specially bred chicken, slaughtered young and designed for one serving.  It isn’t a game bird and can be male or female, so isn’t always a “hen.”  Furthermore, the French word “poussin,” sometimes equated with “Cornish hen,” has two meanings in English, being the “Cornish game hen” in U.S. English and referring to an even smaller and younger bird in U.K. English.  So aside, from noting that the “Rock” element refers to Plymouth Rock, highlighting Cornish Rock’s American origin, I will respectfully bail out of this attempt to Gaelicize Cornish hens.  One might think that the Cornish hen was an indigenous breed, small in size to adapt to the rugged terrain in which it lived, like Kerry and Dexter cattle or Shetland ponies, ach ní mar sin atá sé (that’s not how it is).  Fascinating in their own right, those animals will be featured i mblag éigin eile. 

 

So what’s left to exemplify the adjective “Cornach” in context?  Our last place name feature added the tasty element of crêpes, the Breton specialty.  Although I don’t know of any North American bialanna (restaurants) specializing in Cornwall’s famous culinary creation, the Cornish pasty, we can at least offer the Irish name for it, pastae Cornach.  These pastries were stuffed with meat, potatoes and other vegetables.  They have a folded-over crust and were thus distinguished from pióga feola (meat pies).  Their shape supposedly made it safe for miners to eat their lunch, since they couldn’t always clean the coal dust, which might contain arsenic, off their hands.  According to tradition, the miners discarded the corner of the pastry, which they had touched with their fingers, saying it was for the “knockers.”  

 

 Yes, those are the same supernatural beings who loosely provided the inspiration for Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers.  They would warn miners of possible disasters, at least, one presumes, if you kept them well fed with pasty crusts.  One of these days, I’ll have to check King’s novel, to see if he feeds them properly!

 

And if you are in North America and want to sample pastaetha Cornacha (that’s the plural), you can find them at special events such as the Pasty Fest in Calumet, Michigan, and special church suppers in Cornish-settled parts of Pennsylvania, such as Bangor and Pen Argyl. 

 

 This finishes the series of Celtic place names and identities, at least for the modern period.  One of these days we’ll practice saying, “I am an ancient Gaul,” but for the immediate future, it will probably be more practical to work on phrases such as “Gael-Mheiriceánach” (Irish-American) or Gael-Cheanadach (Irish-Canadian) and to introduce such basics as “American” and “Canadian” in their unlenited forms.  Stay tuned!  – Bhur mblagálaí, Róislín

Lá na Máithreacha vs. Lá na Máthar (“Day of the Mothers” or “of the Mother”)?

Posted by róislín No Comments
May 10 2009

I’ve been following this debate in Irish circles for a good 10 or so years now, probably since the first time I wrote on the topic for my children’s Irish language column in the Philadelphia-based Irish Edition newspaper (www.irishedition.com).   Are we celebrating one mother or all mothers? 

I should probably qualify that to say “i gciorcail Ghael-Mheiriceánacha agus Ghael-Cheanadacha” (in Irish-American and Irish-Canadian circles), since Mother’s Day as such wasn’t traditionally celebrated in Ireland, or Britain for that matter.  Instead, “Mothering Sunday” was, and is, observed on the fourth Sunday of Lent (aka Laetare Sunday).  Mothering Sunday was originally a very religious holiday, for the purpose of visiting one’s mother church (“going a-mothering”) and typically being reunited with one’s mother for the day.  Recently, however, it has become increasingly secularized and more like North American Mother’s Day.  The Irish term for “Mothering Sunday” is surprising elusive, but “Domhnach an Mháithreachais” should do. 

 

The consensus seems to be that the Mother’s Day concept is plural, despite the English grammatical structure, which makes it singular.  These days many people leave out the apostrophe altogether, adding to the confusion, since the phrase “Mothers Day” without the apostrophe isn’t  specifically singular or plural or even possessive. In English, of course, the apostrophe is currently dying a slow death, despite the valiant attempts of organizations like the Apostrophe Protection Society (www.apostrophe.org.uk) and websites like www.apostrophecatastrophes.com, as well as attention from such prominent commentators as Arianna Huffington who wrote “The Apostrophe Crisis: When Perfectly Good Punctuation Goes Bad” (www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-apostrophe-crisis-wh_b_12628.html).  So, at some point in the future, we’ll just have a blur of events like “Mothers Day,” “Fathers Day,” and “St. Patricks Day.”  The latter will be particularly problematic if it presumes the existence of more than one St. Patrick!  Mother – Mothers, Father — Fathers — OK.  But is there another St. Patrick? 

 

Fortunately, the Irish language will never fall quite into that grammatical trap.  It doesn’t  use the apostrophe to show possession.  So you see, those of you from Ireland, all those years of studying the tuiseal ginideach (genitive case) are of some benefit!  It’s true that Irish has some complicated use of apostrophes, including indicating the real colloquial pronunciation of phrases like “fear an phoist” (the postman, pronounced fear a’ phoist).  Bhuel, more on na hapastrófa and an tuiseal ginideach later but that Á.B.E. (ábhar blag eile) will have to wait.  

 

Back to Mother’s Day itself.  “Lá na Máithreacha” seems to be favored somewhat over “Lá na Máthar,” to judge by some recent online searching.  As I mentioned, there’s not much precedent for either of these phrases in older Irish sources, since the day was not traditionally observed in Ireland under the name “Mother’s Day.”  

 

Conveniently, this topic has also introduced some of the irregularities of the word “máthair.”  It’s an irregular noun, with the following forms:

 

máthar: of a mother (note the “i” has been dropped at the end – that shows that this form is possessive).  Example: gach mac máthar, every mother’s son 

 

na máthar: of the mother.  Ex.: Sláinte na máthar, the health of the mother. 

 

máithreacha: mothers,  Ex. ár máithreacha romhainn, our mothers before us

 

Based on this, can you guess the forms for “athair” (father)?  It’s irregular in a similar way to “máthair.”  How would you suppose we’d say “Father’s Day”?   Or “Grandpar­ents Day,” which, by the way, is officially gan apastróf (apostrophe-less) according to its creator’s website (www.grandparents-day.com).

 

However you celebrate the day, bain sult as (enjoy it) – bhur mblagálaí — Róislín

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Logainmneacha Ceilteacha agus Náisiúntachtaí a Dó: Celtic Place Names and Nationalities – Ireland and the Irish

Posted by róislín No Comments
Apr 24 2009

  We recently discussed the place name “Albain” (Scotland) and now will turn to ”Éire” (Ireland)..  Here are some examples of the nationality, the place name, and related phrases:   

 

  Éireannach, an Irishman or person.  This can be made feminine, “Éireannach mná,” but, the same as my experience with “Albanach mná,” most people don’t seem to bother.  The feminine form basically means “a woman Irishman.”

 

  an tÉireannach, the Irishman.  Remember the lower-case “t” from “an tAlbanach”?  Same thing applies here.  There is no dash as there would be for a lower-case generic noun like “an t-éirí “(the take-off, or literally, rising).  Note how the use of the dash is governed by capitalization, not by what the word means, since the dash disappears in the phrase “an tÉirí Amach (the Rising, as in the 1916 Easter Rising).  The full name for this event is, of course, Éirí Amach na Cásca (the Rising of “the” Easter), where both the definite article and the prefixed “t” have disappeared.  Why?  Irish only uses one definite article per phrase, so “na” covers both “Éirí Amach” and “Cásca.” 

 

  Likewise, we say, “an tÉireannachas” (the Irishness, Irish characteristics) but “Éireannachas na nGael-Mheiriceánach” (the Irishness of the Irish-Americans), with no “t.”  Of course, with another angle, we could say “Gaelachas na nGael-Mheiriceánach” but the difference between “Gaelachas” and “Éireannachas” will have to be ábhar blag eile (the subject of another blog). 

 

  The forms of the place name are:

 

  Éire: used as the subject or direct object of a sentence

 

  Éirinn: used after most prepositions, be ready for prefixes! 

 

  Éireann  or hÉireann: the possessive or genitive case form, for phrases like Banc na hÉireann (The Bank of Ireland). 

 

Seo samplaí (guess what that means!):

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

  Is Éireannach é an t-amhránaí Daniel O’Donnell.  The singer Daniel O’Donnell is an Irishman.  . 

 

  Tá mé ag dul go hÉirinn ar mo laethe saoire.  I’m going to Ireland on my holidays.

Same prefixing of “h” after the preposition “go” as we saw with “go hAlbain.” .

 

  Cá bhfuil Baile Átha Cliath? Tá Baile Átha Cliath in Éirinn, ach tá naoi “nDublin” i Meiriceá freisin.  Where is Dublin?  Dublin is in Ireland, but there are nine Dublins in America also.  The phrase “in Éirinn” used to be written “i nÉirinn,” (and sometimes still is), showing more clearly that the “n” of “in” is an addition to the basic form “i.”  As for the nine American Dublins, I think I’ll coin an acrainm (acronym) for all these future topics: Á.B.E (ábhar blag eile).  Of course, I’ll check the acronyms lists online to make sure that isn’t already in use, but it seems unlikely.  And if so, I’ll just add to its úsáid (usage).

 

  Gaeilge na hÉireann (the Irish or Gaelic of Ireland).  This phrase would most likely be used to contrast with “Gaeilge na hAlban.”  Normally, when speaking Irish, just to say “Gaeilge” is enough, without qualifying it.  Here “Éire” has been changed to the possessive form, “na hÉireann.” The ending is now “-eann.”  As with “na hAlban,” a lower-case “h” is prefixed, again, because, this word starts with a vowel and is possessive.  The word “na” here means “of the.” 

 

  As with the Scottish example, you might wonder, “Where did the ‘the’ come from?”  Same explanation as for “na hAlban.”  “The” isn’t used in the basic form of the country’s name, Éire, but is added for the possessive.  Remember “muintir na hAlban” and “muintir na hÉireann”?  More on the other Celtic place names and nationalities i mblag eile sa tsraith seo.. – Bhur mblagálaí, Róislín

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