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.
Bás Michael Jackson (1958-2009)
Posted by róislín 1 CommentBhuel, tar éis a bheith ag smaoineamh faoi, after pondering the matter, I figured I may as well join the sluaite (hordes) ag scríobh faoi Michael Jackson.
First stop, as usual, what else has been written about his death, as Gaeilge? Can’t say I found mórán (much). A cuardach Google limited to “Bás Michael Jackson” brought up 99 results, only one of which turned out to be in Irish. How’d that happen? An iomarca teangacha a bhfuil “bas” (gan síneadh fada) mar fhocal acu, go mór mór, an Fhraincis (see gluaisín thíos, for vocab help).
Next stop, minus the word “bas,” to eliminate the French and other languages. That brought me back to the móriomlán (grand total) of one result for “Bás Michael Jackson” as such. Searching in the Irish version of Google didn’t seem to make any difference.
Cúpla straitéis eile, a couple other strategies. How about using the “gaelú” (gaelicization) of Jackson’s name? But first, an explanation — names of celebrities and international figures are not usually gaelicized unless their bearer shows some precedent for doing so. That’s generally true, even if they have Irish or partly Irish backgrounds. Sampla gasta, a quick example, using Google hits as an admittedly rough frame of reference: “Bill Clinton,” 23,700,000 (ní nach ionadh); “William Clinton,” 356,000; “William Jefferson Clinton,” 320,000, but for “Liam Cliontún,” the gaelú of his name, the results were exactly tada, faic, a dhath ar bith – all Irish ways of saying “nothing.” And that’s despite his dúchas Éireannach (Irish heritage). Of course, I’m not saying here that no one has ever used the “Liam Cliontún” version of his name, just that it doesn’t show up in a Googlable manner. If the results had been, mar shampla, “Bill Clinton,” 5, and “Liam Cliontún, 0, then I’d say, “completely inconclusive.” But at 23 milliún+ to náid (0), I think we can safely say there’s no formal precedent for saying “Liam Cliontún” when referring to iaruachtarán na Stát Aontaithe (the former president of the United States), even if writing in Irish.
For good measure, I even tried “Liam Clinton,” a hybrid version of the name, since some people are more comfortable changing their “ainm baiste” (given name) for use in Irish language classes or social contexts, but are less likely to adapt their surname, even informally. “Liam Clinton” gave me about 155 hits, of which only a handful were actually about an tUachtarán, the president. There are other Liam Clintons in the world who come up in the search, including one who was born in 2009. And most of the presidential references were due to glitches in wording, which meant that “Wil-liam Clinton” (with word-break) would show up in my search for “Liam Clinton,” where “William Clinton” would not. So much for that ascaill (avenue), or, to be more concise, sin sin (that’s that).
There are some exceptions to not gaelicizing names, mar shampla, An Mháthair Treasa, possibly triggered by the expected translation of the honorific, and Criostóir Colambas.
So, now back to Mícheál Mac Siacais. Did searching for the gaelicized version of his name bring up any abundance of commentary as Gaeilge? Can’t say it did. I found a móriomlán of one actual article and two brief fan commentaries.
I also tried searching for “bás Mhíchíl (Mhícheál) Mhic Shiacais,” using the name in the genitive case (Mhic instead of Mac, etc.) figuring that anyone who cared enough about the ábhar (topic) to write about it in Irish might have gone ahead with the gaelú anyway. Glantoradh (net result), one repeat hit.
OK, so this has gotten me through blag amháin eile without even getting up to my intended project, a capsúlbheathaisnéis* of Jackson, as Gaeilge. So far, I’ve only gotten through whether or not it made sense to refer to him as Mícheál Mac Siacais (Mac Siac-Ó?). So the capsúlbheathaisnéis will have to wait for blag eile, and will be forthcoming, more on the “forth-“ (sooner) side of things if I hear from readers that they are interested in the ábhar. More on the farther side of “forthcoming” má chloisim (if I hear) tada, faic, a dhath ar bith uaibhse (from ye). Even though my own musical taste is much more traidisiúnta, I’m happy to write about virtually any topic that is tráthúil (timely) agus i mbéal na ndaoine (being talked about). But there are other topics looming large, tearmainn na n-asal (the donkey sanctuaries) agus an chéad scannán eile i sraith Harry Potter, mar shampla, so do let me know má tá suim agaibh!
Sin é – Róislín
*OK, OK, in the time-honored tradition of Gaeilgeoirí, especially those active before the general spread of World Wide Web and Internet usage, which brought online dictionaries and which I date to about 1994, I made up the word “capsúlbheathaisnéis.” I find no precedent for it online. But that is how new words get started. Hint: beathaisnéis itself comes from beatha, life + faisnéis, information, i.e. biography. I didn’t choose to say “beathaisnéis chapsúil,” since to me that would sound more like the life story of a capsule (say what?), from being part of sheet of plastic to being a tablet filled with medicinal powder. Not real exciting – it would sound a bit like the booklets we used to have ar scoil (at school), like “The Story of a Coffee Bean.” These would cover the saolré (life-cycle) of the pónaire chaife (coffee-bean) from péacán (sprout) to cupán “iáva.” Not that a pónaire chaife is really a pónaire, it’s really a síol (seed), ach sin scéal eile – Á.B.E.!
Gluaisín [GLOO-ish-een]: an iomarca [un YUM-ark-uh], too many; a bhfuil … acu [uh wil … AHK-uh], that/which have; gan [gahn], without; go mór mór, especially; an Fhraincis [un RANK-is, silent “f”], the French language, scannán, film, movie; sraith, series (“th” is silent).
Leideanna Fuaimnithe: faic [fwack], capsúlbheathaisnéis [KAHP-sool-VA-hash-naysh, silent “t”], uaibhse [OO-iv-sheh], beatha [BA-huh], faisnéis [FASH-naysh]. saolré [seel-ray], síol [sheel]