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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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]