Category: Irish (Gaeilge)

Long journey

By Simon

Tomorrow morning I’m off to Ireland for a week of Irish language and culture at Oideas Gael in Donegal. After this I’ll be going to Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye, for a week of Gaelic song, and should have plenty of opportunities to speak Scottish Gaelic there as well.

Even though the journey will be long and complex involving trains, ferries, buses and planes, plus an overnight stay in Glasgow as it’s not possible to get from Donegal to Skye in one day, I’m really looking forward to it as it will take me through some beautiful scenery.

I probably won’t have internet access during the first week, but might during the second, so it could take a while for me to reply to your emails.

As dear as …

By Simon

I came across an interesting simile in the Scottish Gaelic course I’m currently working my way through: cho daor ris an t-salainn (as dear as salt), which indicates that something is very expensive. Salt must have been a luxury when this one was coined.

Other Scottish Gaelic similes (samhlaidean) used to indicate that something is very expensive include:

Cho daor ris an aran-mhilis – as dear as cake
Cho daor ris an t-salann Spainnteach – as dear as Spanish salt
Cho daor ris an uisge beatha – as dear as whisky

An equivalent simile in Irish is chomh daor le h-im na Fraince (as dear as French butter), which was coined in County Down in the 18th century, according to this site. Others include chomh daor le diamaint (as dear as diamonds), and chomh daor le cáin (as dear as tax).

What are expensive things compared to in other languages?

Doctors and nurses

By Simon

The words doctor and nurse in English aren’t gender-specific, however many people expect doctors to be male and nurses female. As a result, the terms female doctor or lady doctor and male nurse are used to specify the gender of those who don’t fit such stereotypes.

In Welsh a doctor is meddyg and a female doctor is meddyges, while a nurse is nyrs and a male nurse is nyrs gwrywaidd. An older word for nurse is gweinyddes, which means “female attendant” and is a feminine version of gweinydd (attendant).

In Irish a doctor is dochtúir and nurse is usually banaltra (female), while banaltra fir is sometimes used for male nurses. There is also altra, which is a non-gender-specific version of nurse. The ban in banaltra comes from bean, woman / female.

How do other languages handle these words?

Celtic connections

By Simon

Apart from the odd word here and there, the vocabularies of the two living branches of the Celtic language family, Brythonic (British) and Goidelic (Gaelic), appear to bear little resemblance to each other. So far I’ve only found two words that are exactly the same in Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic: blas (taste/flavour) and glas (blue/green).

To some extent, differences in spelling disguise connections between the languages, but even taking those differences into account, only about 2% of the words appear to be related.

Here are a few other related words I’ve found:

Gaeilge
(Irish) 		Gàidhlig
(Gaelic) 		Gaelg
(Manx)		 Cymraeg
(Welsh) 		Kernewek
(Cornish)		 Brezhoneg
(Breton)		 English
capall (each) cabbyl ceffyl (margh) (marc’h) horse
gabhar gobhar goayr gafr gaver gavr goat
cath cat kayt cat kath kazh cat
cú cù coo cu ki ki dog
abhainn abhainn awin afon avon (stêr) river
muir muir mooir môr mor mor sea
agus agus as a/ac/ag hag ha/hag and
aimsir aimsir emshir amser amzer time
ainm ainm ennym enw hanow anv name
airgead airgead argid arian arghans arc’hant silver
anáil anail ennal anadl anal anal breath

Note: cú actually means hound in Irish – dog is madra. Sea is also farraige is Irish, fairge is Scottish Gaelic, and faarkey in Manx.

To find more connections between the Celtic languages, you need to go back to their earlier forms. For example, the word for true in Welsh is gwir, in Irish it’s fíor, and in Scottish Gaelic it’s fìor. These words are all thought to originate from the reconstructed form, wir or weri. Then at some point the initial w become gw in Welsh and f in the Gaelic languages.

A good place to find connections between the Celtic languages is McBain’s Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language.

Word of the day – gwyddbwyll

By Simon

In Modern Welsh, gwyddbwyll means chess, (lit. “wood wisdom”), however it originally referred a different board game which is mentioned in the ancient Welsh tales of the Mabinogion.

According to this site, the original game was often played on a pegged board with a king and four princes (or defenders) against eight opponents (or raiders). The exact rules have been lost in the mists of time.

The Cornish equivalent of gwyddbwyll is goedhboell, while in Breton it’s gwezboell. The Irish word for this game is ficheall, or fidchell in Old Irish, which comes from the same root as the Welsh and means the same thing. There are more details of the Irish game of fidchell here.

The Welsh names of the chess pieces are:

Teyrn / Brenin = King
Brenhines = Queen
Castell (castle) = Rook
Esgob = Bishop
Marchog = Knight
Gwerinwr (peasant/pawn) = Pawn

Irish language resources

By Simon

Here are a couple of online resources I came across today for learning Irish:

Everyday Irish – a series of Irish language lessons by Liam Ó Maonlaí, lead singer of the Hothouse Flowers, and offered for free by the Irish Independent. The lessons are in the form of mp3s with accompanying worksheets in PDF format. They are available for beginners and more advanced students.

Talk Irish – a new Irish language learning project which will offer free Irish word-a-day emails, podcasts and flashcards. At the moment only the word-a-day is available, once you’ve joined the site.

Fluent Dysphasia

By Simon

Yesterday I found an amusing short film called Fluent Dysphasia, which tells the story of an Irish man who wakes up one morning after a night of heavy drinking to find that he speaks Irish fluently and can no longer speak or understand English. Beforehand he spoke nothing but English, so he is very surprised and worried by the change. His best friend thinks he’s gone mad or is possessed, and the only person who understands him is his daughter.

Recently there was a real life case similar to the one portrayed in the film – a Czech motorcyclist who started speaking English fluently after an accident. In this case, his English fluency disappeared again after a few days and he had no memory of it.

teg

By Simon

Today I came across a site about the Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge (The European Certificate in Irish) or teg, which is the first and only examination system for adult learners of Irish. There will be six levels of exams from A1 (Beginner) to C2 (Advanced), though the Advanced ones are still being developed, and they test speaking, listening comprehension, reading comprehension and writing.

This test sounds similar to other language proficiency tests, such as IELTS (International English Language Testing System) and TEF (Test d’evaluation du Français), and provides proof of one’s Irish language abilities. The teg site, which is bilingual in Irish and English, provides detailed information about the exam, the syllabi, sample papers, and teaching materials.

If I was planning to search for a job in an Irish-speaking area or organisation, I’d consider taking the teg. For now, however, I’m content to continue my studies of Irish in a haphazard and relaxed way. I haven’t taken any other language proficiency tests and don’t plan to. Well, I did receive an assessment of a sort at the end on my Welsh course in Lampeter in June last year.

Such tests provide a snapshot of your language abilities at a particular point in time, and are usually taken after a lot of preparation. If the preparation involved last minute cramming, you might well forget much of it afterwards. I see learning a language more as a long term project, rather than something to cram and forget. Tests, qualifications and certificates can provide useful goals, though shouldn’t be seen as the end of your journey. There’s always more to learn.

Do you think such language tests are useful? Have you taken any, or do you plan to do so?

Irish in New York

By Simon

The other day while listening to Raidió na Gaeltachta, the Irish language radio station, I heard an interview with a guy from New York who has taught himself Irish over the past year or so. He works for the NYPD and has Irish ancestry, hence his interest in the language. He’s never been to Ireland and rarely gets chances to use his Irish, but he speaks it with a fluency that amazed the interviewer. He also sang a song in Irish, and did so very well, but was very modest about his achievement, saying that he still has a lot to learn.

It’s good to hear about successful language learners. It also makes me think I could do better with my studies.

Word of the day – Samhain

By Simon

Today’s word, Samhain (/ˈsˠaunʲ/) is the Irish word for November, and also refers to the ancient Celtic festival which was traditional celebrated at this time of year to mark the end of the harvest and the start of the ‘Celtic New Year’. The word samhain comes from the Old Irish samain, which possibly means ‘summer’s end’, though that etymology is uncertain.

The last day of October is known as Oíche Shamhna in Irish and Oidhche Shamhna in Scottish Gaelic, both of which mean the ‘night of Samhain’. It was a time for feasting and to for taking stock of livestock and stores of crops, a custom still observed in some areas.