#poncaíocht

[toingaeilge]

Etymology: Punctuation

Camóg, or the comma is literally “little bent thing”. We have previously discussed all the other terms that “little crooked thing” refers to. 

Comhartha derives from the Old Irish comartha, meaning sign, indication or mark. It appears in comhartha ceiste (question mark) and comhartha uaillbhreasa (exclamation mark).

Fleiscín, or the hyphen derives from the word fleasc, which refers to a line, stroke or dash, especially in Ogham. 

Fleasc also refers to a rod or a wand; a hoop or circlet; and a strip or splinter. Tá fleasc air would translate as “he has a screw loose”, but literally “he has a splinter on him”. 

Post: How Important is the Fleiscín?

Corrfhleasc is a wee wobbly “~”, and corr here means “rounded” or “humpy”.

Lúibín refers to a bracket, and derives from lúb, meaning “loop”, plus the diminutive -ín to give “little loop”. Lúibín also refers to a small loop; link; button-hole; ringlet (and by association ringleted girl or pretty girl); knitting or stitching; a little nook or a turn in a song. 

Ponc refers to a full stop, but not only does it simply mean “point”, it also refers to something specific or particular. The phrase i bponc an bháis means “the point of death”. You can also put someone in a spot: duine a chuir i bponc. 

The ponc séimhithe simply translates to “a dot of (marking) séimhiú”. It denotes the dot above the consonants ḃ, ċ, ḋ, ḟ, ġ, ṁ, ṗ, ṡ and ṫ (in modern Irish denoted by bh, ch, dh, fh, gh, mh, sh and th).

Poncaíocht refers to punctuation as a whole, and derives from ponc (dot) → poncaigh (to punctuate) → poncaíocht (punctuation). See Post: Suffixes for makeup

Síneadh fada is literally “long stretching”. Its meaning echoes its function of stretching vowel sounds. While it isn’t exactly a punctuation, it deserves to be on this list.

[toinghaeilge]

Is the Fleiscín Important?

Now, that’s a loaded question. In a previous post, Are Fadas Important?, we compared a list of words with and without fada, just to provide an idea of just how crucial punctuation (in the broadest use of this term of course) is. 

I have previously written about the fleiscín:

An Fleiscín (Function and where to use)

Etymology list: Punctuation Marks

Now, on to our main course:

Gan fleiscín

Le fleiscín

An teallach An tál An teas An teach An tart An torc

The hearth, Fireplace The adze (cutting tool) The heat The house The thirst The boar

An t-eallach An t-ál An t-eas An t-each An t-art An t-orc

The cattle, livestock, poultry The litter, brood The waterfall, rapid The steed The stone The orc

[toinghaeilge]

Etymology: Punctuation

Camóg, or the comma is literally “little bent thing”. We have previously discussed all the other terms that “little crooked thing” refers to. 

Comhartha derives from the Old Irish comartha, meaning sign, indication or mark. It appears in comhartha ceiste (question mark) and comhartha uaillbhreasa (exclamation mark).

Fleiscín, or the hyphen derives from the word fleasc, which refers to a line, stroke or dash, especially in Ogham. 

Fleasc also refers to a rod or a wand; a hoop or circlet; and a strip or splinter. Tá fleasc air would translate as “he has a screw loose”, but literally “he has a splinter on him”. 

Post: How Important is the Fleiscín?

Corrfhleasc is a wee wobbly “~”, and corr here means “rounded” or “humpy”.

Lánstad is a full stop. It's pretty literal—full-stop.

Leathstad is a semicolon; it can be translated literally to "half-stop".

Lúibín refers to a bracket, and derives from lúb, meaning “loop”, plus the diminutive -ín to give “little loop”. Lúibín also refers to a small loop; link; button-hole; ringlet (and by association ringleted girl or pretty girl); knitting or stitching; a little nook or a turn in a song. 

Ponc refers to a full stop, but not only does it simply mean “point”, it also refers to something specific or particular. The phrase i bponc an bháis means “the point of death”. You can also put someone in a spot: duine a chuir i bponc. 

The ponc séimhithe simply translates to “a dot of (marking) séimhiú”. It denotes the dot above the consonants ḃ, ċ, ḋ, ḟ, ġ, ṁ, ṗ, ṡ and ṫ (in modern Irish denoted by bh, ch, dh, fh, gh, mh, sh and th).

Poncaíocht refers to punctuation as a whole, and derives from ponc (dot) → poncaigh (to punctuate) → poncaíocht (punctuation). See Post: Suffixes for makeup

Síneadh fada is literally “long stretching”. Its meaning echoes its function of stretching vowel sounds. While it isn’t exactly a punctuation, it deserves to be on this list.

[toinghaeilge]

Why Verbs in Some Tenses Lenite

We have previously seen that in the simple past tense, verbs that begin with consonants take séimhiú, and those that begin with vowel sounds take the prefix d’. As for why they do:

Historically, Irish once placed the word do before past tense verbs. As we know, do causes séimhiú or adds the prefix d’ to its proceeding word. For example, in modern Irish we have do (your):

Do theach (your house) D’ostán (your hotel) D’fhón (your phone)

Today, we can still see the effects of do:

(Do) chuir mé m’fhón isteach I put my phone inside

D’ól mé aréir I drank last night

D’fhéach mé ar an leabhar I looked at the book

Do is now omitted in all dialects except Munster, but we can still observe remnants of it since verbs beginning with vowel sounds continue to take the prefix. 

[toinghaeilge]

Camóg

Ó Dónaill’s Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (1977) lists 9 definitions for camóg:

Crook, hooked stick

(Sport) Camogie stick 

(Fishing) Gaff-hook

(Basketry) Chinks

(Anatomy) Camóg ara hollow of temple

Concave scallop shell; small wooden dish

Camóg dheataigh wisp of smoke

Camóg ar uisce ripple (in water)

Comma

If you’ve been observant, all of the above are things that are bent (like yer da). This is because camóg is the dimunitive of cam, meaning bent or crooked. So what I’m trying to say here is that everything in the list above is literally little bent thingy. 

[toingaeilge]

Is the Fleiscín Important?

Now, that’s a loaded question. In a previous post, Are Fadas Important?, we compared a list of words with and without fada, just to provide an idea of just how crucial punctuation (in the broadest use of this term of course) is. 

I have previously written about the fleiscín:

An Fleiscín (Function and where to use)

Etymology list: Punctuation Marks

Now, on to our main course:

Gan fleiscín

Le fleiscín

An teallach An tál An teas An teach An tart An torc

The hearth, Fireplace The adze (cutting tool) The heat The house The thirst The boar

An t-eallach An t-ál An t-eas An t-each An t-art An t-orc

The cattle, livestock, poultry The litter, brood The waterfall, rapid The steed The stone The orc

[toingaeilge]

Why Verbs in Some Tenses Lenite

We have previously seen that in the simple past tense, verbs that begin with consonants take séimhiú, and those that begin with vowel sounds take the prefix d’. As for why they do:

Historically, Irish once placed the word do before past tense verbs. As we know, do causes séimhiú or adds the prefix d’ to its proceeding word. For example, in modern Irish we have do (your):

Do theach (your house) D’ostán (your hotel) D’fhón (your phone)

Today, we can still see the effects of do:

(Do) chuir mé m’fhón isteach I put my phone inside

D’ól mé aréir I drank last night

D’fhéach mé ar an leabhar I looked at the book

Do is now omitted in all dialects except Munster, but we can still observe remnants of it since verbs beginning with vowel sounds continue to take the prefix. 

[toingaeilge]

We Need to Talk

... about camóg. 

The Ó Dónaill dictionary lists 9 definitions for camóg:

Crook, hooked stick

(Sport) Camogie stick 

(Fishing) Gaff-hook

(Basketry) Chinks

(Anatomy) Camóg ara hollow of temple

Concave scallop shell; small wooden dish

Camóg dheataigh wisp of smoke

Camóg ar uisce ripple (in water)

Comma

If you’ve been observant, all of the above are things that are bent (like yer da). This is because camóg is the dimunitive of cam, meaning bent or crooked. So what I’m trying to say here is that everything in the list above is literally little bent thingy.