Butt Gaeilge

I collect and curate information on the Irish language, covering grammar, etymology, and trivia. Make use of resource lists and vocabulary activities.

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I’ve moved!

For two years I’ve been dealing with a bug on Tumblr that staff can’t seem to help me with. It’s been “sent to their engineers” for a long, long time now. 

There’s a bug that only seems to affect this blog(?). Therefore I’ve been forced to manually copy all my posts, coding &c. to preserve the dates, tags etc. 

My website URL is still the same, but my tumblr handle is now @toinghaeilge so if you follow me there, that would be stellar. 

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Clear Island Irish

Tigh Mhuiris: Documenting the Irish of Cléire explores the Irish of the Clear Island Gaeltacht off the Southwest coast of Cork. The author translates and notates stories, with particular focus on Clear Island specific vocabulary. He also has a wonderful resource list for the dialect.

I thought I'd explore some things he mentioned a little further, and also summarise Clear Island pronunciation quirks.

Saé and Suí

Clear Island Irish would be typical of the Munster dialect in that it uses archaic forms, commonly broadening those starting with ‘S’, such as san (sin), so (seo), ansan (ansin), and annso (anseo). 

Clear Island Irish also uses broad sé and sí in certain situations, spelled saé and suí respectively in An Teanga Bheo: Oileán Chléire. Going through the collections on Dúchas.ie, though, I spotted alternative spellings "sae” (no fada) and saoí. I also observed the use of “sae” for sé in Garranearagh in the Iveragh Gaeltacht in Kerry. 

Author Breandán Ó Buachalla lists two situations where saé/suí would be used:

1. Following a verb ending in -dh (-ch sound)

He used to be Standard: Do bhíodh sé Cléire: Do bhíoch saé

2. In phrases ar seisean and ar sise

He said Standard: Ar seisean Cléire: Ar saé shin

She said Standard: Ar sise Standard: Ar suí shin

Seeing as these forms were possibly as widespread as the Iveragh Gaeltacht, this could well be southwest Munster feature. 

Pronunciation Quirks

Note: I did not list anything that is generally a Munster trait, as I would like this list to be Clear Island-specific. For Munster pronunciation, please visit Introduction to Munster Irish

Allows for a séimhiú on ‘R’s by slenderising the R: a rá → a reá (listen here)

Verbs ending -adh are pronounced as though ending with “v” (though sometimes “g”, in bogradh, glasradh)

Séimhiú can be deleted in speech where letters ‘m’, ‘b’, ‘p’ follow each other, and after ‘n’ and ‘s’: i mo bhéal (pronounced im bhéal) → im béal.  (why?)

Inverting consonants: milseán → misleán, tráthnóna → tránthóna

Adding urú to ‘s’: these are pronounced as though spelled as though a ‘z’: i zSasana, ag an zséipéal

If ‘lt’ appears in the middle of a word, it is pronounced as though ‘t’ has a séimhiú: fáilte → fáilthe

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Ainmhí & Anam

Ó Dónaill’s dictionary gives ainmhí as:

animal

brute, monster

Ainmhí derives from Old Irish ainimide (“having ainimm”). 

The Old Irish word ainimm refers to a soul or a life, and originates from either the Latin anima (soul, spirit, breath) or from Proto-Celtic *anaman (soul, spirit). From anima derives the English animal, animated &c. Its modern Irish spelling is anam. 

Ó Dónaill’s dictionary defines anam as: 

soul

life

liveliness, spirit, breath

In other words, ainmhí is quite literally “one who has soul, life”.

Note: no relation to ainm (name), from Old Irish ainmm, from Primitive Irish ᚐᚅᚋ (anm), from Proto-Celtic *anman, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ (name). 

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Tonnta, Tonna agus Tonntracha

There are a few different plurals for tonn, meaning ‘waves’. 

Standard Irish plural: tonnta

Ó Duinnín's Irish dictionary (1927) dictionary lists plurals tonnta, tonna and tonntracha. 

Ó Dónaill’s dictionary (1977) lists plurals tonnta and tonntracha along another variant: tonntacha

You might hear tonntracha pronounced as though tonnthracha in parts of Munster.

Archaic forms and other Celtic Languages

Toinn, tonnan and tonntan can be found in historical texts—they are dialectal forms from the Antrim Valleys, Oriel and North Down and are no longer used. 

Scottish Gaelic still uses plurals tuinn, tonna and tonnan (singular tonn) and Manx uses the plural tonnyn (singular tonn). 

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Seagulls Aren’t Small Wolves, Promise

I spied someone suggesting that faol for wolf and faoileán for seagull were related. It does look like faoileán: faol + diminutive suffix -án. This is, fortunately or unfortunately, completely false. 

Faoileán derives from Old Irish faílenn + diminutive suffix -án. Faílenn in turn comes from Proto-Celtic *wēlannā, meaning “seagull”. 

Faol comes from Middle Irish fáel, which in turn comes from Proto-Celtic and Proto-Indo-European *waylos, meaning “wolf” or “howler”. 

Going deeper back, though, *waylos is purported to have descended from *way, which was an exclamation or interjection, much like “alas”. This is where the “howl” from “howler” derives. Imagine deriving your word for wolf from "awoo"—now you're getting it. 

You might have also heard about how faol is actually a euphemism as the original *wĺ̥kʷos (wolf) was seen as a taboo word. It was replaced by *waylos and *wĺ̥kʷos descended to give the modern day Irish olc, meaning “evil”. 

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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

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A Wee Test on Counting

I haven’t done an interactive/try-it post for a while, and thought that in the spirit of the season to come I’d do one without a lesson. It’s about counting, so you’ll need to recap on these topics:

Counting People

Counting Things

Vocab List on Counting: nominal, personal and by order

Remember that there are different forms for counting things, people and the order in which something comes (i.e. first, second &c.)

My double click dictionary might also come in handy: double click any word to get its translation. 

Try it

Translate the following, or as much as you can:

1. On the eleventh day of Christmas 2. Four calling birds, three french hens 3. Seven swans a swimming, five golden rings 4. Ten Lords a leaping, nine ladies dancing 5. Twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping

Hover below for answers

1. Ar an t-aonú lá déag Nollag 2. Ceithre éan ag glaoch, trí chearc fhrancacha 3. Seacht n-eala ag snámh, cúig fháinne óra 4. Deichniúr tiarna ag léim, naonúr ban ag damhsa 5. Dháréag drumadóir ag drumadóireacht, aon phíobaire dhéag ag seinm

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Spectrum

The most commonly seen terms for "rainbow" are bogha báistí and tuar ceatha, with the latter being the Ulster Irish term. Bogha báistí is very rarely used in Ulster. We’re about to dig up a lot more, with antiquated or rare terms being marked with an asterisk(*).

Dineen’s dictionary (1927) gives the following for “rainbow”:

Bogha leaca/leagtha

Bogha ceatha

Bogha báistighe

Bogha uisce*

Bogha frais*

Bogha sín(e)

Earc

Fiothbhach*

Madadh gaoithe*

Stuadh

Tuar ceatha

Ó Dónaill’s dictionary (1977) gives the following:

Bogha báistí

Bogha ceatha 

Bogha leatha

Bogha síne

Tuar ceatha

Stua/Tua ceatha*

Bogha

We’ll start with bogha: this generally refers to a bow, and also to a bow of a boat or a fiddle. 

leaca is a form of leac, which refers to a sheet, or something flat. Leaca usually refers to a cheek, or the side of something.

ceatha is the genitive of cith, meaning a shower.

báistighe/báistí refers to the rain. Dineen’s states that the term bogha báistighe is mostly used in Inishmaan.

frais is the genitive of fras, which refers to a shower. 

sín/síne comes from síon, which refers to weather (good or bad).

leatha, like leac/leaca, refers to a side. 

uisce refers to water: a bow of water. This is rarely heard of. 

So the above give two basic interpretations: “bow of a shower”, or “the side of a bow”. The way I can make sense of the “side” translation is that leathadh is used to refer to something being spread, i.e. across the sky. 

Earc

This one refers simply to an arc, usually of the heavenly sort. 

Fiothbhach

Ó Dónaill’s dictionary gives the alternative (modern) spelling fiodhbhac, which simply means “bow”.

Madadh Gaoithe

This is an interesting one: Dineen’s specifies its definition to be an imperfect rainbow. It’s quite clearly an Ulster term, given by madadh, with the whole term literally being “dog of the wind”. Dineen’s also gives alternate meanings of "a mad dog; a blood-hound or wicked dog: also a kind of cloud that portends a storm."

Stuadh

The modern spelling of this is stua, and it simply refers to an arch. 

Tuar

Dineen’s gives tuar in tuar ceatha refers to a sign or omen, thus rendering tuar ceatha “sign of a shower”. 

Stua/Tua

Finally, Ó Dónaill's dictionary gives stua ceatha or tua cheatha, with tua being a variation of stua. As mentioned above, it refers to an arch. 

Grammatically, ceatha takes a séimhiú after tua because stua is masculine, but its variation tua is feminine. 

History of Séimhiú agus Urú (Mutations)

Rules for gendered nouns

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Dóigh

Dóigh is the result of three different words converging into one standardised spelling. As a result of that it seems to mean many different things. 

From dóïd

The first comes from Old Irish verb dóïd, meaning “to burn or scorch”. 

Blas dóite: burnt taste

From doich

The Old Irish doich is an adjective, and means “likely”. As a noun it refers to “hope”, “certainty” or “expectation”. 

Ar ndóigh: of course (literally "on confidence"; interchangeable with dar ndóigh) De mo dhóigh: in my opinion

From dáig

The Old Irish dáig referred to a “way” or “manner”. 

Ar dóigh: excellent, proper (way) Ar dóigh go...: in order that... Cén dóigh?: which way? how? Gan dóigh: destitute (literally “without manner, way”)

Where Confusion May Arise

In this section there are certain claims (each prefaced with asterisks) that try as I might I was unable to substantiate. If you have any contradictions please get in touch.

You may have noticed three very similar examples, with different meanings and mutations: ar dóigh, ar dhóigh and ar ndóigh.

Ar dóigh: excellent, proper

*I believe that dóigh here refers to a specific way, the proper way. In this example it is thus a definite article. 

Recall the rule from my prepositions post: with the singular article, ar triggers an urú: except for words starting with d and t. Therefore, dóigh here does not mutate. 

Ar dhóigh: a way Ar dhóigh eile, ar dhóigh níos fearr: another way, a better way

Dóigh here means a way—it is unspecific, so it takes a séimhiú. Recall the rule from my prepositions post: without the singular article, ar triggers a séimhiú. 

Ar ndóigh: of course (literally “on confidence”) Dar ndóigh: of course (literally “on confidence of it”, dar is a contraction of de+ar)

*I believe the definite article here refers to what is in the context—confident of “X”, of course “X”. As I mentioned earlier, with the singular article, ar triggers urú: except for words starting with d and t—which should mean that dóigh should not mutate (in the same vein neither shoud tús in ar dtús). 

Because d and t still take eclipses in Munster Irish, I would caution a guess that phrases such as this are relics of their time (akin to the archaic grammatical form of “go raibh maith agat”). 

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Bláth nó Te?

The Scottish Gaelic An Fhaclair Bhig gives the adjective blàth for “warm”. Dwelly gives blàth, and much less commonly, teth.

Let’s look into the two terms, their Irish equivalents and how they compare in definition and use. 

Bláth/Blàth

Its Irish equivalents are bláth and te respectively, though bláth has likely fallen completely out of use or was ever just isolated to just Antrim Irish. I found it in only one dictionary—Focail na Ultach. It defined “bláth” as such:

Bláth               (a.) Warm. Lá bláth amháin, one warm day (Antrim: AU). 

Note: As a noun, though, blàth refers to a blossom. Its Irish equivalent is obviously bláth, which means the same. 

Te/Teth

In Gaelic, teth seems to only refer to “hot” rather than “warm”, while the Irish equivalent covers both definitions. 

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Months in Irish and Scottish Gaelic

It’s hard to exclude Scottish Gaelic when learning Irish, as there is a whole lot of overlap. Comparing what each calls the months of the year is a fun one as it highlights certain historical and cultural differences.

Gaeilge Eanáir Feabhra Márta Aibreán Bealtaine Meitheamh Iuil Lúnasa Meán Fómhair Deireadh Fómhair Samhain Nollaig

Etymology Latin Iānuārius Latin Februārius Latin Martius Latin Aprīlis Old Irish Beltane Old Irish Mithem Latin Iūlius Old Irish Lugnasad Mid-harvest End-of-harvest Old Irish Samhain Latin nātālīcia

Gàidhlig Am Faoilleach An Gearran Am Màrt An Giblean An Cèitean An t-Ògmhios An t-Iuchar An Lùnastal An t-Sultain An Dàmhair An t-Samhain An Dùbhlachd

Etymology Wolf Month The Cutting Latin Martius Pudding Month from Cètshamain Month of the Young Warm month Old Irish Lugnasad Month of fatness The Rutting Old Irish Samhain The Darkness

Historically, these terms have never strictly adhered to the modern day Gergorian calendar. Terms like Déireadh Fómhair—marked by the end of the harvest—could be from as early as September to mid-November depending on the weather.

The Irish Bealtaine and Gaelic An Cèitean are synonyms. The Scottish Gaelic Céitean refers to céad shamhain, which I covered in a previous post. Additionally, it is stated in Ó Duinnín's Irish dictionary (1904) that Mí Céadamhan is the month of May, which means that both forms were used in Irish.

Some Ulster writers also use Mí na bhFaoillí or Mí na bhFaoilleach for January.

Another one that they actually do have in common as well is Deireadh Fómhair, as Scottish Gaelic also uses mìos deireannach an fhoghair. However, Gaelic tends to use the term for September, sometimes October and up to mid-November. Mìos Deireannach an t-Samhraidh is the archaic Scottish Gaelic term for July.

Latin influence on the Language Christianity and the Calendar

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The Word 'Leath'

The word leath can be defined as

Side, part

Half

Some phrases that use leath include: 

Ar leith, faoi leith: separate, distinct

Do leith: on the side of

As a Verb

Im a leathadh ar an dtósta To spread butter on the toast

Doras a leathadh To open wide a door

Bhí an chaint ag leathadh ort Your speech was getting indistinct—literally “your speech was parting”

Leath an fuacht é He perished from the cold—literally “the cold split him”

Leath a n-áireamh Their number declined—literally “their number halved”

As a Prefix 

Aside from the obvious leathuair (half an hour, though also “a while”), we have leath expressing anything from “tilted” (lopsided, onesided) to something small (half-grown): 

Leathbheo: dead and alive, literally “half alive” Leathbhróg: one of a pair of shoes  Leathduine cúpla: one of a pair of twins Leathduine: halfwit Leathchiorcal: semi-circle Leathchailín: half-grown girl Leathlámhach: one-handed, also shorthanded

Leathbhróg is a nice one to know, as it is poetic in expressing double-crossing: 

lena leathbhróg ghaelach agus a leathbhróg ghallda with his one shoe Irish and his one shoe English

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Some Autumnal Phrases

Autumn is synonymous with the harvest as far as Irish is concerned:

Is é do lá fómhair é It is your field day (of reward). Literally, your “day of harvest”

Chomh líonta le frog fómhair As full as the autumn frog (to be full of food)

And, more colloquially:

Ag déanamh fómhar To be courting, literally “making harvest”

To have fómhar upon you is to be rushed with work:

Tá fómhar ar leathadh air He’s up to his eyes. Literally, “the Autumn (harvest) is wide open upon him”. 

And, while we’re on the topic of seasons, “to winter” is to geimhriú—which is, to hibernate. 

Related grammar/vocabulary posts:

The Genitive (why fómhair and not fómhar in lá fómhair?)

Comparatives (the “chomh...le” form)

Forming Verbal Nouns (deriving ag déanamh from the verb déan, “to make”)

Prepositional Pronouns (deriving air for “upon him”)

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East Ulster Irish

Within Ulster Irish, there are two main groups: West Ulster (Donegal Irish) and East Ulster (the rest of Ulster and parts of Counties Louth and Meath, and much of Oriel). When we’ve mentioned Ulster Irish in the past, we have been referring to what we still hear today—i.e. not East Ulster Irish. 

East Ulster Irish was used up till the 20th century and is said to be very closely related to the (Scottish) Gaelic of Islay and Arran. 

Favoured Spellings

Ársuigh instead of the standard ársaigh (tell)

Corruighe instead of the standard corraí (anger)

Entirely Different Words

Frithir (sore)

Go seadh (yet)

And words clearly similar to Scottish Gaelic (of course including the Ulster ‘cha’ but we’re talking specifically East Ulster):

Coinfheasgar (evening) (Gaelic coin-fheasgar)

Márt (cow) (Gaelic mart, specifically a milking cow)

Práinn (hurry) (Gaelic pràdhainn)

Toigh (house) (Gaelic taigh, though teach is also used)

Tonnóg (duck) (Gaelic tunnag or tonnag, though lach is used for a wild duck)

Pronunciation

In West Ulster and the rest of Ireland, the vowel “ea” is pronounced like “ah”, like as in fear, sean and such. However, in East Ulster, fear would be pronounced as though spelt féar. Names like Seán were also pronounced as though spelt Séan. 

We can derive this from how names and placenames were anglicised in the region:

Gleann Seáin: Glenshane (Seán’s Valley) Seán Mac Cuinn Ó Néil: Shane O’Neill

In East Ulster, th or ch in the middle of a word tended to vanish, leaving what sounded like one long syllable. And at the ends of words, ch sounds a lot weaker. In Southeast Ulster, ch could render much like ‘f”, giving Ó Murchada the anglicisation “Murphy”.

Much like Munster Irish, Outer Hebridean Gaelic (and the Westernmost Inner Hebrides), the broad bh and mh sounds are rendered like ‘V’, though when in the middle of words they tend to conform to the more standard ‘W’ sound. 

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Faoi and Dialectal Differences

Connacht and the Standard

Standard Irish follows Connacht Irish in that it uses the spelling faoi, and can refer to all of the following: 

Under the chair: faoin gcathaoir

Against the wall: faoin mballa

In motion: Tá siúl fúm (I walk fast “there is walking about me”) tá fuadar fút (you're in a hurry “there is hustle around you”) tá fás faoin gcrann (the tree grows “there is growth around the tree”)

Intent: Tá fúm (I intend to)

About: caint faoi (speak about)

Around: faoi Nollaig (around Christmas)

Number of Times: faoi dhó (twice) a trí faoina ceathair (three times four)

Expressions: faoi bhrón (sorrowful)

Old Irish

Old Irish uses fá, and less commonly one might see spellings fó and fí. The Old Irish fo gives rise to the directional terms such as “ó thuaidh” (towards the North). 

Munster Irish

We previously mentioned that Munster uses the form fé in place of faoi.  

Ulster Irish

Both faoi and fá are used in Ulster Irish, but faoi specifically means “under” while fá can be used for pretty much any of the other meanings. 

Faoin gcathaoir: under the chair Fá dtaobh de: with regard to, about

Relevant reading:

Contracting faoi with pronouns (from me, from you &c.)

Contracting faoi with possessive pronouns (from my X, from his X &c.)

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Ó as a word in many forms

We can define the word ó (alternatively spelled úa) in several different ways:

Since (temporal) I heard the news:  ó chuala mé an scéala 

A year after he was born:  bliain ó rugadh é

From when the hay is cut until it is dry:  ó bhaintear an féar go bhfuil sé tirim

Once it is broken:  ó bhrisfear é 

Since (causal) I am alone:  ó tá mé liom féin

Ó, with is, gives us the contraction ós (not to be confused with os: “over, above”)

Ós eisean a rinne é, íocfar é Since he’s the one who did it, it will be paid for

The Wildcard Definition (Old and Middle Irish)

In Middle Irish, ó (as an alternate spelling of áu) and also manages to refer to the following, descending from the Proto-Celtic *ausos (related to “audible”, “audio” and such): 

ear

Anything earlike, including: parts of cloaks, shields, handles of pitchers and chessboards

Motion and Direction

Why, then, is ó found in phrases such as ó thuaidh and ó dheas?

North: thuaidh Northbound: ó thuaidh Away from the North: aduaidh

South: theas Southbound: ó dheas Away from the South: aneas

Surely ó here cannot mean “from” or any of its previously listed meanings? 

Ó in Directions

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Ó in Directions

We know that

North: thuaidh Northbound: ó thuaidh Away from the North: aduaidh

South: theas Southbound: ó dheas Away from the South: aneas

Logically, ó here cannot possibly mean “from” or "away".

The eDIL entry for dess (modern Irish: deas) gives the example:

Fo-thuaid fri fuined His right northward towards the sunset

And looking up the Old Irish fo, it can be defined as

under, beneath

towards

through, throughout

in the capacity of

The modern equivalent for the Old Irish fo is faoi. In other words,

North: thuaidh Northbound: ó thuaidh (faoi thuaidh) Away from the North: aduaidh (a dtuaidh)

South: theas Southbound: ó dheas (faoi dheas) Away from the South: aneas (a ndeas)