what's the Irish word for grandmother?
sw...@ouray.cudenver.edu
We're trying to be original in an Irish-American family in the terms of endearment we teach future generations; specifically, we want the baby on the way to call their grandmother by the Irish word, rather than the English. We would even appreciate perhaps a Gaelic word for Granmother (is there any difference?) If you can help, please include a pronunciation guide. Thanks so much!
Eoin C. Bairéad
The normal Irish familiar words for Granny and Grandad are
Maimeó - pronounced momm-OH
and
Daideó - pronounced dadd-OH
Eoin Bairéad
Dublin, Ireland
I suppose you are aware that Irish is the first language of quite a
small percentage of Irish people, and it's by no means certain that all
Irish grandparents would understand the words.
Gerard van Wilgen
sw...@ouray.cudenver.edu wrote:
>We're trying to be original in an Irish-American family in the terms of endearment we teach future generations; specifically, we want the baby on the way to call their grandmother by the Irish word, rather than the English. We would even appreciate perhaps a Gaelic word for Granmother (is there any difference?) If you can help, please include a pronunciation guide. Thanks so much!
The English-Irish dictionary gives three words for "grandmother" which
seems to be synonyms:
seanmhathair (with an acute accent on the second A)
mathair mhor (with an acute accent on the first A of "mathair" and an
acute accent on the O of "mhor")
mathair chrionna (with an acute accent on the first A and an acute
accent on the I of "chrionna")
There are also words for "grandma":
mamo (with an acute accent on the O)
morai (with an acute accent on the O and an acute accent on the I)
The pronunciation of these word is difficult to indicate with ASCII
characters but I try to spell them as if they were English words:
seanmhathair [shanvaaher]
mathair mhor [maaher vor]
mathair chrionna [maaher hrionnaa]
mamo [mamo]
morai [moree]
Of course this is a very rough approximation because many Irish sounds
are not found in English and the ones that are are usually pronounced
just a little differently.
=======================================================
Gerard van Wilgen
-------------------------------------------------------
Take a look at my multilingual dictionary programme at:
http://www.travlang.com/Ergane/
=======================================================
Ekrigardu mian multlingvan vortarprogramon je:
http://www.travlang.com/Ergane/
-------------------------------------------------------
Gerard van Wilgen
MarkxS...@csgi.com (Mark Schaefer) wrote:
>In article <3438A5...@indigo.ie>, "Eoin C. Bairéad"
><ebai...@indigo.ie> wrote:
>A quick question to those more learned than I:
>I had thought that "Irish" was the name of the particular dialect of
>English spoken in Ireland and that "Gaelic" was the name of the indigenous
>Celtic language spoken there. Are such interpretations valid or am I
>completely misguided?
The term "Irish" as an adjective can be used for either "Irish
English" or "Irish Gaelic" (there is also Scottish Gaelic) but as a
noun it is generally interpreted as "Irish Gaelic".
Gerard van Wilgen
Brian J Goggin
On Tue, 07 Oct 1997 10:52:20 GMT, gvwi...@worldonline.nl (Gerard van
Wilgen) wrote:
>MarkxS...@csgi.com (Mark Schaefer) wrote:
>
[...]
>>A quick question to those more learned than I:
>
>>I had thought that "Irish" was the name of the particular dialect of
>>English spoken in Ireland and that "Gaelic" was the name of the indigenous
>>Celtic language spoken there. Are such interpretations valid or am I
>>completely misguided?
>
>The term "Irish" as an adjective can be used for either "Irish
>English" or "Irish Gaelic" (there is also Scottish Gaelic) but as a
>noun it is generally interpreted as "Irish Gaelic".
>
I would generally use the phrase "Hiberno-English" to refer to the
variety of English that we speak in Ireland. I had never (before
reading Gerard's posting) seen "Irish" used to mean the English spoken
in Ireland. To me, it is the English word for the Irish Gaelic
language; in Irish, "Irish" (the language) is called "Gaeilge".
I am not, however, a linguist; linguists may have special terms.
bjg
co...@zeus.bris.ac.uk
Eoin C. Bairéad (ebai...@indigo.ie) wrote:
: Brian J Goggin wrote:
: >
: > >>I had thought that "Irish" was the name of the particular dialect of
: > >>English spoken in Ireland and that "Gaelic" was the name of the indigenous
: > >>Celtic language spoken there. Are such interpretations valid or am I
: > >>completely misguided?
: > >
: > >The term "Irish" as an adjective can be used for either "Irish
: > >English" or "Irish Gaelic" (there is also Scottish Gaelic) but as a
: > >noun it is generally interpreted as "Irish Gaelic".
: > >
: > I would generally use the phrase "Hiberno-English" to refer to the
: > variety of English that we speak in Ireland. I had never (before
: > reading Gerard's posting) seen "Irish" used to mean the English spoken
: > in Ireland. To me, it is the English word for the Irish Gaelic
: > language; in Irish, "Irish" (the language) is called "Gaeilge".
: >
: > I am not, however, a linguist; linguists may have special terms.
: >
: > bjg
:
: I too was quite unfamiliar with the use of "Irish" for Hiberno-English.
: However, twice in the last week I've come across the usage:
: Gerard's posting
: and the alt.englisg.usage faq which includes an
: Irish/English-English/Irish dictionary in its list of books on English
: as we speak it here in Ireland.
:
The terms Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, and Hiberno-English are all quite
unambiguous, and all rather long-winded. Irish and Gaelic alone are short
but ambiguous, though I learnt the names Gaelic for Scots Gaelic and Erse
for Irish Gaelic. Is Erse one of those words like Eire which the Irish in
the Republic don't want us ignorant Brits to use any more?
Martin Murray
Brian J Goggin
On Wed, 8 Oct 1997 09:46:17 GMT, co...@zeus.bris.ac.uk () wrote:
[...]
>The terms Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, and Hiberno-English are all quite
>unambiguous, and all rather long-winded.
True, but the alternatives mentioned by others earlier in this thread
have greater disadvantages. In particular, anyone using the word
"Irish", in Ireland, to refer to the English spoken here will be
misunderstood. In Ireland, in most contexts, it is safe to use "Irish"
to mean "Irish Gaelic".
>Irish and Gaelic alone are short
>but ambiguous, though I learnt the names Gaelic for Scots Gaelic and Erse
>for Irish Gaelic. Is Erse one of those words like Eire which the Irish in
>the Republic don't want us ignorant Brits to use any more?
Far be it from us to tell you what you (whether ignorant or erudite)
should do, as long as you don't do it in the streets and frighten the
horses.
The word "Erse" has occasionally been used here to mean "Irish
Gaelic", usually by someone of the unionist persuasion who wishes to
make a political point (ie to annoy us), but we could put up with
that. Apart from that, though, the word is not generally used in
Ireland.
Note the definition in Chambers (1993):
"formerly, and still occasionally, the name given by Lowland Scots to
the language of the people of the West Highlands, as being of Irish
origin; sometimes used for Irish Gaelic, as opposed to Scottish
Gaelic."
And in *The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language* I find this:
"From about the 10th century, there is evidence of the distinction
between Irish and Scottish Gaelic (until recently often called Erse)
...."
To summarise, then:
- the word "Erse" is not usually used in Ireland to refer to the Irish
(Gaelic) language
- there is some evidence that the word is (or was) used to refer to
Scottish Gaelic. Linguists may know more about that than I do.
You may therefore risk misunderstanding if you use "Erse" to refer to
Irish Gaelic.
bjg
Eoin C. Bairéad
> Is Erse one of those words like Eire which the Irish in
> the Republic don't want us ignorant Brits to use any more?
>
Éire (and the acute accent is important) is the name for Ireland in
Irish.
It's pronounced EIGH-ra, with the 'EIGH' to rhyme with WEIGH
It is often used in English as a short way of saying "the Republic of
Ireland", often mis-pronounced as ERR-a, and, indeed, sometimes in a
disparaging way.
Eoin
Eoin
Eoin C. Bairéad
Colin Batchelor
co...@zeus.bris.ac.uk wrote:
: Is Erse one of those words like Eire which the Irish in
: the Republic don't want us ignorant Brits to use any more?
Erse is a word that I've only ever seen used by crossword compilers who
had clearly got stuck at that stage.
Flann O'Brien, writing as Myles na gCopaleen, calls Irish (Gaelic)
"erseperantique", but that was in imitation of Joyce.
--
Yours,
Colin - That's the coffin.