Need Help Please

Latest post 06-15-2010 5:31 by seano. 15 replies.
  • 03-04-2010 9:13

    Need Help Please

    Hello- I am a fairly new member, I am enjoying the site very much.  I am hoping someone can help me out please.  I would like to know the proper way to write and pronounce "  Friday's Child  ".  Any help would be much appreciated.  Thank You!

    Blackrosepadraig

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  • 03-04-2010 13:04 In reply to

    • jaicmac
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    Re: Need Help Please

    “Páiste Aoine,” silim.

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  • 03-06-2010 9:01 In reply to

    Re: Need Help Please

    How do you translate 'Eureka' into Irish

    The english is 'I have found it'

    Appreciate responses

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  • 03-06-2010 9:12 In reply to

    • jaicmac
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    Re: Need Help Please

    "Fuair mé é," silim

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  • 03-06-2010 9:38 In reply to

    Re: Need Help Please

    On one website, I came across

    TÁ SÉ AGAM!

    Which is correct???

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  • 03-07-2010 12:34 In reply to

    Re: Need Help Please

    Thank You!!

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  • 03-08-2010 8:01 In reply to

    • Doug
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    Re: Need Help Please

    I believe either one could work.  In English if you said "I've Got it " or "Got it ", "Found it" they all convey the same idea.  The same for the two Irish phrases you are asking about.  I would tend to lean towards the "Fuair mé é".

    le meas

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  • 03-09-2010 19:49 In reply to

    • lanstad
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    Re: Need Help Please

    here's another way thats more emphatic.

    Tá sé faighte agam!   literaly.. "I have it found!"

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  • 03-10-2010 12:23 In reply to

    • seano
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    Re: Need Help Please

    The suggestions given, "Fuair mé é!" and "Tá sé agam!" are fine, as far as I can see. But I do have one small question - why translate it? Does eureka really mean the same as "I've got it?" Eureka means more than just "I've solved a problem". It's about the sudden flash of inspiration, the excitement of having a brilliant thought which solves a seemingly impossible problem at one stroke. Of course, it depends on the context but in most cases, it seems to me that the correct translation for eureka is eureka, just as the correct translation for glasnost is glasnost and the correct translation for intifada is intifada. You might find something similar to these words but nothing which has the same range of associations.

    There are a couple of really bad examples of this approximate translation in De Bhaldraithe's English-Irish dictionary. He translates samurai as a Japanese army officer "oifigeach airm (Seapánach)", which is completely wide of the mark. The samurai were a warrior class, with all that that entails and the best version is  just samurai (unfortunately the recommended Irish version samúraí corrupts the pronunciation to samuree, which makes it unrecognisable). He also translates Kabbalah (Cabbala as he spells it) as "teagasc traidisiúnta na nGiúdach" - the traditional teaching of the Jews. I think many Jewish people would be quite insulted at this. The Kabbalah is one highly mystical and late strand of Jewish teaching. It is no more central to Judaism than the writings of Mary Baker Eddy are to Christianity, so the word should always be kept in the original spelling or given the Irish spelling Cabála.

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  • 03-10-2010 20:09 In reply to

    • lanstad
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    Re: Need Help Please

    Well said Seano,but unfortunately for us learners who were brought up as Béarla,there is no reference point in which we can express the full impact of an idea except in the language that we are already familiar with.Single words of foreign origin are more easily absorbed into the English-speaking psych like "glasnost" or "infasada",or "Samurai"simply because there is familiarity with the visual,political,and media imagery that we are exposed to on a regular basis.It just so happens that "Eureka!" is such a word in which we are all familiar with and as you pointed out, it is therefore unnecessary to try to translate a word like "Eureka" which we are already familiar with.It is when one tries to translate sentences(strings of information and idiosynchracy of a language)that one gets into difficulty.

    This is why if anyone really wants to learn Irish,it is without doubt crucial to be immersed among Irish Speakers on a regular basis.otherwise our understanding of Irish will be only topical and limited.

    This is why the protection of the Gaeltacht areas of Ireland is so vital in the survival of the Irish language and why I am so angry with the Irish Government for allowing the disintegration of the last bastion of the Gaelic speaking world.

    Internationaly reknown Gaelic poet Louis De Paor in todays "Foinse" admonishes the present and past Governments who through their policies and lack of enthusiasm has reduced the Gaeltacht to only 20,000 people who speak Irish on a daily basis. 

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  • 03-11-2010 6:08 In reply to

    • seano
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    Re: Need Help Please

    Hi Lánstad, You're absolutely right about that. I saw the article in Foinse yesterday. It is worrying but I don't really know what anyone can do about it, I feel that if Irish is to survive, it needs to flourish outside of its traditional areas. It would be nice to keep the Gaeltachts alive too, but I wonder if it will be possible in the long run. English is such a dominant culture. Incidentally, speaking of culture, de Paor is an amazing poet. Ag Greadadh Bas sa Reilig/Clapping in the Cemetery is one of the best poetry anthologies I've read in years and it has an English translation alongside the Irish, so it's great for the advanced learner..

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  • 06-06-2010 18:07 In reply to

    Re: Need Help Please

    Couldn't agree more. Even we language-challenged folks in the US do not attempt to translate great words (expressions of feelings, actually) such as gemutlichkeit and schadenfreude.

    I enjoy your thoughtful posts.

     

    Seanduine

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  • 06-10-2010 18:09 In reply to

    • kjwcode
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    Re: Need Help Please

    If you're a fan of de Paor you may wish to check out "Mise, Séan Ó Ríordáin", if you haven't already. It is a look at the life and works of Séan Ó Ríordáin and Louis' insights into him and love for his work are evident. It's also easily the best biographical documentary I've ever seen. As a bonus it is reasonably easy to follow if you're new to Irish, as I am. Until now I didn't know that Louis de Paor was a poet, but I will see what it takes to get his books in Canada. You can find the full length of the documentary on TG4's site until it rotates off: http://beo.tg4.ie/main.aspx?sort=12&level=Faisneis It's on the third page right now, but will no doubt move to the last page soon.
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  • 06-11-2010 16:43 In reply to

    Re: Need Help Please

    I would think

    páiste de hAoine (not same as Dé hAoine) or páiste as hAoine or páiste ó hAoine -- something like of, out of, or from Friday

     

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  • 06-15-2010 5:08 In reply to

    • seano
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    Re: Need Help Please

    Hi, I don't know if this answer is too late - the original post was in February - but I will do my usual thing of warning against imposing the cultural assumptions of English on Irish. In other words, the rhyme about Monday's child is full of grace is really well-known in English but not in Irish and the word Aoine means "fast, abstinence".

    If you had asked me a week ago, I would have said that there is no equivalent to this rhyme in Irish. However, I did check a book by Nicholas Williams called Cniogaide Cnagaide, which is a compilation of nursery rhymes and children's verses in Irish. According to this, there is an Irish version of it (though it doesn't rhyme) which was collected about seventy or eighty years ago in Co Galway. It is Naíonán na hAoine - Is glas í do shúil agus croí na féile i do lár agat (Child of Friday - Your eye is green/grey and there is a generous heart inside you). 

    In case anyone has this book and finds that my version differs from it, for some reason the book has Naíonán AN Aoine, but this is clearly wrong, and doesn't match Naíonán na Céadaoine and Naíonán na Déardaoine in the same verse, both of which are compounds of Aoine, so I have corrected it.

    However, my word of caution still stands. This rhyme is quite obscure and hardly known among Irish speakers.

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