Irish class, May 5, 2008

Irish class, May 5, 2008

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Fadas: áéíóúÁÉÍÓÚ

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First exercise. Two lists of foods, in Irish and in English, but not in the
same order. We had to match them up, doing as much as possible without the dictionary.

After unscrambling

apple pie and cream	pióg úll agus uachtar
beans	pónairí
beef	mairteoil
biscuit	briosca
boiled egg	ubh bhruite
cauliflower	cóilis
cheesecake	císte cáise
chips	sceallóga
chop	gríscín
chowder	seabhdar
cornflakes	calóga arbhair
dessert	milseog
fried eggs	uibheacha friochta
fruit	torthaí
fruit salad	sailéad torthaí
garlic	gairleog
garlic mushrooms	beacáin ghairleoige
ginger	sinséar
ham	liamhás
herbs	luibheanna
lamb	uaineoil
lemon	liomóid

I was able to get about half of them before opening up Foclóir
Póca. This was not so much because of my vocabulary as by
logic.
E.g. I knew gairleog was “garlic”, so beacáin ghairleoige
had to be “garlic mushrooms. Sailéad torthaí was the only salad,
so it had to be “fruit salad”, which gave me torthaí, “fruit”,
etc.

Also, just by pronouncing seabhdar and sinséar I instantly
recognized them. They are
the same words as in English, just spelled according to Irish rules.

Other vocabulary

leath	half, side, part
cóisir	party [the fun kind, not political]
eolaíocht	science

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There followed one of our inverted games of 20 questions. We each had
a name tag stuck on our back where we could not see it but everybody else
could. The name was of some famous person. We
had to ask questions as Gaeilge to figure out who we were. This
accounts for the odd questions below.

An fear mé?	Am I a man?
An bean mé?	Am I a woman?
An ceoltóir mé?	Am I a musician?

These and similar questions use the copula, and are answered
Sea/Ní hea.

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An bhfuil mé beo?	Am I alive?
An bhfuil mé marbh?	Am I dead?
An bhfuil mé pósta?	Am I married?
An bhfuil conaí orm i ____ ?	Do I live in _____?

These and similar questions use bí,
and are answered Tá/Níl. Some questions can be asked either way.
The An ____ mé? copula form is preferable in those cases.

Other vocabulary

álainn	beautiful
amhranaí	singer
file	poet
uachtarán	president
sagart	priest
bean rialta	nun [Those of us who had watched An Grá Faoi Ghlas all grinned at this point.]
fear/bean gnó	businessman/woman
dlíodoir	lawyer

Alternatively An bhfuair mé bás?–Am I dead? Fuair is
the past of faigh “get”, so I suppose literally this is something
like “Did I get death?”

I was tagged as Eliot Spitzer. It took me a while, and quite a few
hints, to figure that out. We did not go over the Irish vocabulary to
describe his downfall.

Accents matter in Irish. Today’s example: post “job” (noun),
pósta “married” (adj).

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Administrivia: Summer scheduling

Our last spring class at the High School is June 2 (Recall we have May
26 off).

Summer schedule:

June 16, 30
July 14, 28 (July is iffy because Nick will be in Ireland during
precisely this period)
August 11, 25

The planned location is the Dunn Bros.
at

Minneapolis- East Lake St
4648 E Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55406

assuming the wheelchair accessibility
is satisfactory.

We are invited to look at the GaelMinn Moodle for
Will’s class.

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The rest of class was about reading and translating the first few
paragraphs of the newspaper
article “Pictiúrlann i nGaoth Dobhair?”

vocabulary

Pictiúrlann	cinema
á ← do + a	to its
roimh	before
cur	setting
ag teacht	is coming
níos cóngaraí	closer, nearer
laetha	var. of laethanta “days”, sing. lá
na laetha seo	these days here
togra	choice, selection
tús	before
á thabhairt	to be given
dá ← do + a	to its [?]
leithéid	like, counterpart
má
suim	interest [here], amount, sum, regard
forbairt	development, growth
chomh maith	as well
blianta ó shin	years ago
Chlochán Liath	Gray Stones [place name]
iarthuaisceart	northwest
ag iarraidh	trying
caithfidh	have to, must
tiomáint	driving
go háirithe	especially
líon	line, amount
as ceantracha	from the district
ag freastal ar	attending
plean	plan
molta	praise
teaglach gnó	business community
ní dheachaigh	did not go (dependent past of téigh

Another form of the past tense

Tá sé ___-ta/te agam.	plan
Tá sé leite agam.	I have read it.
Bhí sé molta agam.	I have praised it

Why tá vs. bhí? Should the 2^nd example be
translated “I had praised it.” ? (present perfect and past perfect)