Immigrants help language

An editorial:
Immigrants help language
from http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/immigrants-help-language-702155.html

Irish Gaelic weekend planned

Oh, my.
Irish Gaelic weekend planned
from http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=31&a=299158
Now the papers run a story? We're getting a little close to deadline, here....

Medieval Irish Goes Online

Medieval Irish Goes Online As New Electronic Dictionary Is Launched
from http://news.ulster.ac.uk/releases/2007/3265.html

Nóra agus Nóra

Click the strip to view a larger, more legible version...

Wes's Words

breogan n m1
- crucible

Pióg Chlábair

When cooler heads prevail

Language Log: BBC approves.... (***possibly upsetting language warning!***)
from http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004633.html
Wow, a whole long article in which the word "gob" (typically understood to mean "mouth") plays an important role, and not once is it trotted out that it means "beak" or "bill" in Irish!
What's that feeling? I think it's...it's relief.
Why?
Because it's just not clear where the English word came from. There, I said it.

Gaeltacht co. wins another Emmy

Missed this story somehow!
Corks are popped as Galway TV production firm awarded Emmy
"Champagne corks popped in the Galway Gaeltacht yesterday as an Egyptian boy mummy won an impressive second Emmy Award for a local television production company."
from http://www.independent.ie/national-news/corks-are-popped-as-galway-tv-production-firm-awarded-emmy-703916.html
Here's another story on the same topic:
Telegael wins second Emmy award for 'Tutenstein' cartoon
from http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2007/0616/1181771180366.html

Wes's Words

cosliacht n f3
- chiropody... aka... podiatry

Clis!

Dáithí Mac Cárthaigh

A good man for the Dáil.... Too bad he's a Seanad candidate.
Ag cur a hata sa chró

Irish Language Act

Here be some going's on concerning the North's push for an Irish Language Act. The proposed act would allow Irish speakers their preference for conducting all aspects of their lives using the Irish language.

This article would be slightly amusing if it weren't sad. There are so many holes in any reasoning that would take lack of voicemail usage as evidence against language usage. Let's list them...

Voices raised over bodies' Irish language call services

And although predictable, does it really help the Act for Sinn Féin to be all up behind it? Not that anyone has a choice about that...

Adams meets Irish Language groups on Language Act

Páistí

Oh, my

Beo certainly knows how to spice up a reading exercise...
Dialogue 41: Liam agus Bairbre
(at http://www.beo.ie/?page=rannog_na_bhfoglaimeoiri&content_id=374)
[Also--anyone got any ideas for a useful label for this sort of post?]

Your Irish phrase, an t-aonú lá is fiche Mí an Mheithimh

Okay, it's not actually a phrase, so sue me:
grianstad - "solstice"

Ó hé...

Mark Your Calendars!

For those countless millions of us who are gay and speak Irish....

Bród Ireland, Galway's Gay Pride Festival will be held from August 24th thru the 27th.
On Thursday the 23rd there will be bi-lingual speed dating at Club Aras na nGael.

The funny thing is, when you click on the event within their calendar, it jumps you to a listing called "Bisexual speed-dating"
... without clarification, maybe a bit more than folks will be expecting.

More info at their websites:

Gay Galway
and
Bród Ireland West

'Dumbed down' exam claim denied

'Dumbed down' exam claim denied as higher grades soar
The percentage of students securing higher grades in the Leaving Cert has increased dramatically in every one of the 10 most popular subjects since 1989.
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2007/0605/1180721046272.html
Including...guess which subject?

Garden of Eden sees Irish speakers bloom

Garden of Eden sees Irish speakers bloom
NEARLY 200 Irish speakers descended on the Eden Project in Cornwall over the Bank Holiday weekend for three days of talks and music with some sight-seeing thrown in.
http://www.theirishworld.com/article.asp?SubSection_Id=2&Article_Id=2897

Cambridge offers course in modern Irish

University of Cambridge now offers course in modern Irish
Modern Irish has become the newest subject available at the University of Cambridge – marking both its establishment as an EU working language, and rising enthusiasm for Irish studies as a whole.
http://www.theirishworld.com/article.asp?SubSection_Id=2&Article_Id=2698

Irish movie shortlisted at film festival

Catching up a little on recent news....
Galway movie nominated at international film awards
A full length Galway feature film in the Irish language 'Cré na Cille' that celebrates the Irish language novel written by Máirtín O Cadhain, has made the short list at the Shanghai International Film Festival.
http://www.galwayindependent.com/news/12058.html

Your Irish phrase, 18ú lá Mí an Mheithimh

as seo amach -- "from now on"

o rly?

Scamall

Téacschaint

Oh, now here's something!
Téacschaint -- http://wiki.anlionra.com/index.php/T%C3%A9acschaint
It's a short list, but interesting, mar shampla LOL (laughing out loud) = AGOA (ag gáire os ard), as seen in "catagoa," and BRB (be right back) = FGF (fan go fóill).
This is only part of the puzzle where catagoacha are concerned, but it's food for thought.

Tá an t-ádh orm inniu!

So I went looking around to see if anyone's done legwork on compiling any existing texting, etc abbrevs & conventions as Gaeilge -- no luck just yet, but I ran across this here article from August 2006:
---Tech Helps Boost Irish Language Use
---http://www.cio.com/article/23862/Tech_Helps_Boost_Irish_Language_Use
Am I the last Irish student on the planet to find out about Google Ireland?? (as Gaeilge, though of course there's an English version available too)

BBC: Thomas Cook Welsh 'ban' concerns

Okay, yes, I know this one isn't about Irish. Shall we step outside? No? I thought not.
Thomas Cook Welsh 'ban' concerns
"The Commission for Racial Equality in Wales says it will write to Thomas Cook asking the firm to explain why staff have been asked not to speak Welsh."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6739121.stm

Nóra agus Nóra

Click the strip to view a larger, more legible version...

Your Irish phrase, 11ú lá Mí an Mheithimh

Is ionann an cás an t-éag is an bás.
...is the Irish version of "six of one, half a dozen of the other." Or, "a horse apiece," if you're from that camp.
If you've been feeling a bit down lately, you might want to put off translating this one to another time.

BBC: Irish speakers in language march

Irish speakers in language march
"Irish speakers have taken to the streets of Belfast to highlight their campaign for official recognition of the language."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6737563.stm

An Madra Uisce

Dinnéar

Okay, here's my first contribution to the cause:

D'éag a Beartú

Catagoacha, a dhuine ar bith?

You may be aware of a type of image macro that's gotten pretty popular among the young folks lately, known as cat macros or lolcats. If you're feeling clueless just about now, you might go see the following:

Lolcat (Wikipedia entry)
"Cats Can Has Grammar"

As you can probably tell from the latter, I'm interested in this trend partially from a linguistic point of view. Language Log has oodles of entertaining stuff on this and related macros -- see "Linguist Macros?" for one, and the next article after that for another.

In the "Linguist Macros?" article, I was stunned to see that there are actually people out there who have toyed with the idea of trying this as Gaeilge. I thought I was the only one with a brain freakish enough to have ideas like that.... At any rate, the fact that they went ahead and did it has the wheels in my brain turning. There are some standard practices in the English macros, language-wise...how would this be realized in Irish? Wes and I have been chatting and we've got some ideas. Go see the "Linguist Macros?" article, and click on the link supplied by Amy "mhwombat" de Buitléir, to catch up....

An Damheireabaill

Your Irish phrase, 9ú lá Mí an Mheithimh

lena rá ar chaoi eile - "in other words"

(These aren't going to come every day, mind you....)

7rl

OK. Here we go.
Short answer - That's the Irish version of "etc."

... but not exactly.

Long answer

First of all, "etc." is short for "et cetera", Latin words that mean "and so on". They used to write that Latin word "et" like a 7. We use Latin contractions in English because we think they make us look all official and stuff. No, really, we have a lot of other small words from Latin in English, like "vice versa" and "per capita". But, yeah, what does that have to do with this site?

Agus Araile means "and so on" in Irish. They take the s from agus, and the r with the l from araile to make their contraction. That gives us "srl."... OK!? : ) ... OK?!... Why is everyone still just staring at me like that?!
OK! What is that 7 there for??

Technically that's not a 7... anymore... Well, It never was, but we, like the Irish, are now using the symbol 7 to represent something else. When the Irish write srl., they use an older form of the s there. If you know about fonts, then you'll know what a seanchló font is, ... and if you don't, then you will in a couple seconds. It's an old Irish typeface - the kind you see on old signs and monuments and newer things that are trying to tell you, "Hey, I'm typically Irish". The thing about a seanchló font is, one form of the s looks like an r with it's vertical stroke descending slightly below the line. Want to see what it looks like? .... Google it. The other Roman alphabet using languages used to have something somewhat related to this from Latin "et". Look at the American Declaration of Independence. Here and there you'll see what looks like an f where an s should be. Well, that's not an f, it's another form of s that we don't use anymore. When written by hand the Irish version can look like a 7 with a shorter horizontal stroke and a longer vertical stroke.

And, ta daaaa - 7rl.

Anois....

So...difficult...to start!