Irish House Rules And What A Laughing Belly Means In Irish
Tá a bholg ag gáire leis, (lit.) his belly is laughing at him! i.e. he has enjoyed his meal.
Agus eagar ag teacht chun an tí, airím an t-eagar céanna ag teacht ar m’intinn. Fillean Saoirse. P.53
When I set about putting the house in order, I feel the same sense of order coming about in my mind.
Sometimes it helps to order things in a certain way. For example, I like to collect phrases in Irish centred around a particular topic. So when I’m reading I’m always looking out for interesting or useful colloquial Irish phrases to jot down in my notebooks. The accumulation, grouping and writing down of these sentences under specific headings helps me memorize related vocabulary. Each time you add a new word or phrase to your Irish notebook topic you also tend to read what you have written previously and the constant repetitive reading of your notes is a further boost to memory and recall of vocabulary when speaking. You can also compare and contrast how the words you are tracking change in sound and spelling due to the structure and grammar of the sentence. Tracking vocabulary also makes you more aware of what Irish verbs ( plus their prepositions) are most often used when dealing with a particular topic. See, for example, the use of ‘Gabh anuas’ and ‘Gabh amach’ in the following collection of sentences taken from one of my notebooks.
I have arranged these random sentences into a psuedo-story just to add a touch of humour agus tá mo theanga go daingne i mo chúlbhéal agam. (i.e. In English, tongue in cheek; in Irish , tongue in back of mouth)
Note the words in bold for useful vocabulary and grammar points. If you want to do some grammar detective work (agus ná bí maol (blank) ina bhun, keep your wits about you when you’re doing it.) you will need to work with the following grammatical tools:
Eclipse
Lenition
Preposition
Case
Gender
Number
Preposition + article
Possessive adjectives
Can you explain what is happening to the shape and sounds of these words in bold? *
Tá anáil breá ag an teach, the house is very airy, spacious
Chónaigh said ar feadh bliana ann, they have been living there for a year, they lived there for a year
D’airigh Máire mar a bheadh súile ag faire tríd an bhfuinneog uirthi.
Chuir Máire a ceann amach ar an fhuinneog.
And then she walked…
i dtreo an dorais
Chuir sí a cloigeann amach as taobh thiar de chuirtín a bhí mar chlúdach do dhoras.
“Gabh anuas agus lig me isteach, come down and let me in.”
Ar éigean a bhí sí taobh istigh den doras nuair a bhris an gol uirthi. She was hardly in the door when she burst into tears.
Rinne bean an tí leithscéal dó. The woman (of the house/housewife) apologised to him.
“Gabh agam, excuse me
“Táimid ar an bpláta beag.” “We are in dire straits, short rations.”
“Is mó a mhála ná a sholáthar, (lit.) his bag is bigger than his provisions, i.e. he is never able to make ends meet.”
Bhuel, sin go díreach fáth mo chuairte. “Well, that’s exactly the reason for my visit.”
The fear an tí interjects…
“Cuir an boc sin ina chonaí,” “put that fellow in his place,”
“Gabh amach as mo theach, get out of my house.”
But…
Rug sé isteach sa tseomra dá ainneoin é sin. Nonetheless, he entered the room.
The husband considered this intrusion as…
Coiscéim coiligh ar charn aoiligh, an arrogant step
(Lit. The step of a cock onto a dung heap)- a nice colourful Irish image for dealing with impudence.
Déannann bean an tí leithscéal dó arís. The woman apologises to him again.
And says…
“Na cuir suim na sea ann.” “Pay no heed to him.”
Déan do chuairt, Do pay a visit. Stay awhile
The visitor asks her…
Déir tú go bhfuair tú na buidéil leigheasanna istigh faoina dheasc. You say you found the medicine bottles in his desk.
She explains..
Tá said timpeall an tí in áit éigin
The visitor looks…
Ar an tolg
But…
Tá siad ina gcarn ar an urlár. They are in a heap on the foor.
(Note use of possessive adjective in the structure ‘ina gcarn’ ‘in their heap’)**
In fact…
Tá siad ina gcarn i lar an urláir They are in a heap in the middle of the foor.
Her husband orders her to…
“Cuir bail ar an phraiseach sin,” tidy up that mess
But she is indifferent to his demands and proceeds to read aloud an excerpt from a short story by Máirtín Ó Cadhain
An Strainséara
"Tá do bhricfasta réidh anois,” adúirt si leis an bhFear Óg.
Bhí an stól tarraingithe leis an mbord ag Micil cheana féin. Maol ar bhilleoig an bhoird a leag si ubh Mhicil, ach chuir si ceann an Fhir Óig in uibheagán le hais a chupán tae.
Ba chupán a thug si dó - cupán agus sásar. Muigín a bhí ag a fear. Cois Caoláire p. 141
“Your breakfast is ready now,” she said to the Young Man.
Micheal had already drawn his stool up to the table. She placed Michael’s egg unceremoniously on the leaf of the table, but she put the Young Man’s egg in an eggcup beside his cup of tea. She gave him a cup - a cup and a saucer. Her husband got a mug.
After hearing this excerpt the visitor finds his belly doing strange things…
Tá a bholg ag gáire leis, (lit.) his belly is laughing at him! i.e. he has enjoyed his meal.
And that’s because…
In aimsire a choda a rugadh é, (Lit.) He was born at meal-time) , he always shows up at meal-time
The visitor then suggests…
Seo libh go maidin é, let’s make a night of it.
and proceeds to read her a passage from An tOileánach p.43
Bhí Tomás Maol istigh, an iníon agus an mac, líon an tí; iad taréis bia a bheith caite acu; bia an tráthnóna a bhíodh mar ainm ar an mbia sin, agus bia na maidine ar an mbia ar maidin, mar ná bíodh ar siúl san am ud ach dhá bhia sa ló.
Bald Tomás was at home along with members of his household, namely, his daughter and son. They had just eaten a meal - the ‘evening meal’ as it used to be called while the food in the morning was called the ‘morning meal’ because at that time people usually only had two meals a day.
Shuigh sí ansin ag fanacht go foighneach ag amharc amach an fhuinneog, ag fanacht ar a fear céile teacht chun an bhaile.
Then she sits waiting patiently looking out the window, waiting on her husband to come home.
Síleann sí go feiceann sí carr a fir chéile ag tarraingt aníos ascaill an tí.
She thinks she sees her husband’s car coming up the lane to the house.
The man gets to the front door but…
Ní aontaíonn an eochair leis an nglas. The key does not match the lock.
Luckily…
Shocraigh Siobhán an t-aláram ti agus chuir glas ar an teach. Siobhán set the house alarm and locked up the house.
She shouts at the poor fellow.
Nach maol atá do cheann ort! What a dunce/ blockhead/dim-wit you are!
The confused man returns to his car…
Bhí an carr páirceáilte i loc an tí. The car was parked in the driveway of the house. ( Note: The definite article ‘the’ is repeated twice in the English structure but in Irish it is used only once and placed in between the two words ‘loc an tí’)
Cúlann sé amach as an loc go mall. He slowly backs out of the driveway.
And sighs…
“Gan mé sa bhaile!” “How I wish I were at home!”
Notes on text
Eclipse: ag an⟷ teach vs. tríd an⟷ bhfuinneog, both dative case but no eclipse or lenition on ‘teach’ because of ‘dot’ rule.
Lenition: Preposition + article
You can use lenition ‘ar an fhuinneog’ or eclipse ‘leis an mbord’, ‘sa tseomra’ for dative case.
Preposition: i dtreo, but ‘i lar’, no lenition or eclipse because ‘L’ belongs to the special group of consonants that make up the word ‘LoNeR’. Also ‘ar maidin’; ‘ar’ does not usually lenite following consonant in set phrases, e.g ‘ar feadh’
Case: bean an tí , genitive case, once again no lenition of ‘tí’.
Gender: an t-aláram ti, masculine vowels are eclipsed by ’t’ in nominitive case.
Possessive adjectives: mo chuairte, ina gcarn, note eclipse is used to indicate plural objects here, no lenition on ‘fear’ indicates female possession of things; i.e her husband, a fear céile. But note ‘a lamh’ could mean ‘his hand’ or ‘her hand’ because ‘l’ is never lenited. Context must show whether the hand is male or female.
How gender and number can affect verbs:
e.g. Tá an doras (masc.) á oscailt, the door (is being) opened (no eclipse)
Tá an fhuinneog (fem.) á hoscailt, the window (is being) opened (eclipse with ‘h’)
Chuala sí doirse an gháraiste (masc. gen. plural) á n-oscailt. (eclipse with ‘n’)
She heard the doors (being) open(ed)
These are passive sentence structures where the doer of the action is not identified.
* See blog ‘The Gender Issue’ dealing with eclipse and lenition.
**Translating Possessive Adjective Structures
Tá siad ina gcarn ar an urlár. They are in a heap on the foor.
The use of a possessive adjective as in the structure ‘ina gcarn’ ‘in their heap’ is a unique Irish way of expressing a particular state a person or object is in.
A couple of lines from the Irish rebel song Róisín Dubh will serve to illustrate this usage:
e.g. Beidh an fharraige ina tuilte dearga is an spéir ina fuil
Beidh an saol ina chogadh craorac de dhroim na gcnoc
from Cas Amhrán
Suggested translation:
The seas will run red and the sky will turn crimson
And all over the hillsides a bloody war will rage
Notice that I have used the verbs ‘run’, ‘turn’, ‘rage’ in the English translation though these verbs do not occur in the Irish . The reason for that is because you cannot literally translate this possessive adjective structure 'ina' as it exists in Irish. Translating in a word-for-word fashion produces outlandish non-English sentences with awkward syntax problems as you can see from the following attempt at rendering perfectly correct Irish syntax into non-standard English:
The sea will be in its flood of red and the sky in its blood
The world will be in its crimson/blood-red war on the back of the hills
Unfortunately, translation from Irish to English is awash with examples of bad translations like the above that have demanded little from the translator other than a knowledge of headwords found in a dictionary. There is nothing outlandish in structure or vocabulary in the original Irish lyrics of the song and the translator’s task should be to find a creative solution that conveys the meaning and images of the original in an appropriate English style. If you want novel Irish translations try Google translate!
Here is a recent example of bad translation I found when searching YouTube for a recording of Róisín Dubh
Sinead O`Connor
Lyrics As Gaeilge.....A Róisín ná bíodh brón ort fé'r éirigh dhuit:
Tá na bráithre 'teacht thar sáile 's iad ag triall ar muir,
Lyrics in English......Little Rose, be not sad for all that hath behapped thee:
The friars are coming across the sea, they march on the main.
The words "that hath behapped thee" is neither English nor an appropriate rendition of the normal Irish usage in the song lyric. It is an attempt to make 'poetic' what is just normal Irish language in the original text and as such is a disservice to the original lyric. Translating 'na bráithre' as 'the friars' ignores the most common meaning i.e.'the brothers'. 'Bráithre' also has the connotation of 'comrades' or in a political/war song like Róisín Dubh it could mean 'brothers-in-arms' . The phrase 's iad ag triall ar muir' means simply 'they are traveling by sea'. Sacrificing sense for nonsensical alliteration 'march on the main' is inexcusable from a professional translator's point of view. What is the 'main' and where is there such a place as the 'main'? Ah well...what's in a word!
Suggested translation:
My Róisin don't be sad about your plight
Our comrades are on their way
they've set sail across the sea...
More useful phrases.
Tá siorradh fuar isteach ar an doras, there’s a cold draught coming in the door
(cold blast)
Tagaigí chuig bhur gcuid go féiltiúil, come to your meals punctually.
An bord a leagan, to lay the table
An bord a thógail, to clear the table
Rud saor in aisce/Free Stuff
Type in any of these Irish Phrases on the free app at www.abair.ie and hear how a maschine posing as a ‘cainteoir ó dhúchas’ (native speaker) might utter the above ‘cúpla focal’.
You can also download the recording of the phrases entered for repeated listenings
on your computer or mobile.
