A Chairde,

I'm working through some lessons, which, unfortunately, don't provide any answers! Would someone please tell me if my translation from Bearla into Gaeilge is even close???

There are plenty of rooms here. Bairbre's uncle's room is also here.

Tá go leor sheomraí anseo. Tá seomra uncail Bhairbre freisin anseo.


Go raibh mile maith agat!

Jen

A Jen,

Heh-heh... I'd recognise Ó Siadhail exercises anywhere! :-)

Here's my shot at it...

Tá go leor seomraí anseo. Tá seomra uncail Bhairbre anseo freisin.

Actually Jen, assuming you're using the book there should be an answer key in the back of it. There are a few mistakes in there, but that's the fun of learning!

Slán,

Bradford

I think you've perfected it Bradford.

A Chairde,

They're that obvious huh?!? Actually, I found these on-line, so I don't have the book. Someone apparently made the effort to transcribe them. But now that I know where they came from, I can buy the book! ;)

So I was close. I wasn't sure about the order of anseo and freisin in the second sentence. Why don't you need to use lenition with seomraí in the first sentence?

Slán,
Jen

Oliver agus Jen,

Bhoil, Oliver, I've managed to perfect a couple of basic concepts anyway. In twenty years time I may have the hang of this! :-)

Jen, yes, you were very close in your translations. I'm not sure how to explain why lenition isn't necessary in the first sentence other than to say that it doesn't fall into any situation where lenition is needed. Maybe it would be easier to ask you why you thought lenition was necessary in this case?

One other thing, Jen... If you get the Ó Siadhail book, make sure to get the tapes too! They're an absolute necessity.

Hope you hear pleny more from you on this board, Jen. It's comforting to know that there is other rank beginners like me out there! :-)

Slán,

Bradford

A dhuine ar bith atá eolas An Foclóra Big aige,

Cúpla ceisteanna, le do thoil:

When I enter "sior" into An Foclóir Beag search engine, I get "ní fuaireamar sior." It then suggests I might be looking for siorc, which I am not. Whenever the ní fuairemar" message appears, we are given alternate terms which may or may not be related to the word initially searched. It seems as though the search engine only locates specific forms. For example: the common singular of a noun, or the second person singular imperative of a verb. Can anyone explain how the search engine works and what can and cannot be expected of it?

Go raibh maith agat,
P.

It's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get. I don't know how it works, but it treats "i" and "í" as two distictly separate vowels.
Cleverly, it recognises when a word has been aspirated, if you type in bhuail, it comes up with bualadh.

Pádraig
you were probably looking for síor with a fada
I don't know what the search algorithm is,
but siorc will have been the "nearest" word to sior
according to that algorithm.

It will find bhuail as a form of bualadh, because it has a list of forms associated with bualadh.

I suspect it's a relatively simple comparsion, based on ascii codes, in which case "í" is very different to "i"

I'd suggest trying several times with and without accented vowels if you fail on the first try!

e.g. I just tried searching for fáda - which didn't find fada

Might be worth suggesting to them to add that type of algorithm to the search. I'll look for a contact.

A chairde,
I'd translate the first sentence as
"Tá seomraí go leor anseo," with the 'go leor' following the noun. That's the way I was taught to use 'go leor.' Are there exceptions?? Can anyone offer any insight into this?

Ar aon nós, there's a restaurant in my neighborhood in New Jersey called Chicken Galore.

Go raibh maith agaibh.
Paul

Paul,

It's my understanding that "go leor" can go either before or after the item it applies to. At least that's what Ó Siadhail says.

So we're both right. :-)

Slán,

Bradford

That's my experience too.
I'd say "go leor seomraí" but I'd understand the other.

Irish is flexible!

Aonghus

A Bradford,

I don't know why I was thinking that lenition is needed. I was confused (a common state of mind for someone just beginning to learn this language)! I'm on the same page now.

A Paul, Chicken Galore??? The images that brings to mind...

Go raibh maith agat!

Slán go fóill,
Jen

A Jen,
For curiousity's sake, here's their site:
www.chickengalore.com

As a learner, I got a lot out of Now You're Talking (book/tapes -- now known as Irish On Your Own). Conversationally focused, user-friendly.
Also the Buntús Cainte book/tape sets (another conversationally focused method), as well as the tape/booklet for parents who send their kids to Irish-medium schools, BunGhaeilge Do Thuismitheoirí (I got mine from Kenny Bookshop in Galway). Hope you're able to find classes and fellow learners and speakers in your area.
Slán tamall, Paul

When I was a kid growing up in New Jersey, we used to say that everything bad in the world comes from Jersey City. Woodbridge is just about 15 miles down the road. I hope that chicken is cooked with better taste than that with which the slogan was written.

There's another one!

slogan - 1513, from Gaelic sluagh-ghairm "battle cry used by Scottish Highland or Irish clans," from sluagh "army, host, slew" + gairm "a cry." Originally used literally, the metaphoric sense of "distinctive word or phrase used by a political or other group" is first attested 1704.

PS. I think their slogan is ace!!

Another what?

I don't know if we're becoming cryptic, esoteric or just plain óltach here. So let's just have us a slug (slog) with our slogans (sluagh gairm) and wash down a slew (sluagh) of fried chicken.

Oliver, perhaps my Irish ancestors stowed away on one of those 17th Century junkets sponsored by the Massachusetts Bay Company, and they became over-exposed to that Puritan ethic that settled the Northeast. Whatever the source, I still think that slogan is tacky at best. But, that's what makes horse races.

It just occurred to me that if we keep this up, people will be flocking to Woodbridge just to visit Chicken Galore.

Isn't gairm or something that sounds like it a British term for complaining or quarreling? Is this post a gairm?

Sorry, shudda mentioned that I copied that in from a dictionary.
Haven't heard of any phrase like gairm used in England.

I like the earthy humour in their slogan, they try to be sophisticated here in Europe and just end up being irritating. It's refreshing to me.

A Oliver,

So what you're saying is... you enjoy the trashy quality of the slogan?

Just wanted to clarify. ;)

Slán go fóill,
Jen

Tóg go bog é, mo chairde. Cuimhnigi Séamus.

Well, that's it! I'm off! :-)

Tá alán seomraí againn anseo. Tá seomra uncail Bharibre anseo freisin.

Phil