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The Daltaí Boards » Archive: 1999-2004 » 2004 (January-March) » Is féidir / bheith ábalta « Previous Next »

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fear beag
Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 06:35 am:   Edit Post Print Post

is féidir liom...
tá mé ábalta...

an bhfuil aon difríocht idir na dá frása seo thuas (cosúil le 'can' agus 'may' as béarla)? an bhfuil ceann acu á usáid níos minice ná an ceann eile?

GRMA roimh ré

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Fear na mBróg
Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 07:58 am:   Edit Post Print Post

"May" in English is a bit weird.

In "proper" English, it means to have permission:

I may go home if I so desire.


In real English, it has fallen a little into disuse; for example, when was the last time you heard someone say:

May I use your toilet please?

They're gonna say:

Can I use your toilet please?


Also, it has slid toward meaning "might" aswell:

It might rain.

It may rain.

------


I can, I am able, I have the ability = Is féidir liom, táim ábalta, táim in ann, tá an ábaltacht agam.

You'd here mise say:

Níorbh fhéidir liom é a fháil! Ní raibh mé in ann coldladh. An féidir leat snámh? An gceapann tú go mbeidh tú in ann í a fheiceáil nuair a bheidh tú ag obair?

I don't use the other two, although they are heard! Ábalta is more of an english word than Irish, thus it is heard more probably further North.

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Aonghus
Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 09:43 am:   Edit Post Print Post

ábalta [aidiacht den tríú díochlaonadh]
láidir nó cliste nó oilte go leor chun rud a dhéanamh.

féidir [ainmfhocal ]
(leis an gcopail) indéanta (ní féidir liom é); ceadaithe (ní féidir dó fanacht anseo); seans, tharlódh sé (b'fhéidir é).

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jimNuaEabhrac
Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 01:36 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

Is it painfully obvious or just a coincidence that "may" in English and "An mbeidh" sound so much alike?

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Seosamh Mac Muirí
Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 02:07 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

Comhtharlú agus gan tada le cois - pure coincidence - Jim. The human mouth has only so many possibilities that any two languages have to have such comhtharluithe.

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Fear na mBróg
Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 03:17 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

A Sheosaimh, I most definitely disagree that the human mouth has only so many possibilities! There's around about 10 vowels, 3 diphthongs, 26 consonants that can be arranged in any order!
Thus, when you see something like "cabage" and "cabáiste", you can (may!) assume that the words have the same origin and that there's no coincidence. An Ghaeilge is a Celtic Language, which is an Indo-European Lanugage.

A Jim, I don't see what you're getting at... are you suggesting that "may" and "an mbeidh" in some way have similar meaning?

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Celtoid
Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 06:09 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

"May" is from an old Indo-european root related to magnify, magic, magister, make, more. It signifies greatness and ability. The Irish "mór" is probably related. The word "mbeidh" is the eclipsed form of "beidh", which is probably related to the English word "be".

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Aonghus
Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 07:58 am:   Edit Post Print Post

By the way A Fhear na mBróg: what gives you the idea that Northern dialects of Irish are more influenced by English? (c.f. your comment on ábalta).

This may be true for purely "learned" dialects as spoken say in Belfast; but not for Donegal.

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Fear na mBróg
Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 09:22 am:   Edit Post Print Post

True.

Although stuff like:

ábalta
tábla
telefón

You won't here them down South.


Mo mhéidse.

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Aonghus
Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 10:32 am:   Edit Post Print Post

tábla came from LATIN, not english.
I'm not sure about ábalta - but it came into English from latin, and its meaning is narrower in Irish, so there is a good chane it also came direct from Latin.

And I'd say you'll find telefón and guthán are equally common everywhere

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JimNuaEabhrac
Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 08:58 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

A Chairde,

Thanks for your comments. A very serious personnel matter, now resolved, kept me off the internet. I am teaching myself and without the help of a learning community and I sometimes get funny ideas.

If you take this phrase:

“An mbeidh mórán daoine anseo?”


Couldn’t you translate it like:

“Will there be a lot of people here?” Or “Might there be a lot of people here?” or “May there be a lot of people here?”

The last being nonstandard usage where-in “may” is the translation of “mbeidh.”

Not a big deal, but that is what I was getting at. It probably is just a coincidence.

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Brian C
Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 09:02 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

If tábla came from Latin, why is it not mensa? A tabula was a tabletfor writing on, not a table.

AFAIK, mensa is Latin for table.

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............
Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 10:47 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

I heard that tábla came from the viking/germanic languages......don't remember the source though.

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Bradford
Posted on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 08:43 am:   Edit Post Print Post

Actually I believe it was bord that came from the language of the Vikings.

- Bradford

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