Happy New Year everyone! (I couldn't decide how to write this in the Irish. [ : {
I rec'd a Christmas Card from an Irish- speaker and have been able to figure out, I think, the meaning of the message but will write it here..for your correction and interpretation, l'do thoil .

"Foilseofar glóir an Tiarna agus feicfidh an uile cholainn Slánú Dé"
I believe it means/says "Sing the glory of the Lord and you will see all the Salvation of God"
Sounds good but have no idea if correct and would appreciate someone doing the literal translation for me.

After that (:)) I have another "task"/ "mission" "should you choose to accept it" ..and that is the interpretation of the handwritten-message which the Irish -speaker wrote on the card. I have the sense of it, but since she also wrote it in the "old-script" am not sure about it. I suspect there may be some spelling errors or some misplaced fada...also..or...a varied form of the dialect.
"Scríbh(i?)dh mé litir fadu díbh taréis feile na Nodhlaig"
I take the meaning to be
"I will write a long letter to you (plural) after the Christamas (Holiday)".
Can someone do the literal translation for me. And... I hope that I will be able to decipher the "long letter" if she sends it partly written in Gaeilge. (:0)
Go raibh maith agaibh

Jeannette

"Foilseofar glóir an Tiarna agus feicfidh an uile cholainn Slánú Dé"

Foilsigh = publish, disclose; (make known) reveal
Foilseofar = Future tense free-verb: Will be disclosed.

glóir an Tiarna = The Lord's glory

feicfidh an uile cholainn = the entire body will see

The Lord's glory will be revealed and the entire body will see God's salvation.

(...though I'm not sure about the grammar; as far as I know, "uile" is an adjective, not a noun; and the genetive form of "colainn" is "colainne", as opposed to "colainn".)

As regards something that was written in the old-script, maybe it was:

Scríobhfidh mé litir fhada daoibh tar éis Fhéile na Nollaig.

I'll write yous/y'all/ye a long letter after the Christmas festivities.

Go raibh maith agat, A Fhear na (mbrog)...(?h?)

So I had the meaning of the Christmas card fairly done ..a bheag nó a mhór.
Your suggestion about "foilseofar" sent me to my BRIATHRA NA GAEIGE (Ó Murchú agus Ó Murchú)...where I, at last, figured out, and finally committed to memory, some of the future tense impersonal /autonomous endings.
RE: "colainn/colainne"..The published word on the Christmas card itself was "cholainn" which makes me wonder why the mistake in an "official" Christmas greeting card. ?Maybe another dialect with a variant grammar rule.
I notice differences in various words/spellings/grammar rules between my main learning tools, "Teach Yourself Irish" ( Ó Sé agus Sheils),(the Munster dialect), and Foclóir Póca,(evidently a combination of the three main dialects)... and secondary tool "Learning Irish" (Ó Siadhail) evidently the Galway Irish which has a good deal more help with grammar.
Anyway, thank you again, you have helped me along in this "process " of learning Irish...though sometimes it makes my hair hurt... what little is left after tearing out same.
Le meas,
Jeannette

Jeannette: The message on the card is very like a line from Handel's "Halleluia Chorus" in "The Messiah" which says "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh (the world) shall see it together." That's probably the closest English translation.

A chairde,
Mar eolas daoibh.
The line quoted from Handel's Halleluia Chorus is scriptural (Isaiah, 40: 5). There are various Irish translations available.
Slán beo!
Chris

(Message edited by Ó_diocháin on January 13, 2005)