DJW (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted From:
| Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 12:47 pm: |
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Dear all, I expect many of you already know the following, but I was excited to find it out. I had great trouble finding the words for brother and sister in Dinneen's dictionary. The words are given in Learning Irish as deartháir (pl deartháracha) and driofúr (pl driofúracha), and the words seemed somewhat bizarre, seeming to be rare cases where an Indo-European language had words for brother and sister not connected to the common IE roots. So you can understand my pleasure after leafing through many pages of Dinneen's when I found that the word for brother was: dearbhráthair/dearbh-bhráthair or dearbráthar (plurals: dearbhráithre or dearbhráithreacha). The word for sister was deirbhshiúr or deirbhsheathar (plurals: deirbhsheathracha or deirbhshúracha). So the Irish words are IE after all! Bráthair apparently means "kinsman, cousin, relative"; siúr means "sister, a female relative, a sister in religion". The dearbh- or deirbh- prefix means "genuine, own, blood-", although it is somewhat easier for me to think that dearbhráthair means "dear brother" :-) Pronunciations of dearbhráthair given in Dinneen's: dreatháir, dritheair, dirtheáir in Munster and Connaught; dráir in Aran Isles; dearthair in Donegal. Pronunciations of deirbhshiúr given in Dinneen's: driofúr, drifiúr, diorfúr. |
Peter
Member Username: Peter
Post Number: 104 Registered: 01-2006
| Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 02:57 pm: |
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In Connemara: dearbhráthair (as if spellt) dritheáir, dreáthair as well deirbhshiúr drithiúr, dreithiúr, drifear, dreabhar (CF&Aran) Peter |