Mhol Dennis dúinn breis Gaeilge a úsáid.
(Dennis recommended more use of Irish)

Mar sin, dornán nathanna as Seanfhocal na Mumhan:

1149 Bailíonn brobh beart

1152 Bíonn gach tosnú lag

1153 Tosach maith leath na hoibre

1175 Dhá chloich ar chloich agus cloch ar dhá chloich
(Sin í an tsaoirseacht cheart)

Ar an abhar deiridh, féach:

http://homepage.eircom.net/~aonghus/scealta/goban_saor.htm

1181 I ndiaidh a chéile is ea dhéantar na caisleáin.

1184 Is fearr saor síorbhuailteach ná saor sárbhuailteach

1276 Is fearr síorualach ná sárualach

agus, mar focail scoir

1278 Molann an obair an fear

Ábhar is spelt ábhar, not abhár.

ábhar is /aːvər/ (which is [æːwəɾ] in Donegal)
if abhár existed, it would be /avaːr/, so [əwæːɾ], which would sound a bit like the English "aware" (or like [ˈoːaɾ] in Donegal).

Dearmad cló a bhí ann, gan dabht.

I am not sure what the numbers mean, but this is an attempt at translating 3 of them:

1152 - Every beginning is weak? meaning "you have to start at the very beginning"?

1153 - this is frequently quoted on Daltaí, but normally in the form of Tús maith leath na hoibre (a good start is half the work). Maybe tosach is better than tus?

1278 - the work praises the man - meaning "a man is judged by his achievements"??

I am most intrigued by what 1175 might mean? Pity Ó Dónaill gives no proverbs in his dictionary. Is mór an truaí é nach bhfuil seanfhocail san fhoclóir Uí Dhónaill.

quote:

Is mór an truaí é nach bhfuil seanfhocail san fhoclóir Uí Dhónaill.

Tá a lán acu ann. Mar shampla:

s.v. "leath" (lch. 768): Prov: Is fearr leath ná meath, something is better than nothing.

s.v. "tosach" (lch.1257): Prov: Tosach sláinte codladh, sleep is the first sign of recovery.

Tá Molann an obair an saor ann s.v. "obair", agus tá Tús maith leath na hoibre le fáil ar leathanach 1288 faoi "tús".

Do you have the unabridged edition of FGB?

The numbers are from the book I'm quoting.

1175 is drawn from the legend of the Gobán Saor - it is the correct way to build. A stone on two stones, two stones on a stone.

If you ever played with Lego, you'll understand the wisdom!

Ábhar aiféala dom gur sciorr an fada úd orm. "Ábhar" ábhar mo theachtaireachta, gan amhras.

1152 More that every beginning is small, i.e. it takes time to build up anything.

1153 Tosach is an alternative to tús; neither is less correct.

1278. Sin é.

(Message edited by aonghus on July 30, 2006)

quote:

Tá Molann an obair an saor ann s.v. "obair", agus tá Tús maith leath na hoibre le fáil ar leathanach 1288 faoi "tús".

Do you have the unabridged edition of FGB?

Yes...I looked "molann an obair an fear" up under "mol" ;-) Hmm. An electronically searchable version would be great!

quote:

1175 Dhá chloich ar chloich agus cloch ar dhá chloich

quote:

1175 is drawn from the legend of the Goban Saor - it is the correct way to build. A stone on two stones, two stones on a stone.

If you ever played with Lego, you'll understand the wisdom!

Is rabhlóg é freisin. I was more of a Meccano man myself...

quote:

An electronically searchable version would be great!

I wish I had one! An outfit called Gléacht put out a CD-ROM version maybe ten years ago, but then they seemed to have vanished. An bhfuil aon eolas ag aon duine?

Dála an scéil - BTW - the three word pattern we see in Tosach sláinte codladh [(the) beginning of X (is) Y] has a long history in Irish. There are 23 maxims in this form in Colin Ireland's recent edition of the Old Irish Bríathra Flainn Fhína maic Ossu. For an example, please see:

http://www.sengoidelc.com/node/131

Dennis, can this be understood as an abbreviated form of the copula? something like "is é tosach sláinte codladh"? (or mutatis mutandis if my syntax is wrong)

Karhu, yes, is fíor duit. The copular "is" can be and often is dropped.