Hi, a chairde, seo an fadhb bheag liom:

Nuair a bhí mé in Éire (in Éirinn?) cúpla bliain ó shin, cheannaigh mé leabhar: "Páipéir Scrúdaithe don Ardteistméireacht, Gaeilge, Bonn Leibhéal, 2004 San Áireamh".

Fuair mé é inniu, agus thosaigh mé na ceisteanna a freagairt. (FRC!)

And then I realized that the book doesn't actually have any *answers*--just the actual tests--so I have no way of checking my work. I'm definitely expanding my vocabulary, and the passages are good practice, but I'd love to actually find out if my answers are ok.

Does anyone have any idea where I might be able to find answers? I've looked around online a bit, but I haven't come across anything promising.

Julia

Try this link:

http://www.skool.ie/skoool/examcentre_sc.asp?id=2075

or

www.examsupport.ie

It's "in Eirinn." I would have said páipéir scrúd-u-ithe (a dodgy plural word) agus an fhadhb (coz it's a feminine)

I think scrúduithe is the nominative plural and that scrúdaithe is the genetive plural?

that was me by the way (gnag), havent signed in cos im in a rush!

A Dhomhnaill, thanks for the corrections. "Scrúdaithe" comes straight from the cover of the booklet. (Gnag's reasoning on that sounds probable...I have no idea, myself.) Can't believe I realized that "fadhb" was feminine, changed "beag" to "beaga", and then forgot to lenite the thing...Cheers for catching that! Would you ever say "in Eire" to mean "in Ireland", or would doing so be kind of political?

A Shuaimhneas, thanks for the links. My computer connection is a bit dodgy so I haven't been able to check out the sites thoroughly yet, but they look promising.

Julia
(who is bad at the vocative, so I apologize if I got your names wrong)

De réir an Fhoclóra Bhig:


scrúdú [ainm briathartha][ainmfhocal firinscneach]
triail eolais nó ábaltachta; tástáil, iniúchadh (scrúdú dochtúra; scrúdú coinsiasa).
scrúdaithe [ginideach uatha]
scrúduithe [ainmneach iolra]
scrúduithe [ginideach iolra]

AIDIACHT BHRIATH.
scrúdaithe

It is being used as an adjective, hence the "a"

---

quote:

Would you ever say "in Eire" to mean "in Ireland", or would doing so be kind of political?

No, and yes. And probably not in the way you expect. Some Unionists and British use Eire to refer to the area where the Dublin governemnt has jurisidction (now).

English people often use "Eire" when addressing letters to be, in their eyes, politically correct. I've also seen "Southern Ireland" used regularly.

I know a guy who claims he addresses all letters to Belfast as follows:

Street Name
Belfast BT4 3XT or whatever
Occupied Six Counties

He says they always are delivered because he always has the postcode right

Both 'Eire' and 'Ireland' are the offical names of this country according to the Constitution of Ireland (Bunreacht na hEireann).

Bhfuil ainm oifigiúl na tíre ag lucht aon teanga eile seachas Gaeilge is Béarla? Má deir an Fhraincis l'Irlande, an ainm neamhoifigiúil é sin?

The convention at EU meetings is that each delegation's nameplate is in the country's official language e.g. Danmark, Italia, Espana, Ellas etc. The delgations are usually arranged in alphabetical order around the table.

Will our delegation's nameplate now become Eire/Ireland. Instead of sitting between the French and the Italians, will our civil servants have to make friends with the Germans and the Greeks? I'm sure that after due consideration and several traties the EU will pronounce on the matter

Will our delegation's nameplate now become Éire / Ireland?

Yes.


Instead of sitting between the French and the Italians, will our civil servants have to make friends with the Germans and the Greeks?

No! They have agreed to keep the old alphabetical order for things like rotation of presidency; I assume that applies also to seating.

Maidir leis an mBunreacht:

Airteagal 4: Éire is ainm don Stát, nó sa Sacs-Bhéarla, Ireland.

Níl trácht ag theangacha eile sa mBunreacht.

Hmm, so if addressing a letter to Ireland from abroad, would you put "Éire" or "Éirinn" for the country? I've only seen "Éire" in this context. But if that's perceived as a bit too PC, does anyone actually address letters to "Éirinn"?

(And will they get there from the US, if you don't add "Ireland" in parentheses?)

Éire, Julia, not Éirinn. The second form is grammatically a dative case.

cf. Tá mé in Éirinn. Note the preposition 'in'.
Sí Éire an tír is fearr [le leithscéalta dos na Meiriceánaigh in ár measc! Ní minic a fháiltítear roimh an fhírinne, a Bhuddies! LOL]

Does this help?


In my view, if you address the letter/envelope wholly in Irish, then certainly use Éire as the country. OTOH, if you address it in English, then use Ireland. This is the practice I always follow.

Na créatúir atá ina gcónaí in Erie sna Stáit Aontaithe is minic a dtéann a gcuid litreacha amú go hÉirinn. Meastú an bhfaigheann siadsan ár gcuidne? / Do letters to Erie in the USA go astray to Ireland? (Éire). Do they get ours?

quote:

Éire, Julia, not Éirinn. The second form is grammatically a dative case.

In Ó'Siadhail's Learning Irish, we see that Éirinn is the nominitive form used in the Cois Fhairge dialect (with Éire listed as an alternate spelling. The genitive form in Chois Fhairrge is shown to be Éireann).

Examples from Chapter 4 of Learning Irish:

Agus, cá bfhuil Éirinn agus cá bhfuil Conamara?

Tá Éirinn anseo agus tá Conamara ansin.

So, although the need from a postally correct point-of-view for standandizing the spelling for incoming mail, both from overseas and the OSC is necessary, there seems to be at least one (sub)dialect that uses Éirinn when the subject form is needed and I would imagine that it's use would be found in comtemporary writing, etc.

Also, from the same An Caighdeán Oifigiúil inspired "Eire is the correct form" we find in Ó Dónaill's Foclóir Gaeilge-Bearla, that the genitive singular form is "Éireann" So we have for the Standard,

nominitive: Éire
genitive: Éireann
dative sg.: Éirinn

For the Cois Fhairrge dialect, we have:

nominitive: Éirinn
genitive Éireann
dative: ????


Well, at least the genitives are the same.


I would appreciate any input/corrections to the above, including learning what the dative form is for the Cois Fhairrge dialect. I would go and ask a Gaeltacht speaker directly, but so far my "Trip to Ireland" fund can only buy me a snorkle and a set of flippers.

Hee's a link to an entry in Wikipedia, as Gaeilge, regarding Éire:

http://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ire

Although the entry may not have been peer reviewed, as least there's an awesome NASA photo of Ireland from space. I also was pleasantly surprised to see that Wikipedia already has entries as Gaeilge, along with hypertext links.

Thanks for the clarifications and the information, everyone.

Taidhgín, I'm amused and intrigued...and I think I'll be putting "Éire/Ireland" from now on, just to be sure.

quote:

nominitive: Éirinn
genitive Éireann

dative: Éirinn

...chomh maith.

Go raibh maith agat, a Peter.