A chairde,

I'm writing a Christmas note to someone and it needs to be in Irish. I would like to say something along these lines.

Nollaig shona duit. I hope that you are getting on well and having a very nice Christmas season. It is such a special time of year. I'm friends with Ilene and Tim Collins who own the Bed and Breakfast down the road and Ilene said that you are a very kind person. I came to Eire for the first time in September and I enjoyed it very much. It is one of the nicest places I've ever been and I hope to come back as soon as possible. May the blessings of Christmas be on you.

It is very important that this comes out sounding good and correct. If you need to change something to make it sound better then please do. The person I'm writing to speaks Munster Irish so it would be really grand if Roman or Jonas or anyone else of the Munster persuasion could help me so this will make lots of sense.

GRMMA

Beir bua agus beannacht

Nollaig shona duit.

I know it is extremely common greeting, but I remember reading it is not a traditional Irish way for congratulating and is a calque from Béarla's "Merry Christmas (to you)". Would anyone remind what is the GAELIG's way?

Beannachtaí na Nollag?

Oh GRMA a Romain for telling me that, I'm not sure that anything calcish would be OK here so I want it to be as authentic as possible. Can anyone help me out with the all of this? ... Roman, Aonghus or anyone of you guys.

Beir bua agus beannacht

Ba mhaith liom cabhrú leat, ach táim traochta faoi lathair, agus leisciúl dá réir. Amárach seans.

Céard faoi iarracht a dhéanamh tú féin, agus cabhróidh mé leat snas a chuir air?

Dála an scéil, táim beagnach cinnte gur "Eibhlín" nó "Eileen" seachas "Ilene" is ainm do'd chara.

I don't think I could translate it myself a Aonghuis, because it is imparitive that this is done correctly, it can't have mistakes in it. And I don't know if she goes by Ilene with everyone or if she goes by Eibhlin with some, though I'd better consider that because it could be a barrier to making sense here.

I guess I could try if it means that you'll help me.

Beir bua agus beannacht

quote:

I guess I could try if it means that you'll help me.

Sin atá i gceist agam. Níos fearr dúinn araon.

What I meant is that unless you have seen Ilene written that way, I think you have got the spelling of her name wrong.

Beannachti na nollaig.

Bheith ag suil me ta tu go maith agus ag aoibhneas an raithe na Nollaig ...

... ...


... ........

Beir bua agus beannacht

Ah sure I'll get the ball rolling. If you don't mind, I'm going to replace common English sayings with common Irish sayings. The following isn't perfect, but it's a start.

I hope that you are getting on well and having a very nice Christmas season.

Tá súil agam go bhfuil tú i mbarr na sláinte agus go bhfuil tú ag baint an-taitneamh as an Nollaig.

It is such a special time of year.

Am iontach den bhliain atá ann.

I'm friends with Ilene and Tim Collins who own the Bed and Breakfast down the road and Ilene said that you are a very kind person.

Tá cairdeas agam le hIlene agus le Tim Collins ar leo an Leaba agus Bricfeásta thíos an bóthar, agus dúirt Ilene gur an-chineálta an duine thú.

I came to Eire for the first time in September and I enjoyed it very much.

Tháinig mé go hÉirinn don chéad uair i Mí Mheán Fomhair agus bhain mé an-sult as mo thréimhse.

It is one of the nicest places I've ever been and I hope to come back as soon as possible.

Ceann de na háiteanna is deise is ea í ar thug mé cuairt uirthi, agus tá súil agam go mbeidh mé ar ais chomh luath agus is féidir.

May the blessings of Christmas be on you.

Beannachtaí na Nollag duit!

Maith thú, a FnaB.

Ní bheadh sé pioc níos fearr agamsa.

GRMMA a Fhear na mbrog,

I really appreciate it because I need to send this soon and I'm very glad that you fixed my American sounding sentenses so they'd not come out perculiarly in Irish. It is important that this makes lots of sense. Ta an athas orm anois.

Beir bua agus beannacht

quote:

Maith thú, a FnaB.

Ní bheadh sé pioc níos fearr agamsa.

Go raibh maith agat a Aonghuis, braitheann sé go hiontach mol mar sin a fháil ó chainteoir dúchais. : )

quote:

I really appreciate it because I need to send this soon and I'm very glad that you fixed my American sounding sentenses so they'd not come out perculiarly in Irish. It is important that this makes lots of sense. Ta an athas orm anois.

If you don't mind me saying Ríona, your English wording came across a little rigid to me. If I didn't know better, I would have thought that "My the blessings of Christmas be on you" was a literal translation from Irish.

I suppose it sounded rigid because I was trying to think just what to be writing. And that last bit ... I just thought that sounded right.

Beir bua agus beannacht

I'm not a mentor by any stretch of the imagination, but it seemed to me that you focused more on putting the words together than letting them flow. I've seen it happen more than once! One thing to remember is that there's no such thing as grammar, it's just scafolding we put up against a language to help us understand it. The real way to produce quality paragraphs is to let the words flow, and don't stop to think or second-guess what you said. Quite ironically, I made my biggest advancement in Irish when I stopped shaping and grooming my speech... I just began to let it flow. I made mistakes, sure, messing up mutations all over the place, but practise makes perfect.

A year ago, I wouldn't have been able to write the Irish that I wrote up-thread; I would have spent far too much time second-guessing my wording and grammar. As it is with many pursuits in life, things really begin to gel when you let them flow free like a bird!

(Notice how I didn't stop to think whether I should have said "flow freely like a bird" rather than "flow free like a bird". The latter came naturally to me, and that's good enough for me.)

(Message edited by Fear_na_mBróg on November 24, 2006)

An-jab go deo, a Fhear na mBróg! Tá moladh beag amháin agam mar sin féin.

quote:

Ceann de na háiteanna is deise is ea í ar thug mé cuairt uirthi...

Is dóigh liom liom go mbeadh sé seo beagáinín ciotach. Céard faoi:

Tá sí ar cheann de na háiteanna is deise dár thug mé cuairt orthu riamh.

An mbeifeá sásta leis sin?

quote:

Is dóigh liom liom go mbeadh sé seo beagáinín ciotach. Céard faoi:

Tá sí ar cheann de na háiteanna is deise dár thug mé cuairt orthu riamh.

An mbeifeá sásta leis sin?

Nílim cinnte cén aimsir is ceart a úsáid san abairt seo a leanas. Sí m'intinn "If you had asked me at the time.." a rá.

Dá bhfiafrófá an cheist sin díom bliain ó shin, chaithfinn (I would have?) uair ag scrúdú na gramadaí. Ach anois, rachaidh mé leis an sreabhadh agus glacfaidh mé leis! Tá fuaim dheas ar "Tá sí ar cheann de na...".

Cad atá i gceist le "dár"? Déarfainnse (I would have said?) "ar" ina áit. An saincheist chanúna í seo?

Arbh fhéidir "uirthi" a úsáid in ionad "orthu"?

(Message edited by Fear_na_mBróg on November 25, 2006)

quote:

Tá fuaim dheas ar "Tá sí ar cheann de na..."

Tá go deimhin. Membership in a group atá i gceist :

Tá sé ar dhuine de na ceoltóirí is fearr...
Tá sé sin ar cheann de na samplaí is fearr...

quote:

Cad atá i gceist le "dár"? Déarfainnse (I would have said?) "ar" ina áit.

dár = de + ar

Is deacair domsa an úsáid seo a mhíniú, ach seo duit cúpla sampla de as FGB:

"Gach pingin dár shaothraigh sé every penny he earned"

"Gach uair dár smaoinigh mé air every time I thought of it"

quote:

Arbh fhéidir "uirthi" a úsáid in ionad "orthu"?

Ceist mhaith. Braitheann sé ar "dár". I understand "ar" in "dár" to be the relative pronoun "all that", so "orthu" goes with that plural entity.

Hi Ríona,

I think we agree that for this part:

It is one of the nicest places I've ever been...

you might best write:

Tá sí ar cheann de na háiteanna is deise dár thug mé cuairt orthu riamh...

GRMMA a Dhennis agus Fear na mbrog. It just has to come out very understandable and make lots of sense. I appreciate you helping me out because I couldn't send this without you guys.

Beir bua agus beannacht

Allright then, so I wrote all this out on a card but I'm confused because Dennis's part that he wrote for the end of the message ends with ... Does that mean that he didn't finish translating that part?

Could someone please help me out?

Beir bua agus beannacht

If you mean "Tá sí ar cheann de na háiteanna is deise dár thug mé cuairt orthu riamh..."

that was in the middle of your message, hence the ... .

But what comes after the ...? Is the next thing just Beannachtai na Nollag? I really need to get this sent out soon or else my recipient might not get it in time, you know how hectic the post gets around Christmas.

Beir bua agus beannacht

Tá sí ar cheann de na háiteanna is deise dár thug mé cuairt orthu riamh, agus tá súil agam go mbeidh mé ar ais chomh luath agus is féidir.

Just for clarity, here's the whole thing altogether:

Tá súil agam go bhfuil tú i mbarr na sláinte agus go bhfuil tú ag baint an-taitneamh as an Nollaig. Am iontach den bhliain atá ann. Tá cairdeas agam le hIlene agus le Tim Collins ar leo an Leaba agus Bricfeásta thíos an bóthar, agus dúirt Ilene gur an-chineálta an duine thú. Tháinig mé go hÉirinn don chéad uair i Mí Mheán Fomhair agus bhain mé an-sult as mo thréimhse. Tá sí ar cheann de na háiteanna is deise dár thug mé cuairt orthu riamh, agus tá súil agam go mbeidh mé ar ais chomh luath agus is féidir. Beannachtaí na Nollag duit!

Go raibh mile maith agaibh a chairde. This is very important to me and I'm very thankful to the all of you for helping especially Fear na mbrog for his very easy to follow translating. I'm very excited about sending this.

Beir bua agus beannacht