The Soccer league in Northern Ireland is called the 'Irish League' while the League in the Republic is called the 'League of Ireland'.

An mbeadh 'An léig Éireannach'(Irish League) agus 'Léig na hÉireann'(League of Ireland) aistriúcháin maith ar feadh iad seo?

What does "Irish" in "Irish league" mean? Irish-only or any inhabitant of Ireland (Unionists including)?

If it is "irish-only" - then it is "Gaelach", not "Éireannach".

In the Irish language, people quite like to use the definite article. That's why you have stuff like:

Women's Football = Peil na mBan

How about something like:

Sraithchomórtas Peile na hÉireann
Sraithchomórtas Peile na nGael

I've never heard the word, "léig", before in Irish, and if I were to guess I'd say it was dragged in by the balls form English.

quote:

I've never heard the word, "léig", before in Irish,

Then how would you say in Irish the measurement league as in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea? Both Ó Dónaill and De Bhaldraithe indicate that léig means the measurement league, not the group or team league

Both dictionaries indicate as Fear na mBróg has already, that for sports sraithchomórtas is used. Both dictionaries indicate comórtas sraithe for league also.

This prefix(?)/word sraithe is interesting. First it looks like a prefixing modifier as in sraithchomórtas, then it funtions like a noun as in comórtas sraithe.

N.B. Before anyone else jumps to the conclusion that league was dragged by "whatever" from English, take a look at the following from http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictL.html

league
a traditional unit of distance. Derived from an ancient Celtic unit and adopted by the Romans as the leuga, the league became a common unit of measurement throughout western Europe. It was intended to represent, roughly, the distance a person could walk in an hour. The Celtic unit seems to have been rather short (about 1.5 Roman miles, which is roughly 1.4 statute miles or 2275 meters), but the unit grew longer over time. In many cases it was equal to 3 miles, using whatever version of the mile was current. At sea, the league was most often equal to 3 nautical miles, which is 1/20 degree [2], 3.45 statute miles, or exactly 5556 meters. In the U.S. and Britain, standard practice is to define the league to be 3 statute miles (about 4828.03 meters) on land or 3 nautical miles at sea. However, many occurrences of the "league" in English-language works are actually references to the Spanish league (the legua), the Portuguese league (legoa) or the French league (lieue). For these units, see below on this page.

(Message edited by mac_léinn on July 10, 2007)

quote:

This prefix(?)/word sraithe is interesting. First it looks like a prefixing modifier as in sraithchomórtas, then it funtions like a noun as in comórtas sraithe.

"sraith" is a noun just like "seic", "breith":

leabhar seiceanna = seicleabhar
lá breithe = breithlá

But to put a noun in front of another noun... isn't that a Béarclas (or whatever it's called when one "steals" something from the English language)? By the way, I had edited my posting immediately above while you where posting.

(Message edited by mac_léinn on July 10, 2007)

(Message edited by mac_léinn on July 10, 2007)

quote:

isn't that a Béarclas...?

Bearclaws? :-) Is maith liom iad ar maidin le caife.

No, not really. Consider the word "anamchara". It goes all the way back to Old Irish, which compounded nouns left and right. So did Middle Irish, and Classical Modern Irish went even further. About the latter, Damian McManus wrote (Stair na Gaeilge, p.389:

Ní dócha go bhfuil aon tréimhse i stair na Gaeilge inar flúirse comhfhocail ná ré na Nua-Ghaeilge Clasaicí.

Is cuid d'oidhreacht agus de shaibhreas na Gaeilge é an comhfhocal.

quote:

... isn't that a Béarclas

No, it is not. Compounding nouns is very widespread in Irish, and the crucial difference with English is that second word is séimhiú-ed in such compounds.

E.g. sráidbhaile. It is not just sráid+baile, baile undergoes shéimhiú, so the odds are that this way of constructing words is very much native.

However, I suspect that some of compounds like "breithlá" are rather calqued from English "birthday", and the true form was "lá breithe".

Scríobh Róman:

quote:

What does "Irish" in "Irish league" mean? Irish-only or any inhabitant of Ireland (Unionists including)?

Ceist chasta atá ann. Tá an "Irish Football Association" i bhfeighil sacair sna 6 contae; agus an "Football Association of Ireland" sna 26 contae. Tá foireann Doire páirteach san sraithchomartas sna 26 contae de bharr bagairt an seicteachais ó thuaidh.

http://www.fai.ie/

http://www.irishfa.com/

Ní dóigh liom go mbeadh Gaelach cuí sa gcomhtheács seo.

Maidir le league, (an tomhas) d'fhéach mé ar DIL díreach anois.

Tháing leac ón Laidin, agus léice ón mBéarla, de réir an fhoinse sin.

http://www.dil.ie/results-list.asp?mode=BAS&Fuzzy=0&lang=en&searchtext=%20league &findlet=+&findcol=&sortField=ID&sortDIR=65602&respage=0&resperpage=10&bhcp=1

Bearclaws. An ghreannmhar a Dennis.

Ní é an focal Béarclas ach béarlachas. Bhi mé an tuirseach aréir, gabh mo leithscéal.

Go raibh maith agaibh 'chuile dhuine as an eolas suimiúil.

FRC-GRMA

Ar Lá Nua sílim go mbíonn ‘Cumann Sacair na hÉireann’ agus “Cumann Sacair an Tuaiscirt’ acu.

Tá ciall leis nó tá sé soiléir cad é atá i gceist.