Hi,

I was looking at one in the library, and I wonder how useful it is to get in comparison to others. It seems to be more logical with examples given for each entry.

Of course i will get it in due course (I would have it already if I knew it's value).

I have to watch my weight (on plane) but if it has any special merit, i will get it by post

the dictionary is great but another dictionary that is just as good is An Foclóir Beag its online which means its free and it seems to contain as much as De Bhaldraithe it evens tells u the gin. uatha and iolra and ainmeacha uatha and iolra.

http://www.csis.ul.ie/focloir/

What I was meaning was that does it have a lot of useful examples that contextualize the entry? Foclóir beag is good, but does not give grounded examples. I would have bought it on the spot or taken it out, but it was not on sale in shop and only reference in library.

If it is useful i will digitize it too, but is it worth it to add to the database?

yes i find that it does have a lot of examples. I got mine second hand for 10 euro. nothing to what they charge in the shops! advertise for second hand one?

I'll pay whatever they ask, coz, like we're the richest country in the world!

Litríocht ponc com is 15/16 euro.

Drove about and ended up spending more on books as presents. All the kids have bought up de Bhaldraithe (and none of them will use them). Once again, will ahve to go to Dublin to get anything

I have found de Bhaldraithe to be the most extensive English-Irish dictionary available, both in terms of examples and quantity of entries. The only thing I don't like about it is that he follows the latin model for verbs and gives the 1ps instead of the infinitive, but alot of materials do that.

de Bhaldraithe (eng-ir), along with Ó Dónaill (ir-eng) and Dineen (ir-eng, pre-co) are my "heavy hitters." When I'm really stumped, I can usually find whatever I'm looking for between the three.

Antaine, there is no infinitive in Irish. You have 3 choices in naming a verb: 1st psn, imperative, verbal noun, eg the verb táim, or the verb bí or the verb bheith. I suspect you mean that the verbal noun should be used to refer to a verb, but the verbal noun is not an infinitive.

No, I am aware that it is not a true "infinitive" but what else to call it?

go to http://www.csis.ul.ie/focloir/ and put in any verb. The word that they give you as a header ("bí" in the case of bí, for example) happens to coincide with the imperative, but my understanding is that the imperative spelling is doing double duty with whatever they're using as the header there (I don't know the term).

If you open up Briathra na Gaeilge it gives the same form as a header for each verb, buaigh, léigh, beir, tabhair, tóg, tar, etc.

I know those are technically the spellings for the imperatives, but I'm pretty sure that's because the 2ps imperative spellings coincide with another part of speech.

Or, I could be completely wrong, which would not be the first time that's happened =)

Antaine, I don't know what you mean. Foclóir Beag uses the imperative to refer to verbs at the top of their tables. It is not because the imperative coincide with another part of speech, which they don't. The imperative is the stem, the plain stem, but the stem is not a part of speech all on its own, except where there is a zero ending as in the 2ps imperative. The standard spellings have obscured the fact that the imperative is just the stem. Look at the following:

Léim, léigh, léamh

were originally

Léighim Léigh Léigheamh

Of course it doesn't matter how verbs are referred to, as long as you know what you are referring to.

Hm, mayhaps I was overcomplicating things.

Thanks.

quote:

The only thing I don't like about it is that he follows the latin model for verbs and gives the 1ps instead of the infinitive, but alot of materials do that.

Is that where they have entries such as:

ceannaím
cosnaím
foghlaimím
díbrím
rithim

I've wondered why they do that? Why would that be better that listing the root of the verb? It complicates things for "concertina verbs" such as "cosain" and "díbir". Is there logic behind it or is it purely a pompous think whereby the author aspired to be like Latin?

Thank you for stating my point much better than I was able!

I don't think it's a pompous thing, but that linguistics started by looking at Latin and Greek and so what worked for them became linguistic convention. De Bhaldraithe was simply formatting the entries in the accepted manner.