How about learning one word (say buan 'unfailing') and then looking up all words that are similar from a to z, for example: buan, cuan, duan etc and then using mental imagery to link them.


Here goes the list:


Buan –unfailing

Cuan –harbour

Duán –hook; kidney

Uan –lamb

Luan –halo; loin (food)
Dé Luain

Díomuan –temporarily

Ruán –buckwheat

Ina suan –dormant

Tuanna –axes


So here are the similar elements:

A: Buan –unfailing

Cuan –harbour

Duán –hook

Luan –halo

An unfailing harbor, shaped like a hook with a halo over it


B: Uan –lamb

loin (food)

Tuanna –axes

A lamb cut up by an ax with emphasis on the loin


C: Díomuan –temporarily

Ruán –buckwheat

Ina suan –dormant

Buckwheat temporarily dormant


All together:
A ship comes on a Monday across a sea transporting seed, axes, and meat; it comes to the unfailing hook shaped harbor with the halo over it. Once docked the seed, now dormant for the winter, will be off loaded and kept for setting in spring, where it will grow in summer to feed the lambs once they wean.


Just an idea...

Funny! I was doing this just the other day with the "-inn" words.

Now I want to see the last paragraph translated into Irish. "Tagann long ar an Luan trasna na farraige ag iompar síl, tuanna's feola...." Hmm, shouldn't more of those words rhyme?

Well, as for rhyming, some of the words differ by flexion with an ending tua/tuanna or a diphthong ua vs vowel á so a rhythm might be hard to get

Then maybe we need a separate rhyme for all the -uán words: bruán, cruán, damhan, duán, gruán, etc.

Seo cleas eile don té a bhfuil suim aige i sanasaíocht. Learn constellations of words based on their common etymology.

Thug mé an focal "ronnach" (mackerel) do Dhomhnall an lá cheana. Tá cúpla leagan den fhocal céanna le fáil i nGaeilge na hAlban freisin, mar atá "rionnach, reannach". Tá scéal taobh thiar de na focail seo. Tá craiceann geal ar an iasc seo, é breac agus airgeadúil. Agus tá focal ársa sa Ghaeilge, "rinn", a chiallaíonn "réalta; pointe". Ainmníodh an t-iasc as an bhfocal seo: the starry fish.

So here's the "constellation" in today's Irish:

rinn, (pl. reanna) = star, planet

rinn (pl. reanna) = point, tip ("ó rinn go sáil" = from head to heel)

rinneach = piercing, sharp ("aghaidh rinneach", "focal rinneach")

Agus seo agaibh pictiúr darb ainm "Rinneach": http://www.greenlanegallery.com/art.asp?art=1147 Logainm ("Headland") atá i gceist anseo, is dócha.

ronnach = mackerel

http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Mackerel.jpg

A Dhennis, cé acu foclóir sanasaíoch a fhónann duit?

Tá dhá cheann agam:

Lexique étymologique de l'irlandais ancien (LEIA), nach bhfuil ach cuid de na litreacha ar fáil fós, mar atá A-D agus M-U, le bearn mhór sa lár.

MacBain's An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, a bhfuil cuid mhaith de as dáta anois.

Agus tá sanasaíocht le fáil in DIL chomh maith, ach ní do chuile iontráil.

Tá MacBain ar fáil ar líne

http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/index.html

"labhair
speak, Irish labhraim, Early Irish labraim, Old Irish labrur, labrathar, loquitur"

Lab(h)air -labial ~speak, mouth, lips


"lag
weak, Irish lag, Early Irish lac, Middle Irish luice (pl.), Welsh llag, sluggish: *laggo-s, root lag; Latin langueo, English languid; Greek @Glaggázw, slacken, @Glagarós, thin; English slack, also lag, from Celtic. Cf. @Glákkos."


Lag -weak, languid, lagging behind etc


"ràmh
an oar, Irish rámha, Old Irish ráme, Welsh rhaw, spade, Cornish rêv, oar, Breton roenv: *râmo-; root ere re@-, ro@-; Latin rêmus, (resmo-); Greek @Ge@'retmós; English rudder; Sanskrit aritras."

Rámh -rudder