quote:

Bhíodh na giollaí turais go líonmhar i gcónaí in armáil Bhriain. Bhídís ag gluaiseacht ar an uile shaghas teachtaireachta ó Bhrian chun na mbuíon eile den tslua nó chun na n-uasal a bhíodh sa chomharsanacht. Bhídís roimis an slua amach ag réiteach na mbóithre nó ag déanamh an eolais, á dhéanamh amach cé acu bóthar ab fhearr nó ba réidhe nó ba chóngaraí.

Ag gluaiseacht ar? With "ar"? Does this mean "proceed with...any message"? I don't understand the "ar".

Ag réiteach na mbóithre: this would seem to mean "clearing the roads", but that sounds like quite physical work for a messenger. Or could it just mean "sorting out the route"?

Ag déanamh an eolais: serving as guides, is what Dónall's dictionary would indicate, but I am wondering if "finding out, getting knowledge of them" would be right. These are two opposite meanings really...

quote:

Táid siad i reachtaibh an anama a bhaint as a chéile

My query here relates to the genitive on anam. The original spelling was "Táid siad i rachtaibh an anama bhaint as a chéile." I could assume that the editor of PUL's works had incorrectly assigned the "a" between anam and bhaint to anam, making anama, instead of "anam a bhaint". Or maybe the editor thought somehow that reachtaibh governed anam in the genitive, but that seems totally wrong. Any opinions. "they were fairly ready to kill each other".

Thanks Seánw and others for any help!

(Message edited by corkirish on November 23, 2010)

(Ag gluaiseacht)(ar an uile shaghas teachtaireachta)

(Moving) (on all kinds of errands).

I think at réiteach na mbóithre means preparing the way in the sense of arranging for food, fodder, lodging etc rather than physically clearing the route.

I don't think that the two meanings of "ag déanamh eolais" are that different - a guide would need to learn the route first, and we are talking about a time when routes passable for a large army would be pretty ephemeral.

I don't have an answer to your grammar query: I'd understand the sentence as "They had got to the point where they wanted to rip the souls out of each other"

Thank you - that all makes sense now!

quote:

Bhídís ag gluaiseacht ar an uile shaghas teachtaireachta ó Bhrian chun na mbuíon eile den tslua nó chun na n-uasal a bhíodh sa chomharsanacht.

Going about, travelling, etc on all sorts of messages for Brian

quote:

Bhídís roimis an slua amach ag réiteach na mbóithre nó ag déanamh an eolais, á dhéanamh amach cé acu bóthar ab fhearr nó ba réidhe nó ba chóngaraí.

"sorting out which roads to take or acting as guides". Since these fellows are not soldiers but messengers or couriers of a sort, it is unlikely that they would be "clearing" the roads, as in clearing them of the enemy or of physcial obstacles.

quote:

My query here relates to the genitive on anam. The original spelling was "Táid siad i rachtaibh an anama bhaint as a chéile." I could assume that the editor of PUL's works had incorrectly assigned the "a" between anam and bhaint to anam, making anama, instead of "anam a bhaint". Or maybe the editor thought somehow that reachtaibh governed anam in the genitive, but that seems totally wrong. Any opinions. "they were fairly ready to kill each other".

I have many examples in my own notes - and Ó Sé has more - on the pattern of "i dtaobh na hoibre a dhéanamh". "i rachtaibh an anama a bhaint as a chéile" is nothing unusual in the south. Of course in the CO, only "i dtaobh an obair a dhéanamh" is permitted where we have compound preposition + verbal noun phrase, the noun being the object of the verbal noun is left in the nominative in the CO. Today, we would write "reachtaibh", being the dative plural of "riocht". "They are on the point of tearing each other to bits". "I reachtaibh/riocht an t-anam a bhaint as a chéile" alone would be allowed under the CO.

gluais ar

Can we understand this "move on" as "take action on"?

ag réiteach na mbóithre

I saw one definition as "paving the way". Figurative, of course.

ag déanamh an eolais

I saw one definition as "to lead the way". Figurative again, but do we think PUL means these two is to be literally different, but figuratively the same? As a sort of literary figure, or am I going down the wrong hole?

Yes, i think "ag réiteach na mbóithre" can mean "paving the way". Thanks to all who helped me here, and the genitive after "i reachtaibh" is fascinating. Looking back, it was clear it was in the genitive from the lack of t-prefixation! Duh!

From PUL, I have "i riocht" many times, "i riochtaibh" once (in Séadna), "i reachtaibh" once and "i rachtaibh" once.

Does the spelling "i rachtaibh" indicate a broad r? /ə rɑxtivʹ/

(Message edited by corkirish on November 24, 2010)

quote:

Does the spelling "i rachtaibh" indicate a broad r? /ə rɑxtivʹ/

Well, wouldn't that r be broad anyway? Are you thinking of the form "riug"? I know in CD, most speakers have a broad r in "rug" though Ó Sé mentions one who uses slender r. Apart from that r is always broad in initial position, unless it's treated as being intervocalic as Ó Cuív points out (section 169, footnote). "Rug" has largely been superseded by "bheir" in the preterite in CD

Well, I was assuming the "i" might slenderise the "r". But clearly it doesn't! Thanks for your expertise!

I find bheir forms always bring me up sharp. It seems that tugaim (originally do-bheirim in the absolute) and beirim are totally confused, and partly interchangeable.

Take this from Séadna:

má ba bhean uasal í, cad do bheir cos-nochtaithe í?, if she were a lady, how did she come to be barefoot?

If PUL had said "do rug", I would have thought no more of it. It seems from my searching of Dinneen's and Dónall's dictionaries that the above sentence is indeed using a form of "beirim". But the entry for do-bheirim (ie, tugaim) in Dinneen's dictionary would also support the view that this is really a form of the verb do-bheirim, and that it could be phrased "cad do thug cos-nochtaithe í?" today. Anyway, this one is probably from beirim.

But also in Séadna there is this:

Cad do bheir dí mo sgilling do bhreith uaim-se?, what made her take my shilling from me?

Now this is a slightly different construction, bedause it is followed by "do". Cad do bheir DÍ. One again it is unclear if "do rug" or "do thug" intended - because dictionaries seem to imply that tugaim would be used here. Cad do thug di mo scilling do bhreith uaimse?

So I am in the awkward situation of thinking the first construction should be with beirim, and the second with tugaim, when they are really the same thing...

Niamh has:

Bheireadh a ngnó sa timpal iad i dtreo go mbídís tamall ins gach aon bhuín.

Their job took them all around, so they would spend a little while in each company of the army.

This is clearly from beirim, but could you also say "thugadh a ngnó sa timpal iad"? I think you could.