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*utterly thrilled* I don't know who had a hand in this, but I can put my journal into Irish! Cool. And the fun part is that I can read about half of it!

[livejournal.com profile] caoin alerted me a while ago but I'm a little dense sometimes...

Okay, I'm going to post my scéal (story) about Bitsy the kitty even though none of you can read it. :) Because I'm in an Irish mood.

Dé Domhnáigh, ghlaoch m'aintín Máire gutháin a chur orainn. Bhí aon scéal brónach aici. Bhí a cat, Bitsy, in easnamh. Ní raibh sí sa clóisead, san áilear, ó faoin leaba. Bhí Aintín Máire ag feáchaint i ngach an áit. Shíl sí go raibh Bitsy amach áit éigin, agus cá raibh sí? Ní raibh sí a fhíos uirthí. Bhí brón uirthí. Is Bitsy go han-maith liom, agus tá brón orm freisin. Téann Bitsy amuigh gach lá. Tá sí cat beag, agus riaibhe duibhe aici. Tá sí gramhar, agus is maith léi nuair déantar bán bán léi.

An lá dar gcionn, ghlaoch Aintín Máire gutháin a chur ar mo thuismitheoirí arís. Fhaigh sí Bitsy sa bhaile. Téigh Bitsy i bhfolach uirthí sa clóisead éile! Bhí áthas uirthí, agus bhí áthas orm freisin!



Sunday, my Aunt Mary telephoned us. She had a sad story. Her cat, Bitsy, was missing. She wasn't in the closet, in the attic, or under the bed. Aunt Mary looked everywhere. She thought that Bitsy had gone out somewhere, but where was she? Aunt Mary didn’t know. She was sad. I like Bitsy very much, and I was sad too. Bitsy goes outside every day. She is a small cat, and she has black stripes. She is loving, and she likes it when you pet her.

The next day, Aunt Mary telephoned my parents. She found Bitsy in the house. Bitsy was hiding in another closet! She was very happy, and I was happy too.

Date: 2002-05-11 12:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] arafel.livejournal.com
lol, sure... I'm sure I missed something, I'm not perfect.. and some of it was taken out of the dictionary b/c my vocab is quite limited.

(and to be most fair, our teacher isn't the best, but don't tell him I said so...shhhh)

Date: 2002-05-11 01:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] caoin.livejournal.com
OK, I didn't want to be rude...after all I want you to do more of this.

glaoch gutháin a chur ar dhuine
This is equivalent to to telephone someone and like the way you have to remove the to before using the expression as the main part of a sentence in English, you have to reorder the Irish. The a in this kind of construction is actually a reduction of do so the literal translation is "(a) call of phone to put on (a) person". The verb there is "put", so what you want to say is "My Aunt Mary put (a) call of phone on us", which is (verb first of course) Chuir m'aintín Máire glaoch gutháin orainn.

Bhí aon scéal brónach aici.   You don't need aon 'cause scéal by itself means both "a story" or "story".

sa chlóiséad...or sa gclóiséad if you're from Conamara.

nó faoin leaba   Interference with Spanish? o (Spáinnis) = or (Béarla) = nó (Gaeilge)

i ngach aon áit

go raibh Bitsy amach amuigh áit éigin   Amach and isteach are only for movement in that direction. When something's at rest out(side) you must use amuigh instead and if something's inside rather than going inside you must use istigh. English used to have the same kind of thing a millenium ago...úte "outside", út "outward", útan "from outside".

Ní raibh a fhíos uirthí aici. "It's knowledge was not at her" -> "She didn't have it's knowledge" -> "She didn't know".

Is Bitsy go han-maith liom. OK, now we're getting a little complicated. Is maith liom x is sort of a set expression so I'm not sure you can stick an- in there. In any case it wouldn't be go han-mhaith because you don't need to use go with is. Difficult to explain without getting into the differences between the two verbs to be. How about using a completely different liking verb construction - taitin x le y Lit: "x shines with y" i.e. "y likes x". So how about...Taitníonn Bitsy go mór liom

agus bhí brón orm freisin.   keep the same tense!

Téann Bitsy amuigh amach gach lá.   see above.

Tá sí ina cat beag, agus riaibhe duibhe riabha dubha aici uirthi.   You can't define things with alone, only describe them. If the definition is a temporary thing, e.g. "she's still a kitten (but she'll grow up)", you can use the formula tá x ina y, e.g. tá sí ina piscín fós. Otherwise you have to use some contruction with is, which you might have noticed doesn't work like any other verb, e.g. Is cat beag í agus tá riabha dubha uirthi.

Tá sí grámhar

nuair a déantar bán bán léi.   Irish needs a "that" in places that English doesn't, e.g. always after when - "when that". Usually a causes some change in the following word, except when it's the form you used here. Although you can use the autonomous form of the verb (déantar) it's best not to unless it's really needed. So how about nuair a dhéanann tú bán bán léi. Actually I don't know that expression - I would have said nuair a dhéanann tú peataireacht léi.

The full monty:

Dé Domhnáigh, chuir m'aintín Máire glaoch gutháin orainn. Bhí scéal brónach aici. Bhí a cat, Bitsy, in easnamh. Ní raibh sí sa chlóiséad, san áilear, nó faoin leaba. Bhí Aintín Máire ag feáchaint i ngach aon áit. Shíl sí go raibh Bitsy amuigh áit éigin, agus cá raibh sí? Ní raibh a fhíos aici. Bhí brón uirthí. Taitníonn Bitsy go mór liom, agus bhí brón orm freisin. Téann Bitsy amach gach lá. Is cat beag í, agus tá riabha dubha uirthi. Tá sí grámhar, agus is maith léi nuair a dhéanann tú bán bán léi.

Class dismissed!

Date: 2002-05-11 02:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] arafel.livejournal.com
Maith go leor. :) My teacher didn't correct any of that - go raibh maith agat. I know I screwed up some of my pronouns and I mess up "ar" and "ag" forms.. so I'm glad you pointed them out to me. I'll try to do better next time. :) (forgetting a couple fadas is inevitable; it's such a pain in the arse to do them in Word.)

I'm curious about han-mhaith though - I've been told that the han is an intensifier by my teacher, meaning "very good." Have you not heard of this expression? Perhaps it's regional or the kind of standard Irish no one really uses?

It's quite obvious that we're a bunch of amateurs who meet once a week and chatter along with Buntus Cainte, but it's fun. :)

Re:

Date: 2002-05-11 02:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] caoin.livejournal.com
OK. There are two things.

First there's the word go which you put in front of an adjective to make it into an adverb - maith "good", go maith "well". If the adjective starts with a vowel you put an h before it, e.g. iontach "wonderful", go hiontach "wonderfully". You don't need to use go with is because is is a strange kind of verb.

Secondly there's the prefix an- "very". It's not quite the same as English "very" because you can stick it onto both adjectives and nouns, e.g. an-mhaith "very good", an-chluiche "a great game".

If you're using both of these then go causes an h to be added to the beginning of an-mhaith, i.e. go han-mhaith.

But wait! There's more...

Date: 2002-05-11 02:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] caoin.livejournal.com
I missed out the last para

mo thuismitheoirí   Although the word exists, it's a little bit like "officialese". Mo mhamaí is mo dhadaí or m'athair is mo mháthair would be more natural. Or just orainn if you want to cheat.

FhaighFuair sí Bitsy   An irregular verb!

TéighChuaigh Bitsy   Another irregular verb!*

Bhí áthas uirthí, agus bhí áthas ormsa freisin!   Since you're contrasting or comparing it seems natural to use the emphatic version - ormsa "on me".

An lá dar gcionn, chuir Aintín Máire glaoch gutháin ar mo thuismitheoirí arís. Fuair sí Bitsy sa bhaile. Chuaigh Bitsy i bhfolach uirthí sa chlóiséad éile! Bhí áthas uirthí, agus bhí áthas ormsa freisin!

* There are 10: Feicim (see), Faighim (get), Téim (go), Tagaim (come), Déanaim (do), Deirim (say), Tugaim (give), Beirim (bear), Cloisim (hear) & Ithim (eat).

Re: But wait! There's more...

Date: 2002-05-11 02:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] arafel.livejournal.com
Argh.. forty lashes with a wet noodle. :)

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