Page:Beside the Fire - Douglas Hyde.djvu/261

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
NOTES ON THE IRISH TEXT.
199

Page 32, line 14. Haiġ-óiḃir—this is only the English word, "Hie-over." Line 21. Copóg = a docking, a kind of a weed.

Page 36, line 2. Cloiḋeaṁ na trí faoḃar, "the sword of three edges." In the last century both tri and the faoḃar would have been eclipsed. Cf. the song, "Go réiḋ, a ḃean na dtrí mbo."

Page 40, line 33. Íocṡláinte = balsam. Line 25. Ḃuitse, the English word "witch." The Scotch Gaels have also the word bhuitseachas = witchery. Gaelic organs of speech find it hard to pronounce the English tch, and make two syllables of it—it-sha.

Page 42, line 21. Srannfartaiġ = snoring.

Page 44, line 3, for srón read ṡróin. Line 16. Cruaiḋe = steel, as opposed to iron.

Page 46, line 21. Crap = to put hay together, or gather up crops.

Page 48, line 1. Greim = a stitch, sudden pain.

Page 52, line 15. “Súf!” a common expression of disgust in central Connacht, both in Irish and in English. Line 18. Uile ḋuine. This word uile is pronounced hulla in central Connacht, and it probably gets this h sound from the final ċ of gaċ, which used to be always put before it. Father Eugene O'Growney tells me that the guttural sound of this ċ is still heard before uile in the Western islands, and would prefer to write the word ’ċ uile. When uile follows the noun, as na daoine uile, "all the people," it has the sound of ellik or ellig, probably from the original phrase being uile go léir, contracted into uileg, or even, as in West Galway, into ’lig.

Page 54, line 9. Goile = "appetite," properly "stomach." Line 30. An ṫrioblóid = the trouble, but better written an trioblóid, since feminine nouns, whose first letter is d or t, are seldom aspirated after the article. There is even a tendency to omit the aspiration from adjectives beginning with the letters d and t. Compare the celebrated song of Bean duḃ an ġleanna, not Bean ḋuḃ.

Page 56, line 4. Aicíd = a disease. Line 24. D'ḟeiceál and d'innseaċt are usual Connacht infinitives of feic and innis. Line 21. Caise = a stream. Line 26. Strácailt = dragging along. Line 32. Luiḃearnaċ, often pronounced like leffernugh = weeds.

Page 60, line 8. Tá beiseac or biseaċ orm = "I am better;" tá sé fáġail beisiġ, more rightly, bisiġ = He's getting better. Line 22. Maiseaḋ, pronounced musha, not mosha, as spelt, or often even mush in Central Connacht. Line 28. Marṫain, infinitive of mair, to live. Cuiḃlint = striving, running a race with.

Page 64, line 4. Tig liom = "it comes with me," "I can." This is a phrase in constant use in Connacht, but scarcely even known in parts of Munster. Line 15. Oiread agus toirt uiḃe = as much as the size of an egg. Line 23. As an nuaḋ = de novo, over again.

Page 66, line 2. Ag baint leis an uisge = touching the water.

Page 66, line 15. Moṫuiġ = "to feel." It is pronounced in central Connacht like maoiṫiġ (mweehee), and is often used for "to hear;" ṁaoiṫiġ mé sin roiṁe seo = I heard that before. Line 20. Sgannruiġ is either active or passive; it means colloquially either to frighten or to become frightened.

Page 68, line 12. Fan mar a ḃfuil tu = wait where you are, fan mar tá tu = remain as you are. Line 17. Ċor air biṫ, short for air ċor air biṫ, means "at all." In Munster they say air aon ċor.

Page 70, line 3. cad ċuige = "why;" this is the usual word in Connacht, often contracted to tuige.

Page 72, line 13. Cáṫair-na-mart = Westport.

Page 74, line 7. Lubarnuiġ, a word not in the dictionaries; it means, I think, "gambolling." Line 20. Ceapaḋ = seize, control. Line 22. Múlaċ = black mud.

Page 76, line 2. Anaċain = "damage," "harm." There are a great many