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Author Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen-name, "George Orwell" PA
column
The Irish For Some older words don't exist in English - clochscríbhinn means an inscription on stone
George Orwell said that history was a palimpsest – a chalkboard which could be scraped clean and reinscribed, exactly as often as necessary, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
This the latest dispatch from our columnist Darach Ó Séaghdha, author of the award-winning and bestselling Motherfoclóir.
Every Sunday morning, Darach will be regaling (re-Gaeling?) us with insights on what the Irish language says about Ireland, our society, our past and our present. Enjoy.
A FEW WEEKS ago, celebrated scientist (and uncelebrated non-linguist) Neil DeGrasse Tyson observed that “Italy valued cathedrals while Spain valued explorers; so worldwide, five times as many people speak Spanish as Italian”.
To paraphrase another celebrated scientist, Wolfgang Pauli, this theory is not even wrong.
Spain is heaving with cathedrals and still building one in Barcelona, Italy was not a unified country with a single language during the age of European global conquest, and the tenacity of Spanish as a spoken language in South America owes much to factors other than a secular, scientific love of exploration.
Throughout history, communities with different languages have come into contact with each other and, for better or for worse, some words have scurried from one tongue to the other.
However, it’s rare enough for those two languages to approach each other with the same amount of agency, and the kinds of words exchanged tends to reflect this.
Consider in English where the animal has an Anglo-Saxon name (pig, sheep, cow) but the meat name comes from French (pork, mutton, beef) – the poor people who looked after the animals spoke a different language to the rich people who would eat it.
I think of this phenomenon sometimes when people mock certain Irish words for being too close to English ones, like róbat for robot, goraille for gorilla.
The vocabulary of the Irish language has evolved with terms that reflect everyday life in Ireland for centuries, and in many cases suggest practices and traditions which are no longer in use.
Here are some words for practical objects, tools or activities which do not have a direct English equivalent.
Gairtéar: This is a string used to tie a bag closed, not to be confused with a fuathlainn, a thread used to secure bait to hook.
Sacshrathair: This means a stuffed sack.
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Such an object can have many uses, such as propping a door open. A similar object would be a scrathóg which is an inflated bladder to be used as a vessel, ball, prop etc. Appropriately enough, a scrathóg can also mean a windbag.
Briogadán: It probably wouldn’t pass health and safety regulations today, but a briogadán is a stick with a burning tip that was used in a children’s game from years ago.
Other stick words include a pasúr - a pounding-stick used in clothes-washing and a cipín – a little stick or the clamps used when performing a castration.
Croisínteacht: If you were gathering seaweed with a pole having a hook and crosspiece, you would be ag croisínteacht. If you used a different seaweed gathering technique, you would have to find a different word.
Gabhad: Whether you carry it on a pitchfork or in your hand, this is a burning sod carried as a torch.
You might retrieve such a sod from a lagpholl, a hollow in a recently cut bog. A gabhad might be lit with an athghual, which is a lump of burnt coal or cinder used for rekindling fires.
Corpfhiacha: Corp means body and fiach means debt (it also means tooth or a raven), so this compound word refers to those debts incurred for personal services.
Certain seaweeds were deemed to have peculiar qualities; breachtraíocht means using herbs to make charms, cures or spells.
Beiltí: These are ground oats for malting; regular oats are coirce (not to be confused with corcra, purple).
Speaking of colours and food, cróchadh describes the practice of colouring foods or fabrics with saffron.
Clochscríbhinn: Finally, this word means an inscription on stone.
The last word got me thinking about what George Orwell said – that history was a palimpsest. That is a chalkboard which can be scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.
In these Orwellian times, it is more important than ever to record our heritage as though it was carved in stone.
Darach’s new book, ‘Craic Baby: Dispatches From A Rising Language’ is published by Head of Zeus and available in bookshops now.
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@Michael Kavanagh: Quick search shows your guess to be right: gairtéar, m. (gs. & npl. -éir, gpl. ~).1. (a) Garter. (b)String used to tie mouth of bag. 2. (Éadach)inaghairtéir, (clothing) in tatters. (Var:gairtéal m
@Diarmuid Hunt: Further searching reveals that the English word ‘garter’ is derived from the Irish ‘gairtéar’ with intermediates of ‘garet’ (old french) and ‘gartier’ (also old french), just in case you’re interested.
@Diarmuid Hunt:
Thanks.
While garters might be now regarded as a class risque it is not too long ago that anybody wearing socks needed them – before modern stretchy fabrics socks were really just long loose bags that needed firm fixing on top.
Growing up in Lancashire, England we had an old washing implement for pounding clothes called a poss, not dissimilar to the word pasur as defined above.
I grew up in rural Kent untill about nine. where the local word for badger was Broc, a piece of colloquial slang that was even then dying out and very localised to one particular area.
I lived in the southwest and moved all around England but never heard the term again until coming to Ireland.
Surely this is the problem with Irish in the modern world – it lacks terms needed for discourse in modern society. It has been cut off for centuries, missed out on the mixing and borrowing to which other European languages were exposed and lacks the equivalent of the Académie in France that constantly creates new French terms based on new combinations of words and phrases that are authentically French to keep up with modern usage.
When was the last time you heard a discussion, in Irish, on technological, scientific or advanced medical topics? The words simply don’t exist. My local ciorcal Gaeilge uses exactly the same words and phrases I learnt as a youngster. Tradition and culture are valid uses, but hardly forward-thinking.
@John Collins: in the London of early days as a Jewish person.. We sprinkled our English with about a hundred words of Yiddish.. The language used among Jews in East Europe. We were not taught these words. We just picked them up.. Irish journalist use a few of them.. And yet Irish people do not in general sprinkle their English with Irish words.. Barring calling the police gardai..
Well, technically Spain was not a unified country until the 18th century, long after its age of exploration. It’s just that Castile was strong enough by itself (helped by the depopulating diseases they introduced to America).
Italy, at the same time, was in the midst of the Italian Wars, where every part of Italy was turned against the other parts by outside powers; and in which the other Spanish crown (Aragon) was involved.
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