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3.16.2009

Irish 101

As many of you know, I went to school in Northern Ireland a few years ago. While there, I attempted to learn a bit of Irish. With St. Patrick's Day approaching, I thought I would give you a few Irish words to use tomorrow--so that you could be all geeky and impress your friends. Now before I do this, I want you to know that my pronunciation is surely less than perfect and there are actually 3 major ways of pronouncing any one phrase. But for our purposes (of being geeky in front of our American non-Irish friends) what I give you should work just fine.

Dia duit. (Hello pronounced: DEE-uh git)

Dia is Muire duit. (Hello in response: Dee-uhs MWIR-uh git)

Conas tá tú? (How are you: KUN-uhs TAW-too)

Tá mé go maith (I am well: TAW may goh MAH)

Slán agat (Good bye: slawn uh-GUHT)

Slán leat (Good bye: slawn lat)

So there you are. You now have my permission to go and be a geek.

p.s. the Irish don't really do the whole wear green or get pinched thing

7 comments:

  1. Science Teacher MommyMarch 16, 2009 at 4:40 PM

    Disappointed.

    I saw they title and was hoping you were giving some political insight into what I've been reading in the papers this week.

    Still, pronunciation is helpful. By the time I got to the third Daughter of the Forest book I was thoroughly frustrated with how few of the names I could "say" in my head. It slowed down my reading a lot.

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  2. NatalieMarch 16, 2009 at 6:03 PM

    Ohhh-this is fun. My husband is especially into this language geek stuff. Now I can impress him! (your p.s. ruined the whole holiday for me though :( Next thing you'll say is that leprechaun's don't really exist! Now THAT would really ruin the holiday!)

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  3. UnknownMarch 17, 2009 at 8:03 AM

    So every year I use the term Erin go bragh... can you enlighten my closed mind on that one?
    :)
    and top o the mornin' to ya!~

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  4. JenMarch 17, 2009 at 8:35 AM

    I think you would laugh at the way I am sitting here talking out loud at the computer trying to pronounce these words. Pretty pathetic.

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  5. CourtneyMarch 17, 2009 at 10:33 AM

    STM--Sorry, maybe I'll do a post on that as well--I like to talk about it but usually I get the sense that no one really cares--or at least not as much as I do.

    Natalie--leprechaun's and any Irishman worth his salt will tell you that.

    Jenny--Erin go bragh is the English spelling of Éirinn go brách which means Ireland forever and is basically pronounced as it looks in the English (air-inn-guh-braw)

    Jen--I don't think you are pathetic

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  6. Stacy AlexandraMarch 17, 2009 at 11:15 AM

    So do the Irish really do the corn beef and cabbage thing or is that an American thing as well?

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  7. CourtneyMarch 18, 2009 at 10:29 AM

    Stacy--I never had croned beef and cabbage while I was over there but it probably is an Irish thing that Americans have grabbed onto.

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