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vocabulary: gaelic
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: Nigel Parsons Date: 11 Jul 02 - 01:02 PM Then the class were asked the meaning of 'indifferent'. Eventually Johnny puts his hand up, and the teacher asks him. "Please Miss, it means 'that's better'" "I Don't thinks so" says the teacher. "Oh yes Miss" said Johnny, "last night I heard my sister in the front room with her boy friend. 'That's better' she said; 'Yes, it's indifferent' said he" *BG* |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: Fiolar Date: 11 Jul 02 - 09:19 AM Nothing to do with translation but the above stories remind me of the joke about the use of words. A teacher asked her class to put the words "pistol too" in a meaningful sentence. Little Mary stood and said, "Blackbeard was a pirate. He had a cutlass and a pistol too." "Very good" said the teacher, "Johnny, will you give us an example?" "Yes, Miss," said Johnny, "My dad goes down the pub every night, and he is on the piss till two." Collapse of class. |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: Nigel Parsons Date: 10 Jul 02 - 11:08 AM I also heard "out of sighy; out of mind" as 'Blind idiot' Nigel |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: mack/misophist Date: 10 Jul 02 - 11:01 AM Dear Mr Happy, Your translation storey comes from an ancient set of jokes about a translation machine for the UN. The other one I remember is "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" translates as " The vodka is agreeable but the meat has gone bad". |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: Nigel Parsons Date: 10 Jul 02 - 10:54 AM For those really interested in the translation from a Celtic language (Welsh) into English, with allowances for idiomatic use, and keeping both the sense and the scansion and metre, check out the threads starting at Translation Required where we are finally trying to 'nail down' a last verse before putting a song into the DT Nigel |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: Nigel Parsons Date: 10 Jul 02 - 10:49 AM To quote Christopher Isherwood
The common cormorant or shag |
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Subject: Shag From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar Date: 10 Jul 02 - 09:38 AM Thanks for the info, Aine. In one of the books about Irish tune names which include the word "cailleach", I saw a comment that "hag" is sometimes a mistranslation, as it refers to woman of any age who wears a black shawl. Also, cailleach can refer to a shag, which is not what most British 'Catters would imagine, but a black cormorant. |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: Mr Happy Date: 10 Jul 02 - 07:35 AM i heard a story about the russian interpreter who, when asked to give the meaning of the expression 'out of sight, out of mind' produced the translation as 'invisible lunatic!' |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: Áine Date: 24 Aug 00 - 05:23 PM Dear paddymac and sian, Those are two great stories! Puts in my mind of an Irish class I was in and one of the students (not naming names, now) was asked by the teacher to use the verb 'go' in a sentence. Although the student meant to say, 'What time did you go to bed last night?', what came out was 'What time did you come in the bed last night?' I've never seen anyone's face turn as red as quickly than the poor teacher's! The worst part was that the teacher's own Irish teacher (a lovely elderly nun) was sitting in on the class that day. ;-) -- Áine (thosp - I've sent you a PM about the pronounication) |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: thosp Date: 24 Aug 00 - 12:49 PM A`ine -- could you give me the phonetic of the term Witch? -------- thanks! peace (Y) thosp |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: paddymac Date: 24 Aug 00 - 12:21 PM Aine - very well spoken! And then there's always the danger of slang usages. I once ordered a papaya milkshake in a Cuban shop in Miami's Little Havana. I suspected I was in deep doo-doo when I asked for "papaya con leche" and the guy's in the place started to snicker. I was certain of it when the girl behind the counter (about 13-14 or so) blushed and ran to get her mother. Mama came out and asked what I wanted. I repeated my request, she smiled sweetly, served me, and I enjoyed it very much, despite the continuing snickering of the guys in the place. When I got back the the friends' place where I was staying and told them the story, they were nearly rolling on the floor in laughter. It turns out that in Cuban dialect, the fruit called papaya is known as "la fruta bomba", or "bomb fruit", an obvious reference to it's usual shape. The word "papaya" is the slang term a woman's privates. That was the only time I ever ordered a "pussy milkshake". |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: sian, west wales Date: 24 Aug 00 - 10:25 AM Agree completely with Aine and rabbitrunning. An enthusiastic Welsh learner was the admin. for a Cardiff-based theatre company in the mid-80s. He put out a leaflet declaring that the company would parade into a local rural town, *playing music and waving flags*. Unfortunately, he used the word which means flags as in flagstones (paving) instead of Flags/banners. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing? sian |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: rabbitrunning Date: 24 Aug 00 - 10:12 AM Don't blame the dictionary too much! Frequently a "translating" dictionary is also something of a thesaurus. Most languages have several words which cluster around a definition, with slightly differing meanings, and single words with serveral definitions. The dictionary maker either has to create something along the lines of the OED or hope that the person using the book is at least somewhat conversant with both languages. Which is why you should always get a native speaker to check your work...
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: Áine Date: 24 Aug 00 - 09:48 AM The trouble with just looking a word up in a dictionary is that often the author incorrectly interpretes a word from one language into another. For example, the Irish word bandraoi means a Druidess, not a witch. And the Irish word cailleach is most often used to mean an old woman, or a hag, not a spell-casting, broom-riding person. Cailleach can also mean a young, precocious girl; a midwife; something that's shrivelled; a stone used to weight down a rope; a stump; and can be used to refer to a man when you're calling his courage into question. The closest you can come to the English term of 'witch' would be cailleach na gcearc or cailleach phiseogach. Other uses of the word cailleach are cailleach feasa - a wise woman or fortuneteller, and comhrá cailleach - old wives' tale. Too often, when folks want to borrow words from another language, they forget that there are concepts associated with words, and that they are sometimes very hard to translate from one tongue to another. -- Áine |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: sian, west wales Date: 24 Aug 00 - 05:18 AM Antidisestablishmentariasm ... in Welsh, gwrthddadsefydliadyddiaeth. OK? Oh, and you should try www.melin.bangor.ac.uk if you're looking for translations of individual words in Welsh, Irish G., Basque and Catalan. sian |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: thosp Date: 24 Aug 00 - 01:50 AM thank you Jill R ----- i think it's just the ticket! Hello LiL Hawk ---peace (Y) thosp |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: Little Hawk Date: 24 Aug 00 - 01:38 AM How about "antidisestablishmentarianism"? What's that in gaelic? According to the Curse Engine (ask Spaw about that) Monica Lewinsky in gaelic is still "Monica Lewinsky". Tedious, isn't it? |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: GUEST, Banjo Johnny Date: 24 Aug 00 - 01:09 AM Does that "ban-druidh" have something to do with druids? == Johnny |
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Subject: RE: vocabulary: gaelic From: GUEST,Jill Rogoff Date: 24 Aug 00 - 01:05 AM The dictionaries I have say the following: Scots Gaelic: bana-bhuidseach, ban-druidh, briosag Irish:cailleach or bandraoi Hope this is of some help. |
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Subject: vocabulary: gaelic From: thosp Date: 24 Aug 00 - 12:59 AM a friend has asked for the gaelic word for Witch --- both irish and scottish --- thanks peace (Y) thosp |
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