#bella-daonna

[the-clockwork-three]

A gaeilge cover of The Summer King by the Forgetmenauts

My lyrics, an English translation, and tags under the cut

Gaeilge (English)

Chan an abhainn go binn i mí na Luil (The river sings gently in July)

Shuigh sé ann lena craiceann gorm (He sits there with his blue skin)

Bhí greim agam ar luachair (I gripped at the rushes)

Nuair a ghlaoigh Rí Samhraidh orm. (When the Summer King called to me)

Rug sé ar caol na lámhe orm (He took me by the wrist)

Bhí sé séimh ach láidir freisn (he was gentle but also strong)

“Luigh liom ar leaba na habhann ("Lie with me on the river bed)

Fan go fóil beag,”ar saesin. (For a while," he said."

Ní fheicfidh mé na duillí dearg (I will not see the red leaves)

‘Gus ní bheidh mo gheimhrí fuar. (And my winters will not be cold)

Cronóidh mé blathanna an earraigh (I will miss the spring flowers)

Ach tá gach rud ceart go leor. (But everything will be alright.)

Chuiramar sceach gheal ar fud na tíre (We planted hawthorn all over the country)

Fásfaidh agus bláthfaigh muid le chéile (We will grow and bloom together)

Choróin na noníní agus ráth arsa (Daisy crown and ancient ringfort)

Fanaimid leis an lá féile. (We will wait for the festival day)

Tags: @charlataninred @rusalkaandtheshepherdgirl @bella-daonna @unseeliethot @grimalkinsquill (ask to be added or removed)

[unseelie-grimalkin]

Stole this from @bella-daonna, who did this in October of 2022 (look at theirs for KCal here: x)

The template is by @/kalidels

Also, the reason there is a nope for "Steals blankets" is because this assumes they are both not clinging to each other even while asleep like extremely touch-starved critters.

[unseeliethot]

For @bella-daonna 💕🎉

It's the best, and longest, sleep he's had the entire month. Perhaps, even, that entire half of the year.

Soft dawn filters through small gaps in the curtains, made by a soft breeze that had picked up as he'd slept.

As they'd slept.

There is a warmth that resides not just inside his chest, glowing through what has felt for so long like a dark fog, but pressed against it as well. Skin to skin. Back to chest. His mind, not quite fully awake or able to go back to sleep, focuses on the pleasing feel of his fingers caressing the silky smooth curve of a hip under his hand. Gentle as they splay across a stomach, glide over the join of rib to hip to thigh.

Warm, so very warm.

His lips, gentle and light so as to not disturb, press fleeting kisses along the back of a shoulder. Ghosting along the path he'd laid previous to their slumber, echoing soft bitemarks and hot kisses he'd given them.

It is a dream to have them here, in his bed with them. A dream to have them asleep a little longer so he can admire them.

His Callan, his life's blood and the pulse that sends it storming through his veins. What a liveliness to his existence they've brought him, what a wonderful and enrapturing freedom from monotony and bore of the courtiers and nobles he'd had occupying his life before.

Now there was release, now he had them and had something he could never realise he was missing before.

There were many ways to say it, from echoing the words of long gone poets to songs that could make the trees themselves weep and thrash that he had what they did not. Even words that sprung from his own heart, prose and poetry.

Sometimes even the simplest of phrasing filled him to the brim.

He loved them.

He loved them.

And how frightening a thing like love could be, yet so easy to traverse, now, with them. He understood how it brought great warriors to their knees and broke the minds of scholars. A powerful and awe inspiring force.

All from his Callan. He should not be surprised, the things they were capable of, the labyrinth trials and tribulations they'd made their way through with nary a guide.

The way they set his heart ablaze and took the warmth from summer and spring when they parted from his side.

He had all the time in the world to admire them, and admire them he did. Pressed and clutched to his chest, healthy and hale these days.

Keagan's face pressed to the join where their neck met their shoulder and his arms tightened further around them.

Such small moments were made even more joyful by them. He would savour each one he could.

They shifted in his arms, pushing themself further from some cold spot on the bed and harder into his chest. Turning and grumbling until they could bury their face into him. Their hair spilling on silken pillow cases beneath their head.

He pressed his lips to their temple and closed his eyes. Whatever appointments he had could be rearranged, with the everdawn peering through those small gaps, he could allow himself at least until they woke.

[vexilexicon]

making a BIG post with all of @bella-daonna 's emoji asks just so they're all in one convenient place (btw thank you so much boo for them)

all of these are for my oc player character, Bronagh, from the AMAZING otome game Na Daoine Maithe. down under the cut so I don't clog the dash 👀

(picrews here and here)

💥 COLLISON - what emotions do they have trouble dealing with?

anger, definitely. She doesn't know how to deal with situations that make her properly, extremely angry, like those ones where it's bubbling rage at a situation you didn't see coming. It's because she's so used to being able to step back from things, is naturally low-empathy, that when things hit she can't regulate -- it's rare that her anger will surface, but when it does, it's explosive and shocking to those around her. She's the type to yell, much louder and much deeper than you expect.

🌙 MOON - what is your oc's greatest wish? how far are they willing to go for it?

Her greatest wish is very simple -- she wants to live simply, and contentedly, without needed to stress about where a next meal is coming from. She wants to have people in her life who aren't draining, who help her recharge when they're around, and the ability to engage in her hobbies and crafts and just be.

🌋 VOLCANO - how bad is their temper? is it a slow boil, or a instant explosion?

ooo callback to the first question this early, huh? asdfgghfjd. Sorry to have to reiterate some of that one, but yeah her temper is very slow to boil. It's frustrating for others, not that they would try to rile her up or anything, but them getting into arguments with her they would get frustrated with her lack of reaction. In the same vein, she is very much 'it is what it is' about situations, which frustrates people when they want her to demand better for herself.

🙊 SPEAK-NO-EVIL - what is something your oc will refuse to stay quiet about?

Interesting thing about Bronagh is that, well, she's kind of a snake. which sounds so bad but... it isn't out of malice? By 'kind of a snake' I mean that she will blend into the background and observe, rather than speak out. She won't agree with things that she doesn't believe in, but she will go with the flow -- she isn't in the habit of making life more difficult for herself by drawing attention to herself. She is very much a wait and watch and listen type of person.

🌌 MILKY WAY - what was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them?

Bronagh is very personal because she's the first oc who is explicitly autistic, where I'm purposefully exploring like, my own experience, and how going so long without having words or explanation for it made me feel so outside of the normal human experience. Tie that in with the lore of NDM, the fae world, those ideas of changeling children (mostly that thread I see a lot on here about like, god what's the phrasing? kid's odd but damn is he good with the sheep? that kind of thing). It's also a stressful thing, because I never want to imply that my experience being autistic is the only one, or that these stereotypes aren't ever harmful... damn this got too deep sorry 💀But really Bronagh is a wish fullfilment of.... being different in a way that's so obvious to everyone around you but not yourself for so long, and then falling into a world where your oddness isn't ostracizing anymore, man I don't even know where I'm going with this anymore sorry NDM I have lost the plot

✂️ SCISSORS - what is the "last straw" for them to cut someone out of their life? how easily do they let go of people?

Disrespect. Not rudeness, or hurtful comments off the cuff, but blatant disrespect with no remorse. She will forgive cruel comments if someone is honest with their apology, she will forgive most things actually, but she will never forget. And when it is clear that the pattern emerging is disregard for her as a person? Bam, you're done. Though it's hard to describe because it relies so much on the individual relationship.

🎁 PRESENT - what types of presents would they be most happy to receive? are they good at gift giving?

Bronagh likes things that you like, if you give her anything at all, with the inspiration that 'this made me think of you' or 'this thing is so cool i thought you might think so too', she'll appreciate it, but gifts she love would be entirely practical ones. She loves functional things. In the same way, she's much too logical with her own gift-giving -- you are getting socks, you are getting a replacement stapler, you are getting a tea cozy because yours is stained.

💧 DROPLET - random angst headcanon

I'm not sure about the famine timeline, like for accuracies sake, but I know it started in 1845 when NDM is set. So I don't know if things would be dire enough for this action yet. But I'm seeing Bronagh having to kill the family's second horse so they can eat. Imagine it was an old nag and one that had been with the family for so long, and her father is away for longer than anticipated and her mother can't do it because it was her horse as a teen.

☁️ CLOUD - a soft headcanon

she's very adept at sewing, knitting, mending, and lacemaking - she loves working with her hands. two soft ideas revolve around this. One, Shae notices love of this kind of work and teaches her woodworking. Two, her doing very delicate and artful braids in other peoples' hair as a gentle and quiet bonding experience.

🍼 BABY BOTTLE - what are their thoughts on children?

Indifferent. she always figured at some point she would have them, because at some point she would get married, because that's what you do. But when her family didn't push even as she got older, she stopped looking to that kind of future. the only thing about kids is the assumption that pregnancy is necessary, and she knows to much about the process of childbirth to want to go through with that if it's not required. She likes kids well enough, and is surprisingly good with them even though she doesn't think so. Kids like that she treats them just like she treats other people, though she can be too blunt.

🔥 FIRE - do they have any self destructive tendencies? what habits do they have that hinder them from becoming their best self?

Bronagh doesn't like to be told that she doesn't know what's best for herself, even if she's honestly putting herself in a dangerous scenario. If you try to tell her what to do and don't let her negotiate, she will dig her heels in. even in the event that she logically knows you're right, she will continue with whatever she is doing to spite you, no matter if it's at her own expense.

🌠 SHOOTING STAR - if they could make any wish with no repercussions, what wish would they make?

she would wish to be able to learn whatever she wanted to learn. not book or school studying, but the time and opportunity to explore whatever niche things catch her interest and to never run out of that time or opportunity. to have someone to share in her curiosity would be a bonus.

☄️ COMET - what do people assume about them? are they right?

People assume she's not very smart, because she doesn't go out of her way to speak to people and isn't so much careful with her words as she doesn't fill space if she doesn't have anything she wants to say. they're wrong. people also assume she's fair because she acts so objective, and they're wrong about that too.

💓 BEATING HEART - what gets their heart racing?

close proximity, slow smiles, she's very attracted to voices. someone giving her their full attention can either get her heart racing in a good way or a bad way, depending on her opinion of them - either it's riveting, or it feels like an attack. a lover touching her neck, definitely.

💘 HEART W/ ARROW - what traits do they look for in a relationship? do they believe in love at first sight?

Bronagh wants someone who is steady, someone who can enjoy shared silence. She wants someone who is smart, either cleverness or wittiness or a quieter type of practical smarts, and likes her dry sense of humour. Somebody who isn't over the top. More than anything, she wants someone who is trustworthy to her even if they aren't to anybody else - not that she wants to be the centre of their world, but she wants honesty before anything else, even if that honesty hurts.

💗 GROWING HEART - if they have a crush, is it noticable? what changes when they're in love?

Her crush would be a little noticeable from the outside, but less so to the person she's crushing on because she wouldn't change anything drastic about her behaviour towards them. She would look at them more, not exactly longingly but almost 'i want to study you like a bug' energy. she would spend more time with them, but in the almost sly way of being available whenever they happen to be around, she always makes it seem natural to be in their presence because hey, it's a coincidence.

❤️ RED HEART - their love language(s)?

Bronagh's love language is acts of service. She wants to help, to be of use, but more than that she wants to share in the struggles of those she loves and help lighten the load of them. She also likes being able to give people things that help them -- sort of gift giving, sort of not. As for the love language that is given to her (idk how to phrase this), she appreciates most being listened to and trusted, and the offer of lightening her burdens as well.

💙 BLUE HEART - do they miss their s/o easily? how do they act when their s/o isn't around?

She's not the type to feel like, gaping loneliness or the missing of somebody if she knows she's going to see them again, if they can exchange letters, etc. But if there's no way of contact, she would be very wistful about it, she would see things they would like and think of them, she would imagine what they would say. Like, she's a very independent person and likes her alone time, so she wouldn't miss them easily. To her, physical proximity doesn't affect love - she loves you and knows you love her whether you're sitting next to her or you're the next country over. She is secure in that, and can be happy with separation and doing her own thing.

[the-clockwork-three]

Raphaella is the greatest scientist of her time, however her wing surgery causes her to accidentally sell her soul to the Tuath Dé corporation. And the souls of her brothers. A Children of Lir retelling, and a Raphaella la Cognizi backstory.

Tags: @unseeliethot @bella-daonna @grimalkinsquill @charlataninred @rusalkaandtheshepherdgirl (ask to be added or removed)

[unseelie-grimalkin]

hewwo! i juwst wanna awsk: since fwan iws based own cuchuwainn, have u evew thought abouwt twiona being emew? touches fingews togethew i think vewy cute yes thawt'd be vewy cute

There are so many layers to answering this, UwUnon (I'd take credit for dubbing you that, but that'd be @bella-daonna).

So, in a way: yes. Yes, Tríona has some inspiration from Cu Chulainn's wife, Emer, because I read a very fascinating essay breaking Emer down (you can find this here). However, in the same breath, I gotta say that my girl has some Láeg in there too.

Which, yeah, does mean I've been reading Láeg/Emer/Cu Chulainn fic because Tríona/Flannán is basically that trio but in two people.

From Emer, Tríona gets a spine of steel, a "No Nonsense Please" attitude, and this sort of narrative framing to have her parallel Flan, in the same way, Emer parallels Cu Chulainn: both have their spheres of influence and skills and they're both very good at them (showcased as experts in their respective fields that others learn to defer to, eventually; Cu Chulainn with warriors, Flannán with his court, Emer with noble ladies, Tríona with druids). In the same way that Cu Chulainn is a hound at war, Emer is swift to keep ahead of him (not up with him; from my understanding, Emer is always ahead of her husband, in some capacity), and that's something I try to reflect in Flannán and Tríona both.

But from Láeg, however...you get "One Foot Stuck in the Mounds" as a character trait, you get "I would traverse horrors for you", "I am at your side no matter what idiocy you're getting yourself in" in Tríona. There is this post about Láeg that really, really nestled its way into Tríona's vibes overall, one that I'll let speak for itself (I'm certain that, if a certain someone reads that post, I will get DMs yelling at me for hurting her wife). From Láeg being a spiritual parent of Tríona, you get this sense of loyalty that is very "I am extremely respectful of you [Cu Chulainn/Flannán] in my acts of service, but I will snipe you disrespectfully with barbs, maybe even especially when you're being an unmitigated ass", which is often met with Láeg/Tríona being given titles of respect for it from Cu Chulainn/Flannán ("a mo phopa Láeg"/"a mo draoi Tríona").

My big moral takeaway, for anyone reading, is that being a fan of Flannán is an entry gate to reading the actual Ulster Cycle, Ulster Cycle fanfiction, and Ulster Cycle shitposts.

[unseelie-grimalkin]

@unseeliethot @bella-daonna

*flirtatiously* bleeding out all by yourself, handsome?

[unseeliethot]

Imagine not drawing Cal until now smh

@bella-daonna 's Cal is my love my wife and happy birthday bestie 💕

[the-lazaret]

this blog is mostly not used any more!

u can find me at @morallygreyrobot (for most things) or @bella-daonna (that’s my blog for an upcoming otome game called na daoine maithe by @moiraimyths )

but you can find a masterpost of all my fics for the arcana here!

[the-clockwork-three]

A cover of the folk song "An Gréasaí Bróg" (The Cobbler), but is commonly known as "Beidh Aonach Amárach" (There's a fair tomorrow).

Lyrics, English translation and tags under the cut

Gaeilge (English)

Beidh aonach amárach i gContae an Chláir. (There's a fair tomorrow in County Clare.) x3

Cé mhaith dom é, ní bheidh mé ann. (What good is it to me, I will not be there.)

Chorus:

'S a mháithrín, an ligfidh tú chun aonaigh mé? (Mother, can you let me go to the fair?) x3

'S a mhuirnín ó ná héiligh é. (My darling, don't ask that.)

Níl tú a deich nó a haon déag fós. (You are not ten or eleven yet.) x3

Nuair a bheidh tú trí deag bheidh tú mór. (When you are thirteen you'll be old enough.)

Chorus

Táim-se i ngrá le gréasaí bróg. (I'm in love with the cobbler.) x3 Mur' bhfaigh mé é ní bheidh mé beo. (I will never be happy until I can have him.)

Chorus

B'fhearr liom féin mo ghréasaí bróg. (I prefer my cobbler) x3 Ná oifigeach airm faoi lásaí óir. (Over officers with golden braids.)

Chorus

Beidh aonach amárach i gContae an Chláir. (There's a fair tomorrow in County Clare.) x3

Cé mhaith dom é, ní bheidh mé ann. (What good is it to me, I will not be there.)

Chorus

Tags: @grimalkinsquill @charlataninred @rusalkaandtheshepherdgirl @bella-daonna @unseeliethot

[unseeliethot]

@bella-daonna @unseelie-grimalkin

*visibly shaking* i am So Normal about this piece of media you Don’t Even Know

[the-clockwork-three]

Day 14: Prepositional pronouns

Tags: @charlataninred @rusalkaandtheshepherdgirl @bella-daonna @unseeliethot @grimalkinsquill (ask to be added or removed)

Dia daoibh, mo chairde! Inniu, beidhimid ag caint faoi na foirainm réamhfhocach. Today we are talking about prepositions and prepositional pronouns.

So, we have already talked about prepositions a little bit, because of how they can cause mutations. We have also seen that sometimes the word following a preposition can be squashed into the preposition itself for ease of pronunciation, for example: Faoi + an = faoin. Something similar happens when a pronoun follows a preposition. It is far easier to say “orm” than to say “ar mé” and so on so forth.

You may have noticed that when we were going over verbs, “to have” was never mentioned in the list, despite that being one of the most important verbs to learn in most languages. Well that's because having is a preposition in Irish. Ag means at, but it also denotes ownership. “Tá cóta agam” is I have a coat, and “Tá mé ag an teach” means I am at the house.

Agam, agut, aige, aici, againn, agaibh, acu

“Ar” is the preposition that roughly means on, with a less literal meaning of “to wear”. For example, “Tá cóta orm” means I am wearing a coat. 

Orm, ort, air, uirthí, orainn, oraibh, orthu

Le means with, both physically “Le mo chairde” (with my friends) and metaphorically “tinn le fearg” (sick with anger)

Liom, leat, leis, lei, linn, libh, leo

Do can mean to or for, “ag labhair dom” (talking to me), or “ag dul do siopa” (going to a shop).

Dom, duit, dó, di, dúinn, daoibh, dóibh

There are further prepositions that undergo conjugation, but they are relatively unusual. You will ocaussionaly come across a “futhu” (faoi + siad/ about or under them) or an “uaim” (ó + mé/from me) in the wild but I have never seen “eadrainn” (idir + sinn/ between us) before writing this. 

So, how do we use prepositional pronouns? Well some verbs require a preposition to work, or using a preposition completely changes its meaning. For example, “Buail” means hit, however “buail le” means meet. “Bhuail mé le mo chara” is normal, however “Bhuail mé mo chara” is very mean. So if I want to talk about meeting “him” and not “my friend” I can say “Bhuail me leis.” With verbs that require a preposition, the preposition goes before the object. 

Prepositions also show up in specific phrases. Let's think about some of the things we said on day 11. Saying your name requires do, and so does saying hello, and saying goodbye uses le. That is why I said that you can say “slán leat” however I have been saying “slán libh”.

Your eye colour is described as “Tá súile  ____ agam'' but hair colour is “Tá gruaig ___ orm”. You “have” eyes, but hair is “on'' you. To describe eye colour we can say “dubha” (black),  “dunna” (brown/hazel), “gorma” (blue), “glasa” (green). The words we use to describe hair are “dunn” (brown), “dubh” (black), “fionn” (blonde), and “rua” (ginger) for colour, and you can describe length with “fáda” (long), “méanfhaid” (mid length), and “gearr”(short), and of course you can always say “níl aon gruaig agam/Tá mé maol” for “I have no hair/I am bald”. Why are we using slightly different words for brown and black in the eyes and hair? That is because eyes are plural, hair is singular and so the adjective needs to be put into the plural when talking about eye colour. 

Another useful phrase is talking about something you like: “Is maith liom ___” . So for example, “Is maith liom mo mhadra,” is I like my dog, and “Is maith liom a bheith ag imirt peile” is I like to play football. You can ask someone “an maith leat ___” and they can reply with “ní mhaith liom ___” if they dislike it. You can replace "maith” with “aoibhinn” for really like/love, with “fuath” for hate (although it is the serious type of hate, not the “im annoyed at you” type), or with “fearr” for prefear. “Ba mhaith liom ___” means I want, or I would like. Be careful, because while we use an and ní for “like” we use ar and níor for want.

The way we talk about emotions in Irish is through the phrase “Tá [emotion] orm”, or “[Emotion] is on me”. To indicate a BIG emotion, we tag on a little “an domhain” (of the world) in there “Tá áthas an domhain orm” (I am very happy/the happiness of the world is on me). 

And sometimes you just need to describe that something is happening to/at/with you. 

Time for some examples. All the verbs are irregular ones which are in the table in yesterday’s post. 

Vocab: leabhar (book), go dtí (to), siopa (shop), teach (house), cáca (cake), páirc (park/field) 

Thug mé leabhar di. 

An rachfidh tú go dtí an siopa liom?

He caught us. (Hint: this uses ar)

I eat at her house. 

Ar mhaith leat a bheith ag teacht go dtí an páirc? 

Today’s seanfhocail is “Is minic a bhris béal duine a shrón” or “Often a man’s mouth broke his nose”.

Tomorrow we will be flying through the approximately four ways you can count in Irish. Slán libh!

[the-clockwork-three]

Day 11: Simple Phrases

I have decided to read the lesson aloud so you can hear how the words are said as I do not know IPA and trying to spell the words out phonetically was not working. If you would prefer I used to format of "[Irish], [English], [Irish but slower]" for the words/phrases, just say so.

Tags: @bella-daonna @rusalkaandtheshepherdgirl @unseeliethot @charlataninred @grimalkinsquill (ask to be added or removed0

Written version below the cut

A short prologue: First of all, I am not a fluent speaker. Although I am not that bad at gaeilge, I am in no way, shape, or form a gaeilgeoir. This is all fairly basic information, but I am not completely immune from making mistakes. 

Second of all: Irish has three main dialects, Ulster, Munster, and Connacht. I was taught through the school system by people from all over the country, and my dialect is somewhat like patchwork. If you, or anyone else, pronounce words slightly differently than I do, it's probably because we’re speaking different dialects, and that's fine. 

Third of all: while Irish uses the latin alphabet, it is unfair to assume it obeys by the same phonics as English. The most glaring examples of this are fadá, or these things áéíóú. Fadá [lit. long] lengthen vowel sounds turning ah (a) to aw (á) and so on so forth. Also, if a consonant is followed by a h, then one exhales a little harder when saying the consonant, therefore softening it. The most obvious appearance of this is “bh” which makes a “v” sound. Or a “w” sound because most consonants make two different sounds depending on the vowels around it, which we shall not get into today. 

The first thing you need to know in any language is how to say hello. In Irish, the most common greeting is “Dia duit”, which is literally “God be with you”. However, if someone greets you with dia duit, the way you respond is “Dia is Muire duit” [lit. God and Mary be with you], and as the third person greeting you reply with “Dia is Muire is Padraig duit” or you can replace Padraig with any saint of your choosing. However if you are talking to a group larger than that you can use “Dia diaobh”. 

Some more informal greetings include “Haigh” which means hi, or “Aon sceal?” which means “any stories” and is basically what's up. You can also skip straight to asking how someone is.

“Conas atá tú?” is “how are you”, to which you can answer “Táim go maith,” or “Táim ceart go leor” which are “I’m well” and "I'm alright” respectively. You can reflect any question asked of you with a good “And you?” which is “Agus tusa?”

If you are asked your name with “Cad is ainm duit?” you can respond with “____ is ainm dom” for “my name is____”. If you are taking the initiative to introduce yourself without being asked, you can also use “Is mise ____” which is “I am ____”. 

The basis of saying goodbye is the word “Slán”, which is derived from sláinte (health), so it is wishing someone good health. However, most people either say “Slán leat” or “slán go fóil” which are “heath be with you,” and “goodbye for now”. Which variation you use is completely up to you. 

You probably already know that Éire is Ireland and gaeilge is the Irish language. So a Gaeilgeoir is someone who is fluent in Irish, a gaeltach is an area where people speak Irish in day to day life, and a gaelscoil is a school where everything is taught through Irish. It is also handy to know the word for English: bearla. So “As gaeilge” and “As bearla” are “in Irish'' and “in English” respectively. 

You will always need a few bits and bobs words when you’re starting out. “Agus” is “and”, “nó” is “or”, and “ach” is “but”. You can do a lot in this world with three good conjunctions. Please is “le do thoil”, and thank you is “go raibh maith agat”. You will see “Fáilte” in a lot of tourist destinations, as it means "welcome”. And “Slainte!” is “cheers,” which we saw above also means health. 

Finally, while you may be happy to tell people “Tá cupla focal agam” meaning “I have a few words (of Irish)”, there is no shame in saying “Ní thuigim” or “I don’t understand”, or asking them to repeat “as bearla, le do thoil”. Learning new skills is admirable and most people understand that. 

I want to also do a seanfhocail a day, for fancy points. Seanfhocail are idiomatic phrases, and literally means “old words”. Today’s seanfhocail is the classic: “Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin” which is “There’s not hearth like your own hearth” or “There's no place like home.”

See you tomorrow for everyone’s favourite: mutations (urú agus séimhiú)! Slán libh!

[the-clockwork-three]

Day 17: Patrick's Day

Tags: @unseeliethot @grimalkinsquill @bella-daonna @rusalkaandtheshepherdgirl @charlataninred

Written version below the cut.

Dia daoibh. Today is the final day of seachtain na gaeilge so I’ll just be picking up a few loose ends here and there. 

Talking about where you live is very easy. Just use the phrase “Tá mé i mo chonaí i ____”  and insert the name of your town, plus an urú. You can replace the town name with a general indicator of where you live, like “i gcathair”(in a city), “i mbaile” (in a town), “i sraidbhaile” (in a village), or “faoin tuath” (in the countryside). Be careful, the faoin replaces the final i, “Tá mé i mo chonaí faoin tuath.”

I did not really touch on plurals in Irish, as they are complicated. Irish has two main types of plurals, weak and strong. Weak plurals mean the genitive plural is the same as the normative singular, and strong plurals means the genitive plural is the same as the normative plural. There are some irregular nouns where all normative singular, genitive singular, normative plural, and genitive plural are all different. Unfortunately the only way to learn how to pluralise a word is to know the pattern for the set of endings, for example -eog is generally a weak plural where the normative plural is -eoga.

The vocative case in Irish is how you refer to someone, whether by name, title, or nickname. For titles or nicknames, start the phrase with the particle “a”, and then add a séimhiú where appropriate. 

For names you have to consider a few factors. If the name is not Irish, then you add the particle “a” in front and then leave it be. If it is an Irish name starting with a consonant, then you add a séimhiú, and if it starts with a vowel then do not. If it is a masculine name, you also must slenderise any broad endings by adding an I after the last vowel cluster, eg. Darragh -> a Dharraigh. For feminine names, do not add that i.

Letters in Irish generally begin with the phrase “A ___, a chara,” (do with this information what you will NDM fandom)

Let's talk dictionaries quickly. Foclóir is by far and away the best English-Irish dictionary on the internet. Teanglann is run by the organization as Focloir and does Gaeilge-Berla translations, as well as having a  Póta Focail is good for phrases, or for spotting words in fun grammatical cases that Teanglann cannot catch. However, it is generally a worse dictionary than the other two. 

Foclóir has a good section for changes words undergo due to grammar. If you hover over the indication of which section of speech any word is, e.g. verb or fem4, the link will become underlined. If you click it, a box will open on the screen. For nouns the box will tell you how to write them in the TG or the plural, for adjectives it will give it’s masculine, feminine, and plural forms, and it will conjugate out verbs. One section of speech this box specifically does not give information on are prepositional pronouns. If you want to see the conjugation of a preposition, your best bet is to use Teanglann, as it does out all preposition in both English-Irish and Irish-English.

Dia duit! Conas atá tú? Táim go maith, táim go maith. Cooper is ainm dom, agus is madra mé. Tá mé ceithre bliana d’aois. Tá gruaig dubh orm agus suile donna agam. Tá mo chuid gruaige chatach. Is madra an-dathúil mé. Tá mé i mo chonaí faoin tuath. Tá seasair i mo thealleach: cuaigair daoine agus mise. Is maith liom a bheith ag dul ar siúlta timpell na feirme. Inné, d’ith mé arán as an mbosca bruscair. Is fuath liom lon dubh, agus béarfaidh mé orthu lá éigin.

Finally, here's a little introduction paragraph, and a picture to give you hints. Catach - curly, dathúil - handsome, siúlta - walks, feirm - farm, arán - bread, bosca bruscair - bin, lon dubh - blackbird, lá éigin - someday. 

I now challenge you to write a similar paragraph for your own pet, or about your favorite fictional animal, like Snowy from Tintin. 

Today’s seanfhocail is “Ní neart go cur le chéile” or “There is no strength without unity”.

Thank you for sticking with this mess, go raibh maith agat. Lá fhéile Padraig sona dhaoibh, agus slán libh.

[the-clockwork-three]

Day 16: The Genitive Case

Tags: @grimalkinsquill @rusalkaandtheshepherdgirl @bella-daonna @charlataninred @unseeliethot (ask to be added or removed)

Text version below the cut

Dia daoibh, mo chairde. Támid ag caint faoi an tuiseal ginideach inniú. The tuiseal ginideach or the genitive case is a grammatical concept you will inevitably use in irish, but it can seem arbitrary until you get the hang of it.

If you find this difficult, and/or not immediately useful for speaking the language, that's okay. All the other grammatical concepts covered are the sort of thing you learn when you are seven years old, or at around 12 for some of the verbs. However you do not cover TG until you are in 3rd-5th year of secondary school, or when you are 15-17. This is a concept that does not have a good English equivalent and is generally a bit finicky. Quite frankly even I am quite shaky on the exact rules for every conversion. 

So what is a tuiseal or a case? It’s a different form of a noun depending on the grammatical environment it is in. Irish has four cases. Normative is the case we use when the noun is the subject or the object of a sentence. Dative is the case that goes after most propositions. Vocative is when you’re directly addressing someone. And genitive, which denotes possession, among many other things. 

First surprise! Irish has grammatical gender! I would excuse you for not knowing this as it really is not that noticeable. Irish has two genders, masculine and feminine, and does not have a neuter gender. The gender of something in reality does not necessarily reflect its grammatical gender, as cailín (girl) is a masculine word. 

Grammatical gender affects the adjectives one uses, as adjectives have to be put in their feminine form when describing feminine nouns. However the aspect that we will be talking about today is how it interacts with the definite article. So Irish does not have an indefinite article (which is “a” in English. If you mean a dog you just say “madra”) so it makes it up for having two definite articles. In the normative case, “an” goes onto singular nouns and “na” to plural nouns. 

When an goes in front of a masculine noun in the normative that starts with a consonant, it does nothing, and in front of a vowel it adds a t-. Eg. an fear, an t-éan.

When an goes in front of a feminine noun in the normative that starts with a consonant, it adds a séimhiú, and does nothing to words starting with a vowel. Eg, an bhean, an agaidh .

Second surprise! Irish has declensions. Declensions in Irish are just nouns that follow similar rules when switching between cases. There are five of them.

First declension

All masculine, ending with a leathan consonant. -án, -ch, -éad, -éan , -éal, -éar, leathan s, -ún, -úr, -adh are commonly found endings here.

Second declension

All feminine, except for teach (house), im (butter), and sliabh (mountain) which are masculine. All nouns ending in -lann, -óg, and -eog are in the second declension. 

Third declension 

A mix of masculine and feminine nouns. Commonly found endings in this declension are: -eoir, -óir, -aíocht, -íocht, -acht, -eacht, -airt, -irt.

Fourth declension:

A mix of masculine and feminine nouns. Anything that ends with the diminutive (-ín) is automatically in the fourth declension. Many words here end in a vowel.

Fifth declension:

A mix of masculine and feminine nouns, has very few defining features, and is a bit of a catch-all. 

How do you form the genitive?

This question has a different answer for every word, and is really dependent on gender of the noun, and which declension it is in. To form the genitive you really have to ask yourself these four questions:

What form of the definite article do we use?

What do we do at the start of the word?

Do we need to make it slender or broad?

What do we do to the end of the word?

The first two questions only apply when you need to use  can be answered by the gender of the noun:

In the genitive singular, masculine nouns use an. For words starting with a consonant you add a séimhiú, and for words starting with a vowel you do nothing. In the genitive, we do not apply a séimhiú to words starting with D or T, and instead of séimhiú we add the letter T before words starting with S, eg. sagart -> in aice an tsagairt (beside the priest)

In the genitive singular, feminine nouns use na. For words starting with a consonant you do nothing, and for words starting with vowels you add a H before the word. 

In the genitive plural, independent of gender, we use na and add an urú.

The next two questions can only be answered by which declension the noun is in.

First Declension:

Make it slender. That's all you have to do. Most of the time, you just slip an I in at the end of the final vowel cluster. Eg bád (boat) -> báid. 

If the final vowels are EA then they transform to an I, eg fear (man) -> fir

If the final consonants are CH it turns to GH, eg aonach (fair) -> aonaigh

Second Declension:

Make it slender (if necessary), then add an E to the end. Eg Clann (family) -> clainne, 

If the final letters are EACH goes to Í and ACH goes to AÍ, eg teach (house) -> tí

Third Declension:

Make it broad, then add an a to the end. Droim (back) -> droma

Fourth declension:

Most of the time you do nothing!

 

Fifth declension:

Can change in several different ways.

Broadening, eg máthair (mother) -> máthar

Broadening and adding an ACH, eg traein (train) -> traenach

Vowel gains either a D, an N, or an NN, eg cara (friend) -> carad or lacha (duck) -> lachan 

Whose transformation while under tg is impossible to predict, and you just need to learn off. The one that comes to mind for me is “Bean” (woman) which is “mná” in the tg. 

When do you use the tuiseal ginideach?

There are six situations that prompt the tg:

When two nouns go one after the other, the second is in the tg. Eg. Mala scoile (school bag)

When describing possession in the form of “[object] an/na [owner]”, for example hata an fhir (the man’s hat)

After the verbal noun. For example ag imirt peile (playing football).

After a conjugated preposition, like in aice (beside), os comhair (in front), or tar éis (after). Eg Os comhair an tí (in front of the house)

After some simple prepositions like transna (across), timpeall (around), or chun (to), eg transna na dtointe (across the waves)

After adjectives that describe amounts of things without counting them, eg go leor (a lot), béagán (a little bit), or níos mó (more). Mórán carad (many friends)

I am aware that this is a lot. If you come out of today with a vague idea about when you should use the tuiseal ginideach, and are willing to try to figure out words, then I consider this a success. Also nobody minds if you make mistakes with the tg because it does have a lot of rules. And very few people will notice the difference between sagart and sagairt in spoken Irish unless you are actively being examined. 

Today’s seanfhocail is “Mól na h-oige agus tiocfaidh siad” or “Praise the young and they will grow.”

I’ll see you tomorrow for our final chat, and pulling all this information into a self-introduction paragraph. Slán libh!

[the-clockwork-three]

Day 12: Possession and Mutations

Tags: @charlataninred @rusalkaandtheshepherdgirl @bella-daonna @unseeliethot @grimalkinsquill

Written version under the cut

Dia daoibh, mo chairde! Today we will cover mutations in Irish through the possessive pronouns. Possessive pronouns are my, your, his, her, our, your (pl), and their. In Irish they are: 

Mo, do, a, a, ár, bhur, a

The eagle eyed among you may have noticed that three of those words are the same. How would one tell the difference between his coat and her coat? That's where mutations come in.

Séimhiú:

Also known as lenation in English

A seimhiú is a h that slips just after the first consonant in a word and the rest of the word. This softens the sound of that first syllable, as we talked about yesterday. So “bord” (table) becomes “bhord”, and as séimhiú can also be applied to consonant clusters,  “gruaig” (hair) becomes “ghruaig”. Words starting with L, N, R, H, vowels, and some S clusters (specifically SC, SM, SP, and ST) do not take a séimhiú, however every other letter does. You can remember this by the mnemonic Elenenor (L,N,R).

When do you use a séimhiú? With the prepositions do (to), faoi (under), ó (from), sa (in the) and a few others. Sa becomes san in front of vowels, and because FH is silent and sa gives it a séimhiú, we use san in front of words starting with F followed by a vowel. Eg. sa theach (in the house), san uisce (in the water), san fhuineóg (in the window). They also occur in some circumstances with verbs and numbers. Do not worry about this for now.

What we care about now is how they work with possessive pronouns. Words after mo (my), do (your singular), a (his) all take a séimhiú. For the sake of example I will use the word cotá  which is coat, so my coat would be “mo chota”. Also notice how in yesterday’s seanfhocail, “tinteán” goes to  “do thinteán”, and to open this lesson I said “mo chairde” when friends is normally just cairde. Once you begin to notice how séimhiú works you will see them everywhere, which is good for learning how to use it.

Urú

Or eclipses in English 

An urú is a letter that goes before a word, eclipsing or overshadowing the original first letter. The letter a word takes as an urú is dependent on its first letter. Not all letters take an urú. A mnemonic for remembering urú is given below:

My Brother

Got Caught

Not Doing

Dishes Tonight

Nobody Gets

Blueberry Pie

Before He Finishes

Or for a word starting with B, such as bord, gets an urú of an M, forming “mbord”, so on so forth. Again, this works for consonant clusters too, so gruaig becomes ngrauig. The only notable thing from the mnemonic is the last line, as words beginning with F get an urú of BH, such as “bhfinneog”.

When do you use urú? Well it goes after many prepositions when paired with the definite article “an”. “Ag an” (belonging to the), ar an (on the), leis an (with the), faoin (under the), and ón (from the) all apply urú. Urús are also applied after the word i (in), which like sa becomes in before a vowel. And again, some situations of counting and verbs take urú, however we will come back to this. 

So we use urú when we are talking about ár (our), bhur (your) and a (their) stuff, meaning our coat is “ár gcotá”.

What about a (her)? Well the word just stays the same, so it would be “a cota”.

For words beginning in a vowel, such as “each”  for horse, there are different rules. Mo and do drop their Os and become m’ and d’, forming “m’each” and “d’each”. A (his) does nothing, “a each”, a (hers) adds a “h” to the front of the word “a heach”, and ár, bhur, and a (their) add an “n-” to form “ár n-each”, “bhur n-each”, and “a n-each”.

And what if you wanted to describe possession without a possessive pronoun? How would one say “the man’s coat”? Well, you would say “cota an fhir”. However the word for man is usually “fear” not “fir”. The noun that the object belongs to is put into the tuiseal ginideach, or the genitive case. We have a whole lesson on the genitive coming up so do not worry about it for now. 

Unfortunately, the only way to get good at using mutations is to practice. You will just have to make a conscious effort to notice which words take urú or séimhiú when reading and when writing. 

Final test! If geata means gate, how would you say your (sing) gate, or your (pl) gate. And what does “a geata” mean?

Today’s seanfhocail is “Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile” which means “One beetle recognises another beetle” or “Takes one to know one”. 

I’ll see you tomorrow for the evil, but necessary, world of how to conjugate verbs. Slán libh!