Welcome
to my weekly blog, SATURDAY SESSIONS!
In
this blog, for the perusal of all our students, past, present and future, I
include an extract from our interactive presentation Course, Ireland and its
Culture. We explore and discover Ireland
and its Culture - so that's why I call them 'Logs', as in a ship's (or Star
Ship Enterprise's J ) logbook!
Each
Saturday, I hope to post an extract from each of the Logs.
Below
each extract, we have a corresponding extract
from the Mining The Text
section which focuses on the use of English involved in creating the paragraph.
In
our Course, participants sit back and listen first to a recording of the
reading, then we read it together, look at how it was created and discuss the
content involved!
In
the afternoons and evenings, we go out, explore and discover!
If
you wish to ask me any question about the text, by the way, just send me an
e-mail at greg@bluefeather.ie
From Log 9, The Irish Language
Ancient
Greek historians, such as Strabo, first identified the Celtic nomadic culture
in the Hallstatt region of Austria and the La Tène district of Switzerland.
The
origin of the Celts is unknown, but Irish is one of the oldest languages in
Europe. Some of the words in international English today originate in Irish,
words such as bog (from bog, soft - a
bog is marshy land); galore (= a lot of; from go leoir, plenty) - Whisky
Galore is the title of a Scottish comic film; smithereens, meaning, in bits
or in pieces, from smidiríní;
whiskey, from uisce, short for uisce beatha, the water of life, and a
number of others.
It is
often said that the English spoken in Ireland is the clearest English in the
world. Some scholars claim that the pronunciation of English in Ireland is
closer to that of Shakespeare's time; the 'r' sound, for example, in a word
like 'Ireland' is retained, whereas in England it is not. ('Are you from Ah-land?')
Since
the beginning of the 20th century in particular, Irish writers in English have
achieved international renown (four Nobel prizes in Literature), arguably
because they have been able to breathe the spirit of the Irish language into
English and create a colourful, dynamic
and outstanding literature of their own in English. Irish writer Brendan
Behan once famously said: 'The English gave us their language but we showed
them how to use it!'
As
Irish is the first official language of the country, all place names are in
Irish and in English. In the early 19th century, English map-makers
(cartographers) translated all the place-names in Ireland into English.
Generally, they tried to keep the original sound of the name but the meaning of
the name was lost in English. For example, Dublin was originally Dubh Linn, Dubh = Black, Linn =
Pool. Near Dun Laoghaire (the Fort of
King Laoghaire), the suburb of Glenageary is Gleann na gCaorach, The Valley of the Sheep. Dun Laoghaire (correctly written Dún Laoghaire, the first word sounding
more like 'Doon') is one of the few places in Ireland which has retained its original
name. In the 19th century, before Irish independence, it was known as Kingstown
for no better reason than the English King George IV decided to visit the harbour
town on his way into Dublin. Although if
you ask me, the Irish had the last laugh because unknown to King George, they
had really named Kingstown after King Laoghaire!
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