Ireland really does look like this and Irish sounds like this...



Behold the photos of Ireland! The vibrant green of the countryside; if you stare at it and then look away will mean you 'see green' and have flashes of green across the eyes.

Rain lashes down like a punishment in Ireland, but no rain no green grass gain.

The Irish language, 'gaelic' as it is called in England with a hard 'g', is a language that glorifies the use of prepositions, especially 'on'. You use 'on' to explain that an emotion like sadness or happiness. In the Irish language, you don't say 'I am sad' you say 'tá brón orm' or 'sadness is on me' and 'tá áthas orm' meaning 'happiness is on me'. You might notice that 'orm' ("urm") is the  equivalent of two English words: 'on me'.  This is because pronouns like 'me' in Irish are combined with a prepostion like 'on' to become one word: orm / "urm".

There is none more celebrated an expression of the Irish language's preoccupation with prepositions than St Patrick's Breastplate; 'Christ be beside me, Christ be before me...Christ be within me...' The two English words 'with me' become one word in the Irish language 'liom' ("lum"). The English word 'within' is bent and shaped into many ornate linguistic forms in the Irish language. In St Patrick's Breastplate, the line 'Críost liom' can mean 'Christ within me' or 'Christ with me'.

Comments

  1. Thanks Mary, I never thought about that before,
    Le gach dea ghuí,
    Brian

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