S is for strategies… The “Irish” problem is a good test of strategies…Irish
The “Irish” Problem… 2.1. Translate the following phrases into English: a. naoi mbád déag is ceithre fichid b. sé dhuine déag c. naoi nduine d. fiche gasúr e. garra déag is fiche 2.2. Translate the following phrases into Irish: a. 2 boys b. 38 walls c. 14 walls d. 71 doors e. 21 boats f. 90 people garra amháin1 garden gasúr déag11 boys ocht mballa is dhá fichid48 walls dhá gharra déag is ceithre fichid 92 gardens trí bhád3 boats seacht ndoras déag17 doors seacht mbád déag is dhá fichid 57 boats naoi nduine déag is fiche39 people ceithre fichid doras80 doors cúig bhalla5 walls sé ghasúr is trí fichid66 boys deich mbád10 boats sé dhuine6 people trí dhoras is dhá fichid43 doors garra is ceithre fichid81 gardens
Remember, “S is for Strategies” try your ‘ways in’… COGNATES?COGNATES Irish is an Indo-European Language, so are there ‘cognates’ [lexemes OR particles that are related to English, or to other Indo-European languages that you know]? LEXICAL PATTERNING? Which root lexemes occur more than once? Can you identify correspondences between lexemes that occur the same number of times in both languages [lexemes for the same thing in both languages]? ELEMENTS Are there elements of Irish that don’t appear in English? If so, is there a pattern [in the distribution of the Irish elements &/or in the corresponding English phrases]? WORD ORDER? From the correspondences, what can you say about word order – which element of each phrase corresponds to which element in English [Same word order in all phrases? Same as English?] MARKING? Again, from the correspondences, are there lexemes which have different forms in different contexts [positions? what is being counted?] How are they marked, and why? [this problem is a timely reminder that English is a language too, so you can apply all of these approaches backwards – e.g. English inflects for grammatical number by ‘marking’ plurals with ‘s’…!]
Lovely ‘cheats’… One to three in Irish One to ten in Irish Counting People in Irish A lesson in Irish counting [and loan words from Irish into English!]A lesson in Irish counting [and loan words from Irish into English!] Everything Irish! FINALLY – a full explanation of the Irish counting system!a full explanation of the Irish counting system
The answers… 2.1a. 99 boats b. 16 people c. 9 people d. 20 boys e. 31 gardens 2.2a. dhá ghasúr b. ocht mballa déag is fiche c. ceithre bhalla déag d. doras déag is trí fichid e. bád is fiche f. deich nduine is ceithre fichid 2.1. Translate the following phrases into English: a. naoi mbád déag is ceithre fichid b. sé dhuine déag c. naoi nduine d. fiche gasúr e. garra déag is fiche 2.2. Translate the following phrases into Irish: a. 2 boys b. 38 walls c. 14 walls d. 71 doors e. 21 boats f. 90 people
The phonemes of Irish