Re: aspirated m?

On Nov 25, 2004, at 3:22 AM, Stephen Mulraney wrote:
> Steg Belsky wrote:
> Another issue of the newspaper actually describes what an Ulpan is (and
> it looks like the quote Steg found): "...na hIosraelaigh agus ulpan
> (córas le daoine a ghaelú, i gcás na hÉireann) a bhunú i ngach roinn
> stáit."
> ".. the Israelites, and an Ulpan (a system of Gaelicising people, in
> the
> case of Ireland) to found in each state department". I'm not sure I
> like
> the phrasing of this one!
Does that mean "Israelites" as in the biblical tribes of Israel, or is
the same word used for modern Israelis?

>> Although it looks like "Iosraelaigh" breaks the slender/broad vowel
>> pairing rule.. i wonder what's with the |aelai|.
> Yes, a bit strange... it's whay my dictionary gives though (well, the
> singular "Iosraelach"). My guess is that the "ae" is just there for
> effect - it isn't that common in Irish, and most places that I can
> thing of that it does occur, I can identify the word as a borrowing
> ("contae" _county_ from ?Norman French). Not all, though: there's
> the name of the lang, "Gaeilge", where it seems to be replaceable
> with "e" (I think).
_contae_ still follows the rule, though, right?  The _nt_ consonant
combination are surrounded by two broad vowels, _onta_ with the _e_ on
the end as the pronounced vowel?
Same with _Gaeilge_... i always thought the _a_ was just there to make
the _g_ broad.

>> -Stephen (Steg)
>>  "siúd chugaibh mary chinidh 'sí i ndiaidh an éirne shnámh"
>>      ~ 'an mhaighdean mhara'
> Ní thuigim níos mo ná dhá nó trí fhocal! Sílim go Gaelige obfúscaithe
> í :).
> (oh, my ability to form grammatical Irish sentences has withered away
> since
> I loaded my prize reference book to my brother.. :()
Well, i barely ever had any ability, and none now that my dictionary
and textbook are on a different continent :P .
Errrm... did you say something like "i don't... two... three words! ...
in Irish obfuscate(?)"
Hmmm... just a guess but, does it mean "I only understand two or three
of the words!  It's in complicated Irish"?


-Stephen (Steg)
  "hod(u/aya)!"

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