Can I get some help with the following?

1. Is "Gura féis ic faelaib do chorp" grammatically correct and is it Conamara?

2. If my head hurts, do I say "Mo cheann, mo cheann" or "Mo ceann, mo ceann" ?

3. Is "Cloisim arís uait é" correct?

4. Is "Dearg-bhitse" commonly used as an insult, and what exactly does it mean? What would be the closest English equivalent?

5. Is the vocative of mac "A mhac" ?

Thanks!!!!!!

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I'm very much a beginner learner. Don't hesitate to correct me, as long as you explain why. This is how I learn best!

Not going to say I know for Conamara, but what I can tell you I will.

2. "Mo" causes lenition (adding of a 'h') to the following word, so "mo cheann, mo cheann!" is correct.

5. Unless I'm badly mistaken "mac" is a first declension noun (masculine noun ending in a broad consonant). And, in such cases the final consonant should be slenderised. That would make the vocative "a mhic" and not "a mhac."

As for 3, it really depends what you mean to say by it. I'd translate it to English as, "I hear it again from you." If that's what you intended, spot on.

Hi Mimerim, could we have the English for what your trying to say?

The first one looks a bit like Middle Irish in spelling , but doesn't seem to make sense; faelaib looks like the dative plural for fael 'wolf', rendered as faol in Modern Irish.

2. Someone would probably say 'Ó mo cheann, (ó) mo cheann'!

3. Are you trying to say I will here from you again? Cloisim is the present tense, 1st person singular 'I hear'.

4. bitseach is 'bitch', dearg-bhitseach would work and mean something like 'a thundering bitch'. But I don't know how common that expression would be in Conamara, you'd have to wait for Bríd.




In Conamara, 'mac' is not slenderised in the vocative, so 'a mhac' is correct. It is slenderised in Munster Irish.

A mhac/ a mhic is used similarly to the way we use 'kid' in Hibero-English where I live, where you'll frequently hear, 'here kid' etc ...

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Just a word on "a mhac/a mhic"...it kind of depends on what you are trying to say. Are you addressing your actual son, or are you addressing a man as a "buddy" or "pal"?

"A mhic" is what you would say if you were addressing your son. But "a mhac" is often used in conversation between friends, in the same way we would say "dude" here in the wilds of California:

"Sup, dude?"

"Aon scéal, a mhac?"

Redwolf

A father addressing his son. So that's "a mhic." Ouch, that means I have an error in my first book.



I pulled both #1 and #3 from another forum years ago. I'm not sure where.

"Gura féis ic faelaib do chorp" was translated as "May your body be a feast for wolves!"

"Cloisim arís uait é" was translated as "Let me hear you say it again." As in a dare. Someone threatens you, you say this back, almost like "I dare you to say that again."

Both of these were spun as "known Irish sayings" which I know is sometimes questionable on the internet. I knew better than to use them without asking you all first.

Thanks to all who've helped so far. I think I will add the "Ó" to #2. "Ó mo cheann, mo cheann!" Thanks for that.

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I'm very much a beginner learner. Don't hesitate to correct me, as long as you explain why. This is how I learn best!

If that's the meaning, then it probably is a form of Middle Irish, or maybe Old Irish, although it seems odd that the séimhiú is indicated in the last word (corp becomes chorp) but not in faelaib (see faolaibh below), but then I'm certainly no expert in Middle or Old Irish.

In modern Irish, it would be something like this (using a now largely disused dative form for wolves, to show the connection): Go raibh feis ag faolaibh do chorp, or perhaps Go raibh feis idir faolaibh do chorp. According to my etymological dictionary, oc (not ic) was the Old Irish form of ag, but perhaps ic was a variant form.


I've never seen that before, but it's plausible. FGB (the dictionary "bible" for Irish) has a similar expression under clois: Ná cloisim i do dhiaidh é is explained as meaning figuratively: "Don't say a word about it", where the verb clois ("hear") is used in the same manner as is in your sentence, but as a negative command, meaning something like "I better not hear".

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

Look what I found:

Gura féis ic faelaib do chorp!

(may it be * feast * at * wolves * your * body)

May your body be a feast for wolves!

Spoken by Congal in "Cath Muigi Rath" (p. 189 in FDG). He continues with "ocus gura fáilid fiach ármuige ós do bruinne" (and may the raven of the battlefield be joyful over your breast).

Here: http://www.sengoidelc.com/node/381

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I'm very much a beginner learner. Don't hesitate to correct me, as long as you explain why. This is how I learn best!

And this:

say »
(Defiance) Just say that again! cloisim arís uait é sin!

From here: http://www.potafocal.com/x/teanglann.ie/?s=just

So I think it's better with the "sin" there, right?

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I'm very much a beginner learner. Don't hesitate to correct me, as long as you explain why. This is how I learn best!

This reminds me very much of a passage in "Cath Belaig Duin Bolc," a battle tale written in Early Irish. There's a rendition of it with French translation in Éigse 7 ii (1953) 95-111, if anybody has access to that Journal. I can't put my hands on the Irish version of it at the moment, but this is how I translated a passage of it once:

"May your scrotum serve the Leinstermen
as a bag for chess pawns!
May a wolf-bitch with a grey muzzle
carry off your penis into a brake."

A bit later the same theme is repeated:

"‘O great Lord’, said the bishop, ‘may the skin of your balls serve the L’men as a bag for chess pawns, and may a she
bitch in heat steal away your shameful member into the brake and the wood, and may you then suffer defeat and
complete route and may you lose your life thereat!’"

It could be a related or mangled form of the same curse?

That passage is very similar in meaning. It must have been a common way to curse people back then. Sure makes our modern curses seem a bit lame.

So, since #1 is too uncommon for modern speakers, I think I'll go with "Go raibh feis ag faolaibh do chorp" unless anyone has any other ideas? My dictionary has mactíre for wolf. Would it make more sense with that instead?

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I'm very much a beginner learner. Don't hesitate to correct me, as long as you explain why. This is how I learn best!