Irish language quiz

Jay Bee · **Joined:** Tue 15 Nov 2011 7:35 am **Posts:** 1098

Cé mhéad atá agaibh?

1 In what alphabet was the first Irish word written? What was that word?

2 Which letters in the Roman alphabet have never appeared in proper Irish orthography?

3 According to legend, what connection had Irish to the tower of Babel?

4 How many irregular verbs are there in Munster Irish?

5 In what century did the last native speaker of Dublin Irish die according to Dúchas agus Dóchas: an chaint sa chathair?

6 What was the name of Irish-Norse hybrid language spoken in the Hiberno-Norse towns at the turn of the last millenium?

7. What is the oldest surviving piece of literature in the Irish language? On what occasion was it written?

8. What's the first novel to be composed in Modern Irish?

9. What are the different conjugations of the word Bó?

10. According to legend who invented the Irish language, and who first spoke it in Ireland?

11. What has Irish got in common with Hebrew, Classical Arabic and Hawaiian?

12. What is significant about the word bríste in Irish, that is conversely true about the word trousers in English?

13. What does bhí leis leis leis leis mean?

14. List the words not of english origin in this sentence.

Jumpáil sé ar a bhicycle, is cycleáil sé síos an ród.

15. What is significant about auracept na n-éces among Western European languages?

16. Which monumental work of English literature, is claimed by James Carney to be based on an Irish folk tale?

17. Which Irish speaking island was home to three internationally renowned writers in the Irish language?

18. What does Béarla actually mean? What does iarmbérla allude to?

19. H.H. Asquith once used the Irish language against the independence movement. In what way?

20. What was unusual about Samuel Carsuel's translation of the Bible into Scots Gaelic?

Lughaidh · **Joined:** Thu 15 Sep 2011 12:06 pm **Posts:** 2436

Níl achan fhreagar agam féin

Quote:

9. What are the different conjugations of the word Bó?

déarfainn "declension forms", úsáidtear "conjugations" le labhairt fá fhoirm bhriathair.

An Cionnfhaolach · **Joined:** Fri 09 Mar 2012 6:16 pm **Posts:** 1527

Jay Bee wrote:

Cé mhéad atá agaibh?

1 In what alphabet was the first Irish word written? What was that word?

2 Which letters in the Roman alphabet have never appeared in proper Irish orthography?

3 According to legend, what connection had Irish to the tower of Babel?

4 How many irregular verbs are there in Munster Irish?

5 In what century did the last native speaker of Dublin Irish die according to Dúchas agus Dóchas: an chaint sa chathair?

6 What was the name of Irish-Norse hybrid language spoken in the Hiberno-Norse towns at the turn of the last millenium?

7. What is the oldest surviving piece of literature in the Irish language? On what occasion was it written?

8. What's the first novel to be composed in Modern Irish?

9. What are the different conjugations of the word Bó?

10. According to legend who invented the Irish language, and who first spoke it in Ireland?

11. What has Irish got in common with Hebrew, Classical Arabic and Hawaiian?

12. What is significant about the word bríste in Irish, that is conversely true about the word trousers in English?

13. What does bhí leis leis leis leis mean?

14. List the words not of english origin in this sentence.

Jumpáil sé ar a bhicycle, is cycleáil sé síos an ród.

15. What is significant about auracept na n-éces among Western European languages?

16. Which monumental work of English literature, is claimed by James Carney to be based on an Irish folk tale?

17. Which Irish speaking island was home to three internationally renowned writers in the Irish language?

18. What does Béarla actually mean? What does iarmbérla allude to?

19. H.H. Asquith once used the Irish language against the independence movement. In what way?

20. What was unusual about Samuel Carsuel's translation of the Bible into Scots Gaelic?

fair play dhuit Jay Bee :good:

Nín gach freagra agam fhéinig ach an oiread, cúig nú sé cheann i n-easnamh agam.

Quote:

18. What does iarmbérla allude to?

controversial, T. F. O'Rahilly's loose interpretation? Cormac's definition? Or later Irish grammatical terminology? :winkgrin:

Cathain a thosnóimíd lena bhfreagrú?

Jay Bee · **Joined:** Tue 15 Nov 2011 7:35 am **Posts:** 1098

Fuair mé ar an idirlíon iad; da bhrí sin, caithfidh mé na freagraí a bhailiú

http://machinenation.forumakers.com/t95 ... guage-quiz

An Cionnfhaolach · **Joined:** Fri 09 Mar 2012 6:16 pm **Posts:** 1527

Jay Bee wrote:

Cé mhéad atá agaibh?

1 In what alphabet was the first Irish word written? What was that word?

Greek ... the various names listed on Ptolemy's map of Ireland (c. 150 AD), though all the names seem to be of a P-Celtic nature.

First recorded Irish Q-Celtic- ogam? ; a name (but how do you definitively determine which one of the earliest ogam stones was the oldest?).

2 Which letters in the Roman alphabet have never appeared in proper Irish orthography?

Y? and W

3 According to legend, what connection had Irish to the tower of Babel?

Irish was an amalgamation of the best of all languages at the tower of Babel.

4 How many irregular verbs are there in Munster Irish?

The same amount as there is all other dialects. Some discount déan because it is not rinne/ rinn; However, the form does change to dhein and sometimes the negative dhearna is till in use.

5 In what century did the last native speaker of Dublin Irish die according to Dúchas agus Dóchas: an chaint sa chathair?

20th century?

6 What was the name of Irish-Norse hybrid language spoken in the Hiberno-Norse towns at the turn of the last millenium?

I would be very interested in this answer, I never knew there was a specific word for it?

7. What is the oldest surviving piece of literature in the Irish language? On what occasion was it written?

Amra Choluim Cille, though its in dispute at the moment.

8. What's the first novel to be composed in Modern Irish?

Séadna? I think Dracula was the oldest translated novel.

9. What are the different conjugations of the word Bó?
Believe it or not, but bó had its own declension/ stem in Old Irish. The diphthong stem. The diphthong is still found in the dative plural.

Nom. bó ba
Voc. bó ba
Gen. bó bó/ba (less traditional)
Dative boin buaibh

10. According to legend who invented the Irish language, and who first spoke it in Ireland?

In the pre-lebor Gabála tradition, I think it was suppose to be the Scythians, can't remember who brought it exactly.

11. What has Irish got in common with Hebrew, Classical Arabic and Hawaiian?

They are all VSO languages?

12. What is significant about the word bríste in Irish, that is conversely true about the word trousers in English?

I think Irish bríste is borrowed from English, but English trousers is borrowed from Irish?

13. What does bhí leis leis leis leis mean?

There was an exposed thigh with him as well.

14. List the words not of english origin in this sentence.

Jumpáil sé ar a bhicycle, is cycleáil sé síos an ród.

Jumpáil, bicycle (Latin?, but came by means of English), cycleáil (Latin? but through English as an intermediary), ród (from Anglo-Saxon road meaning 'street'); sé, ar, a, is, síos, an

15. What is significant about auracept na n-éces among Western European languages?

It is the oldest grammatical primer in Western Europe outside the classical languages.

16. Which monumental work of English literature, is claimed by James Carney to be based on an Irish folk tale?

Not sure, is it the Green Knight?

17. Which Irish speaking island was home to three internationally renowned writers in the Irish language?

An Blascaod Mór.

18. What does Béarla actually mean? What does iarmbérla allude to?

Béarla > Bélra (metathesis of r and l) originally meant language. Iarmbérla > Iarnbélra was descried by Cormac (sanas Cormaic) as meaning iron language, and he gave some examples like on meaning 'rock' as apposed to the gnáthbélra (Irish) cloch. T. F. O'Rahilly has postulated that Iarnbélra was once Érnbélra (reflecting the diphthongisation of all the long -e-'s to -ía- in Old Irish) referred to the possible P-Celtic language of the Érainn (Iverni). In later times iarnbélra was a grammatical term used to denote abstract grammatical phenomena, e.g. proclitic.

19. H.H. Asquith once used the Irish language against the independence movement. In what way?

?

20. What was unusual about Samuel Carsuel's translation of the Bible into Scots Gaelic?

I don't understand why people call it Scots Gaelic?

The bible was a carbon copy of the Irish bible, the Scottish Pastors complained that their congregations couldn't really understand it (probably because the Irish version was suppose to be in Munster Irish).

Jay Bee · **Joined:** Tue 15 Nov 2011 7:35 am **Posts:** 1098

1. Yes. First -unknown. Do we count Ogham stones and which of the known examples are the oldest? What about runic inscriptions? Are any of them in proto-Irish? Was Celtiberian an ancestor or related ancestor to Irish? Those inscriptions go back nearly 2500 years

2. x, y, z, j, q, k, w, v, (h). The question is subjective/biased

3. Irish was an amalgamation of the best of Babel!

4. I don't know myself. A Loin Dhuibh!

5. 20th, the 1930's I heard in the mountains bordering Wicklow

6. Don't know. Unless someone has confused Fingalian with it

7. Amhra Choluim Cille, if it is, but it is not clear if it is so

8. Seems to be. When was Dracula printed?

9. Very interesting re: bó!

10. Aimhirgin apparently brought the sons of Mil here. What is the difference between the pre and post Leabhar Gabhala tradition?

11. VSO, yes

12. Bríste from 'britches', the long vowel and slender '-ste' ending, probably giving it away. Treabhsair would have entered via Scots Gaelic, no?

13. Yes, he had a bare/exposed thigh as well ('leis' the Munster 'freisin')

14. Seems to be the case. Would need a real expert to know if any of the grammar words are borrowings! I assume 'from English' is not a trick question

15. Beowulf, apparently.

Quote:

Wilhelm Grimm is noted to be the first person to link Beowulf with Irish folklore. Max Deutschbein, however, the first person to present the argument in academic form. He suggested the Irish Feast of Bricriu as a source for Beowulf—a theory that was soon denied by Oscar Olson. Swedish folklorist Carl Wilhelm Von Sydow argued against both Scandinavian translation and source material due to his theory that Beowulf is fundamentally Christian and written at a time when any Norse tale would have most likely been pagan.[77]

In the late 1920s, Heinzer Dehmer suggested Beowulf as contextually based in the folktale type "The Hand and the Child," due to the motif of the "monstrous arm"—a motif that distances Grettis saga and Beowulf and further aligns Beowulf with Irish parallelism. James Carney and Martin Puhvel also agree with this "Hand and the Child" contextualisation. Carney also ties Beowulf to Irish literature through the Táin Bó Fráech story. Puhvel supported the "Hand and the Child" theory through such motifs as "the more powerful giant mother, the mysterious light in the cave, the melting of the sword in blood, the phenomenon of battle rage, swimming prowess, combat with water monsters, underwater adventures, and the bear-hug style of wrestling."[77]

The Green Knight seems to have Irish influence too.

16. Seems to be

17. I'll take your word for it, as it is a popular answer, and I'm not knowledgeable of Munster literature

18. Yes. 'Béal' + 'ra' ('material'), meaning 'mouth produce' (I guess), with later metathesis. O'Rahilly's theory is interesting. Given the most abundant Ogham territory is Kerry and Cork, it is another one of those contradictions (along with the idea that Gaeldom spread from the North West first)

19. He said the Irish had no language of their own, so didn’t deserve independence

20. Yes

An Cionnfhaolach · **Joined:** Fri 09 Mar 2012 6:16 pm **Posts:** 1527

Jay Bee wrote:

2. x, y, z, j, q, k, w, v, (h). The question is subjective/biased

x does appear in Old Irish for -achs- consonant clusters, e.g. axal (achsal) from apostulos.
q does appear as a nod for cú/ cu.

w, y, z seems to be the correct answer: http://www.vanhamel.nl/codecs/Alphabetic_symbols

Quote:

5. 20th, the 1930's I heard in the mountains bordering Wicklow

I heard something similar to that also.

Quote:

6. Don't know. Unless someone has confused Fingalian with it

There was a lot of literature produced about the influence of Norse on Irish, but that was in the 60s-70s, I don't remember seeing the language explicitly named in there- though Sommerfelt pointed out that there may have been a Norse-Irish hybrid since the Anglo-Norman names for towns seem to have come through a Irish-Norse intermediary, e.g. Leinster (Laighin +Germanic genitive marker -s- + tír; vocab is Irish, semantics is Norse), Lexlip etc...

I know the Norse dialect that survived in Scotland around Caithness was called Norn.

Quote:

8. Seems to be. When was Dracula printed?

In 1933, that could be a local legend though, since the author was Ó Cuirrín.

Quote:

9. Very interesting re: bó!

Quote:

10. Aimhirgin apparently brought the sons of Mil here. What is the difference between the pre and post Leabhar Gabhala tradition?

The Lebor Gabála tradition is a relatively late one, early legends existed antecedent to Lebor Gabála tradition becoming utterly dominant. The Lebor Gabála trad. draws heavily from the bible in many respects, Parthalón is an Irish rendering of Lat. Bartholomeus. I don't know whether I am mixing both traditions up myself as I am not sure where I'm getting Scythians from? Its somewhere in the back of my mind. I also think the Scythians are mentioned in the Lebor Gabála.

Quote:

12. Bríste from 'britches', the long vowel and slender '-ste' ending, probably giving it away. Treabhsair would have entered via Scots Gaelic, no?

Where did Scottish Gaelic get it from then? Is it a purely Scottish Gaelic innovation or is it Norse influence?

Quote:

15. Beowulf, apparently.

Quote:

Wilhelm Grimm is noted to be the first person to link Beowulf with Irish folklore. Max Deutschbein, however, the first person to present the argument in academic form. He suggested the Irish Feast of Bricriu as a source for Beowulf—a theory that was soon denied by Oscar Olson. Swedish folklorist Carl Wilhelm Von Sydow argued against both Scandinavian translation and source material due to his theory that Beowulf is fundamentally Christian and written at a time when any Norse tale would have most likely been pagan.[77]

In the late 1920s, Heinzer Dehmer suggested Beowulf as contextually based in the folktale type "The Hand and the Child," due to the motif of the "monstrous arm"—a motif that distances Grettis saga and Beowulf and further aligns Beowulf with Irish parallelism. James Carney and Martin Puhvel also agree with this "Hand and the Child" contextualisation. Carney also ties Beowulf to Irish literature through the Táin Bó Fráech story. Puhvel supported the "Hand and the Child" theory through such motifs as "the more powerful giant mother, the mysterious light in the cave, the melting of the sword in blood, the phenomenon of battle rage, swimming prowess, combat with water monsters, underwater adventures, and the bear-hug style of wrestling."[77]

The Green Knight seems to have Irish influence too.

I guessed the Green Knight as Carney has often mentioned it in his writings. Both seem to be correct.

Quote:

18. Yes. 'Béal' + 'ra' ('material'), meaning 'mouth produce' (I guess), with later metathesis. O'Rahilly's theory is interesting. Given the most abundant Ogham territory is Kerry and Cork, it is another one of those contradictions (along with the idea that Gaeldom spread from the North West first)

Interesting indeed, but it almost impossible to prove anything in the field.

Quote:

19. He said the Irish had no language of their own, so didn’t deserve independence

I'm not familiar with the man, who was he? (stupid question :LOL:

). Although, he didn't seem to bright himself with a statement like that ... unless he was bemoaning the loss of the Irish language?

Cian

Jay Bee · **Joined:** Tue 15 Nov 2011 7:35 am **Posts:** 1098

Quote:

There was a lot of literature produced about the influence of Norse on Irish, but that was in the 60s-70s, I don't remember seeing the language explicitly named in there- though Sommerfelt pointed out that there may have been a Norse-Irish hybrid since the Anglo-Norman names for towns seem to have come through a Irish-Norse intermediary, e.g. Leinster (Laighin +Germanic genitive marker -s- + tír; vocab is Irish, semantics is Norse), Lexlip etc...

That's interesting. I've wondered about -ster and even Leixslip itself when 'Léim an Bhradáin' seems to be on the sign, as far as I recall

Quote:

In 1933, that could be a local legend though, since the author was Ó Cuirrín

Seems to be 'alive', if you excuse the expression...
http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-styl ... -1.1849581
http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_i ... edEu8q350w

Quote:

The Lebor Gabála tradition is a relatively late one, early legends existed antecedent to Lebor Gabála tradition becoming utterly dominant. The Lebor Gabála trad. draws heavily from the bible in many respects, Parthalón is an Irish rendering of Lat. Bartholomeus. I don't know whether I am mixing both traditions up myself as I am not sure where I'm getting Scythians from? Its somewhere in the back of my mind. I also think the Scythians are mentioned in the Lebor Gabála.

It rings a bell, re: the Scythians. We need more history of the literature mavins here!

Quote:

Where did Scottish Gaelic get it from then? Is it a purely Scottish Gaelic innovation or is it Norse influence?

Don't know. I guess I made the mistake of thinking of them as always two separate languages

He was British Prime Minister, before and during the first half of WW1 and the Rising

Quote:

Asquith's efforts over Irish Home Rule nearly provoked a civil war in Ireland over the province of Ulster, only averted by the outbreak of a European war. Ulster Protestants, who wanted no part of a semi-autonomous Ireland, smuggled in weapons and formed armed volunteer bands. British army officers (the so-called Curragh Mutiny) threatened to resign rather than move against Ulstermen whom they saw as loyal British subjects; Asquith was forced to take on the job of Secretary of State for War himself on the resignation of the incumbent, Seeley. The legislation for Irish Home Rule was due to come into effect in 1914, allowing for the two-year delay under the Parliament Act as a result of its defeat in the Lords – by which time the Cabinet were discussing allowing the six predominantly Protestant counties of north-east Ulster to opt out of the arrangement, which was ultimately suspended owing to the outbreak of the Great War in 1914.

An Cionnfhaolach · **Joined:** Fri 09 Mar 2012 6:16 pm **Posts:** 1527

Jay Bee wrote:

That's interesting. I've wondered about -ster and even Leixslip itself when 'Léim an Bhradáin' seems to be on the sign, as far as I recall

I think Leixslip actually means the jump of the salmon in Norse as well. Probably a Norse calque of Irish Léim an Bhradáin; like Dublin is a Norse semantic calque of Irish Linn Dubh.

Quote:

It rings a bell, re: the Scythians. We need more history of the literature mavins here!

.There's not many of them left, they've all been driven mad trying to decipher fact from fiction.

Quote:

He was British Prime Minister, before and during the first half of WW1 and the Rising

Quote:

Asquith's efforts over Irish Home Rule nearly provoked a civil war in Ireland over the province of Ulster, only averted by the outbreak of a European war. Ulster Protestants, who wanted no part of a semi-autonomous Ireland, smuggled in weapons and formed armed volunteer bands. British army officers (the so-called Curragh Mutiny) threatened to resign rather than move against Ulstermen whom they saw as loyal British subjects; Asquith was forced to take on the job of Secretary of State for War himself on the resignation of the incumbent, Seeley. The legislation for Irish Home Rule was due to come into effect in 1914, allowing for the two-year delay under the Parliament Act as a result of its defeat in the Lords – by which time the Cabinet were discussing allowing the six predominantly Protestant counties of north-east Ulster to opt out of the arrangement, which was ultimately suspended owing to the outbreak of the Great War in 1914.

sounds like a lovely fella!

CaoimhínSF · **Joined:** Sun 04 Sep 2011 11:02 pm **Posts:** 1581

Quote:

What has Irish got in common with Hebrew, Classical Arabic and Hawaiian?
They are all VSO languages?

Not an expert here, but I think that should say Classical Hebrew as well. Hebrew later developed into a SVO languauge (not sure of the whole history of that) and Modern Hebrew (Ivrit) is largely SVO. Perhaps that's because when it was created in the late 19th century for use in Israel, VSO word order was too hard for new learners, since Yiddish (being basically Germanic) and Ladino (being largely Spanish) were SVO, and even Sephardi Arabic speakers had colloquial dialects which were no longer VSO.

Quote:

... Leinster (Laighin +Germanic genitive marker -s- + tír; vocab is Irish, semantics is Norse)

There's also a second theory, also involving Norse, that the -ster part comes from Norse staðr (meaning "place").

Forum rules

Irish language quiz

Who is online