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PostPosted: Thu 18 Jan 2024 2:12 pm 
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Responses to question 482 in Vol 1 of Wagner's Linguistic Atlas of Irish Dialects. The question was how to say in Irish "penis, vagina, testicles".

1. An Rínn, Co. Waterford: pilibín; púits; magarlaí
2. Mount Melleray, Co. Waterford: pilibín.
3.
4. Goatenbridge, South Tipperary: pilibín.
5. Kilsheelan, Co. Tipperary: pilibín.
6.
7. Ballymacode, East Cork: plibín; mortaois or /d'ʒu:d/ or pis na loighre (laidhre???); magarlaí or mála
8. Clonakilty, Co. Cork: bod; ; magarlaí
9. Glandore, Co. Cork: bod; pis; magairlí
10.
11. Clear Island, Co. Cork: gléiseanna fir or sliastánach; pis; magairlí meadhrach
12. Coomhola, Co. Cork: bod; ; cadairne or magairlí
13. Lauragh, Co. Kerry: bod; pis; málaí or magairle
14. Dursey Sound, Co. Cork: bod; pis; clocha
15. Coolea, Co. Cork: pilibín; pis; magarla
16.
17.
18. Waterville, Co. Kerry: bod; pis
19. Killorglin, Co. Kerry: bod; pis na mná
20. Dunquin, Co. Kerry: bud; pis; magairlí
21. Cloghane, Co. Kerry: bod; pis; málaí
22. Kilbaha, Loop Head, Co. Clare: bud; pis; clocha or na magairlí
23.
24. Fanore, Co. Clare: bod; pis; magairle

I'm not sure of the derivation of mortaois, /dʲʒu:d/ and pis na laidhre. Is laidhre from "ladhar"? Púits literally means "pouch", and cadairne literally means "scrotum". Sliastán means "ledge" or a "long-legged person", so sliastánach may come from that. Magairlí meadhrach was interesting - seems to mean "the fun balls".

Pilibín: little Philip, just like words like "willy" and "dick" (little William and little Richard) are used for this in other languages.


Last edited by djwebb2021 on Fri 19 Jan 2024 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Thu 18 Jan 2024 7:34 pm 
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Doesn’t seem very legitimate to me.


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PostPosted: Fri 19 Jan 2024 2:32 am 
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You mean you don't recognise those words? Wagner's work on Irish dialects is the gold standard. He had a list of more than 1100 questions, which he asked of native speakers in more than 70 locations, and transcribed it all in the International Phonetic Alphabet, in a very narrow transcription. Clearly some native speakers did not answer this question.


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PostPosted: Fri 19 Jan 2024 12:50 pm 
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Ceanntuigheoireacht6 wrote:
Doesn’t seem very legitimate to me.



I'd very much trust LASID over your stuff, which has always seemed very iffy to me and not remarked in any of the other stuff I've seen on Déise Irish, even from people extremely knowledgeable on the traditional dialect (which is all but gone). What grounds do you have to say that LASID isn't legitimate?


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PostPosted: Fri 19 Jan 2024 2:04 pm 
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galaxyrocker wrote:
I'd very much trust LASID over your stuff, which has always seemed very iffy to me and not remarked in any of the other stuff I've seen on Déise Irish, even from people extremely knowledgeable on the traditional dialect (which is all but gone). What grounds do you have to say that LASID isn't legitimate?

I don't want Ceanntuigheoireacht to be chased off this forum by intemperate posts. He has made clear his grandparents didn't come from An Rínn exactly, but from somewhere in the north of Co. Waterford, maybe near the Kilkenny or Tipperary borders, so I don't think his stuff is "very iffy". There are a lot of minor differences in Irish dialects, even in nearby places. There are subdialects and subsubdialects as well as the main dialectal divisions.

By the way, your own website is great, and I wouldn't like anyone to say any different!


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PostPosted: Fri 19 Jan 2024 7:35 pm 
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I have never heard any words, those or any other words, referring to those things. To me they same made up just like the Co. My view on this is extremely controversial and am not interested in any ongoing internet debates they are just no fun. I have seen some “naughty words” that people claim are Irish, and although I know they’ve entered native speakers speech, they don’t seem that real to me as I have never heard them in my life. My reply was slightly joking anyway so. I won’t try to convince you if my view and you don’t have to try to change mine; we’ll leave it at that ok?

Thank you djwebb for the point about subdialects!

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I recommend to learn Irish pronunciation on doegen.ie
Scottish Gaelic pronunciation on tobarandualchais.co.uk


Last edited by Ceanntuigheoireacht6 on Fri 19 Jan 2024 7:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Fri 19 Jan 2024 7:38 pm 
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Also “my stuff” I have already put disclaimers on it. I haven’t spoken Irish with family for years.

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I recommend to learn Irish pronunciation on doegen.ie
Scottish Gaelic pronunciation on tobarandualchais.co.uk


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PostPosted: Fri 19 Jan 2024 7:44 pm 
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Never said LASID wasn’t legitimate only that specific part.

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I recommend to learn Irish pronunciation on doegen.ie
Scottish Gaelic pronunciation on tobarandualchais.co.uk


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PostPosted: Sat 20 Jan 2024 12:50 am 
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Ceanntuigheoireacht6 wrote:
Never said LASID wasn’t legitimate only that specific part.

They are not modern made-up words. Those are the traditional words. Indeed, I wonder if the youngest crop of native speakers even have words like pilibín.


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PostPosted: Sat 20 Jan 2024 2:13 am 
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Ceanntuigheoireacht6 wrote:
I have never heard any words, those or any other words, referring to those things. To me they same made up just like the Co. My view on this is extremely controversial and am not interested in any ongoing internet debates they are just no fun. I have seen some “naughty words” that people claim are Irish, and although I know they’ve entered native speakers speech, they don’t seem that real to me as I have never heard them in my life. My reply was slightly joking anyway so. I won’t try to convince you if my view and you don’t have to try to change mine; we’ll leave it at that ok?

Thank you djwebb for the point about subdialects!


It doesn't surprise me that you wouldn't have heard vulgar terminology if you got your Irish from your parents/grandparents. Much like the truth about the seasonal, gift bearing fat man, these are usually the kinds of things we learn on the playground from other kids, not from parents/grandparents. But as djwebb says, these are fairly well established in the Irish lexicon.

I'm not going to try and change your view, as you put it, but as a purely academic endeavour you may be interested to know of the antiquity of some of the terms listed above. Pis, for example, is clearly a reflex of pit, which is attested in Cormac's glossary. It's typical meaning was, as in the English "a pit or hollow", but there's not much secret about the fact that this term could have the double meaning of "a vulva" in Old Irish, even among monolingual Anglophones. See for example this relatively recent article about a placename containing the element pit. It's written by Manchán Magan, who does have Irish, but as with most of his writing it seems clearly intended for an English speaking audience.

Aside from this, eDIL gives the translation "membrum virile" for Old Irish bot, which clearly became the modern bod. This itself seems to have been a euphemism in Old Irish as the original meaning of bot seems to have been "a tail". It's attested in the Annals of Ulster, tri hordlaighe do bhuain do bhod Emain Moirtla ..., "three inches were struck off the penis of Emain Moirtla ...", and the prhase, bun do bhuidsi gan dóth, can be found in Egerton manuscript 88, 15a1, which was compiled by the Ó Duibhdábhoireann family of lawyers in Co. Clare in the late 1560s. This one's harder to translate without more context than I can find on eDIL, but perhaps something like "the base of the penis is not produced/shown". This, I assume, has something to do with circumcision, given the legal nature of the manuscript.

Finally, eDIL, gives magarla meaning "testicles" attested in O'Davoren's Glossary, airne toile .i. magarrla, "the nuts of desire, i.e. testis", as well as in a marginal gloss in Royal Irish Academy manuscript 447, castoreum .i. magarla an ainmhidhe darab ainm castor, "castoreum, i.e. the testis of the animal which goes by the name castor (beaver)". This, eDIL suggests, is a corruption of macrall, "a testicle", which can be found in the Irish Grammatical Tracts Dec. ex. 901, dá mhagraill an mheinisdreach "two testis of the minister".

I can't say too much about any of the other examples, other than I can certainly understand how the likes of clocha or mála may have naturally come to be used euphemistically.


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