(1 Deireadh Fómhair 2022) One of the goals of this blog is to provide vocabulary lists for people reading literature in Irish and Welsh. After years of teaching both of these languages, and helping with the ‘gluaiseanna’ and ‘geirfaoedd’ over and over, I finally decided I should start posting them, bit by bit of course. It’ll be an enormous project, but having been through most of the texts several times with different reading groups, it should provide both ‘craic’ and ‘hwyl’ for me and hopefully for readers. I’ll start with the Irish Harry Potter translation here, since that’s the book I’ve read cover to cover the most.

Words will be listed in order of appearance, and the list will be very selective or else it would become enormous. I’ll be focusing on words that struck me as unusual or unlikely to appear in most educational resources through the intermediate level. I may adjust the format as I go, but for now it’ll just be a ‘liosta,’ even if the format is ‘beagán liosta.’ ‘Beagán liosta?’ you ask. Bhuel, there are two completely different words ‘liosta’ in Irish. One means ‘list,'(not surprisingly), and the other means ‘irksome.’ Love those double meanings! So ‘beagán liosta’ means ‘a little irksome.’

The translations I use will be specific to this text; most words have multiple meanings and could be used in different ways in different contexts.

From time to time I may add some comments so the ‘liosta’ doesn’t become ‘róliosta’!

Caibidil 1(a hAon)

1. maíomh, to admit

ait, strange (NB: not ‘áit’, a completely different word.

aduain, strange (Isn’t it strange that we’ve got two words for ‘strange’ right in a row — and neither is the one most commonly taught, in my experience. That’s ‘aisteach.’)

croiméal, mustache (originally from ‘crom’ and ‘béal’)

dar leo, they thought

spreasán beag d’fhear céile, worthless little husband (or literally ‘man-spouse’)

neamh-Dursleyúil, unDursleyish (almost speaks for itself!)

thagadh, used to come

2. geabaireacht, chattering

maistín, tyke, or more basically, a mastiff (dog)

gnáth-thranglam tráchta, ordinary traffic jam (love those ‘comhfhocail’)

3. an-chogar mogar, much murmuring, or, as some call it, rhubarb (not to be mistaken for the real thing, which is ‘biabhóg’)

ardghiúmar, good mood (recognize the word ‘humo(u)r’ in there?)

4. guthán, a phone (an alternative word to ‘fón’)

5. réalta reatha, shooting star

cnámhlach, bonfire (an chnámhlach, the bonfire; na gcnámhlach, of the bonfires)

6. ag blaisínteacht, sipping (based on ‘blas,’ taste, accent)

7. sclogadh gáire, a chuckle

ascaill, armpit; póca na hascaille, the ‘armpit pocket’

8. coirm, ale, drinking-party, feast

9. cluasbhearta, earmuffs

PS: Although the words are for all to enjoy and learn from, the layout, format, comments, and new definitions in this list are (c) 2022 misemefein42