Ulster Irish: Encyclopedia II - Ulster Irish - Lexicon

Ulster Irish - Lexicon

The Ulster dialect contains many words not used in other dialects, or used otherwise only in County Mayo. In other cases, a semantic shift has resulted in quite different meanings attaching to the same word in Ulster Irish and in other dialects. Some of these words include:

• amharc, 'look" (elsewhere féach)
• bomaite, "minute" (elsewhere nóiméad)
• cluinim "I hear" (southern cloisim)
• eallach "cattle" (southern beithígh)
• gamhain "calf" (southern lao)
• girseach "girl" (southern cailín)
• bealach or ród "road" (southern and western bóthar)
• druid "close" (southern and western dún)
• eiteogaí "wings" (southern sciatháin)
• sópa "soap" (standard gallúnach)
• stócach, "youth", "young man"
• cál "cabbage" (southern gabáiste)
• fá "about" (standard faoi)
• Gaeilic "Irish" (standard Gaeilge)
• cad é atá? "what is?" (Connacht céard tá; Munster cad a thá)
• tábla "table" (western bord, southern bord or clár)
• cá huair "when?" (Connacht cén uair; Munster cathain)
• faoileog "seagull" (standard faoileán)
• falsa "lazy" (southern and western leisciúil)
• the word iontach is used as an intensifier instead of the prefix an- used in other dialects

In other cases, a semantic shift has resulted in quite different meanings attaching to the same word in Ulster Irish and in other dialects. Some of these words include:

• druid "close" (southern and western dún; elsewhere, druid is used to mean "move")
• cloigeann "head" (southern and western ceann; elsewhere, cloigeann is used to mean "skull")

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Lexicon", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki