Irish Translation Forum

Erin-Go-Bragh

Redwolf wrote:

citlec wrote:Erin-Go-Bragh

It's gibberish.

The correct phrase is "Éire go brách." That means "Ireland forever."

Redwolf

It's an anglicised spelling that was used in the 1790s by republicans who were bilingual but were only able to write in English. The correct spelling is "Éirinn go brách" (native speakers usually say "Éirinn" rather than "Éire").

thanks

Seán a'Chóta wrote:(native speakers usually say "Éirinn" rather than "Éire").

I'm curious to know more about this, Seán. I'd heard somewhere (I forget from whom) that using Éirinn for the nominative was a dialectal variant, but I never did hear which dialect.

Abigeál

Abigeál wrote:I'd heard somewhere (I forget from whom) that using Éirinn for the nominative was a dialectal variant, but I never did hear which dialect.

Connamara is what I've heard.

Abigeál wrote:

Seán a'Chóta wrote:(native speakers usually say "Éirinn" rather than "Éire").

I'm curious to know more about this, Seán. I'd heard somewhere (I forget from whom) that using Éirinn for the nominative was a dialectal variant, but I never did hear which dialect.

Abigeál

I think it's pretty universal in all dialects. It's just part of a more general process that affected many fifth declension nouns for which the nominative form was lost and the dative was substituted:

"abha" > "abhainn"
"teora" > "teorainn"
"Mumha" > "Mumhain"
"Alba" > "Albain"

The consistent thing would have been to have recognised "Éirinn" as the nominative case, but I think there were special sensitivities where the name of the country was concerned so a more conservative approach was taken. Indeed, from 1937 "Éire" had constitutional protection as the name of the state.

Some native speakers (and probably 99% of learners) may now say "Éire" rather than "Éirinn", but that is the influence of the school system and the official standard.

GRMA, a Sheáin.