Ulster Irish - Lexicon

Lexicon

The Ulster dialect contains many words not used in other dialects—of which the main ones are Connacht Irish and Munster Irish—or used otherwise only in northeast Connacht. The standard form of Irish is An Caighdeán Oifigiúil. 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:

• ag déanamh is used to mean "to think" as well as "to make" or "to do", síleann, ceapann and cuimhníonn is used in other dialects, as well as in Ulster Irish.
• amharc, "look" (elsewhere amharc, breathnaigh and féach; this latter means rather "try" or "attempt" in Ulster)
• bealach, ród "road" (southern and western bóthar and ród (cf. Scottish Gaelic rathad, Manx Gaelic raad), and bealach "way"). Note that bealach alone is used as a preposition meaning "towards" (literally meaning in the way of: d'amharc sé bealach na farraige = "he looked towards the sea")
• bomaite, "minute" (elsewhere nóiméad, nóimint, neómat, etc.)
• cá huair, "when?" (Connacht cén uair; Munster cathain, cén uair)
• caidé (cad é) atá?, "what is?" (Connacht céard tá; Munster cad a thá, cad é a thá, dé a thá, Scotland dé tha)
• cál, "cabbage" (southern gabáiste)
• caraidh, "weir" (Connacht cara, standard cora)
• cluinim, "I hear" (southern cloisim, but cluinim is also attested in South Tipperary). In fact, the initial c- tends to be lenited even when it is not preceded by any particle (this is because there was a leniting particle in Classical Irish: do-chluin yielded chluin in Ulster)
• druid, "close" (southern and western dún; in other dialects druid means "to move in relation to or away from something", thus druid ó rud = to shirk, druid isteach = to close in)
• eallach, "cattle" (southern beithíoch = "one head of cattle", beithígh = "cattle")
• eiteogaí, "wings" (southern sciatháin)
• fá, "about, under" (standard faoi, Munster fé, fí and fá is only used for "under"; mar gheall ar and i dtaobh = "about")
• falsa, "lazy" (southern and western leisciúil, fallsa = "false, treacherous")
• faoileog, "seagull" (standard faoileán)
• Gaeilg, Gaeilig, Gaeilic, "Irish" (standard and Western Gaeilge, Southern Gaoluinn, Manx Gaelg, Scottish Gàidhlig)
• geafta, "gate" (standard geata)
• gamhain, "calf" (southern lao and gamhain)
• gasúr, "boy" (southern garsún, garsún means "child" in Connemara)
• girseach, "girl" (southern gearrchaile and girseach)
• nighean, "daugher" (standard iníon)
• sópa, "soap" (standard gallúnach, Connemara gallaoireach)
• stócach, "youth", "young man", "boyfriend" (Southern = "gangly, young lad")
• tábla, "table" (western and southern bord and clár, Scotland bòrd)
• the word iontach "wonderful" is used as an intensifier instead of the prefix an- used in other dialects.

Words generally associated with the now dead East Ulster Irish include:

• ársuigh (tell)
• coinfheasgar (evening)
• corruighe (anger)
• frithir (sore)
• go seadh (yet)
• márt (cow)
• práinn (hurry)
• toigh (house)
• tonnóg (duck)

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:

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

• capall "mare" (southern and western láir; elsewhere, capall means "horse")