It is decades since I was first educated as to the Irish language – fourteen years later, that education ceased with the Leaving Certificate.
It wasn’t much used after that other than intrigue as to place names.
It was only this year, thanks to POF at our conversational Irish class that I realised that there is no word for ‘YES’ in Irish.
Something that those campaigning in the upcoming referendum still do not know.
It wasn’t much used after that other than intrigue as to place names.
It was only this year, thanks to POF at our conversational Irish class that I realised that there is no word for ‘YES’ in Irish.
Something that those campaigning in the upcoming referendum still do not know.
“ YES AND NO IN IRISH
Unlike English and many other languages, there are no simple words in Irish for yes and no which can be used in every context. In Irish, to translate those one normally repeats the positive (to express yes) or negative (to express no) except in the case of the copula:
an rachaidh tú ann? rachaidh/ní rachaidh
will you go there yes/no
an cheannaigh sé é? cheannaigh/ níor cheannaigh
did he buy it? yes/no
…..
If the verb used in the answer to express yes/no has a special synthetic form, that is the form which is normally used. If not, the analytic form without a pronoun is used.
NOTE: the copula is one verb which can never stand alone to translate yes/no:
an maith leat tae? is maith/ní maith
do you like tea? yes/no
nach cuimhin leat sin? is cuimhin/ní cuimhin
don’t you remember that? yes/no”
Irish Grammar Book – Nollaig MacCongáil
