In Italian, you address a man as signor. You address a woman – mature, married – as signora. A younger woman – ostensibly unmarried, unattached to children – as signorina. 1 signorina, 2 or more signorine. Where do I fit in at 30? I’m unmarried. There are no children around my ankles. And yet – […]
The Acquisition of Language
Your Hiberno-English Word For the Day
Today’s secret word is eejit. Its meaning will be pretty self-evident to any English speaker, but let’s see how it works. American-English: Rush Limbaugh is a big, fat, idiot. Hiberno-English: God, Jedward are a pair of awful eejits, aren’t they? Eejit: a word to be uttered with equal measures of passion and disgust. Just look […]
Your Hiberno-English Word of the Day
Today’s secret word is ridebag. American-English: Dang, the new guy in Accounting is a total hottie. Hiberno-English: Jaysus, the new guy in Accounting is a complete ridebag, isn’t he? Ridebag. I’m dying. I’m dying! Leave it to the Irish to blend wit and lust. Note: I’ve yet to hear this word used in actual dialogue, […]
Your Hiberno-English Word of the Day
Today’s secret word is gorgeous. Let’s see how it works. American-English: That sweater you got from KMart is pretty cute. Hiberno-English: That jumper you’re after buying from Dunnes is just gorgeous! Got it? Cute/pleasing = gorgeous. That goes for budget clothes, people, objects, and behavior. I can be gorgeous if I feel like it, just […]
How to Play With Your Friend’s Child When You Don’t Speak the Same Language
Bring a gift. I don’t know. Candy. A video game; how much do they cost these days? A stuffed animal – perhaps a small white lamb with an orange-and-green scarf around its neck and a four leaf clover stamped on its ear. ‘Cause lambs are symbols of Ireland, you know. Where daddy’s former host sister […]
The Poet
It’s Trinity Ball Night. That means Trinners students get to dust the cinders off their jeans and hop into a pumpkin for a memory-making night of music, drink, and elegant dress fun. Walking through College Green this evening, weaving through the six pack-clutching, tuxedo-clad Trinity Ball attendees, I stopped short when I saw this: If […]
Two Women, One Bus
On the 15A into City Centre, two women are sitting together, chatting gaily. It’s a sunny day. The bus bumps over the Grand Canal, heads up Aungier Street, makes a right on Harcourt Road past The Bleeding Horse pub. Woman 1: … and then she took them down to Disneyworld in Florida, you know. Sure, […]
Ciotóg
My family has rented a car – one big enough for the 5 of us and their suitcases. Roberto, my father, is frustrated when he can’t find the keyhole; it takes him a few minutes to realize that it will be on the right hand side, and so will the steering wheel. This is an Irish […]
Let the Ted Fest Begin
I’m not on the island of Inishmore for five minutes before I’ve learned how to say goodbye in Irish. An airport shuttle bus picks us up from the landing strip and the driver asks us for our passports; Inishmore, he says, has just broken off from the Republic of Ireland. Everyone on the shuttle bus […]
Feck Off, Cup
This post is your primer for the series of posts that follow: The Adventures of Liv on Inishmore During Ted Fest 2010. Ted fan? Enjoy the memories. Not yet a friend of Ted? Hold on to your arse biscuits, because you’re in for a treat. Father Ted, written by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, is […]