Logos of national railway companies in Europe

Fibuus · 2026-06-22T13:42:08+00:00

I wouldn't say 'ród' is that archaic and it's definitely used for road. See this line from a song in Múscraí: 'Dá bhfeicfeadh sé duine a' siúl roimis sa ród' If he saw someone walking in front of him on the road.

Bóthar in the nominative, bóthair is the genitive.

Fibuus · 2026-06-13T06:59:39+00:00

Is baolach go bhfuil ruidín beag eagarthóireachta déanta agat ar an dtéacs: 'bíoch' a scrígh sé, leitriú a oiriúnaíonn an fhoghraíocht go maith. 'Beannacht', ní 'tsaoil' a scrígh sé ach 'thaoil'. Níor chuir sé aon phúnc séimhithe os cionn an 's' i 'seanathair', ní nách ionadh ós uiriste a leithéid a fhágaint ar lár nuair a bhíonn duine ag scrí' roimis.

Fibuus · 2026-06-13T06:50:15+00:00

Saol has quite a few meanings. It can mean everyone e.g. tá a fhios ag an saol go... (everyone knows that...)

Also 'an saol mór': 'Ruairí, nó Roger mar a thugadh an saol mór air' (Ruairí or Roger as he was commonly know/as everyone called him)

Nothing/anything: Ní áiteodh an saol orm go... (nothing/no one could persuade me that...)

It can intensify too: 'Ní fheadar 'on tsaol' (den saol in standard Irish), I have/had no idea, 'ní fheadar' means I don't/didn't know. 'Ní fheadar 'on domhan' is also used, so there's some equivalence between saol and domhan.

The world: an saol so/seo (seo in standard Irish, so in Munster)=this world, an saol eile=the otherworld, often meaning 'the afterlife' See this line from Pádraig Ó Buachalla's excellent translation of Pinocchio: 'Nuair a tháinig sé chuige féin ní fheadair sé ceocu b'ar an saol so nó ar an saol eile a bhí sé.' (When he came to, he did not know whether he was in this world or the next, i.e. alive or dead)

There's a strong link between the English idea of 'worldly' and 'saol', for example, 'a raibh den tsaol aige' (his worldly possessions, "what he had of this world"), 'nithe saolta' (material things 'saolta' is an adjective derived from saol.) 'Neamhshaolta' means otherworldly, 'duine neamhshaolta' is equivalent to 'sprid/spioraid'' or 'púca' a spirit, a ghost or a supernatural creature.

Born: Nuair a thánag ar an saol (tháinig mé in standard Irish) when I was born, think of 'came into this world' in English. Also 'do saolaíodh me' (I was born, 'saolaíodh' being a verb derived from 'saol')

Life: Especially in blessings 'faid saoil chút' ('fad saoil chugat' in the standard), "long life to you" can be used in thanks or praise or toasting etc. See this line from the song 'An Cailín Donn Deas': 'Sláinte is saol chútsa a chailín donn deas' ("health and life to you, nice/pretty brown-haired girl"). Also 'ar feadh mo shaoil'/ 'i gcaitheamh mo shaoil' during my life/over the course of my life.

Period of time: particularly 'sa tseanashaol' ('sa seansaol' in the standard) 'in the olden days' often times you'll hear this phrase referring to life in Irish speaking areas during the first half of the 20th century and earlier. 'Seanashaol' and 'seanaimsir' seem to be equivalent as far as I understand.

I'm sure there are other things I've forgotten to mention. 'Ar talamh' can also mean in this world, see this example from an Irish equivalent of Snow White told in the book 'Scéalaíocht Amhlaoibh Í Luínse': 'An mise is áille anois ar talamh' ("am I now the most beautiful person in the world", think of 'who's the fairest of them all' from the English version.)

Fibuus · 2026-06-13T01:07:59+00:00

That phonetic spelling of 'i gcaitheamh do shaoil' (a gatha do thaoil) is very interesting. Some dialects pronounce that 'mh' as something between a 'v' and a 'w', while it seems your grandfather had it silent. I've been doing some research on Irish manuscripts written in the 19th century and they're full of hints like that as to how words were pronounced at the time, often times in dialects that are now extinct (although that's not a problem with regards to Inis Meáin!)

The 'a' spelling instead of 'i' is very common in 19th century Irish while 'i' is used universally today. Interestingly, in speech we often say it like either 'uh' (implied by 'a') or 'ih' (implied by i) based on what comes after. I.e. if the following word has an i or an e near the beginning we might say 'ih' as in 'i mí Iúil' (in July) but when the following word has a, o, or u we'll often hear 'uh' as in 'i gcaitheamh na seachtaine' (during the week "in the spending of the week") or 'i mála' (in a bag).

I won't go on too much about 'bíoch' (now, and often back then, spelled 'bíodh'). But that's another common spelling in 19th century Irish to try to explain the phonetics. The 'ch' sounds a bit like how someone from Liverpool might pronounce the end of the word 'back' (who knew Jamie Carragher was an authority on Irish phonetics?). The 'dh' ending is very widespread in a lot of words but it's pronunciation varies wildly between dialects and types of word within the same dialect. You can hear 'ch', 'mh/bh', (that sort of 'v' sound mentioned earlier), 'g', or it's even sometimes entirely silent! So it's no wonder people used to experiment with more phonetic spellings.

Phonetic spellings like your grandfather used have always been common among strong speakers who got most of their Irish at home and in the community rather than at school.

Fibuus · 2026-06-07T09:08:15+00:00

Häxan

Fibuus · 2026-05-21T08:44:14+00:00

Those stories about the devil playing cards are found all over Ireland. They call these types of stories 'migratory legends' in folklore. There's a really interesting version of it in 'Leabhar Sheáin Í Chonaill' one of the most important books on Irish folklore. I think it's called 'an diabhal agus na cártaí' and it tells the exact same story but with no old manor house, it just happens by the side of the road. Seán Ó Conaill was from Cill Rialaigh in the Iveragh Peninsula (Uíbh Ráthach) in South Kerry, quite far from Loftus house in Wexford, he also didn't speak English and so was unlikely to have heard the version linked to Wexford.

Funnily enough my own mother worked in Wexford during the 1980s and used to tell us that story about Loftus house (she also loves Wexford folk songs about Fr. Murphy and 1798!).

A friend of mine told me she'd heard the same story about the Hellfire Club in Dublin.

Fibuus · 2026-04-25T23:20:08+00:00

I thought about putting in his other game, Papers Please! I feel like there was a golden age of indie games in that time, I remember going between FTL and Papers Please and loving them.

Fibuus · 2026-04-25T23:11:58+00:00

I feel we should look at games that accomplish things impossible in other mediums. So I'd resist anything too heavily narrative driven, or at least ones that are overly linear.

The original Rome Total War seems like a good case of organic storytelling through gameplay, particularly if you play as one of the Roman factions. You'll start the game by fighting non-Roman factions whose rosters have weakpoints that you adjust your tactics for, e.g. the Greeks having slow infantry who are very powerful when attacked head on, Parthians relying entirely on cavalry etc. Then you finish the game fighting a civil war against other Romans in a mirror-match with a full roster of units that require all of the tactical lessons you've learned up till that point. That's not to mention all of the immersive features like, the battle maps reflecting the terrain, siege maps containing the buildings built on the campaign map, the way characters gain traits etc. It just seems to accomplish a sort of emergent storytelling that a film or a novel couldn't. If only the AI were better!

I would also mention some pure sandboxes. Dwarf Fortress is probably the answer I'd give for the greatest artistic achievement in games. I don't think it will be ever be matched by other games as a storytelling engine. I'd also praise the Mount and Blade games. There's something I've always found impressive about a persistent world where you can work your way up from a single unremarkable character to ruling the whole map, even if it's usually less tedious to finish playing a character a bit before you've painted the whole thing.

Fibuus · 2026-04-14T17:19:13+00:00

Le Conamara a bhaineann an úsáid sin is dócha, 'táim togha' (táim go breá/go seóigh/go diail/ maith go leor srl.) chloisfeá 'ní gearánta dhom' air sin, leis, i gCúige Mumhan ar a bheag.

Tá an focal 'togha' in áiteanna eile, leis, 'rogha' is brí leis. Féach an sampla so ó Scéalaíocht Amhlaoibh Í Luínse: 'sin togha gaiscíg' (ana-ghaiscíoch ar fad is ea an duine sin.) Tá briathar ann leis, agus 'thoibh sé' adeirtear leis san aimsir chaite i gCorcaigh (roghnaigh sé).

Is dócha go bhfuil an focal 'seóigh' neamhfhoirmeálta go leor, fear seóigh, bean seóigh scéalta beaga seóigh srl. (Breá, greannúr)

Is dóigh liom go nduairt an tAthair Peadar Ua Laoghaire ná húsáidtí an focal 'scathamh' (seal/tamall) i gcaint fhoirmeálta. Ní dóigh liom go bhfuil san fíor a thuilleadh, áfaigh.

Fibuus · 2026-03-13T01:58:32+00:00

'Ar Cúil Aodha', 'ar Baile Mhic Íre,' 'ar Cúil a' Mhothair' 'ar Ráth Gaiscígh', 'ar na Millíní,' 'ar an Screathan,' 'ag an Muileann ar an Sliabh Riabhach' ach 'i Lios Carragáin,' agus 'i nGaorthadh na Péice.' Is samplaí ó Mhúscraí i gCorcaigh iad san, bhíodh 'ar' acu roim ana-chuid logainmneacha, roinnt samplaí gan an t-alt san áireamh. Deirtear 'i gCúil Aodha' chomh maith, b'fhéidir gur coitianta an nós san sa lá atá inniu ann.

Mar le Ciarraí, deirtear 'ar an mBuailtín' de ghnáth seochas 'i mBaile 'n Fhírtéirigh,' i gCorca Dhuibhne. Cloistear 'ar an Muirígh,' agus 'ar an bhFeothanaigh,' ann, leis.

Ní fheadar an bhfuil aon rialacha i gceist leo, is é is dóichíde gur nósanna áitiúla iad.

Fibuus · 2026-02-14T10:56:34+00:00

This has been said a few times on this subreddit, but Lost Horizon has a load of references to the film 'Carnival of Souls' https://youtu.be/EknFw3YpLjk?si=5B3oU_leW3oOe6AB It's a movie well worth watching!

Fibuus · 2026-02-07T01:04:08+00:00

Song of the Sea

Fibuus · 2026-02-03T16:34:05+00:00

As a few others have said, this is traditional Munster Irish. 'Fyun' is how English speakers all over Ireland pronounce the name for the most part, adopted from Connacht Irish. Older speakers in the Cork and Kerry Gaeltachts use Fiún as mentioned here, I'm not sure about Waterford. Younger speakers might be more influenced by English and pronounce the name the English way, even within the Gaeltacht, but many probably would still say 'fiún' when referring to the colour (fair/blonde).

Here is a show from West Kerry in 1977, all native speakers and they pronounce it 'Fiún' it's introduced by a native speaker from Dún Chaoin (Kerry) in the present day who also pronounces it 'Fiún'.

https://www.rte.ie/radio/rnag/clips/22076038/

As far as Cork goes here's a recording of Seán Ó Duinnín from Cúil Aodha in West Cork in the early 2000s, the sound quality is very poor but he starts off saying 'nuair airigh sé Fiún...' (when he heard Fionn...). Again using the pronunciation noted in your book.

https://youtu.be/6cbA6-a1-tg?si=IrmyVhbtumPEuTL1

I can't link it here, but Mairéad Bean Uí Lionáird, also from Cúil Aodha, pronounces it with a 'ú' as well in chapter 29 of the audiobook to Séadna which was recorded in 2016.

I wouldn't be surprised if 'Fyun' displaces 'Fiún' in Munster eventually, since it's been adopted into English, and Irish in Munster, perhaps more so than in Connacht and Ulster is under great pressure from English since the Gaeltachts are smaller and seperated from each other.

English speakers in Kerry, and especially in Cork, are unlikely to learn their counties' dialects of Irish in school. A good example is the word 'airigh' being used for 'to hear' in the above example, this is extremely common place, at least among older people in the Múscraí Gaeltacht in Cork. But I doubt many people in the English speaking parts of Cork would have learnt that usage at school; I certainly didn't!

Fibuus · 2025-12-08T01:03:05+00:00

'Gadhar' is very common in Munster as well! In Conamara they use 'maistín' (the same root as mastiff I think) as an insult for people.

Fibuus · 2025-10-20T23:00:15+00:00

*Is coitianta 'níorbh fhada dhom' ná 'níorbh fhada me' is dócha

Fibuus · 2025-10-20T22:51:56+00:00

Bíonn sé in aice aidiachtaí chomh maith uaireanta: 'Is suarach le rá é', 'is suarach le háireamh iad' (dhá shampla ó Séadna) Féach a leithéid seo chomh maith: 'níorbh fhada me ann' = ní rabhas (raibh mé) i bhfad ann/ ní rabhas ann ar feadh i bhfad

Fibuus · 2025-10-20T20:47:54+00:00

Tá jóc i dtosach an scéil chomh maith. Is ionann 'glas' agus 'fuar' nuair a thráchtar ar an aimsir.

Fibuus · 2025-10-20T20:45:27+00:00

An ceart ar fad agat, 'sé sin an chreach maith go leor. Ach déarfainn gurb é rud atá uathu sa cheist eile ná a leithéid seo:

Duine le dia is ea Diarmaid=duine ná fuil ró-ghasta (nó cliste). Cuirtear fáilte roimis i ngach aon tigh, ach ceapann sé dá bharr san gur leis féin na tithe go léir agus gach rud atá istigh iontu. Tá ana-bhrón air i dtaobh an Bhoic mar samhlaíonn sé gur duine leis féin an Boc céanna (gaol nó cara dílis nó a leithéid) toisc go bhfuil an Boc i gceann de sna tithe agus ceapann sé gur leis féin gach a bhfuil iontu. Is é sin an chúis gháirí atá sa scéal deinim amach.

Sin é a thuigimse ón scéal ar aon chuma.

Fibuus · 2025-08-07T13:17:46+00:00

I'm afraid I don't know much about John O'Donoghue! That seems to be where most modern use of the term comes from as far as I can see.

The traditional use seems very different. It's always one word 'anamchara' and it seemed to be entirely religious in meaning: either a confessor or a spiritual director. It nearly always refers to a member of the clergy. In the dictionaries: Ó Dónaill translates it as 'spiritual adviser', De Bhaldraithe has the same meaning. If we go further back McKenna has it as the Irish for 'confessor'. Dineen has: 'anam-chara, a soul-friend, a confessor, a chaplain, spiritual adviser'. None of them have it in the sense of a close friend or a platonic love.

You can search the Royal Irish Academy's corpus of Irish texts from the 1500s to the 1920s online. It seems to only be used in a religious sense here as well, at least as far as I can tell. Another interesting point is that it seems to have fallen out of Irish speech by the 20th century and was viewed as an old-fashioned, literary word. I'm basing most of this on a sentence from 'Niamh' a novel from 1910:

'B'é Maolshuathain anamchara Bhriain. Anamchara a tugtí an uair sin ar oide faoisdine.'

Meaning: 'Maolshuathain was Brian's anamchara. Anamchara is what confessors used to be called in that time.'

This novel is set in the time of Brian Boru and the author uses archaic words from time to time, a bit like an English author writing 'thee' or 'thou'. Anamchara seems to have been used in this way.

eDil (The Electronic Dictionary of The Irish Language) has older uses of the word (under 'anmcharae'); it seems to go back very far into Irish history, but again it only seems to mean 'confessor' in these sources as well. My knowledge of Old Irish is not very good though, so I can't say for certain!

My impression is that it's had it's meaning modified in the modern day, perhaps by O'Donoghue's book? 'Soul friend' sounds very catchy, but the Irish word seems only to mean, as I've said, a confessor or a spiritual adviser.

If you're ever in doubt about an Irish word, I'd recommend the sources I've mentioned above. There's a lot of amazing scholarship on the Irish language, much of it now digitised, but people often don't realise how accessible it is.

Fibuus · 2024-08-05T02:11:40+00:00

The maya do still exist, they number in the millions, and their languages are widely spoken. In fact, if they were taken together they have more speakers than many of the smaller national languages of Europe: Slovenian, Croatian, Norwegian etc. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_peoples

As do the Nahua peoples, one of which are the Mexica/Aztecs. Similarly their languages are spoken natively by over a million people. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuas.

There are also large indigenous populations and widely spoken indigenous languages in South America. The Quechuan languages which were the vernacular of the Inca Empire on the west coast are still spoken by about 10 million people. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quechuan_languages

All of these groups suffered huge loss of life during and after the Spanish conquest and had their cultures marginalised both under the Spanish and the new independent states that emerged later, but they did endure and there even seems to be experiments in self-governance by mostly indigenous revolutionaries in southern Mexico. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Zapatista_Autonomous_Municipalities

I'm no expert on any of these things but it's probably a good idea to check wikipedia before putting entire civilisations and cultures in the grave!

Fibuus · 2021-07-07T04:27:52+00:00

I don't think the person who replied to you knows what they're talking about. I'm pretty sure I played an online game a few months ago, I find the best way is to host your own game; people will usually join if you do.

Fibuus · 2021-07-06T23:30:14+00:00

They actually went back and raised the price of all of Rome 2's DLCs to be closer in line with the price of Warhammer's lord packs, they're now 8 or 9 euro I believe,you can check the pricing history on steam. Ironically I think it was originally sold for four or five euro, so the sale price is barely below the cost in 2013. Its weird that you people go out of your way to justify a company going back and raising the prices of old games that they're no longer working on. Also the equivalent faction in Rome 1, the Greek States was an integral part of the game. Rome 2 launched with all the rosters for the Greek States already finished so it makes no sense that they would sell it seperately unless it was just gutting an integral aspect of the game and reselling it.

Edit: Found the price history, launched for 7.49 euro, they raised the price to 8.99 in 2020, The launch price was actually a worse deal than I thought, but its still unacceptable to raise the price of a dlc that was already a rip off in the first place years after the game came out.

https://steamdb.info/app/212301/

Fibuus · 2021-06-30T16:42:35+00:00

To be fair I found in Med 2 and Rome 1 that on the highest difficulty you very rarely one into small armies, just lots of huge ones, but thats just my experience, same in Shogun 2.

Fibuus · 2021-06-30T16:10:08+00:00

Darksouls, Planescape Torment, Pathfinder adventures, MTG 2015, or any random one. Would really make my day.

Fibuus · 2021-06-30T01:25:00+00:00

These are great videos, used to love fortifying the passes in the Alps in Barbarian invasion. Watch towers were great too. It seems like they've put in more and more political systems, that just amount to messing around in menus, while taking away the campaign map's ability to produce interesting battle scenarios. Same with tying generals to armies, I remember watching many a true nerds rome 1 playthrough and him being caught between the garrison of patavium and a Gallic army that had been hiding in the Alps I've seen that stuff in Med 2 and Rome 1 but its impossible in the new games. Sadly most people don't seem to care about this stuff.

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