Hi! My name is George Ferriter (Seoirse Feiritear), and although I extend from a West Kerry line, and have relatives stilll living within the Gaeltacht, I have very little Irish of my own, and at age 60, will not have time to do what I need to do on this project.

I am related to Padraig Feiritear (1856 - 1924) an Irish Language speaker and self-educated scholar. Padraig roamed West Kerry (Corca Dubhine) in the late 1800s gathering tales, verse, and genealogical data. He compiled over 35 MSS volumes, which he bequeathed to Douglas Hyde, and which now reside in the NLI. Volume 16 deals with the families of his home area - in and about the townlands that surround Ballyferriter.

I have the bulk of Volume 16 in hand, copied by one of my cousins from a microfilm copy that resides in the Hardiman Library at NUI-Galway. As a long-term project, I would like to incrementally translate portions of the text material, and at some point, perhaps parts of the smaller genealogies. The Ferriter Genealogy was translated by a Professor Kennedy back in the 1970s. I believe that the rest of the document has never been translate. I have about 150 pages in hand, mostly in Irish script of the period.

Brendan is helping me with the files, which will be posted when that becomes possible.

Thanks,

George

Sounds fascinating, good luck with the project!

Hi, George. Welcome to the forum. Sounds like an interesting project.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

All,

Breandan has helped me with getting a couple of links to .pdf files up. Here they are:

http://irishlearner.awyr.com/membrfaylz ... PP9495.pdf

http://irishlearner.awyr.com/membrfaylz ... 169697.pdf


The backstory here is pretty interesting, (at least to me!). Padraig Feiritear (1856-1924) was largely self taught. He had some English, but Irish was his primary language, and he loved it. That said, his usage might be a bit rough, and his style, phraseology, and vernacular...certainly not classical. West Kerry Irish as spoken in the 19th century.

Take a look!

Thanks,

George

Feiritear this is fascinating! Since a few members of the Feiritear were kind enough to help me with a few archaic datives, I wouldn't mind helping you out. I'll try to translate the material you've posted at the moment, really exciting stuff!!

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

WOW! Just.....WOW!

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Táim ag foghlaim Gaelainn na Mumhan

Tá fáilte roim nach aon cheartú!
I am a learner. Any translations offered are practice and should not be used unless confirmed.

You might try contacting Traolach (Terry) O'Riordan, who teaches Irish at the University of Montana. His family is from Kerry and he might be willing to help either personally, or to get the material translated in his classes. Here's his email address: toriordain{a)hotmail.com

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

Leave the forum for a couple of days and just wow, as Aislingeach put it! Just to get us started, this is my own translation and I'm something of a novice. The text uses a mixture of the Gaelic Script and joint writing- the author must have been literate in both languages, which makes the text a bit harder to read. This is very exiting indeed! The author doesn't use the caol le caol and leathan le leathan rule, the text is quite phonetical with limited consistency in spelling (when compared to a modern context); and the author never places dotes on the "i"s. The Irish language is very idiomatic and poetic, therefore, a direct translation is not plausible for instance; the author has "ath-iúntughadh", directly translated that means to "re-wonderfulising", which makes no sense in the English context, but in Irish it makes perfect sense. To make sense of that in English you'd have to say something like: "to return (something) to how good it was before". The author also make a few spelling errors- inferred from grammatical consistency. From what I can make out this is a seanchas story and will probably bring in the Aos Sídhe (Aes Síde) making it a síscéal/ sídhsgéul or sísheanchas.

Here's the first 3 paragraphs:

Title: (I think) Goid Baine (Spanish enya on the "n" reflecting pronounciation) le piseógibh "Stealing of milk with/ by superstitious means"...i.e spells, charms etc...

Ag Sédhmonn (?) Ferritér i ngleann Sruinge/Stuinge/Stumge (?) du bhídh ben-bhaine a bhídh ana- ádhasmhach (the á is obscured because of the "g" above it, which makes it look lik a "d") imb (1) a n-déinabh (sí) d' ím; (2)

Sédhmonn Ferritér, in the Glen Sruinge, had a milk-woman who was very lucky at making butter from butter;[/i]

"Agas de a bhárr san i n-úghdarás mór ag an bh-bhferritérach; agas láimhsáil dá ré(+..this sign is known as a nóid- an Irish shorthand for which I don't know yet)aig(?)h"

And because of this, in respect (authority) to ferritér; and the handling of her ...?

"Do tháinaig bliaghain air a shon san gu raibh (and(?)h- anois?)) ím ag dul in a coinne; agas du bhídh sí buadhartha; trí-na-chéile, de chionn nách bhfedair sí cad é an dimi-leghadh (3) a tháinaig a-n-uas air an bhliaghan sin sochas (3) aen bhliaghan eile, ná cad edh ' dhénfaidh sí chum a shocair do ath-iúntaghadh (iontú... from "iontach") air arís."

A year came that the butter was going against her (i.e she had no luck with it); and she was worried; in an absolute state, as she didn't know what happened/ why things went so bad that year, unlike any other year, or what she would do to restore profits/gains again.

"Lá dá raibh sí in san (ins an) riocht cráidhte seo du tháinaig táiliúir ag dénamh édaig iuntig(h)e (in the text, there is no séimhiú on the "g" I suspect that that is a spelling mistake, also in other spelligs of he same word there is a "ú") 7 (Irish shorthand for "agus, in this case "agas", English "and") air chur cuda-na-maidaine (?) (4) i bh-fiaghnaise (5) an táiliúra du chásaimh an c(h)ailín (5) gan aen bhlúire imbe du bheith san tig (6) gu m-beidh an cuigan (7) a bhídh in san mhedar dénta."

One day, as she was in an awful state, a tailor came making marvelous clothes and what put the (presence?) of the Virgin in evidence to the Tailor/ the tailor bared witness to the girls case?, without a scrap of butter in the house, that the unchurned butter in the churn would be churned.
(basically the milkish substance in the churn becae butter, when there wasn't a scrap of imb in the house.

Do Chonaic an Tailiúir féin an cuigan ágha dénamh, óir is in san chistain edh bhídh sé ag dénamh a táiliuirachta, agus is í.. edh déintí an chuigan, 7, de chionn gur tuigadh doish? gur mhithid (?) do'n g-chuigain (9) a bhídh ágha dénamh ó éiraíghadh an lae du bheith dénta fesd(a?)(?), d' fhiafraigh sé de'n mnaoi-bhaine cad í an tubaist ' bhídh air a' cuigain nách raibh sí dénta fadó agca.

The tailor himself saw the unchurned butter being churned/ made, because he was in the kitchen doing his tailoring and ...(its there) that the churning took place, and, doish that's how one understood(?) gur mhithid (part of?) the unchurned butter that was being made from dawn wasn't made yet, he questioned (of the) mik-woman what was the disaster/ problem that was with the churning and why it wasn't finished by them awhile ago.

(1) Imb (old Irish for butter),
(2) Ím (Kerry pronounciation of Irish standard im (butter).
(3) I would think this is "d'imigh le" in standard Irish (what happened to), Sochas. Sochas and d' Imi leghadh are under-lined, my guess would be they are spelling mistakes. Sochas...maybe "bad turn" but in the next line you find "sochair"...possibly Standard Irish "socair"-quite/ docile. It may very well be a dialectal form of "seachas"..."siochas" as it is pronounced in some Munster dialects- that's how I'v taken it.
(4) Cuda-na-maidaine, Cud (cruth? more than likely not) or possibly "codanna"- hard to fit codanna in this context though. Could "maidaine" be a misspelling of "maighdean (maighdine)" i.e the Virgin Mary (Madona)? This must definitely a saying.
(5) Fiaghnaise- evidence or witness
(6) There is a mysterious mark above the "c" on "cailín"
(7) Tig (Kerry Irish spelling of Munster "tigh", standard Irish "teach", Scottish Gaelic "toigh" English "House)
(8) Cuigan- unchurned butter
(9) do'n g-cuigain (is what the author would have said (Kerry Dialect). He scribbled out the urú and put a séimhiú in instead, that indicates a knowledge of more correct "conservative" Irish, as found in Cork, stemming form the old Irish treatment of the réamhfhocal "do" + article- Do'n bringing about the cuspóideach- see explanation on Réamhfhocal.



I hoped it helped in some way...some of what I've given is shite though!

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Wow Cionnfhaolach, you're fast acting!

We might as well work of your version.

Gur mhithid do = It was/would be time to do....

I agree that fesd(a) is feasta.

So:

I think doish, is an unusual spelling of a form of do, the preposition. I think it's dó, I'll need to look at Keating. I think he is trying to indicate the pronunciation that was Munster before do and dó collapsed together in pronunciation as they have today.
Hence this would be:
because of this he got the idea that

Tuigtear dom = It occurs to me.
He is being deliberately correct in using de chionn rather than do chionn, as most people since the 1850s have said it.

It was time for the churning, which was being made since the morning, to be finished be now.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

That's that cleared it up, much better than mine, You'd be surprised what a few key words would do. I understood the overall meaning of the paragraph it was just difficult in trying to translate it.

This is great fun!- SAD!

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice