Irish Placenames

[waider]

Many Irish placenames are more-or-less phonetic renditions in English of the original Irish; there are a few commonly recurring words, such as Baile (town), Cnoc (hill), Átha (ford), Béal (mouth, as in river), Cill (church), Dún (fort), Lí(o)s (fairy fort), Droichead (bridge) and Gort (ploughed field). Thus you get Ballina, which is Béal an Átha,

Comments

[merde]

i thought it was mostly the Welsh who favored hilariously long names like that. well, and the Germans.

[eejitalmuppet]

You see variations on this theme in Scotland, particularly in the naming of hills in the Highlands. The are endless Ben (Bheinn) Deargs ("brown hill" for readers other than Ronan), Ben Mores (Bheinn Mor) ("big hill") and more than a few hills named Bheinn Dearg Mor (you figure it out). In some areas, the Ben becomes a Carn, but the general theme remains.

The languages aren't quite the same, but I reckon you're more than capable of translating important words like Bruichladdich. ;)

[niallm]

Bonus points for naming two places in Dublin where the English is a semantic translation of the Irish, rather than a phonetic translation.

[lenno_cornish]

Interesting post! I will take to my memories. Do you know any good free online source of Irish grammar?
I will add you:)