Wiktionary:About Irish

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This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. Specifically it is a policy think tank, working to develop a formal policy.

Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

Shortcut:
WT:AGA

See also: Entry layout explained and Category:Irish language

This page explains the layout of Wiktionary entries for words in Irish (code: ga). "Irish" is considered to include Early Modern Irish, i.e. all stages of the Irish language from the 13th century to the present. Wiktionary does not use the code ghc for what Ethnologue calls "Hiberno-Scottish Gaelic"; words attested in Irish authors from the early modern era are considered Irish, and those attested in Scottish authors are considered Scottish Gaelic (code: gd).

The basic lemma form of Irish entries is the modern, reformed spelling as laid out by the Caighdeán Oifigiúil and found, for example, in Ó Dónaill's dictionary. Entries for other attested spellings can and should also be made, but any such entry should generally be marked as an {{obsolete spelling of}} or {{nonstandard spelling of}} the main lemma. Prereformed spellings should be marked obsolete only if they are no longer in use; if they are still used (for example, in dialect writing) they should be marked nonstandard.

Pronunciation information should be provided in IPA in accordance with the system given at Appendix:Irish pronunciation. Pronunciations specific to a particular dialect should be marked as such using the template {{a}}. The parameters {{a|Munster}}, {{a|Connacht}}, and {{a|Ulster}} provide a link to the Wikipedia article on the dialect; other parameters for more specific dialects can also be provided but add no link. Ideally a published reference for dialect pronunciations should also be given, especially since most Irish dictionaries do not include pronunciation information. Do not add pronunciation information in the so-called "Lárchanúint" (found in Foclóir Póca, for example) unless it happens to coincide with an attested native-speaker pronunciation.

The headword line can be provided using {{head}} or one of the predefined headword-line templates listed below. Definitions are added in the usual way, including context templates as appropriate. Words found only in some dialects should be tagged with {{lb|ga|Munster}}, {{lb|ga|Connacht}}, or {{lb|ga|Ulster}} as appropriate. These templates add the entry to Category:Munster Irish, Category:Connacht Irish, and Category:Ulster Irish respectively. More specific dialects can also be added with {{lb}}, many of which categorize automatically into the appropriate broad dialect category.

An inflection table can be added using one of the inflection-table templates listed below. Below that, synonyms, antonyms, coordinate terms, related terms, usage notes, etc., are added in the usual way.

At the end of the entry, Mutations should be added as a level 3 header (i.e. with ===Mutations===). Mutations are at this level because they are independent of part of speech or even etymology; all words with a given spelling in Irish have the same mutations. The mutation template {{ga-mut}} should be used.

Templates edit

See Category:Irish templates for the full list.

Headword-line templates edit

{{ga-letter}}
{{ga-noun}}
{{ga-adj}}
{{ga-prep}}
{{ga-pron}}
{{ga-proper noun}}
{{ga-verb}}

Inflection-table templates edit

Nouns edit

Appendices edit

Sources edit

As usual at Wiktionary, Irish words are preferably attestable in use; i.e. inclusion in other dictionaries and word lists alone is less preferred. For large languages, Google Books is the usual go-to place for Wiktionarians looking for usage attestations, but there is very little Irish at Google Books. Some sites that can be searched and whose contents are considered durably archived include:

acts.ie, all Acts of the Oireachtas from 1922 to 2003, in both Irish and English.
corpas.focloir.ie, searchable corpus of texts used in compiling Foras na Gaeilge's Foclóir Nua Béarla-Gaeilge.
potafocal.com/beo, a searchable database of all bilingual glossaries published in the magazine Beo! from 2001 to 2014.
gaois.ie, which has both a monolingual Irish corpus and a bilingual Irish/English corpus
corpas.ria.ie, a corpus of Irish texts from 1600 to 1926 – use {{R:ga:Corpas}} to cite it

An up-to-date list of Irish language media is maintained on Wikipedia.

The Multilingual Wikisource has some Irish texts at oldwikisource:Category:Gaeilge, many of which include scans of the original publication. Die araner mundart at German Wikisource doesn't have any long passages of text, but it does have plenty of example sentences, especially in the Dictionary section, that were gathered from the speech of native speakers. The Wikisource texts are older and are therefore usually written in pre-reformed spelling; the sentences from Die araner mundart are usually only in phonetic transcription, though regular orthography is given in the index.

When searching for words, remember to look for mutated and inflected forms as well!

Offline sources are acceptable too, of course: printed books, newspapers, magazines, etc., can all be used to attest Irish words, but searching offline sources is obviously much more time- and research-intensive than searching online sources.

Irish is a limited-documentation language, so entries are considered sufficiently verified if a single mention (not necessarily use) is found, for example a listing in a published dictionary or word list. Nevertheless, uses are preferable, and there are so many published dictionaries of Irish available that entries should only be made if a word is found in multiple dictionaries. This will help us avoid intentional or accidental fictitious entries from other dictionaries being replicated here.

Works that need merely mention a term for purposes of verification include:

The Dictionary of the Irish Language (http://edil.qub.ac.uk/), for entries citable in Early Modern Irish – use {{R:DIL}}
O'Brien's dictionary (https://archive.org/details/focaloirgaoidhi00lhuygoog) – use {{R:ga:O'Brien}}
Dinneen's dictionary (1904 or 1927 edition) – use {{R:ga:Dinneen 1904}} or {{R:ga:Dinneen 1927}}
Ó Dónaill's dictionary (http://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/) – use {{R:ga:Ó Dónaill}}
De Bhaldraithe's English–Irish dictionary (http://www.teanglann.ie/en/eid/) – use {{R:ga:EID}}
The New English–Irish Dictionary (http://www.focloir.ie/) – use {{R:ga:NEID}} or {{R:ga:Foras}}
An Foclóir Beag (http://www.teanglann.ie/en/fb/) – use {{R:ga:FB}}
Published scholarly descriptions of Irish dialects, such as those published by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies School of Celtic Studies (e.g. {{R:ga:GCFD}}, {{R:ga:ICF}} for Cois Fharraige), Ó Searcaigh's description of Ulster Irish ({{R:ga:Ó Searcaigh}}, and those available at Wikisource:
M. L. Sjoestedt, Description d’un parler irlandais de Kerry – use {{R:ga:Sjoestedt Description}}

M. L. Sjoestedt-Jonval, Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry – use {{R:ga:Sjoestedt Phonétique}}

F. N. Finck, Die araner Mundart – use {{R:ga:Finck}} for references or {{RQ:ga:Finck}} for quotes

E. C. Quiggin, A Dialect of Donegal – use {{R:ga:Quiggin}}

Two online resources that are not sufficient on their own are tearma.ie and acmhainn.ie, both of which sometimes coin Irish neologisms rather than reporting on existing usage. This list is not exhaustive; additions and modifications may be discussed on the talk page.

Terms should display the {{LDL|ga}} template if they use fewer than three uses to verify an entry, which produces the following output:

This entry has fewer than three known examples of actual usage, the minimum considered necessary for clear attestation, and may not be reliable. Irish is subject to a special exemption for languages with limited documentation. If you speak it, please consider editing this entry or adding citations. See also Help and the Community Portal.