Opening line on Nuacht bulletins

doh.ie

Quick question for the more fluent Gaeilgeoiri amongst us...

Siun Nic Gearailt on Nuacht RTE introduces all her bulletins with a greeting that sounds something like (apologies for the pathetic phonetic attempt): "Debhail a mathasa". Most other Nuacht presenters have tended to use "Dia dhiabh".

I figure that this is some new greeting, or lesser known greeting, and RTE are just (rightly) moving for a more secular introduction to the bulletin.

Anyone have any ideas what she says, how you spell it, and what its literal translation is? (Been bugging me for months!)

Thanks!

Gael

I think it's "Dia bhur mbeatha-sa", similiar to 'Sé do bheatha" which is another way of saying hello.(i.e. 'Sé do bheatha a Mhuire........) Just a guess.

An Fear Aniar

Yep. I'd say that's what it is.

There was a newsreader at one time who used to say "bail ó Dhia oraibh" but it sounded exactly like "BOLLO YERRY".

simu

doh.ie wrote:

I figure that this is some new greeting, or lesser known greeting, and RTE are just (rightly) moving for a more secular introduction to the bulletin.

In many cases, using an Irish expression with "dia" in it is no more a sign of religious devotion that someone saying "oh my god" in English. Although, personally, I mostly say "conas tán tú" (how are you) rather than "dia duit" unless it's a really formal sort of conversation.

doh.ie

Cheers for all the replies, good to know.

I thought my Irish was reasonable enough - Connaught dialect - but couldn't for the life of me work out what she was saying, or why she was the only one using it.

Interesting that it still contains "Dia" - I agree it's more a phrase than a relgious proclamation, but it seems odd that it features in so many formal versions of 'hello' in Irish.

Had to laugh at "Bollo yerry" above - that's exactly what that guy reads it as.

Incidentally - and I'm sure this as come up before - unless you practise or listen to the varying dialects a lot or keep your Irish up after school, it actually can be a bit of a stumbling block. For instance, while I'd have no trouble understanding Simu's "conas tán tú" in speech above, we'd have always written that as "Conas atá tú?" On a similar note, I'm amazed how many words I can recognise when watching programmes in Scots Gaelic - while the inflections and ways of saying phrases can change, it seems the keywords don't differ as much. It's just a pity that some of the inflections (or possibly speed of reading) - like the Nuacht greeting above - make it more difficult for a non-fluent speaker to understand.

simu

doh.ie wrote:

Incidentally - and I'm sure this as come up before - unless you practise or listen to the varying dialects a lot or keep your Irish up after school, it actually can be a bit of a stumbling block. For instance, while I'd have no trouble understanding Simu's "conas tán tú" in speech above, we'd have always written that as "Conas atá tú?" On a similar note, I'm amazed how many words I can recognise when watching programmes in Scots Gaelic - while the inflections and ways of saying phrases can change, it seems the keywords don't differ as much. It's just a pity that some of the inflections (or possibly speed of reading) - like the Nuacht greeting above - make it more difficult for a non-fluent speaker to understand.

"Conas atá tú" is the standard way of saying it but in Munster people actually say "conas tán tú".

Gael

The same Siún is one sexy lady! I like to explore her tongue any day!

An Fear Aniar

Gael wrote:

The same Siún is one sexy lady! I like to explore her tongue any day!

You could go on a Turas Teanga....

Anyone got a picture of her?

Gael

An Fear Aniar wrote:

You could go on a Turas Teanga....

Anyone got a picture of her?

Sure do! Here she is in action: