The Death of Imagination

Anzac Wallace

(No prizes for guessing where he's from.)

Bert Papenfuß-Gorek

He has good titles, too, like Rumbalotte, Haarbogensturz, and Ation-Aganda.

If you set your language preference here on "Gaeilge" (come, do it for a lark!), you'll notice that "Journal" is translated with "Dialann". This looks like a straightforward combination of dia, an archaic word for "day", and -lann, a common noun-forming suffix with the general meaning of "place". (Cf. leabhar "book" > leabharlann "library"; clár "board; register" > clárlann "registry", etc.) But of course, anyone who works with words knows how deceitful appearances can be. Here's a fascinating explanation of how it came about, courtesy of donncha22:

The word dialann actually had a pretty dodgy start in the world. It was orignially dia-lón and meant "a day's ration". Actually, it was Risteard Pluincéad[*] who invented the word as a translation of the Latin term diarium which has that meaning, esp. in the plural diaria. Anyway, later dictionary makers mistook the meaning, since diarium can mean "daily journal" as well as "daily allowance", and they passed the word along as dialon and then dialann. The latter form almost certainly arose because lann can mean "place", thus "day-place", which seemed to fit reasonably well with "diary".

The more orthodox term for "diary", Dennis points out, would be cín lae which translates as "book of days" (cín being an archaic word for "book"). The Journal of the Proceedings of Dáil Éireann (the Irish parliament), for instance, has the Irish title Cín lae imeachtaí Dháil Éireann.

Today I stumbled across another story of translingual bumbling, albeit without the same moral regarding caution in the use of dictionaries. Wondering about the origins of the surname "Hurley", I looked it up in Woulfe. As is often the case, he gives a couple of Irish equivalents, including Ó hUrthuile, Ó hIarfhlatha (also anglicised "O'Herlihy", etc.), and Ó Comáin. Come again?

Here's how it goes: Ó hUrthuile is commonly anglicised as "Hurley" which--by sheer coincidence--happens to sound like the English name of the stick used in the Irish sport of hurling (transparently derived from the verb hurl). In Irish, this stick is known by the term camán, which is a diminutive of cam meaning "crooked". Another form of this same diminutive, Comán, was apparently used as a personal name in southwest Ireland, since if gives rise to the surname Ó Comáin "descendant of Comán". So far so good--until someone makes the connection between Comán and camán[**], someone who knows that the English for a camán is "hurley" and so "translates" the name.

[*] author of a 17th-century dictionary of Latin and Irish
[**] In Munster dialect (where stress is shifted to the long vowel), both variants are pronounced [kə'mˠɑ:nʲ].

Since I've been known in the past to mock others' indiscriminate overgeneralisation of Latin second declension plural endings to nouns where they have no business (e.g. *octopi, *excursi, *peni, etc.) I won't feel at peace until I own up to indiscriminately shoehorning all Irish male names with broad final consonants into the first declension. I accept now that Liam remains Liam in both the genitive and vocative and I was a fool to ever Gaelicise my name as *Domhall Liaim Liaim. I know better now and promise not to attempt such declination again without first consulting a reliable reference source.

Foqion Postoli

Bonus question: Any guesses as to Mr Postoli's nationality?

What is the English for redender Name? This is the German term--or, at least, a German term--for a name like "Scrooge McDuck" that reflects one or more prominent characteristics of a fictional character. They appear to be thick on the ground in Artemis Fowl, or at least that's the impression created by the fact that the Irish translator has rendered most of them Irish rather than preserving the forms found in the original English.

One name that does persist unchanged is that of the title character, probably as much for reasons of branding as any others. But given that he belongs to a centuries' old crime family, there's doubtless a pun here on "foul", which wouldn't translate. His faithful servant is named "Butler" which is rendered in Irish as de Buitléir, a common surname as well as the name for the occupation.

Most of the other characters in the first half, which is all I've read so far, are fairies, and the most prominent among these Holly Nic Ghirr, or "Holly McShort". (Gearr means "short" and MacNic (an) Ghirr is used as an equivalent of "Short" in Ulster.) Her boss is Commander Ó Meacan or "O'Root" and it's soon explained that his ruddy face has earned him the nickname "Meacan Biatais" or "Beetroot" in the office. His counterpart in the Traffic Branch is Corporal Ní Dhuillín or "O'Docket" and his head of IT is centaur named "Mac Sherraigh" or "Foalson".

Some of the others are more obscure. Two fairy operatives share the surname Ó Dúlamáin, and this second element is glossed in my dictionary as "channelled wrack". They report to Lieutenant Mac Gustúin or "McGudgeon". Further poking around reveals that the first is a kind of seaweed and the second is a sort of socket used particularly to attach things to the transoms of boats. Can't wait to see how that's going to come into play.