Sometimes, we get things wrong. Sometimes, however, it’s not our fault. As a result of the historical intransigence of the Irish people and their insistence on the creation of a 26 county partitionist statelet, the education system in the still loyally British Northern Ireland did not afford me the opportunity to learn an endangered minority language, concentrating instead on economics, politics, English, mathematics etc.
So let’s tease this one out. The word for ‘long’ in Irish is ‘fada’. In the Irish language, there exists an accent character over vowels, á, é, í, ó, ú, denoting a lengthening of a vowel sound, which is known as the ‘long mark’, the sineadh fada. The word fada does not have a fada itself.
Last week, while excoriating the media for their abuse of the names of politicians and political parties, vis-á-vis their omission or misuse of the fada, I fell into a trap, the likes of which the Irish education system has not seen since the introduction of pick and mix stalls near the Priest’s house. I used a fada on the word fada, turning it into the word ‘fáda’. Meaning long, apparently, in the single most widely practiced misspelling in the Irish language. Do a Google Search if you doubt me.
I will not cry, and I will take the brickbats of such outrageous fortune. I was wrong, I got cocky, I made an incredibly obscure mistake of the sort I normally enjoy making fun. My ten weeks in Beginners 1 at Conradh na Gaeilge could not help me here. And if someone properly qualified in hibernolinguistics can explain why, I will buy that someone a deoch fada or a cocktail of their choice.
Everyone else can take a fada siúl amach ar ché gearr.
