Sample from the Anki deck that is the output of this project. Top 6,500 words Anki deck was originally created by https://github.com/terrysimons ; hi Terry!
Scrapes teanglann.ie and focloir.ie and extracts a good English translation for an Irish word combining both websites.
Used from the command line:
$ ./lookup_irish.py glór Noun nm1 voice (human) voice sound voice (linguistics)
There's a verbose mode also, that prints more info:
Makes a cache of all webpages downloaded for faster re-lookup
irish_lang.py has some handy functions for mutating words (lenite/eclipse), applying articles according to gender and part-of-speech rules ('fuinneog' -> 'an fhuinneog'), and applying HTML hints for masculine/feminine (for use in e.g. flashcards).
Python 3: https://www.python.org/
run the following from the command line:
pip3 install virtualenv
virtualenv .virtual
source .virtual/bin/activate
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
Then you can lookup a word:
./lookup_irish.py rith
This project was originally started as a means to automatically provide translations for a top-6,500 Irish words Anki deck available at https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1975966926
The deck is designed to enable learning of plurals and genitive cases of nouns at the same time as the noun, and also to learn the verbal noun form alongside the root of verbs.
Definitions have been provided manually for the first 1,000 words, and then subsequently automatically using this project for the subsequent 5,000, with the first 1,000 being cross checked with the automated translations. The deck has been further improved with manual notes and additions of common 2/3 word idioms and phrasal verbs (bigrams/trigrams).
The populate_google_sheet.py script can be used to update this deck, but appropriate credentials are needed, i.e. access to the working spreadsheet. Get in contact if that is needed.
The deck is originally based on the Irish Word Frequency List from Michal Boleslav Měchura. There appear to be some biases towards legal terminology in that word list, and these words have been manually demoted where noticed. Supplemental data is from the Gaois corpus, used to proportionally demote cards for verbal nouns (these are also shown in the root verb card as in 'ag tarraingt' above) and discover candidate bigrams, and some missing word forms were taken from the fantastic top-500 Liostaí Bhreacadh lists published and available for purchase at breacadh.ie.
Some of the typical masculine/feminine endings are colored blue/pink to reinforce the gender of nouns, and where these endings are 'false friends', the are instead marked with a red underline. 'éisteacht' above is indeed feminine, whereas 'ucht' is masculine.
Analysis of selected word endings which are typically masculine or feminine
| Feminine Ending | Feminine | Sample | %Feminine | Masculine Exceptions | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -cht | 302 | 332 | 91% | socheolaíocht, bunreacht, comhlacht, complacht, gnólacht, leanacht, líofacht, fanacht other 35 or so masculine exceptions are all the short, one syllable words e.g. sliocht, seacht, fuacht, lucht, locht, acht, ocht etc. |
|
| -áil | 86 | 86 | 100% | ||
| -is | 72 | 72 | 100% | ||
| -óg | 46 | 47 | 98% | dallamullóg | |
| -int | 32 | 33 | 97% | sáirsint | |
| -irt | 29 | 29 | 100% | ||
| -eog | 17 | 17 | 100% | all nf2 | |
| -ail | 15 | 17 | 88% | Earcail, Uncail | |
| -lann | 14 | 16 | 89% | salann, anlann | |
| -ís | 11 | 12 | 91% | giúistís | |
| -íl | 10 | 10 | 100% | ||
| -ailt | 7 | 7 | 100% | all nf2 | |
| -úil | 6 | 6 | 100% | ||
| (total feminine) | 1621 | 1621 | 100% |
| Masculine Ending | Masculine | Sample | %Masculine | Feminine Exceptions | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -án | 195 | 195 | 100% | ||
| -adh | 103 | 103 | 100% | ||
| -óir | 81 | 88 | 92% | cóir, tóir, onóir, éagóir, altóir, glóir, seanmóir | professions |
| -ín | 72 | 80 | 90% | ealaín, muinín, mín, aintín, cín, braillín, vacsaín | diminutive |
| -oir | 62 | 69 | 90% | cathaoir other exceptions are short treoir, deoir, coir, aoir, beoir |
|
| -ire | 52 | 65 | 80% | Éire, aire, saoire, náire, trócaire, faire, mire, géire, pónaire, úire, allmhaire, onnmhaire, fuaire | |
| -ún | 31 | 31 | 100% | ||
| -éad | 28 | 29 | 97% | téad | |
| -úr | 28 | 30 | 93% | deirfiúr, siúr | |
| -éal | 26 | 26 | 100% | ||
| -ste | 24 | 28 | 86% | aiste, timpiste, tubaiste, biaiste | |
| -éir | 18 | 24 | 75% | mistéir, comhréir other exceptions are short: réir, spéir, cléir, céir |
professions |
| -úir | 4 | 5 | 80% | úir | professions |
| -aeir | 1 | 1 | 100% | only 1: carraeir | |
| (total masculine) | 2805 | 2805 | 100% |
How adjectives agree with the preceeding noun is shown by providing sample masculine/feminine & plural nouns, when there is a difference in the agreement:
Strong endings for plural nouns are those highlighted in bold; these are endings that don't change in the genitive plural. Some adjectives agree differently with the preceeding noun if that noun has a strong ending: e.g. ag cheannach na ndeochanna daora (buying the expensive drinks) vs. ag cheannach na mbronntanas daor (buying the expensive presents)
Some analysis of noun declensions & strong/weak endings:
| Declension | % Strong Plural | Sample Size |
|---|---|---|
| nm1 | 10% | 1480 |
| nf2 | 53% | 806 |
| nf3 | 30% | 464 |
| nm3 | 79% | 306 |
| nm4 | 84% | 764 |
| nf4 | 65% | 211 |
| nf5 | 74% | 50 |
| nm2(!) | 100% | 2 |
| nm5(!) | 100% | 5 |
| nf (other) | 22% | 139 |
| nm (other) | 23% | 331 |