Word Lists of Ozish

Introduction

The following word lists are for the convenience of those who wish Ozzy sounding names for characters in Role Playing Games or in Stories. The spelling and the pronunciation of Gaelic in modern dictionaries is reasonably straightforward, though still somewhat idiosyncratic, but it is so far removed from the actual Gaelic of the 1800s that the results wouldn't be all that Ozzy anyhow.

The word lists will have 5 columns.

First the English meanings of the words, or word particles.

Second the Ozish spelling - that is the Gaelic spelling as formalized in the 1800s.

Third the pronunciation as if the spelling were adequately phonetic. This is the pronunciation that would go between double slashes, as //xxx//. This pronunciation is actually quite close to the formal, high level language of the 1600s and previous.

Fourth the actual pronunciation of Ozish Gaelic as spoken by those who had strong AngloIrish tendencies. This is the pronunciation that would go between single dashes, as /xxx/.

You can hear a good representation of that by listening to Maureen O'Hara talking Gaelic in the Quiet Man where she is speaking in fluent Gaelic to the priest about her husband sleeping in a sleeping bag. You'll hear the word "Mal codaltha" repeated several times. It sounds like "Mal cuddle sah" and means "Sleeping bag". And note that all her "r"s are strongly trilled.

Fifth the actual pronunciation of Ozish Gaelic represented by an English phonetic equivalent. This is the pronunciation that would go between parens, as (xxx). It's a close approximation of how you would spell the names of your characters.

These mini dictionaries will be in groups of three, sorted on the meanings first, then the Ozish spellings and third the English pronunciations.

The meanings so you can find names with the appropriate meanings for your characters.

The Ozish spellings so you can look up the words in old fashioned dictionaries to find out more about the words and their usages. I recommend the 1927 Dinneen dictionary for this, as all of its words are out of the 1800s and a lot of usage is given.

The English pronunciations so you can find words that sound like what you want for the sake of euphony, puns and such.

The meaning part of the word lists will contain words and word particles. The particles will have a single slash in front of them and be either a prefix or an ending. Sometimes they'll be individual words used as particles, but usually they will have to be joined to a word to make sense.

The dash after a word or phrase means that the stuff after the dash is to be read before the stuff in front of the dash. Like "assemble - knowing how to" is to be read as "knowing how to assemble". This is so related meanings will sort next to one another.