Anyone Speak Gaelic?

locomotiveman

I'm making a mock up of a poster for a talk on early 19th century canal construction in the United States, and the vast majority of laborers on these projects (and many others) were Irish who spoke Gaelic. Part of the pay system for such laborers was alcohol, so I'm looking for how to say "Come drink on the job" in Gaelic. I ran the phrase to drink and to work through a few online English-Gaelic translator sites, and came up with "Is mór an gar go deoch a ól." Does anyone know if this is close to what I'm looking for?

Thank you all very much in advance

That Dave Fella

Now I can see why we're branded as alcholics.

I'd say this is a better way of saying what you want.

"Tar agus ól nuair ag obair"

Direct translation: Come and drink when working.

locomotiveman

Thank you very much.

It was an incredibly exploitative system, its also directly related to the 19th and 20th century racial issues between Irish and Afro-Americans. It was cheaper to build a canal using Irish then slaves because you didn't have to pay anyone if the "Patty" died, but if you'd leased a slave you had to compensate his owner. The fear was that emancipation would lead to a depression of labor rates, much like you see in the current arguments around illegal immegration, but thats a matter for another thread and forum.

If you are interested in reading more about it "Common Labour" by Peter Way is a great place to start.

Tav

That's not right because you need to use the saor briathar because no pronoun is given. "Tar", the verb to come, and "ól" , the verb to drink, are both irregular so they will different endings to regular verbs. I don't know the verbs-endings off the top of my head, but I can get them for you tomorrow if that's any help.

locomotiveman

Yeah, theres no true rush it isn't needed until the 3rd, and after all the odds that anyone who ended up working on the canal could read Gaelic but not English are fairly low. The odds of anyone coming to it that actually reads Gaelic are even lower I suppose tho.

That Dave Fella

Tav wrote: »

That's not right because you need to use the saor briathar because no pronoun is given. "Tar", the verb to come, and "ól" , the verb to drink, are both irregular so they will different endings to regular verbs. I don't know the verbs-endings off the top of my head, but I can get them for you tomorrow if that's any help.

I hated the saor briathar and could never get the hang of it. You don't happen to be talking about the endings that go.

Tagann and Ólann do you?

Tav

That Dave Fella wrote: »

Tav wrote: »

That's not right because you need to use the saor briathar because no pronoun is given. "Tar", the verb to come, and "ól" , the verb to drink, are both irregular so they will different endings to regular verbs. I don't know the verbs-endings off the top of my head, but I can get them for you tomorrow if that's any help.

I hated the saor briathar and could never get the hang of it. You don't happen to be talking about the endings that go.

Tagann and Ólann do you?

Oh cool, I found my vocab copy. I thought it was still in my locker!

"Ann" is the ending for present tense, 1 syllable verbs. The endings for present, 1 syllable, briathar soar verbs is tar/tear. For present 2 syllable verbs, briathar soar verbs the endings are aítear/ítear.

The sentence should go...

"Tartar agus óltar nuair a tátar ag obairitear"