tortaobh

Irish

Etymology

Peadar Ó Conaill asserts in his unpublished Irish–English dictionary that tortaobh is an alteration of an original *cortaobh (literally “turn-side”), which matches the Ulster pronunciation. In the first edition (but not the second edition) of Dinneen’s dictionary, he states “some think bheith i dtortaoibh = bheith ag tabhairt taoibh”, referring to the phrase tabhair taobh le (“to rely on”), which is supported by the Munster pronunciation since tabhair is pronounced /t̪ˠuːɾʲ/ there.

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /ə d̪ˠuːɾˠˈt̪ˠiːvʲ/ (corresponding to the phrase i dtortaoibh, as if spelled i dtúrtaoibh)
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔɾˠt̪ˠiːwə lʲɛ/ (corresponding to the phrase i dtortaobh le, as if spelled i gcortaobha le)

Noun

tortaobh f

1. Only used in i dtortaobh le

Mutation

Mutated forms of tortaobh

radical	lenition	eclipsis
tortaobh	thortaobh	dtortaobh

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “tortaobh”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN