Seanfhocail, Fios Feasa, £25
Ni sharodh an saol an seanfhocal (The world couldn't best a proverb)
A dish slurped up for the purpose of regurgitating it as fully as possible into an exam essay is unlikely to be savoured. But outside the Gaeltacht that has been most people's experience of proverbs and sayings in Irish.
Almost 20 years after the exams, to go back and browse over 500 sayings, expressions, curses and blessings on CD-Rom is quite a different experience. Firstly, it is much easier to see the patterns in which these language fragments crystallise a whole view of the world. It is easier, too, to appreciate the brevity and beauty of expression that made them memorable, and far easier to enjoy their wit - not something that figured a lot in preparing for the Leaving Cert. This new accessibility is more than a change in the reader's attitude, however. The 501 sayings just published on this disk are simply but clearly laid out in a Macromedia presentation that offers Irish and English versions of each proverb, a sound clip of its pronunciation, plus explanatory and grammatical notes. The sayings can be searched by theme, listing those dealing with wealth, for example, or work, or speech. They can be searched for a particular word, or they can be browsed at random. Throughout, the interface can be switched between Irish and English and the disk runs on IBM-compatible PC or Macintosh.
There are also snatches of music, stories and other surprises that help to enliven the browsing and keep the user interested. FiosFeasa is a multimedia publishing company based in the Kerry Gaeltacht and the publication of Seanfhocail/Proverbs last Friday follows an attractive searchable edition of The Bible in Irish on CD-Rom. - info: www.fiosfeasa.com