17 Comments
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A more literal translation might be 'there is no(thing) in/to them but lawyers', and thus 'they are only lawyers'. That's not super accurate, but it might get the meaning across.
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I would suggest that "They are not only lawyers" could be "Ní hamháin gur dlíodóiri iad" ["Not only that are lawyers they"].
See this example from http://www.focloir.ie/ga/dictionary/ei/neighbour:
"they're not only our neighbours but also our friends - ní hamháin gur comharsana dúinn iad ach is iad ár gcairde freisin iad"
I don't know if this construction can, not only introduce an "ach" clause, as above, but also be used absolutely.
Someone else might be able to enlighten us further.
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What about "They are nothing but lawyers?" To me that has the same meaning as "They are only lawyers" and is slightly closer to the Irish wording.
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Can someone explain the use of the negative article even though there is no negative article in the sentence?
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A literalish translation would be “There isn’t in them but lawyers” — the “not … but” structure is used to express the meaning of “only”, akin to “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog” meaning “You’re only a hound dog”.
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Not that I know of — it was Leiber and Stoller who wrote the song, and I doubt that either of them spoke Irish.
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Does the sentence in Irish potentially carry that same implication? that is, that they are "merely" lawyers and somehow limited as such? or is the Irish sentence no more than a factual observation that "all the members of that group of people happen to be lawyers"?
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I tried the word "attorney" and it was marked as wrong. Is there a separate word for "attorney" vs. "lawyer"?
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Hows about 'They are only but lawyers.' ? This is a common way of speaking where I am from but was wrong when I tried it. Thoughts?
