Irish to English

You might post your question on the Irish social group. I've never heard anyone do that in Irish. Mostly, I've heard them drop into English for cursing /obscenity (and even that's rare) then go back to Irish.

Callalily - to be honest, i don't often here the younger generations exclamate in Irish - maybe the odd word like 'suicra' = sugar? but i could be wrong (being not the best at my gaeilge - i wouldn't be representative of those who would be fluent)

In regards to older generations, the older Irish generations would have been viewed speaking Irish as a sign of 'the poor' and english was the sign of working etc. so alot of native speakers would have made a concious effort not to pass the language on, as it wouldn't have been seen as an advantaged.

Interestingly in the past twenty years (with the launch of allirish TV channels etc), being fluent in irish is reflective of being in higher socioeconomic class/better education i.e. media, and politics

emilycross said:

Interestingly in the past twenty years (with the launch of allirish TV channels etc), being fluent in irish is reflective of being in higher socioeconomic class/better education i.e. media, and politics

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Unless your Irish classes weren't that useful...

(No, not speaking from personal experience at all. *coughs*)

vfury said:

Unless your Irish classes weren't that useful...

(No, not speaking from personal experience at all. *coughs*)

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Well yeah, thats true (or if you have in my case Gaeilgephobia instilled because of said classes and teachers!!!)

I won't start ranting about how stupid the way Irish is taught though, but i think Sunday times had an article with stats showing fluent speakers got better jobs and were more likely to be employed etc.

The only way in my mind you can be fluent in Irish (in current educ system) is a]Gaeltacht b] Grinds c]parents are fluent.

Young people say 'feck' a lot.

emilycross said:

Well yeah, thats true (or if you have in my case Gaeilgephobia instilled because of said classes and teachers!!!)

I won't start ranting about how stupid the way Irish is taught though, but i think Sunday times had an article with stats showing fluent speakers got better jobs and were more likely to be employed etc.

The only way in my mind you can be fluent in Irish (in current educ system) is a]Gaeltacht b] Grinds c]parents are fluent.

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Heh, Irish was taught so badly in my primary school that when I went to secondary school, I later found out it was assumed that anyone from the primary school was likely to be weak in Irish. Then I made the mistake of saying I disliked Irish in my first secondary school lesson (mostly due to years of ridiculous and unrealistic lessons) and, well, it went downhill from there...

callalily61 said:

About slipping into the home-country language: I'm third-generation, and I still say a few things in the Sicilian dialect, especially if I'm visiting older relatives. You can take the gal out of the inner-city ethnic neighborhood, but it's still ingrained.

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Sicilians might do that, but Irish people and Irish-Americans don't. You've got to remember, Irish people came to the US speaking English, not Irish (most of them spoke some Irish, but for the vast majority of them it wasn't the household language). Ditto Irish people in Ireland, the UK etc.--hardly any of them (or their parents, or their grandparents) actually grew up speaking Irish rather than English in the home.

vfury said:

Heh, Irish was taught so badly in my primary school that when I went to secondary school, I later found out it was assumed that anyone from the primary school was likely to be weak in Irish. Then I made the mistake of saying I disliked Irish in my first secondary school lesson (mostly due to years of ridiculous and unrealistic lessons) and, well, it went downhill from there...

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Aw my primary lessons were horrendous, and my sec school ones were equally so. There was this lovely assumption that when you were in Primary you would learn Irish (properly, rather than learning off) in secondary. Then you go to secondary, and the teachers assumed you already knew your grammar and basic irish

I was a complete disaster!

Ditto Irish people in Ireland, the UK etc.--hardly any of them (or their parents, or their grandparents) actually grew up speaking Irish rather than English in the home.

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Exactly! Hard to have about 300 (approx) years of penal laws and punishement for speaking the language and then in like the space of 70 years try and get everyone to speak it as a first language.

I wish they taught Irish in schools like a living language (like french) rather than have us translate poems and stories from 1800s!

Although i have a complete mental block for the language, i wish i was fluent (or eh, slightly coherent in it)!

callalily61 said:

Help, please? My MC's boss interjects Irish words 4 times in the book. They're all understood within context. I pulled them from the Web, and I don't know Irish.

What he's saying in English is: Sweet Jesus, that's good. (Over a cheesburger.)

What I got from the Web for "Sweet Jesus" is: A Íosa mhilis.

Is this the correct colloquial/grammatical usage? Thanks! Edits due to The Editor mid-March, eep.

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It's complicated Irish Gaelic. English to Irish translations are very difficult, there's a lot of ...well it's doesn't translate well in online translators and the grammar in Irish Gaelic is completely different from English.

http://www.irishionary.com/

This group of people can help you find what you are looking for, check out the about pages and they'd be pleased to help you get a proper translation going for your book.

I believe they have a forum with more common phrases up and an email where you can ask for help from the group.

OH: http://www.irishslang.co.za/ Irish slang website....you might like this site.

Can y'all understand this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTNBmFveq2U

? [It's awesome ]

backslashbaby said:

Can y'all understand this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTNBmFveq2U

? [It's awesome ]

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That made me giggle, Carlsberg...lol

Love Guiness beer?

backslashbaby said:

Can y'all understand this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTNBmFveq2U

? [It's awesome ]

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Yeah people cracked up over that here. so funny.

1. can i go to the bathroon

2. and red dog/fox (agus madra rua)

3. sweets

4. and Sharon Ni Bheolain (rte news presenter)

5. I'm a Jumper (i think lol. Ta Geansai orm; Geansai = jumper)

6. Clouds in the sky

7. sweets (again)

last part is quiet; road; girl; milk



Edit: Tabitha - some of the best ads on TV are the guiness ones!

emilycross said:

I wish they taught Irish in schools like a living language (like french) rather than have us translate poems and stories from 1800s!

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It's worse than that--they reinvented the language, and didn't do a very good job of it in the 1920s. They treated the language like it was a list of parts and they could whack off the bits they didn't like.