Completely agree with this 100%!!!! Irish isn't taught as a living language, but as a dead language! We're given phrases, and poems to learn off with no understanding behind it or conversation!!
Irish. . . Gaeilge. . .
- Thread starter emilycross
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Completely agree with this 100%!!!! Irish isn't taught as a living language, but as a dead language! We're given phrases, and poems to learn off with no understanding behind it or conversation!!
I'm hoping someone here will help me with the name of an old Irish King: Flaithbertach
How do you pronounce that? Is there an English equivalent?
How do you pronounce that? Is there an English equivalent?
Irish person here, too. 
I was taught Irish in school, but even now can only speak the handful of basic sentences we're taught as kids. I still remember the stupid and improbable conversations we had to learn off that would never be useful. And all the poems from the 1800s. Yeesh.
I think the problem definitely lies in how Irish is taught in school and how the government refuses to solve the heart of the problem. They can dress it up with new committees and signs and everything else, but all their efforts are going to come to nothing if they won't tackle how it's taught from a young age.
I was taught Irish in school, but even now can only speak the handful of basic sentences we're taught as kids. I still remember the stupid and improbable conversations we had to learn off that would never be useful. And all the poems from the 1800s. Yeesh.I think the problem definitely lies in how Irish is taught in school and how the government refuses to solve the heart of the problem. They can dress it up with new committees and signs and everything else, but all their efforts are going to come to nothing if they won't tackle how it's taught from a young age.
Irish person here, too.
I think the problem definitely lies in how Irish is taught in school and how the government refuses to solve the heart of the problem. They can dress it up with new committees and signs and everything else, but all their efforts are going to come to nothing if they won't tackle how it's taught from a young age.
*waves* hey vfury
Completely agree with you about Irish! I think it's funny that we all know there is a problem yet gov doesn't. Typical lol
@Deleyanlee - sorry i wouldn't have a clue but if i was going to hazard a pronounciation (which i'm sure will be wrong) maybe
fla (like flat without 't') - ber - ack (like ox but with ck sound)
Thanks so much! He's a character in my book and I've had not a clue how to pronounce his name. LOL!
So, if someone wanted to learn Irish, which dialect should they try? Medieval; ancient?
What are the names of the dialects exactly so the 'right' course is purchased?
Looks more useful than modern, methinks....
Sile Muireann
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Depends what you want to do with it. I wanted to read the stories. There were a lot that weren't translated, or even available (even now) outside of mss. and they are incredible stories. (Yes, I spent thousands on an education in order to satisfy narrative lust and find out What Happens Next.)
If you want to study dialect, then go to the Gaeltecht. There's a program still at DIA that concentrates on dialect analysis, but honestly, I'd go to Cork because, well, I like the faculty better for this there.
But if you learn modern Irish from Rosetta, or any number of other similar programs, people will understand you. And the Irish are nicer about a clumsy American butchering their language than any group of speakers whose language I've unfortunately butchered. People have been incredibly kind about working with me and my awful accent, and pointing out that I'm using a verb that only other medievalists will recognize . . .
Also: Cork and Sabhal Mor Ostaig in Scotland both do short intensive courses on modern conversational Irish, and both programs rave about each other, which is always a good sign.
And I think Galway has one as well now.
Thanks for the answer Medievalist!
More likely to read, since I don't know anyone who speaks it. But I won't be able to study abroad and earn a living at the same time, so I need to teach myself.
Perhaps if I try Rosetta I'll be able to decipher enough to make myself happy, or perhaps I'll look for older texts later.
Whether I learn ancient Gaelic or some modern language other than English, there is not much opportunity to speak either where I live.
More likely to read, since I don't know anyone who speaks it. But I won't be able to study abroad and earn a living at the same time, so I need to teach myself.
Perhaps if I try Rosetta I'll be able to decipher enough to make myself happy, or perhaps I'll look for older texts later.
Whether I learn ancient Gaelic or some modern language other than English, there is not much opportunity to speak either where I live.
If you want to learn Old Irish, look here. You can actually do it on your own. And Google books has made a lot of the books available for free in older editions. I've got a note to add links in where appropriate.
I may be wrong so feel free to correct me.
In regards to dialect, there are four in modern Irish depending on your geographical area.
Connaght (west)
Munster (south)
Ulster (north)
Standard Irish
Shamelessly taken from wiki
In regards to dialect, there are four in modern Irish depending on your geographical area.
Connaght (west)
Munster (south)
Ulster (north)
Standard Irish
Shamelessly taken from wiki
Standard Irish is what I was 'taught' in school, generally leinster irish
johnnysannie
Banned
A chara, Dia is Muire duit.
Ta cupla focail Gaeilge agam.
I'm not a native speaker but I first began learning Gaelic in 1981 when a good friend from Derry sent me a course in Irish (books and tapes) which got me started. I torture my kids with it and they all know a little. In the small town where I live, there is one other person (with Irish parents) who speaks Gaelic. At school (where he works and I do on occasion) we had the best craic speaking in Gaelic in the faculty room to the amazement and confusion of the rest of them. Mine is far from perfect, I'm sure, but it's improving over the years.
More than I can say about my own Irish!
I'd love to find decent teach myself course that uses standard Irish (that I would've been taught originally) if anyone has any ideas/recom?
johnnysannie
Banned
My friend, Tony, wrote me letters in Irish so that if I wanted to know what he said, I had to learn the words.
Irish from the Gaeltacht, no, I don't. I know that NUI Galway has been rumored to be working on one to be used by/for/with children in the Gaeltacht.
The Rosetta Stone software for standard modern Irish is well-reputed, but also pricey.
johnnysannie
Banned
Although it's really designed for small kids, the Irish version of Euro Talk's Vocabulary Builder is much less expensive than Rosetta Stone and might be a good, simple start for anyone wanting to learn Irish.
http://eurotalk.com/en/store/learn/irish/vocabbuilder/cd
Euro Talk also offers some other CD programs that are designed for older kids and adults.
http://eurotalk.com/en/store/learn/irish/vocabbuilder/cd
Euro Talk also offers some other CD programs that are designed for older kids and adults.
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Thanks Medievalist & Johnnysannie!!
Rosetta stone is a tad pricey. And Euro Talk looks good but although I'm useless at Irish I do have vocab etc. I guess it's the putting together of the information learned off from school? Maybe like a really good grammar book (with phonetics lol) or something.
I found a website that kinda gives free lessons in Irish with pron. and grammar in assoc with TCD which I might start using. . . see how it goes.
I guess it just pisses me off sometimes that I know more French than I do my own language!
Rosetta stone is a tad pricey. And Euro Talk looks good but although I'm useless at Irish I do have vocab etc. I guess it's the putting together of the information learned off from school? Maybe like a really good grammar book (with phonetics lol) or something.
I found a website that kinda gives free lessons in Irish with pron. and grammar in assoc with TCD which I might start using. . . see how it goes.
I guess it just pisses me off sometimes that I know more French than I do my own language!
Really, there are more, the problem is that many of them are now preserved in the form of two or three native fluent speakers--and they're in their 80s.
This is a better source of information. Not so much in terms of the numbers but in terms of the information, and the audio links.
There are tapes, by the way, at DIA and Galway, of thousands of hours of native fluent speakers of specific dialects, two of which the last speakers are still living--and which are almost indistinguishable from the few recordings we have of spoken Manx.
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johnnysannie
Banned
Ulster is still somewhat different; I have friends (and such) in the north of Ireland, in the Six Counties and their Irish is often just a wee bit different than friends in the Republic. It is not as great a difference as it would have been even forty, fifty years ago but it's there if you listen close enough. The accents are different too.
I'm pretty sure that would be pronounced roughly as "fla" (as in flat, without the T, like emilycross said) "er" "tea". Or, in the north, "fla" "ver" "tea". Stress on the first syllable. If I'm not mistaken, it's the name of a king from the Uí Néill (O'Neal) clan, and is also the source for the last names Lafferty and Flaherty.
~alsafi
I thought when learning Irish in Republic schools, we still had to learn how to recognise Ulster Irish for aural exams and such? At least, in my school we had to, and I grew up in Co. Cork.
I've blocked out everything to do with aural exams. . .
I still have the nightmares
I gotta be honest, I doodled through most of those practice aural classes by the end. It was dire.