Vignette 1
Me: Michael, how will you be able to speak to people when we go to France on holidays, if you don’t speak French to M (childminder).
Michael (with dignity): I am saving my French so that I don’t use it up before we go to France on holidays.
Vignette 2
A colleague of mine whom I know quite well and who speaks very good Irish encourages my faltering attempts to speak in our first national language by exchanging the odd bit of dialogue with me.
The other day we both had to attend a long meeting with a big group [like all such meetings, it was one to look forward to], for which he arrived quite late. I suspected that he had forgotten our vital meeting as I had seen him out the window emerging from the canteen with a cup of coffee. Not the act of a man in a rush.
After the meeting, I went up to him and said as much. Attempting the language of our forefathers, I said, “An rinne tú dearmad ar an gcrinniú?” “An ndearna,” he said, neatly pulling the rug from under my feet. “I knew that,” I wailed. This is why our first national language is so delightful:
An ndearna tú? – Did you?
Ní dhearna mé – I didn’t.
Rinne mé – I did.
That’s only the past tense, lads.
Now you know why I’m rubbish at speaking any form of ‘foreign’
Well, apparently English is very complex too. It just doesn’t seem like that.
I have a notion that that particular verb is really a combination of two or more verbs (like English “go” and “went” – the other bits like “gang” and “wend” being archaic or dialect).
The thought makes me want to weep. Languages are not my forte, especially when they are all so complicated!
(I like Michael’s logic. It is always wise to be sparing with French in case it runs out when you need it.)
Oh I LOVE Michael’s logic on the language. If only we had a certain amount of language at our disposal before it ran out – the world could be a better place in some cases!!
Re the gaellic. I embarrassed Hubby (Irish) when we went back to a school near Warrenpoint (border-ish) and I saw all the signs in the school in another language and I asked OUT LOUD if it was Polish?
All looked at Hubby in a pitying way as he has the ‘dumb, British, blond wife.’
Ooh Eimear, which is worse, that you think this or that I find it fascinating.
Amaranthine, it is distressing, I fully agree. Michael’s logic, though interesting, is unlikely to get him a widespread following…
Mof4, if this were true, I would have used up my English words by 20, I’d probably only be able to communicate in little used dialects by now. I think your IE/Polish mistake v. understandable – as Myles na gCopaleen would say, “very guttural langauges, the pair of them.