Comments on: Stair na Teanga

By: belgianwaffle

belgianwaffle — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:33:53 +0000

Angeline, that’s very funny. I think I have had something of a Pauline conversion though – 3 years ago you would have found me very much with the majority of my compatriots.

Eimear, I’d say that even now they are looking at MGQ and interpreters across Bxls are trembing. I like the podcast idea- another use for my snazzy new digital radio. Oh and the Myles stuff – bheri bhunae tu.

C, you Dubliners and your disdain for our non-Dublin chips – you’ll be first against the wall when the revolution comes. See the way I avoided using provincial there though it might have been handier – Dubliners who refer to the provinces are subject to death once outside the Pale. Wouldn’t want to get myself shot.

By: CAD

CAD — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:31:15 +0000

Lots of Dubs speak Irish! And some of us well – or did once, fadó, fadó. As for the accent/dialect – who cares, so long as it’s being spoken.

By: eimear

eimear — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:15:20 +0000

That last link doesn’t bring you to the right place on the page but you can click on “SÉAM ÓLD DEOC” in the list of contents.

By: eimear

eimear — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:12:41 +0000

Irish is an interesting language from the linguists point of view, apparently, because VSO order is quite unusual. (Imagine a simultaneous interpreter from German to Irish – the first word of the Irish sentence might have to wait for the last word of the German one.)

RnaG is indeed a weird mix of the super-local and national. (Mind you English-language stations in rural areas also do death notices.) Podcasts of the better programmes might be the way to go. You might like Raidio na Life which is cheerful and urban.
http://www.raidionalife.ie//

The pronunciation system is actually internally pretty consistent (each of the dialects as you say has its own twists but they are usually consistent too – the Connemara thing is that bh/mh are “v” when slender but “w” when broad). You might enjoy this bit from Flann O’Brien,
http://web.ncf.ca/bj333/HomePage.flann.html#SEAM ÓLD DEÓC

By: Angeline LeLeux

Angeline LeLeux — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:18:23 +0000

Just as an aside, I frequently find myself at Irish music/cultural events at which there are Americans, many of whom have a smattering or more of Irish, and Irish expatriates, who never want to hear a word of Irish again. The Irish expats rant about how it’s a dead language and no one will ever learn it and wasn’t Peig awful and the Americans sit around trying to remember how to ask each other to pass the bread and inquire as to one’s health as Gaeilge. It’s a peculiar meeting of the two cultures and I’m very happy to find that actual Irish people want to learn and speak their own language. Maith thu!