So I just started learning gaeilge and I absolutely love it, but I can’t get the pronunciation rules to stick in my mind. They make sense to me and I don’t have trouble saying things right but I still can’t sound out words without checking the pronunciation. On top of that I’m learning two other languages right now, one of which I need to be fluent in in three years in order to be eligible for my master’s. That might be besides the point though, I just. Have no idea how to get my adhd brain to cooperate with me on this venture. Do you have any recommendations??? I hope you’re well!
táim go maith, go raibh maith agat!!
my advice will probably not be helpful if you're already DOING this, but for me the Biggest help was listening to irish speakers while reading along with an irish transcript (instead of english subtitles).
duolingo is pretty good for this, although there's only one speaker for the whole course
i also really like gaeilge i mo chroí, which is a youtube channel that covers basic irish and breaks down pronunciation basics with the accompanying words/sounds on screen.
(the eclipsis and lenition explanation videos on that channel are LIFESAVERS.)
perhaps the MOST important resource has been máire ní shúilleabháin's music, because she accompanies all of her songs with the transcribed lyrics onscreen
when songs go too fast for me to pick up the syllables i slow the video down to 0.75 or 0.5x speed and repeat the words more slowly!
for me, the main key to picking up irish thus far has been to relax and let myself absorb it instead of trying to consciously memorize all the nitpicky pronunciation rules and grammar constructs. it's kind of like how when you read a book, you'll stumble if you try to parse exactly one sentence at a time instead of letting the story flow without stopping
besides all of this info - which again, won't be super helpful if you're already doing auditory immersion - my best advice is to.... sort of.... ground your study? with mental associations. my own adhd brain is a sieve UNLESS i actively make connections that make the info accessible
by that i mean, tie the things you're trying to remember to something Else in your brain. some people do this visually; i'm not a visual thinker so my memory tricks are all audio. i give vocab words that are too similar little audio tricks. beef is martyred (mairteoil) and pork is mucus (muiceoil). take a toe (tógann) but give a tug (tugann). growth is fast (fásann) and excited fans wait (fanann). i have.... like.... hundreds of these. then as i practice more i cement the knowledge so i don't need the memory hack anymore
where this relates to PRONUNCIATION is: as your brain is picking up patterns in the spelling, pay attention to words that use unusual consonants/vowels. see if you can ground the pronunciation with the word itself
it's easier to give examples than try to explain fksjjd so like these r some of mine
bh - "w" with broad vowels; buachaill
bh - "v" with slender vowels; bhfear
agha - the letter I; praghas
dh - "yuh" sound; dheartháir
basically just: where have i already seen this combination of letters before? how was it pronounced in that other word? is it the same here?
but truly i cannot express enough that becoming familiar with the pronunciation wasn't about memorizing lists of consonants or watching a ton of linguistics videos. it was just about reading and repeating enough irish words for my brain to start recognizing patterns by itself! the same will likely be true for the other languages you're learning as well. language is used to communicate, so the more you use it for that purpose (instead of purely academic analysis), the better your grasp on it will be
