#irish+language

[ly0nstea]

Gotta start treating english like monolinguistic english speakers treat other languages

Did you know English doesn't have a word for the Irish word 'mar'? Instead they have to say 'is the cause' of or 'because' for short

[drumlincountry]

I do hugely recommend www.radio.garden for language learners. Even if you have very low comprehension, having a station in ur target language on as background noise helps you get used to a variety of accents. & periodically something will break though & you 'll be like "THAT PERSON DEFINITELY SAID APPLE I KNOW THAT WORD THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT LUNCH FOOD!!!!"

[an-spideog]

Did you know that -igh is pronounced differently in every dialect of Irish?

This can confuse people a lot when they're learning verbs, especially when they're taught with a mix of the dialects but each dialect is quite internally consistent with it.

This also applies to -idh as slender dh and slender gh have merged in every dialect.

In Connacht these are entirely silent, so in an unstressed syllable they're just pronounced like a schwa, a neutral vowel.

Cheannaigh (bought) -> Cheanna

Bhailigh (collected) -> Bhaile

Cuirfidh (will put) -> Cuirhe

Samhraidh (of summer) -> Samhra

In Ulster and Munster, the pronounciation is also a schwa when it is a verb form before a pronoun:

Cheannaigh sé (He bought) -> Cheanna sé

Cuirfidh sé (He will put) -> Cuirhe sé

But, if it isn't before a pronoun then it is pronounced like 'í' in Ulster and like 'ig' in Munster.

Cheannaigh Seán -> Cheannaí Seán (Ulster), Cheannaig Seán (Munster)

Nigh (Wash) -> Ní (Ulster), Nig (Munster)

Samhraidh -> Samhraí (Ulster), Samhraig (Munster)

[thethirdromana]

I finished watching Crá yesterday and now I need to try to persuade as much of tumblr as possible to watch it too.

It's an Irish-language murder mystery TV series set in Donegal, though it's subtitled in English, so you don't need Irish to follow it. It's not a cheerful series - Crá translates to torment - and nearly every single character is in some way corrupt, compromised or morally grey. But it's extremely well-produced, it's gripping, it has an utterly stunning soundtrack (by a Breton composer!) and it's visually gorgeous:

This is the first ever Irish-language TV show to get a primetime slot in Northern Ireland. And I would utterly love for the BBC to invest in more of this kind of thing (it's a BBC/TG4 coproduction). So if this sounds like something you'd be interested in, please help make it a success!

[mapsontheweb]

European country names "as Gaeilge" (Irish language)

[cleolinda]

Clannad singer and harpist Moya Brennan dies aged 73

The Grammy and Emmy-winning ‘first lady of Celtic music’ was credited with popularising Irish music and lyrics

Máire Philomena Ní Bhraonáin was born on 4 August 1952 in Dublin, the eldest of nine children. It was a musical family: the siblings would sing to packed crowds in the family’s pub – despite local belief that no one wanted to see music in such venues – and Brennan pursued her musical education at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin.

Clannad was formed by Brennan, her brothers Pól and Ciarán along with their mother’s twin brothers, Noel and Pádraig Ó Dúgáin. Having been raised on a combination of traditional folk melody and the pop harmonies of acts such as the Beach Boys, they made their live debut at the Slógadh Youth Festival in 1970 and won the festival’s prize, which included a record contract with Polydor that the band members were too young to sign.

Clannad made their name on their defiant embrace of the Irish language. “They regarded it as a poor man’s language,” Brennan told the Irish News in 2022. Singing in it “was like we were letting them down in some way, but we fell in love with Gaelic melodies and Irish was my first language.”

[theaologies]

This sent me into hysterics this morning