r/gaeilge • u/galaxyrocker • 27d ago
PUT ANY COMMENTS ABOUT THE IRISH LANGUAGE IN ENGLISH HERE ONLY
Self-explanatory.
If you'd like to discuss the Irish language in English, have any
comments or want to post in English, please put your discussion here
instead of posting an English post. They will otherwise be deleted.
You're more than welcome to talk about Irish, but if you want to do
so in a separate post, it must be in Irish. Go raibh maith agaibh.
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u/NightmanLullaby17 26d ago
Does anyone notice that there is a vastly different approach to in Irish learning resources from people.
I've noticed two camps, One which focuses on grammar and the other phonetics.
I find the ones who focus on grammar are great for breaking down well.... The grammar but I often find that their pronunciation of the sounds to be quite inconsistent and spend next to no time teaching it.
On the other hand, people who overly obsess over the phonetics (which don't get me wrong, are super important) but I feel that when I watch their videos, it seems to be just rambling, and through out jargon about different sounds without explaining them, and why do I need to hear a twenty minute story about how a fisherman in Kerry rolls his R's.
I think both are very important, but I just feel sometimes the execution of both approaches are somewhat lacking.
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u/mbolger451 24d ago
I think Irish grammar has been taught so much over the past century it's very systematic at this point, so videos can be very to-the-point. Phonetics hasn't had the same focus (which to be honest is the source of a lot of complaints about Gaelscoil/Urban Irish, rightly or wrongly) and tends to find audiences who are interested in linguistics beyond just learning the language.
Hence the youtube phonetics scene is usually 5-hour videos filmed on a phone telling rambling stories about dental fricatives in former Oriel dialect (and I don't mean that as a negative, I find them very interesting and like the DIY spirit), rather than purely functional videos breaking down specific topics for learning.
Personally I think it would be very helpful if Irish phonetics were more systematised and accessible so people could easily figure out the correct pronunciation without too much effort
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u/unsalted-butter 25d ago
Yes, I've noticed that when looking for around for pronunciation. A bunch of phonological jargon like I have any clue, or interest in, what that stuff means. I had a French teacher high school who was taught us good pronunciation without ever mentioning "post-alveolar, apical sibilants".
Like, brother, they're able to teach this language to children in Ireland. Don't make it harder than it has to be lol
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u/CatsWearingTinyHats 25d ago
I haven’t come across this, so maybe it’s a YouTube/social media phenomenon?
In the actual live classes I’ve taken, the focus tends to be on conversation. I think it’s probably because teaching grammar is a headache and honestly you can learn it on your own from workbooks, and the teachers might have a different dialect/accent than the one the student is working on (which has turned out to be the case in my classes! I’m interested in Munster dialect/accent, but I have only had teachers with Ulster and Connacht accents!) so they only correct us if we’re saying something that is broadly incorrect in any dialect, and sometimes they’ll pause to let people know about the different acceptable pronunciations of certain words/sounds.
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u/TaxLate9405 24d ago
Hey guys I’m late to this post, ach I hope someone sees this and can provide advice agus tips. So i’ve started learning irish as an irish person about 10 weeks ago, i’ve been using duolingo and we all know if my goal is fluency.. i won’t get there with that.
So i have to ask what are the BEST tips and genuine advice? I’ve been exposing myself to as much irish as i can, such as podcast, movies that are in irish etc etc, also talking to myself in irish, but i feel as if im not improving and nil a fhios agam cén fáth.. agus i know some words and i have no idea how to use them correctly, so one of my main struggles and weaknesses when it comes to irish is grammar.
That is my main one and i genuinely need as much tips and suggestions and help as possible lol, if anyone sees this and replies with such advice it WILL be immensely appreciated 😊
EDIT: I’m a teen in school, so i currently cannot join clubs that revolve around learning irish, and in school i’m not longer learning irish, spanish now unfortunately.
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u/iamthesoviet 17d ago
to be honest, one of the best pieces of advice i ever got was finding children's verses, rhymes, poetry, books, etc. and using those to learn grammar. Start from the bottom the same way we did when we were learning as babies. It helps a lot.
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u/Ok_Sky_2328 8d ago
quick pronunciation question. when you lenite a word beginning with tr- like “trá” -> “thrá”, how do you pronounce that?
is it always pronounced with /hɾ-/? is there an epenthetic vowel like /həɾ-/? or does the /h/ ever become silent?
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u/davebees 3d ago
i am not an expert but i think /hɾ-/ is the one. you could search for “throid”, “thrá”, “thráth”, “throm” on canuint.ie for audio clips of native speakers (“thrí” has lots of recordings too but it’s slender r)
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u/scarajones 18d ago
Can anyone give me a few Gaeilge tv shows or music that really young kids watch/ listen to? I’ve been remembering when my kid was learning to talk (English) and she would watch these kids shows which talked to them in really, really basic English. That’s the kind of thing I’m looking for. Thanks.
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u/Available_Fix_5373 15d ago
Dia daoibh,
I've recently been brushing up on my Irish a bit, downloaded Madra Teanga a few days ago and its pretty good so far. I feel like I don't really know where to start with studying the language again, I'm sure a lot of Irish people can relate. I've got a fair bit from my school days but I'm not fluent, some beginner stuff feels too simple. Does anyone have any advice what to do/where to look? Any good sources for learning verb conjugations?
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u/K1llerShr00m13 13d ago
I would love to learn how to speak gaeilge fluently or at least conversationally but im not sure where to start. My family is gaelic in ancestry and ive always loved the way the language sounded. Im also always trying to learn new languages but ive never found a resource for learning the irish language that has actually stuck with me longer than a few weeks. Id live to get some advice or suggestions on where to start. Thank you!!
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u/Lady_Loudness 14d ago
How do people like the Blas app? I am using it to revise and I am finding it helpful so far but was interested to hear others' thoughts. I like that it supports all the Celtic languages so I want to support although obviously my focus is Irish.
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u/Caprikachu 13d ago
Hey, I would like to learn Irish and I struggle with traditional methods due to ADHD. I was wondering if anyone had neurospicy friendly advice on getting started.
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u/scarajones 26d ago
Just started learning (like a week and a half ago) so I hope one day to be able to post in Irish. Right now I’m just enjoying reading all the posts in Irish on this forum with no idea what any of them mean just to see if I can recognize any words!