|
 |
Help with Irish regional differences | ||
Tags: Gaelic (Irish) | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| JasonCZS Bilingual Super Polyglot Newbie China Joined 4609 days ago 8 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English, Mandarin*, Cantonese*, GermanB1, Latin, Hungarian, Ancient Greek, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Esperanto, Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Finnish, Polish, Italian, Modern Hebrew, French, Hindi, Sanskrit, Lithuanian, Estonian, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Slovak, Arabic (Gulf) | Message 1 of 6 06 June 2012 at 4:48am | IP Logged | ||
|
Hi everyone!
I am currently learning Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic, and having problems with Irish. I have several textbooks to learn from, but in them the expression "what is your name" varies, quite surprisingly. For example, in Teach Yourself Irish it's Cad is ainm duit; in Colloquial Irish it's Cén t-ainm atá ort; in another course it's cá hainm atá ort. I wonder whethter these are stylitic differences or regional ones, and if they are the latter, please tell me which one is more generally accepted. THANK YOU! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5392 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 2 of 6 14 June 2012 at 11:57am | IP Logged | ||
|
I'm no expert, but yes, Irish has different dialects and they can be quite different
from each other. And each resource for learning Irish maddeningly seems to use a different one.
And that's the problem - there isn't one which is more accepted than the other. There is a Standard dialect but it's a sort of artificial mixing of the authentic dialects created around 1950 or so. I believe Standard is taught in schools and is what's used on the radio and such but a lot of people recommend going for one of the authentic dialects. Just one of the difficulties of learning Irish... Here are a couple discussions on the topic which ought to help: Which dialect? Dialect Confusion! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5557 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 3 of 6 14 June 2012 at 4:05pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Here's an extract taken from Irish 101 that might help answer your question:
"Varience in Dialects The differences between dialects are considerable, and have led to recurrent difficulties in defining standard Irish. A good example is the greeting "How are you?". Just as this greeting varies from region to region, and between social classes, among English speakers, this greeting varies among Irish speakers: Ulster: Cad é mar atá tú? ("What is it as you are?" Note: caidé or goidé and sometimes dé are alternative renderings of cad é ) Connacht: Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? ("What way [is it] that you are?") Munster: Conas taoi? or Conas tánn tú? ("How are you?") Leinster (casual Dublin): Con's 'tá? ("How are [you]?") Standard Irish: Conas atá tú? ("How are you?") In recent decades contacts between speakers of different dialects have become frequent and mixed dialects have originated. With the growth in the Irish language media - and in particular the television channel TG4 - it has become much easier for speakers of different dialects to understand one another, although this is mostly seen in the younger generations." [Source: Learn Irish - Dialects, 101 Languages] Edited by Teango on 14 June 2012 at 4:08pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4605 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 6 19 June 2012 at 10:21pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Yes, they are different dialectal forms, the form "Cén t-ainm atá ort?" (literally "what
name is on you?") is mostly used in the west of the country (Connemara and Mayo, I'm not sure about Donegal), while "Cad is ainm duit?" is used mostly in the south (Kerry, Cork and Waterford). Just pick one and be able to recognise the other, all speakers will understand the different forms. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 6 20 June 2012 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | ||
|
As far as I can see with my limited skills the different versions of the greeting mostly don't represent real dialectic forms, just differences in which way you express yourself using a common set of words - different preferences in idioms, so to say. However there are also cases where the words themselves are limited to specific regions, which includes so central parts of the vocabulary as the interrogatives. And even though I don't know it for sure I would expect that preferences also differ in those cases where the Irish language as a whole seems to be in a transitional phase - for instance my textbooks differ widely on the use of analytic versus synthetic verbal forms or the use of the dative.
Maybe you can manage to learn the dialect of one area in its pure form if you are there and only use books which represent that dialect, but I'm not in that situation, so my decision has been just to learn as many of the words and idioms as possible without caring too much about the geographical localisation of each feature - after all the chance that I ever will have to use the language in practice is fairly limited. Edited by Iversen on 20 June 2012 at 12:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5057 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 6 of 6 20 June 2012 at 12:38pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Analytical forms are used in the West and North, while synthetic are used in the South.
1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
