Shinn Trilingual Tetraglot Groupie India gallery.takingitglob Joined 6412 days ago 61 posts - 69 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Oriya*, SpanishB2 Studies: FrenchB1, Japanese, Irish
| Message 1 of 25 14 November 2008 at 1:22pm | IP Logged |
I want to get back to learning Irish Gaelic, and while I've got some fairly good resources for learning the grammar, it's spoken Irish that's torturing me. I want to use shadowing techniques but I'm finding it difficult to find free full length audiobooks or even short stories in Irish. Does anyone know of any audio that I could download? My only requirements are that:
a. It should have a transcript in Gaelic
b. It should be preferably in either the Munster dialect or Standard Irish
c. It should be free
I don't mind if there's a transcript in English; I just want to get a good idea of the pronunciation and cadences of speech. I don't particularly mind if it isn't too literary either, it could be on repairing bathroom sinks as long as it's in Irish.
Thanks in advance!
Edited by Shinn on 14 November 2008 at 1:27pm
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scop Diglot Groupie Ireland Joined 5849 days ago 70 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English*, Irish Studies: German, Ancient Greek
| Message 2 of 25 19 November 2008 at 11:03am | IP Logged |
Hey Shinn,
The main problem you will face is that Irish does not have many good resources that are inexpensive or accessible outside of the Irish school system. Fact is Irish is taught terribly-- even here.
Further you are VERY unlikely to find anything with a specific dialect as teaching resources are standardized.
Sorry I can't help, but I just wanted to explain why this is unlikely to happen. :(
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Shinn Trilingual Tetraglot Groupie India gallery.takingitglob Joined 6412 days ago 61 posts - 69 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Oriya*, SpanishB2 Studies: FrenchB1, Japanese, Irish
| Message 3 of 25 19 November 2008 at 11:32am | IP Logged |
You're right, unfortunately. As of now all I've found is a couple of YouTube videos on what seems to be a Big Brother spoof in Irish. It seems I'll have to make do with my copy of Teach Yourself Irish, even though the audio leaves much to be desired.
I recently watched a short film (partly in Irish) about a Chinese man who learns Irish and moves to Ireland, only to find that hardly anyone speaks it over there (Is that really true though? Most of the Irish people in the movie confuse his Irish for Chinese!). It makes my blood boil when he sits and yaks -- in Irish of course -- about having learnt Irish a mere 6 months ago!
By the way, I noticed that you joined today. Welcome to the forum and all the best in your language studies :)
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scop Diglot Groupie Ireland Joined 5849 days ago 70 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English*, Irish Studies: German, Ancient Greek
| Message 4 of 25 19 November 2008 at 12:02pm | IP Logged |
I did some digging...lessons in mp3 and transcripts included:
http://www.independent.ie/education/features/learn-irish-wit h-liam-o-maonlai-692551.html
And our Irish radio station: http://www.rte.ie/rnag/
To be honest if you learn Irish you will speak it better than many Irish people. It is a near-dead language, but there are small places in Ireland where it is the main language. We all 'learn' it in school, but badly. The focus being on exams rather than profiency in speaking since there is nowhere for most of us to speak it.
I would be more than happy to help where I can as I am always impressed by any non-Irish people who take it up.
Slán
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Shinn Trilingual Tetraglot Groupie India gallery.takingitglob Joined 6412 days ago 61 posts - 69 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Oriya*, SpanishB2 Studies: FrenchB1, Japanese, Irish
| Message 5 of 25 19 November 2008 at 12:48pm | IP Logged |
Go raibh mile mhaith agat! I've decided to grab onto any and every piece of Irish audio I can get my hands on. I once read about a Polish woman who learnt Spanish through a translation of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" so I keep telling myself if she could do it, I could do too (well, it helps my confidence, if not my linguistic skills).
I have no logical reason to learn Irish really. I've wanted to go to Ireland since I was five, and I've been in love with Gabriel Byrne since I was like, 9 so the only reasons I have are somewhat whimsical. My friends (the ones that know that Gaelic is a language and not some sort of savoury dip) just shake their heads sadly these days :P
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scop Diglot Groupie Ireland Joined 5849 days ago 70 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English*, Irish Studies: German, Ancient Greek
| Message 6 of 25 19 November 2008 at 1:18pm | IP Logged |
Well here is the IMDB list of movies in the Irish language: http://www.imdb.com/List?language=Irish%20Gaelic&&tv=on&&hea ding=10;Irish%20Gaelic&&nav=/Sections/Languages/IrishGaelic/ include-titles
I'm not sure how easy these would be to acquire for you.
As for reasons to learn Irish...well it is beautiful when sung, and one day you could visit the Aran Islands and test your skills on the locals: http://www.visitaranislands.com/
[Not to mention you might get to meet Gabriel Byrne!]
Edited by scop on 19 November 2008 at 1:19pm
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Shinn Trilingual Tetraglot Groupie India gallery.takingitglob Joined 6412 days ago 61 posts - 69 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Oriya*, SpanishB2 Studies: FrenchB1, Japanese, Irish
| Message 7 of 25 20 November 2008 at 2:38am | IP Logged |
Thank you so much, you've been an incredible help. I should be able to hunt some of the better known movies down online. The trouble is that so few of them are entirely in Irish. I've seen one of the titles on this list, No Bearla which has quite a bit of Irish in it (being a documentary about a man who travels through Ireland speaking only Gaeilge, only to find that he isn't understood. At one point he sings pornographic lyrics in Irish and little old ladies come by and clap). Unfortunately, the YouTube version doesn't have subtitles in either Irish or English.
Although both statements about my childhood wishes are true, I was joking a little about learning Irish for the wonderful Mr. Byrne (I have to admit he's become more so after I found out that he speaks fluent Irish, hehe).
I realized that I really wanted to learn it after I heard it; it's possibly the most beautiful language to my ears, the combination of smooth and rough sounds. Speaking it is like a crunchy biscuit covered with chocolate on your mouth :P And concepts like lenition, broad and slender sounds and the Verb-Subject-Object structure are fascinating. It's hard to believe this is a language that evolved in the same region as English!
The Aran Islands look beautiful; I've been hearing about them a lot lately. They seem to be all over the Facebook Irish groups these days.
By the way, unless they live in a Gaeltacht, is it much easier for Irish people to correctly pronounce Irish, if English has been their first language?
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Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh
| Message 8 of 25 20 November 2008 at 4:23am | IP Logged |
A lot of people complained about No Bearla: the presenter interviewed a lot of people in Irish and then completely skipped them in the film, because it didn't help him make his point.
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