Gaeilge is the language of the godz ... and the near future
63What the experts say:
http://www.contemporarypoetry.com/brain/lang/index.htm**
The Irish Language in the United States: A Historical, Sociolinguistic, and Applied Linguistic Survey
by Thomas W. Ihde (Author)
"Idhe was a student of applied linguistics at Trinity College in Dublin, and though he spoke several languages adeptly, he could not for the life of him master Irish. He wondered if he had some deficiency, if the language was innately difficult, if the teaching techniques were faulty, or what else might be wrong."
"Dr. Ihde, the editor, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures at William Paterson University."
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How can anyone resist a language with these kinds of rules and grammar????
Pronounciation:
eoi oh + short i [no English equivalent]
eái aa + short i [no English equivalent]
iai eeah + ee [no English equivalent]
uai oo + short i [no English equivalent]
iui ew + short i [no English equivalent]
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"The answer to a question in Irish is usually not "yes" or "no", but a repetition of the statement form of the verb.
The lack of a proper word for "yes" and "no" is the reason why so many Irish (and Scottish) speakers of English choose to answer a question with a verb, e.g. "Did you see him?" "I did."
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Note: Especially the ambiguity of "a", which can mean either "his", "her", or "their". It is the effect on the following word that will usually demonstrate which sense the pronoun has, but occasionally (e.g. before a non-aspirable and non-eclipsable consonant) there won't be any change in the following word and at those times you'll have to rely on context alone.
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Indefinite Article
This is a bit of a deceptive heading, as there is *no* indefinite article in Irish corresponding to English "a" or "an". So the word "teach", for example, can mean either "house" or "a house".
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The preposition "i" is sometimes used for an idiomatic rendering of continuous action which involves particular verbal nouns. Instead ofsaying "I am sitting" -- tá mé ag suí (where "suí" is the verbal noun for "sitting") -- you instead say "I am in my sitting": tá mé i mo shuí. A similar construction can be used with nouns. For example, "tost" is a masculine noun meaning "silence"; "he is silent" is rendered as "he is in his silence", tá sé ina thost. There is no hard and fast rule for the use of this construction as far as I know; but in any case one becomes used to it when it appears in texts, conversations, etc.
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When expressing "in the", the word "i" is not used; instead, a special form called "sa" takes over. It causes aspiration except to words beginning with d, s, and t:
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However, this combination of "ag" plus "an" causes eclipsis -- the only exceptions being, in this case, words beginning with "d" and "t", as in the examples above. The other eclipsable consonants however are still changed:
Note that both feminine and masculine nouns are affected in the same way -- there is no distinction of gender after "an" as there usually is. This is a direct result of "ag" acting upon the noun.
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Oddly enough, Irish has no real verb that corresponds with the verb "to have" in English.
To say in Irish that someone has something, you must say that something is "at" someone. This of course is where "ag" comes in:
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Ag" is also used to express the equivalent of "to know", a verb which also does not appear in Irish. The construction for "I know" is "its knowledge is at me".
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The way to say that someone is fond of something is that "dúil" ([f.], "liking, urge") is "at" someone "in" something; for example, "I am fond of beer" becomes "Liking is at me in beer", or in Irish:
Tá dúil agam sa leann. (leann [m.], "ale, beer")
There are even more of these little ag-inspired gems but they will have to wait for another lesson.
http://www.contemporarypoetry.com/brain/lang/irish3.html**
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Lenition of l or n is not shown in spelling but a distinction is made in pronounciation by some speakers of the dialect.
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Face it folks, this language is irresistable! I am convinced this is the language of tomorrow worldwide...
**please note the links to the site I originally got this information is currently down. the site tends to come and go. I have left the urls, but not the hyperlinks. all credit for the above goes to that previous linguistic link. thanks!
this language of godz
this language of godz
once loud and proud
should rumble again
up to the cloudz
this language of godz
or godz among men
deserves a chance
to live again
this language of godz
has taken my heart
let's learn it for love
-a brand new start
this language of godz
once loud and proud
should rumble again
up to the cloudz!
let's make the whole world a gaeltacht : )
lol
(May a pitiless bureaucrat eat your investment portfolio.)
BE the Revolution!!!*
*This ad sponsored by "Revolutions to Go" - instant revolutions at a discount price!
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drax, thanks for the anecdote. I knew bothar was road but I had no idea about the roots of the word. neat. : )
everything about irish is difficult but everything about irish is worthwhile. ;)
It's always interesting to me that the various grammatical structures that we think are necessary to explain things, really aren't necessary. You don't need indefinite articles, the verbs have/know, even tenses (Chinese doesn't have them).
For example:
"I no see movie before I go to school yesterday."
No articles, no tenses, yet completely understandable...
well something interesting about gaeilge in particular and I wish I had the link for all the examples, but it's like emotions control the person within the language, rather than the opposite way around. I sometimes wonder about the relationship of that aspect of gaeilge as a cultural influence on the conflict in N. Ireland.
for example, one doesn't (choose to) love someone else. the love is over them. proposing is asking them to be under you. hate is at you. extreme emotions own the true celtic soul, at least the way it's expressed in the old language.
fascinating hub Iðunn .Seems to me the grammatical structure of Irish is like that of most ancient languages--very concrete and highly inflected--lots of wonderful nuggets in this. BTW a pitiless beaurocrat just DID eat my investment portfolio. Those ancient Irish curses are powerful:-)
I hate it when that happenz :(
oddly, spoken it sounds scandanavian, tough for me because I have no background in that branch of language.
shall you be after loving this unfortunate language with me?
I would have to suffer being the deaf and mute Irish woman.
ah, but the joy of being an irish woman would mean we get a shot at the irish men
O.O
I guess if I was a mute Irishwoman, I couldn't say no! :D
who would want to anyway :drool:
anyway, you couldn't say 'no' even if you could speak irish, as they have no word for it. hehe
How clever of the Irishmen to come up with that one!
No wonder they are looked at as being such fastidious beer drinkers. You can never turn down another one!
lol, I hadn't thought of that. joyous~
yes, they are a genius nationality. I would never argue against that one. :)
They are an adorable lot. :)
a lot of them would be even more adorable O.O
how come I never get to live surrounded by them, darn it. :mad:
Yeah! Where the heck is Little Irishtown anyways??
if you find out, tell me and I'll join you there for the eye-candy. candy is alwayz a good goal.
actually I think it's south boston, but dudette, it's too cold there. :(
Brought back a lot of memories - I genuinely tried to learn Gaelic during my time there, and it is difficult, to say the least. As for pronunciation - forget it!
I remeber a night in Crete, where an Irish lady sang an unaccompanied song in Gaelic. It truly is a beautiful language that is meant for song!
it is lovely spoken. I have a few friends who are fluent and tried to help me some with pronunciation but it was something of a dead end for me. I could read a fair amount of it back when I was studying it and write a bit of it, but I would never have recognized it out loud.
I still have a few language tapes. Someday I might give it another shot.
I could read it more easily than speak it too. although it was a few years ago. I fully intend to return to it, although I am still trying to get the hang of Greek. Sadly, it is no easier :(
I grew up in Belfast where we were taught Latin in school. Catholic schools were taught Irish. While the Latin didn't hurt, as I majored in Spanish and French, I thought it was an awful pity to be preventing Irish people from learning their own language. I have tried to study it on my own, but it is too difficult without a tutor.
That is one of the reasons I wished to move to Boston or another city which has a strong Irish cultural centre... language and dance classes and so forth. What fun that would be.
I have a friend whose daughter takes the now required Irish in school in Derry and she hates it. She wanted to take French. I think they need to make it more exotic or fun or something and I think it helps now that there is radio and television programming in Irish.
Thanks for stopping in to comment.
Sufi, sorry to hear that about Greek. I hadn't gotten around to playing in that language yet, but one can never tell. At least I can say I've been warned. LOL
Teresa - it was no better in Eire - I lived in Cork and Carlow, and most people were not interested in learning Gaelic. Still, there seems to be a bit of a revival, so we can only hope.
Idunn - Slowly getting there - sadly, I work long hours, at the moment, so I don't get out and about enough to pick up the little nuances.
The Cork brogue is next to unintelligible to me, even in English. I like to think total immersion would be a great tool for rapid and in depth learning, however I have no way to test that theory personally. Perhaps I shall look up some conversational Greek, now that you've mentioned it I'm curious.
I dabbled a bit in Manx. I think if I were ever fluent in Irish, Manx would be easy. Of course I'll never be fluent in Irish though. o.O
Took me a while to understand the brogue, I must admit. Mind you, I am one of these people who picks up accents, and kept it for a good few months when I arrived back in England.
I have heard a little Manx - I am from just across the water, and also tried to learn Scots Gallic whilst I lived there, but ended up spending my time drinking too much whisky. Happy Days :)
Good Luck with the Greek - once you get the hang of the alphabet, it becomes a little easier.
I admit to being in love with the idea of being fluent in Manx. I love the obscure, in pretty much all areas. I'm the most elitist film watcher you will ever know. I'm like that with hair, music, you name it. Something about the frozen sparrowness of things.
I definitely want to look into Greek. I suspect I would be the only person in a 1000 mile range to speak it, if I could learn it. How I would love that! Then too, I could practice on you. I shall have to see about getting some tapes and books on it.
I did a great deal of my Irish from online sources. :)
lol - I know what you mean about obscure languages. I have an old Cornish grammar book upstairs, but only ever dabbled in it. Sadly, I was born with little aptitude for languages.
Let me know when you want to practice Greek - online is good, but I have dial-up here, so that is not an option. One day they may decide to install broadband in the area. A beautiful language to learn - I will get there, one day :)
I shall see whether I can find the resources to join you in your pursuit of Greek. They say misery loves company. At the least, we can type it to each other. lol
I'm delighted to hear the love of obscurity itself is all over you, as it is me. It's wonderful, isn't it? :D
I wouldn't say I have complete inaptitude for languages, but I will say I do things in tangents and stuff fallls by the wayside for a long time before it resurfaces.
So many interests, so little time, eh? What's a Spab to do..
That is a deal!
I love obscurity - my life is a constant battle against wandering off in random directions and forgetting what I am supposed to be doing. I blame it on being a Pisces ;)
One of the reasons that I just had to come and check out your Hubs - I love Norse mythology, so was intrigued by the name. Might have to dig out some of the sagas - it is a few years since I read them. That is the only downside of living in Greece - I miss browsing second hand bookshops for dusty old books :(
I don't have the Pisces excuse, however you sound just like me. And don't get me started on used books and vintage clothes. Sigh.
Finally! The avatar I became a fan of ;)
Haha, I do remember that. You first met me in this one. :) I still have little vestiges of my brush with Russian. Notice I didn't finish with that language either, lol. Don't give up on me, though. Never can tell when I'll come back to it. :D
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Drax says:
3 years ago
Na bi ag caint :-) ..an interesting word Bóthar means 'Road'. The root of the word is Bó (Cow). Bó thar bhó, a cow passing a cow, i.e. the proper width of a road. A High King, I believe Niall, decreed that the road must be the width of two cows. Today Ireland has the highest density of small roads in Western Europe ! ..and the most Irish speakers ever - since the Famine.