I have set myself the challenge of trying to learn Irish, just wondering if anyone can recommend any resources?
I am not looking for fluency just an understanding of the language ,the ability to listen and read simple stuff etc.
PS i don't care about whether others think there is any point etc.
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I looked at duolingo just for something to do on the tube to work, but it's a difficult language and finding actual classes was quite difficult.
slán
There is an American comedian - Des Bishop, learned Irish and did a series about it - didn't see it but may show some useful resources.
Learned it age 4 - 16, found having learned it helped when learning German and also seem have decent aptitude for other languages - don't know if it helped??
I don't think there's a point. But anyway... 😀
Speaking as an ex fluent speaker, you'd have to go to a very basic level - just to learn pronunciation.
It's pretty impenetrable to an English speaker. Now I'm not saying, say, French, German, Italian or French are "easy" languages to learn, but they'd be a piece of piss compared to Irish. If an English speaker had to read a sentence in a Western European language, most of us could make a reasonable stab at it. Your average Irish sentence would be as impenetrable as a Slavic language.
Gaelic has some stunning combinations of consonants that make the sounds of the letters missing from the alphabet. We have no j, k, q, v, w, x, y or z. We do however, have the sounds made by combining other consonants. Oh, it's great fun. Say, for "v", we have "bh" as in "Siobhán" But the fun starts when sometimes that "bh" is a "w" sound. In fact the "h" (or séibhú as it's called) is massively important in Gaelic. It shags around with the pronunciation of loads of words.
Just for starters like...
DD, having figured out how to pronounce my name i am aware of how odd the language is. But also believe that once you figure the rules, it generally makes more sense than some english pronunciation rules????
But the fact that it isn't a "normal" western european language is one of the reasons for trying to learn it at least at a basic level.
Youv'e just got to listen to some Gaelic folk songs, sang in Irish Gaelic or Scottish Gaelic, have them translated & think, EH?'
We were on South Uist 2 years ago & there were a load of local schoolkids in the museum, all rabbiting away in Gaelic. It sounded wonderful. 🙂
That's true enough mrmo. There's less of the "ough" type irregularities that you get in English. It's a "purer" language in that it's borrowed less from other languages (in fact hardly any at all) so, yeah, once you learn how to pronounce, then you can have a stab at most of it.
And don't bother listening to any Scottish Gaelic - they don't pronounce it properly at all. 🙂