how many of you guys can speak Irish?

I was thinking about learning it because I'm Irish but it looks very hard.

I'm kind of confused here...

There's Welsh, Scots and Cornish types of Gaelic, too (probably more). Our own Maeve talks Irish pretty well. I barely speak English.

:hi:
dbt

Irish Gaelic and Scots Gaelic are very similar languages. Irish is commonly used to describe Irish Gaelic ( pronounced Gay-lic ).


Scots Gaelic ( pronounce Gah-lic ) is spoken in the north west of Scotland. Scots Gaelic is never called Scots because there is already a language called Scots ( a mixture of Norse, English & Gaelic - a few other languages too, but those are the three dominate ones ).

Gaelic describes the family of languages to which Irish belongs.

It's not easy; it's very different from the Latin-based languages we're used to.

A good place to start on the web is http://www.daltai.com/home.htm

I'm checking out that link right now.

Slán go fóill.

Anyone wants more links, I've got 'em, just ask.

I'd check out all the links you want to post. I've got a question. I've heard that there is a difference in accent between the Republic and NI. Is it true? If it is true, how does it differ and does the northern accent sound scottish?

Primarily in idioms and pronunciation of slender consonants (e.g slender "t" like in English in Munster, but like "ch" in Donegal), the NI Irish is much closer to Scots Gaelic.

Dia duit, sláinte!

Kerry Irish is distinguishable from Connemara Irish (cois fhairrge, as some term it), for instance. They standardized the spelling in 1945, but not the pronunciation. There is a school standard, tho, and some of the differences are smoothing out--RTE helps with that, too.
Yes, the NI accent is closer to that of Scotland.

Links: Since you're looking at both, here's one with Irish and Scots Gaelic lessons:http://www.contemporarypoetry.com/brain/lang/index.htm

Beo, an internet Irish magazine: http://www.beo.ie/

You can get a free flash-card program for vocabulary from Transparent.com: http://www.learn-irish-language-software.com/index.htm

And a couple of bookstores--Litriocht is the most complete, but Irish Books & Media is located in Minnesota and ships quickly

http://www.litriocht.com/shop/
http://www.irishbook.com/vIndex.htm?cat698.htm

All these sites have their own links, too, so have fun!

Ná habair é.

They just started an Irish Language program here on the campus where I work and I'm tempted to start taking classes. However, I have NO capacity for learning other languages. My sister speaks six different languages and I feel luck to have mastered English.

But, it's such a beautiful language, I'm seriously thinking of trying.

I did try learning Irish and it was difficult - nothing about it is anything like English. Of course, the classes I took were very informal. They were held in a bar in St. Paul (or as we called it Gaelteacht St. Paul). I've lost what little I had except for a few phrases. I used to joke that I was in the class to disprove Jung's theory that everything your ancestors knew is locked in your own subconscious.

Still it was fun and I think you should give it a shot.

Beag, cé go tá mo fuaimniú uafásach.

Ádh mór ort má foghlaimeoidh tú!

Edited for spelling, not that it would matter to most people! :)

Of course I do.

:)