Hello everyone ...
I was recently working two months in Ireland and ; as a a language lover , I found it terrific that there was an "Irish " language so ancient and interesting ^_^ . People from outside Ireland like me are never told there's a language in Ireland so I made this fantastic discover at the age of 22 years old . I know I'm not that old ^_^ ,it's just that... I'm already learing German , Italian , Swedish and Japanese by my own...no classes , (speak English and French ) and I don't know If I could afford learning another one ( irish I mean ) . Furthermore , it seems a hard language to learn , am I wrong ? ... I don't know what to do...what will you advise me ? ... anyway , I LOVE this site and I loved Ireland !! see you all !!

Octavi S.

PS: I'm from Barcelona and we speak catalan besides spanish in here...did you people know about this language ? I'm very proud of it ^_^ it's spoken by 10 milion people and though it's official in Spain it's not very well known in the rest of the world ^_^

Hóla,

Sí, he oido de catalán. Vino al frente de la pública mundial durante los juegos olímpicos cuándo se realizáron en Barcelona y otros lugares locales. Pero, nunca he oido la idoma usado. Mi esposa y yo quiseremos visitar Espana (no tengo un tilde) y uno de los lugares que nos interesa es la region de los Basques. Tuve un oportunidad para viajar en Espana como 7 anos pasados pero no pude visitar las montanas. Viaje de Rota al Alemania por tren. No pude a conocer la gente como quise.

Si quisiera aprender la idioma de Irlandia (se llama Gaeilge) puede. Creo que es mucho mas facil que las idiomas como japonesa y koreano. Pero, realmente, es utilzado solamente en Irlandia y pocos otros lugares. Me encanta la idoma porque es una parte de la historia de mi familia y me encanta la gente del país. Puedo decir lo mismo de espanol. He viajado y trabajado en Latíno América y me encanta la cultura, la gente--todos. Deseo que su experiencia en el pais de mis antecesores fue igualmente bien.

Bienvenidos a Gaeilge (en gaeilge: Cead mile failte)


James

Por favor, desculpe que no use accentos. He pasado mucho tiempo que escribido en espanol. Puede hablar (o escribir) ingles muy bien. Solamente, que quise tener la oportunidad a usar mi espanol.

oh !! don't worry about your spanish , I know It's a hard language to learn so you did very well ^_^ . Well , I could write in spanish but If I do it in english I think more people will be able to understand us ^_^ ( and you did well using your spanish , if I had the chance to use my japanese I will write my letter in this language ^_^ ) .
By the way , I think one of the reasons of the rising interest in irish is related to "The Lord of the rings" ...welll , it could sound foolish but Tokien based his languages in Irish and Scottish Gaelic and furthermore the movie has been a succes so...I think both things have influenced in the interest of learning Irish ^_^ .
By the way , how many months/years have you been learning Irish ? ....and...I don't care if it is only spoken by few people , it is still a beautiful language and I've never left to learn a language because it had few speakers....actually I'm leraning Asturian too , which only has 100.000 speakers ^_^ ...
Well , it was nice to "talk" with you ^_^ , if you ever need some help in spanish you can post a message ok ? gracias por contestar mi mensaje y hasta pronto

Octavi S.

I've been learning Irish with a home study course for about one year. I find it to be a very difficult language but that is because I have no teacher. I've used this site to get help and the people here have been great. There are alot of native speakers as well as some very fluent people who speak the language as a second language.

I haven't used my Spanish in a written format for quite some time. It was fun to be able to write to you and get some confirmation that I am still able to communicate with it!

Where did you learn your english? You are very fluent and quite easily understood. Here, in the U.S. so many people don't appreciate speaking two or more languages. In Europe, however, almost everyone speaks a little bit of another language. I wish it were the same over here.

I hope you decide to take up Irish. It is a beautiful language, as you said, and we need all the speakers we can get. Good luck to you in your other language studies, as well.

Le meas, (Irish for "sincerely", or "respectfully")

James

P.S. Please DON'T use your Japanese--I won't understand a word of it!!!!! :)

well , I still don't know whether to learn Irish or not ... I checked the pronounciation on the "phrases" section and I pretty guessed how a sentence would sound before hearing it ^_^ , so pronounciation it's no big deal . It's just that I don't know if I'll have time for it ...and furthermore : words are so different from english or any other language I know ... ; my friends say I should focus on "my languages" and leave Irish for later on but ...is so beautiful that I feel the need to know more from it ...argh ! what can I do ??? tell me about your experience please , is it styming or worthwile and fulfilling ? thank you !!

Octavi S.

PD: Do you know about any good Irish music band ?

Well Irish is a fairly hard langauge to pick up due to grammar (which would drive one up the wall sometimes with things like agreements and "extra dialectic addons") and pronunciation, and to be honest you wouldnt be able to use it much in a normal situation.
However if one is a linguist or interested in language it is interesting as in terms of structure and is beautiful to hear speak or sing. So i say if you are the slightest bit interested, GO FOR IT!

Irish Lnaguage Music Bands include:
Clannad, Enya, Capercaillie, Afro-Celt Sound System
and there is a rake of others i just cant think of off the top of my head,
le meas,
Colm.

Im in the same boat you are. Im 19, and just started learning Gaelic. It is hard when you start out, but gets easier as you memorize pronunciations. My problems is the audio tapes have very strong Irish Accents, so I dont know if I'm pronouncing the word right, or picking up an accent. I spent about $60 on my dictionary, grammer guide, and audio tapes with a work book from Amazon.com, and it seems OK.

ok , thank you for your support .... ^_^ and though sometimes is hard to just find a word in the dictionary ( you know : lenition , genitive ...) I think I'll go for it ^_^ , just hope you will help me in this forum because I'll have a lot of questions !! thank you ^_^

Octavi S.

Hi guys,
Sorry to sound pedantic Okete, but just one small correction. Prof. Tolkien actually based the vast majority of his 'Elvish' tongues on the Finnish and Welsh languages. Whilst Welsh is undoubtedly a Celtic language it is not a Gaelic one, and the Prof was on the record as stating that he did not like the sound of Gaelic (as he referred to Irish and Scottish lumped together in a basket). Much as I am a huge fan of the Prof and his works (particularly the smaller non-Middle Earth stuff), I find myself at odds with his strange linguistic dislike of the lovely harsh gutturals of Gaelic (ah, music to our ears!) However, it is almost certain that some degree of the renewed interest in languages is being generated by the 'latest' LOTR surge of popularity
Don't mind me, couldn't help but butt in!
Slán!

Hi Okete!

Congratulations on deciding to learn Swedish, bättre språk att lära sig kan jag inte tänka mig ;-) I have some Catalan friends from Barcelona myself, and I've even picked up some words, can't say I speak it though.

I'm very interested in Celtic languages and speak Irish rather fluently thanks to having lived in the Irish-speaking areas and always speaking Irish to my friends there. I also speak Welsh good enough to get by, but I'm not fluent in that language (though I once was, but I haven't been to Wales for a while).

I must confess that I share Fintan's bewilderment over Tolkien's dislike in Irish. But he did use it in his book; the black speech of Mordor is based on the Gaelic languages... not that flattering. Coming from Finland I naturally speak Finnish (as my second language after Swedish) and it's very easy to see the Finnish influences in Elvish

Hi there !

Fintan , don't worry ^_^ , you don't sound pedantic at all , and I thank you because now I realized that tolkien picked up finnish to build up his elvish ^_^ ... you know , I thought he used welsh for the dwarfs language ... surely I was wrong ^_^

Ja Jonas , Jag lära mig svenska och det är ett jättekul sprak !! wow ! it must be really difficult to be fluent in Irish !! it's such a hard language ^_^ ...I think it's gonna take me ages to learn enough just to read something properly ^_^ ....by the way : capercaillie is a scottish group , isn't it ? I think they sing in gaelic and not in Irish...am I right ?. Well , I have a friend from Kivik and he writes his mails completely in Swedish so I can practice , and I must say that , If you knwo english , it is a really easy language so learning it is enjoyable .

Well , it was nice to hear the opinion from both of you ^_^ , thank you !! agus meas le !

Okete

A hOkete
When the Celts first moved from the Continent to the present day Britain and Ireland they brought with them a language which was to become known as Gaelic. A second wave later came bringing with it what was to be called the Brittanic languages.
The Scoti (present day Irish) moved to Pictland from Scotia (present day Ireland) and Pictland then was called Scotland and Ireland became the biggest home of the Gael.
When the Scoti moved they brought Gaelic with them. In Scotland this became know as Scottish/ Scots Gaelic. In Ireland the language was called Irish. Manx (Isle of Man) is a form of Scots Gaelic.
So Irish Scottish and Manx all fall under Gaelic.
NB: Dont mix up Scots Gaelic and Scots. The former being the Celtic language and the latter a form of English!!

le meas

Thanks Ó Dúill for you explanation , I think I understood ^_^ . By the way , I went to the Culturlann in Falls Road and bought a giant map of Ireland ( how much I regret haven't bought some books in Irish ! ) and ...there's written : "na gnéithe fisiceacha" ...I was wondering what does it mean because I can't find "gnéithe" in my dictionary ...Can someone help ? And does anyone know what's the Irish for "Catalonia" and "catalan" ?? thank you !!!

Okete from Barcelona

Gnéithe = Pl. of Gné, an Aspect/ an Appearance
Fisiceacha = Genetive of Fisiceach, Physical
So i would hazard a guess and a fairly sound one at that seeing it was on a map:
Na gnéithe fisiceacha = The Phyical Features/ Aspects

An Chatalóin = Catalonia
Catalóinis = Catalan (ling)
Catalónach = Catalan (person)
Catalónaigh = Catalan (genetive and pl)

Thank you ó Dúill !!! I really appreciate it !!! ^_^