Is this http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=46_25&products_id=256 a good dictionary?

I have found "Foclóir Scoile" to be somewhat insufficient because it is based on Munster-Irish and isn't really that generous in giving examples of sentences.

Also, is there a book available that deals with idioms?

There is a book "Gaelic idioms" by G Bannister - cheannaigh mé é i siopa i mBÁC.

Tá sé ar fáil anseo: http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=2107

"Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla" by Niall Ó Dónaill is (to me) the best dictionary that you can buy.

Indeed, your very existence will seem hollow and utterly meaningless without this dictionary (just kidding ). Seriously though, I do highly recommend it - it's the best!

Are you sure that "Foclóir Scoile" is based on Munster Irish? I happen to be learning Irish in Munster dialect and it would be great to have a whole dictionary that is based on it!

Foclóir Scoile is Caighdeán Irish, not Munster Irish.

Wee Falorie Man, these word collections are Munster Irish:

Cnuasach Focal Ó Uibh Rathach
Díolaim Dheiseach
Díolaim Focal Ó Chorca Dhuibhne

They're out of print, but you should be able to find used copies for sale online.

Maith thú, a Chionaodh!

I just now checked the availability of the books that you mentioned and all three of them are for sale on "Litriocht".

Cionadh, do you know of any dictionaries for me too?

I have a blue dictionary called "Focloir Poca". It was recommended to me by my teach yourself Irish book.

A Ainnir Ioruach, fuair mé an tagairt seo:
http://www.celt.dias.ie/publications/cat/cat_e.html#E.2


The Irish of Cois Fhairrge, Co. Galway: a phonetic study
by Tomás de Bhaldraithe

1945 (revised ed. 1966; repr. 1975). xii + 152 pp.

€15

ISBN 0 901282 51 0


E 2.12: Caint Ros Muc
ed. Arndt Wigger, photographs by Seán de Brún

A transcription of speech-recordings made in Ros Muc in 1964 (vol. 1) with a complete vocabulary (vol. 2).

A collection of audio recordings from this book is available online.

http://www.celt.dias.ie/publications/online/caint_ros_muc/

A Rí na Féasóige(a stór!), go raibh maith 'ad!

Foirfe!!

Among all of my RIA word-collection books, I only find one from the west:
Foirisiún Focal as Gaillimh
le Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
It's from the mid-1980s, but evidently Litríocht still has many of these types of books.

By the bye, Bannister's Gaelic Idioms, mentioned by Dub above, is a nice little book for the money, though it's not dialect-specific.

So which do you say is the best dictionary for "standard" Irish?

Scríobh O'Dwyer,

quote:

So which do you say is the best dictionary for "standard" Irish?

Since you already have the Foclóir Póca, you already have a good start with how to pronounce Irish words. The next step, in regard to Standard Irish, would be "Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla" by Niall Ó Dónaill as mentioned by Wee Falorie Man above. This dictionary, as its name implies is an Irish-English dictionary. That is, it only goes one way, from Irish to English. But what a great dictionary! Where in Foclóir Póca you have a few lines for some important words, in Foclóir Gaeilge-Bearla you'll often have paragraph upon paragraph for one Irish word. Although there are no pronunciations offered for any of the words as you find in Foclóir Póca, you'll be able to learn a lot about the many different meanings of and idioms associated with a particular word.

There's also a companion dictionary called Foclóir Béarla-Gaeigle which goes the other way, that is Engish to Irish. But I think the first and better choice is to get the "Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla.

GRMA!

To translate the other way (English to Irish), Tomás De Bhaldraithe's English-Irish Dictionary is the most comprehensive in print.

Cionaodh, how many pages does the 'English-Irish Dictionary' have?

864 pages in the first edition (1959); I own several copies from various years, and the page count varies from edition to edition, based on how big the addendum of newer words is in the back of the dictionary. In every new edition, the publishers add any new words to that section rather than retypeset the whole thing.

My edition of Ó Dónaill's dictionary (1977) has 1,309 pages. It doesn't have an addendum, so I guess they hadn't started doing that until later on.

Cionaodh, you are right about De Bhaldraithe's "English-Irish Dictionary"; that one, along with "Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla", is everything a person will ever need as far as dictionaries go.

You might like to add Dinneen's dictionary to Ó Dónaill & De Bhaldraithe. Sometimes I find things there that aren't in Ó Dónaill, and the examples given sometimes clarify what's in De Bhaldraithe.

A few years ago there was a technical problem with the reprints of Dinneen; a matter of duplicated and missing pages, más buan mo chuimhne.

Ah yes, Dinneen - It totally slipped my mind!
When I get a bit more advanced, I know I'll be needing it.

Chuir mé ceist ar chara liom a bhfuil an t-eagrán lochtach den fhoclóir Dinneen aige. Fuair mé an t-eolas seo a leanas uaidh:

quote:

Priontáilte i 1996 le Elo Press Ltd, BAC. Fágadh l. 457-472 ar lár, idir "fionn" agus "foirgnighim," agus tá 449-456 & 473-480 ann faoi dhó.)

In other words, watch out for the 1996 printing (in "enlarged format" I think) of Dinneen (and possibly later ones?) which is missing pages 457-472 and has other pages duplicated.