I was just going through some of the vocabulary in Teach Yourself Irish when I came across this and I was curious if someone here could explain it to me?

"Although cláir is recommended as the plural of clár (programme) an alternative form, cláracha, is widely used." (Teach Yourself Irish, 2003, p.19)

I usually see cláracha, in fact, I don't think I have ever seen cláir used before, so why is it recommended?

You have an instinct for finding the interesting bits, Gavin. It's like this: there is a large class of masculine nouns that end in broad consonants which historically form the plural by making that final consonant slender:

cat - cait
leabhar - leabhair
clár - cláir
ball - baill
glór - glóir
crann - crainn
tomhas - tomhais
grianghraf - grianghraif
fear - fir
breac - bric

For whatever reason, a lot of these plurals just don't seem to sound plural enough to Irish-speakers -- not sufficiently marked as plural. So other, longer plural endings tend to be used instead of the classically correct ones. There is a lot of leeway in this area, especially in more informal usage. Thus you may also see / hear the likes of:

leabhar - leabhartha
clár - cláracha
glór - glórtha, glórthaí
crann - crainnte
tomhas - tomhasanna, tomhaiseanna
grianghraf - grianghrafanna

And in Munster, the old dative plural "fearaibh" is used instead of "fir" for the simple plural.

A Dennis, I suppose I do.

I am a pattern person, I have a knack for picking up on patterns and more importantly picking up on the things that don't seem to fit the pattern.

A friend of mine is also learning Irish with me, and he loves to make the comment that "there is nothing regular about this (Irish) language." However, I find that Irish is a very regular language with very regular, and once you get use to them, predictable patterns. However, with every language there are exceptions and irregularities so I like to learn as much as I can about the odd balls to help me understand and a appreciate the regulars that I come across. If that makes any sense.

Another question that just popped up.

On page 21 of Teach Yourself Irish we are given the word "léachtóir."

It's nom. singular and plural would be:

an léachtóir agus na léachtóirí

But am I correct with the genitive singular and plural?

an léachtóra agus na léachtóirí

Another question to go along with the one above is also on p. 21 of Teach Yourself Irish where they get the word "stiúrthóir (director)" formed from the word "stiúir."

Isn't "treoraigh" the word for "to direct"?

Doesn't "stiúir" actually mean "to steer or to manage?" I can see where one gets director out of if but it is a funny thing to me.

stiúir = to steer/to manage

manager = bainisteoir

treoraigh = to direct

director = stiúrthóir

Silly Irish ;-)

If you're a patterns person and if you want to get serious about noun declensions, you will enjoy a book called Irish Nouns: A Guide for Students, Teachers and Researchers by Andrew Carnie. This is by far the most systematic account of Irish noun declension patterns I've ever seen. The book is yet to be published but the author has made a draft available for download:

http://dingo.sbs.arizona.edu/~carnie/publications/IrishNominalDeclensions.html

Mbm...

I am aware of it, and I have made frequent use of it. The problem that I have with it is that the author, who after looking to his work and studies is very serious about the Irish language and structure...makes the comment that this is still a draft and there may be mistakes within it. I have already found two mistakes which he has since then corrected.

But thank you for your help.

In truth I hope Mr. Carnie publishes it soon, I agree it is one of the most helpful resourses out there I have come across.

The only serious flaw with his classification system, is that he goes into some serious depth.

solas, 1.7m, s5, light

an solas na soilse
an tsolais na soilse
a sholais a shoilse
an solas na soilse

Believe it or not before I knew of this work I made my vocabulary cards in a similary fashion. However, I only do the nom. sg and pl and the gen. sg pl.

Here is what each vocab card looks like when I make it...maybe this will explain why I ask the questions I do.

noun:

solas
nm1

an solas na soilse

an tsolais na soilse

And then on the back you will find the english "light"

verb:

feic
v1

chonaic
feiceann
feicfidh
ag feiceáil

And then on the back you will find te Englis "to see"

My cards are much purdier than this...I assure you!

I find this helps me notice the word in most of the forms I will see it in, and save on the number of cards I have to make. I don't try to memorize ever single word...rather I concentrate on the head word at the top and the bottom words just sort of get absorbed into my mind without me knowing it. Spooky ;0)

When I came across Mr. Carnies work, I thought finally, someone who thinks just like I do!!!!