An Bhfuil sé deacair a thuiscint?

ana-dheacair, especially verbs. Knowing modern Irish is of little help.

Tabhair súil ar an suíomh seo, Old Irish Online, má tá tú fiosrach faoin teanga:

http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/iriol-0-X.html

I agree with Róman. If you know Modern irish, it will help you to understand some grammatical stuff. But the vocabulary has changed a lot (a Modern irish speaker wouldn't know many words when looking at an Old Irish text), and Old Irish grammar is 100 times more complicated than the Modern Irish one...

And it's very hard to know a verb when you see it, because there are hundreds of verbs that have very different roots according to the tense or the form. You almost believe that most verbs are irregular in Old Irish (while almost all of them are regular and easy in Modern Irish).

This raises one interesting question - was Old Irish ever spoken? I mean even Classical Latin became debased pretty soon because it was too complicated for laymen, but it was nothing but piece of cake if compared to Old Irish. Did anyone beyond filí master the language?

Creidtear gur teanga liteartha a bhí inti faoin am ar scríobhadh na téacsanna Sean-Ghaeilge atá againn, ceart go leor, ach níor cumadh castacht an chórais bhriathartha ex nihilo. D'éirigh na castachtaí a chuireann as do fhoghlaimeoirí an lae inniu i gcaint labhartha. (Pé scéal é, níl an briathar Sean-Ghaeilge chomh casta leis an mbriathar Navajo -- creid é nó ná creid! -- agus tá na mílte daoine beo inniu a labhraíonn Navajo gan dua 24/7.)

quote:

Old Irish grammar is 100 times more complicated than the Modern Irish

Il n'est pas exagéré de dire que le vieil irlandais est plus complexe que la langue moderne, mas certainement pas cent fois plus compliqué !