"atá" vs tá

Can someone please explain which is correct or if both are,....in the question "How are you?" in Gaelic?
Does the difference merely have to do with the dialect?
Does the difference have to do with how many people you are directing the question to?

I am using Rosetta Stone Level 1 which is Munster dialect..and have seen the question "How are you?" written as "Conas atá tú?". When looking in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla I find "Conas tá tú?" (Of course, in the vocal Rosetta Stone question,..one cannot really hear the "a" of the "atá" as it is glided over and is that why the Foclóir version is normally used...in the written RS it definitely is "atá"

Can someone explain and please, under the phrase, write the translation of each word ?

Go raibh maith agaibh.
Jeannette

By the way, as I already said, almost no native speaker would say "Conas (a)tá tú?" : in Munster they'd say "Conas 'taoi?" or "Conas 'tánn tú?" (or other things).

"Conas (a)tá tú?" looks like a regularised form, chosen by Dublin guys to put in in the standard language.

Conas = how?
atá = that are/is
tú = you (singular)

According to the most recent version of Graiméar Gaeilge na mBráithre Críostaí, it looks like the standard direct relative form of the verb "to be" is "tá" only in the sentences that means "how are you?" ("tá" is the old relative form too, before "atá", and it may be used in that sentence), because it's a set phrase. So:

Cad é mar tá tú? (Ulster) and
Conas tá tú? (Munster, in theory, although as I said I don't think it is used there since they use (a)tánn tú or (a)taoi).

(Message edited by Lughaidh on May 12, 2009)

Is "conas atá tú" not used in Connacht?

Cé chaoi bhfuil tú is what I believe is used in Connemara although certainly the other options would be understood. It is my understanding that Connemara Irish is the most widely spoken dialect in Cúige Chonnacht.

However, don't be suprised if there is a discrepency/dispute as to the accuracy of that claim.

I guess that you may find people who say "conas atá tú?" in Connachta : learners :-)

so the majority of connaught? ^

I don't know what learners learn in Connachta, actually. Actually I'm not much interested in the way learners speak...

quote:

Cé chaoi bhfuil tú is what I believe is used in Connemara although certainly the other options would be understood.

True. I've also seen it spelled 'Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú'.

quote:

It is my understanding that Connemara Irish is the most widely spoken dialect in Cúige Chonnacht.

However, don't be suprised if there is a discrepency/dispute as to the accuracy of that claim.

How could there be? Aside from Conamara, what's left in Connacht? Oileáin Árann and a handful of villages in north Mayo.

Not only is Conamara Irish the most widely spoken dialect in Connacht, it's the most widely spoken dialect of all the gaeltachtaí, and the entire country.

There are at least 10,000 native speakers in one contiguous stretch of south Conamara alone. And that's even before we mention communities up in north Conamara such as Corr Na Móna.

*Connaught

*An alternative anglicised form used by the British when all of Ireland was under their rule. As such, it should be used with caution.


Compare Irish Connachta with Connacht...

FYI

as an aside danny - would you say laighin, uladh agus mumhan? while speaking english?

Highly unlikely. Connacht is the more common English spelling as far as I'm aware, and is closer to the original Irish. 'Connaught' was favoured by the British. There was even an Irish Regiment in the British Army known as the 'Connaught Rangers'. It was disbanded in the 1920s.

thanks for clearing that up, I'm not as familiar with Connacht dialects but had been under the impression conas atá tú was an alternative to 'Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú' in Connacht. Actually Google turns up a lot of sources claiming Conas atá tú is Munster, e.g.

http://books.google.ie/books?id=r9AMJQ40RH0C&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=%22conas+at%C 3%A1+t%C3%BA%22+connacht&source=bl&ots=lN-2fJm9Qw&sig=MhqbaOm_k9YYh9_JN8Q5D2327m c&hl=ga&ei=wSkQSqvuJ5-UjAflpKG-Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1

http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/irish.php

What is the origin of Conas atá tú if it doesn't exist in any Gaeltachtaí? Is it a standardised version of "Conas tánn tú" as said in Musnter?

P.S. Actually I note the book "Colloquial Irish" says about Conas atá tú and Munster that in Munster the "official way" of asking this question, Conas atá tú or Conas tá tú, may be regarded as bookish by some native speakers; in the Munster Gaeltacht regions one is likely to hear a number of variants, of which Conas tánn tú and Conas athá tú are probably the most popular.

So can anyone tell me, is Conas atá tú derived from Conas athá tú?

I have a photocopy of ''The Dialects of Clare'' which gives information about their old dialect, it gives ''Conas athá tú'' as far as I can remember for ''how are you'' so it looks like ''Conas atá tú'' did exist in old Munster Gaeltachtaí.

Tá is still said as ''thá'' in certain Munster Gaeltachtaí as well, mainly Corca Dhuibhne.