Haileó arís (Hello again?)

I'm currently working from a textbook geared towards Ulster Irish, and one of its vocabulary lists contains:

quote:

ainmhí, pl. anmhaithe, animal

.
All the other sources I've seen use ainmhí, ainmhí, ainmhithe, ainmhithe. Is this just a typo -- the previous chapter of this text contained one, so it's not impossible – or is the above plural a spelling (and pronunciation?) unique to Ulster? Never seen the first syllable of a multisyllable noun change to reflect plural and/or case until now.

GRMA roimh ré (thanks in advance? – betcha that's a major Béarlachas, isn't it!)

Bump. (I don't know the answer, but I suspect a typo)

Thanks for the bump, a Aonghuis, formerly pronounced in-is! Care to comment on my 'Hello again' and 'thanks in advance'?

As to anmhaithe, there's never an Ulsterman (in the original sense of Ulster) around when you need one! So I'll be happy to take any Bretons who happen to be passing this way. Oh Lughaidh, where are you?

(Message edited by linda_kathleen on September 24, 2009)

(Message edited by linda_kathleen on September 24, 2009)

A Linda,
Are you working off of this?

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~hillers/BUNTUS-1.pdf

Page 24.

I think that is a typo. One tip off in my mind is the broad with slender spelling appearing.

I'd say "Dia d[h]aoibh arís", but I think Heileo is more usually spelt as Heileo.

quote:

GRMA roimh ré (thanks in advance? – betcha that's a major Béarlachas, isn't it!)

Ceist mhaith. I'm not sure.

I wouldn't say it, but I wouldn't say it in English either.

quote:

Are you working off of this? BUNTUS-1.pdf

Yes, though I thought it best not to name it because it's got 'for class use and private circulation only' on the bottom of the cover page. (Granted, anyone can get access via an internet search, but not via me.)

Anyway, I've just noticed that the same page also has the following:

quote:

caora, pl. caoraigh -- sheep

whereas the dictionary has caora, caorach, caoirigh, caorach. Another typo? Quite possibly, although it seems to me that the 'textbook's' version is more logical. Perhaps the Gaeilgeoirí of Ulster simply decided to make it more regular.

More opinions welcome, particularly ó Thuaidh. (from the North. Just showing off one of my recent acquisitions from Aonghus.)

Hi, Linda.

I can't say if these particular instances are correct or not (for the particular dialect), but it is not unusual for one dialect of Irish to have a broad consonant when others have a slender consonant, or vice versa.

Standard amárach is pronounced like amáireach in Conamara and Munster according to Ó Siadhail and Dillon/Ó Cróinín, respectively. (Sorry I can't vouch for Ulster).

Dineen (an older dictionary) gives the nominative plural of caora as caora, caorcha, and caoirigh and dative plural as caorchaibh and caoiribh, so the broadened r in caoraigh doesn't seem that strange as a dialectal variation.

On the other hand, Ó Baoill gives caoirigh as the plural for caora in An Teanga Bheo: Gaeilge Uladh.

quote:

Standard amárach is pronounced like amáireach in Conamara and Munster according to Ó Siadhail and Dillon/Ó Cróinín, respectively. (Sorry I can't vouch for Ulster).

Yes, I have heard this word cited as a rare (or even the only ?!?) instance, were the standard chose the Ulster-form against the testimony of Conamara and Munster combined.

Or does someone know another one?

"Amárach" (or rather "a márach") is also the classical form, which probably influenced its selection.

Seeing the CO as a tug-of-war only between three extant dialects (as many do) is misleading.

quote:

for class use and private circulation only

This probably just means they don't want someone printing it and making money off of it. I'm sure the same applies to, for instance, the Christian Brothers grammar in Irish. It's going to be distributed to the four winds, but I don't think they'd look kindly on someone printing it and putting it on Amazon.com!

By the way, I very much like their approach. Namely they use the Ulster dialect but when there are two usages in Ulster, they adopt the more common one used in other areas (e.g., cailín, ní). That was you learn some things unique to Ulster, but also learn the things you can use in the other areas of Ireland.

Still hoping for an answer to my original question from someone who was taught Ulster Irish. Maybe someone who has access to a textbook used by Irish schoolchildren in the Northwest? If Ulster has unique plurals for 'animal' and 'sheep', surely they would show up there?

Ulster and Mayo seem to have caoire/caoirí for standard caoirigh (plural N/A). Caoraigh looks like an old dative singular.