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The Daltaí Boards » Archive: 2005- » 2010 (July-August) » Archive through August 28, 2010 » Ceist beag agum, le do thoil « Previous Next »

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Driftwood814
Member
Username: Driftwood814

Post Number: 17
Registered: 12-2008
Posted on Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 07:22 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

Is there a huge grammatical difference between the dialects? Not vocabulary-wise, I know there're different words, verb endings, etc., but in the actual sentence structure?

I will be going to Ireland next summer for 3-4 weeks! So much for learner's block; that melted it quite effectively!

GRMA

Le meas,
Janet

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Seánw
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Username: Seánw

Post Number: 679
Registered: 07-2009


Posted on Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 08:06 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

I would not say huge at all. I would say they have essentially the same syntactical structure with minor variations. Even the minor variations follow the same rules, but are just unique expressions of the rules for the area.

I ndiaidh a chéile a thógtar na caisleáin.

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Lughaidh
Member
Username: Lughaidh

Post Number: 3550
Registered: 01-2005


Posted on Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 08:33 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

Seconded.

Learn Irish pronunciation here: http://loig.cheveau.ifrance.com/irish/irishsounds/irishsounds.html & http://fsii.gaeilge.org/

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Driftwood814
Member
Username: Driftwood814

Post Number: 18
Registered: 12-2008
Posted on Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 09:36 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

So if I went to the Dingle pennisula with Ó Siadhail's sentence structure they wouldn't think me a complete idiot?

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Driftwood814
Member
Username: Driftwood814

Post Number: 19
Registered: 12-2008
Posted on Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 09:48 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

And shame on me for forgetting to thank you both for the responses! GMLS, 60 lb Collie puppy jumping in me lap. Don't care about the fadas, just trying to save the earings!

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Lughaidh
Member
Username: Lughaidh

Post Number: 3551
Registered: 01-2005


Posted on Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 10:21 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

quote:

So if I went to the Dingle pennisula with Ó Siadhail's sentence structure they wouldn't think me a complete idiot?



Nobody would think you're an idiot if you speak a dialect that's different from the local one. They'll just see you're not from their area, that's all. You don't need to change your dialect when you go to another place.
I speak Donegal Irish everywhere I go (I mean, in the Gaeltacht :-) ), people understand me and they don't look at me as if I were an idiot :-)

Learn Irish pronunciation here: http://loig.cheveau.ifrance.com/irish/irishsounds/irishsounds.html & http://fsii.gaeilge.org/

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Driftwood814
Member
Username: Driftwood814

Post Number: 20
Registered: 12-2008
Posted on Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 10:51 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

Ah, but you are fluent, a mhuinín! You know all the differences (I have a great respect for you, btw). I want Gaelainn na Mumhan, but my only option for something grammatically beyond the basic "How are you?" is Cois Farraige by Ó Siadhail. I was thinking it was wrong to mix and match. But if it's only a matter of same grammar but differnt vocabulary...I can handle that (if I could ever get the puppy out of me lap, that is!) I look forward to your assistance and corrections.

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Lughaidh
Member
Username: Lughaidh

Post Number: 3552
Registered: 01-2005


Posted on Friday, August 13, 2010 - 08:10 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

Here are a couple of differences I can think of right now:

Munster: Fear maith is ea é.
Connemara: Is fear maith é.

Munster: An rud go bhfuilim ag caint fé.
Connemara: An rud a bhfuil mé ag caint faoi.

In Munster they often use "go" instead of "a" as a relative indirect particle.

Learn Irish pronunciation here: http://loig.cheveau.ifrance.com/irish/irishsounds/irishsounds.html & http://fsii.gaeilge.org/

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Seánw
Member
Username: Seánw

Post Number: 680
Registered: 07-2009


Posted on Friday, August 13, 2010 - 05:24 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

Everybody who is fluent is going to understand you unless you are saying something really esoteric from another area that is completely lost in the location you are in. From my experience, it takes a bit of knowledge to get into a level where you can get something past a fluent speaker. Even if there is a case of confusion, most people can figure things out from context, I'm sure. Go with what you know. It'll break the ice of the conversation and help you learn more.

I ndiaidh a chéile a thógtar na caisleáin.

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Taidhgín
Member
Username: Taidhgín

Post Number: 912
Registered: 07-2006
Posted on Friday, August 13, 2010 - 10:35 pm:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

I'd make a further suggestion that you mix Irish and English -- return to the Irish with good humour "Hold on! I want to say this in Irish!" and go ahead and say it. Not everyone you meet in the heart of the Gaeltacht wants to be your teacher. Prepare your list of twenty, thirty or a hundred sentences, questions, comments, and use as many of them as you can.

If people reply to you in their own dialect and if you don't understand what do you want them to do then? The person you are speaking to may have married into the Gaeltacht community and may or may not have sufficient Irish to help you. If you mix Irish and English you will allow such people to do as they do every day themselves ....

If you know one dialect really well -- ahem! -- it might be best to listen to your hosts and try and imitate them as soon as possible. If you lay on an obviously extreme form of another dialect you may hear only the other "Standard" language in reply, English. The people of each area think their dialect is best and would love you to learn it. If you insist in subjecting them to another dialect they will assume you know enough already and will be less willing to help.

Most of us ordinary Irish-speakers from outside the Gaeltacht do our best to imitate whatever the dialect is in whatever area we find ourselves. We have heard them all in our schooldays -- our teachers spoke their own and they alternated from year to year throughout the thirteen or fourteen years. Then we listen to Raidio na Gaeltachta. Incidentally not all of us "failed to learn Irish at school". Our family took to it like ducks to water.

Put it this way -- have you ever heard a Scotsman, an American, an Englishman, an Australian, and a person from the Indian subcontinent speaking English ... the differences between the Irish dialects might be just about as noticeable.



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