Dear all, after doing some audio recordings of St Matthew's Gospel in Cork Irish, I went to the Cork Gaeltacht and managed to get a full recording of 25 verbal conjugations in all 8 tenses, with the positive and negative both recorded ie around 400 files. It has taken me days to edit the files into MP3s and put them up on my website, but the files are accessible through http://www.corkirish.com/wordpress/verb-conjugation . You should be able to click on the audio link and listen to the pronunciation as you read the words.

The speaker was Eoiní Mhaidhc Ó Súilleabháin. You can see him being interviewed by Máirtín Tom Sheáinín on Comhrá at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6691709103640135559# . He has a great sonorous voice and a lot of traditional things in his verbs. The only thing I asked him to do that was unnatural to him was to recite the 3rd person plurals like "tugaid siad" instead of "tugann siad". He did many of the verbs that way, but later on it drifted back to "-ann siad", and I thought better of trying to insist on any particular pronunciation. Both would be acceptable in Cork Irish anyway, although the old "tugaid siad" pronunciations are either on their way out or have made their way out. Another thing is my imperfect subjunctives were with "mara", and he read many of them with "mara", but drifted back to his natural "mura" - both are found in Peadar Ua Laoghaire's Irish, and it doesn't affect the conjugations as such anyway.

There are some other things to point out. In the future, the -idh ending is not meant to be pronounced before pronouns, and this is largely adhered to, but you may sometimes hear a g. I think the difference between "imeoig sé" and "imeo sé" is largely one of speed of delivery and when you are doing 400 files in one go, it is a very unnatural way of reciting the verbs. Anyhow, I don't think the g is wrong as such, and it crept in in some places. The second person plural imperative, eg glanaidh, is normally with a short i, at least in the first conjugation, but his pronunciation often appears with a long i. I think there may be some influence from the second conjugation forms (like ceannaídh), or maybe Eoiní was stressing the ending to clarify the form in the conjugation. I don't think glanaig, glanaíg or even glanaigí would be regarded as unacceptable in Cork Irish.

We had a lot of discussion about what to do about lenition of the autonomous form. As a traditional speaker, Eoiní does not lenite the autonomous in any form (this was the traditionally accepted way), although this is only adhered to in the past tense in Standard Irish. So he had: ní glantar, ní glanfar, níor glanadh, ní glantaí and ní glanfaí. I didn't insist on this; I let him do as he pleased with the lenition. But the issue becomes more complex in the irregular verbs, as there are many irregular verbs that were never delenited in the autonomous (eg "do chonaictheas"), and we ummed and aahed about the lenition of some of the rarer forms. In particular, Eoiní insisted on "ní faighfear", where I had "ní bhfaighfear" in my files. There are many optional rival forms, and I thought it best to go with what he was comfortable with.

I had "codlaim" and "tairgim" (for tarraingím) in my files, but I changed the over to codlaím and tairgím, as Eoiní was strongly of the view these are in the second conjugation in Cork Irish.

Finally, you can download all the verb conjugation MP3s in one file from http://www.corkirish.com/verbs/verbsmp3.zip .

I hope someone gets some benefit from these files!

Maith thú, David. Grma for your wonderful efforts. Only started listening and already benefitting.

David, I admire what you are doing in preserving the features of Cork Irish. I wish it could be done for all the dialects especially the smaller ones that are hardly remembered now: Ring, Clare, East Galway, Ceathrú Thaidhg, Gleann Gaibhle, Ó Méith, Muintir Luinnigh, etc

I would think however that "tugaid siad" is an error in any dialect. It mixes an fhoirm tháite (tugaid) with an fhoirm scartha (tugann siad). They would not be used together.

The most commonly used foirm tháite in all dialects is "tugaim" (I give). In the past tense "thugas" and in the future "tabharfad".

Since politically giving a second set of verb forms to youngsters to learn at school would break the politician's first rule regarding Irish: "If we have to teach it let it be simple to avoid trouble and protest from those who don't want to learn it."

Outside the schools and in the real world all Irish speakers use one or other form to suit the euphony of the particular sentence and, perhaps, governed by the prevalence of one or other form in a particular dialect.

No one would ever say "tugaim mé" or "thugas mé". They are obviously wrong. It is one or the other -- although "tugann mé" would universally be regarded as "school Irish" or "learner's Irish" and would never be heard among regular users of the language.

"Tugaid" is a nice alternative to "tugann siad" but the repetition of the personal pronoun should not be encouraged. It may exist just as "I wudda went" exists in English instead of "I would have gone" but I am not surprised that your informant reverted to "tugann siad."

"Tugaid" on its own would be OK.

A feature of Cork Irish that I like is the modh foshuiteach céad phearsa uimhir iolra "a bhuí le Dia na bhfeart go bhfeiceam ...etc or "Réir Dé go ndeineam agus beatha na Naomh go dtuilleam, solas na bhFlaitheas go bhfeiceam agus glóire na nAingeal go gcloiseam".

go bhfeiceam = that we may see

Hi Taidhgín, I can understand if you don't think "tugaid siad" appropriate, when few speakers still say it, and it is useful to know the drift of things in the Cork Gaeltacht towards "tugann siad". As a piece of data, that is interesting to know. The speaker who read the verbs for me is a member of Coiste Litríochta Mhúsgraí, and so is aware that the "tugaid siad" forms are used in Cork literature, but said they were gone, or at least gone from the speech of most people--but it is not an error in Cork Irish.

"Tugaid siad" was the form used by Peadar Ua Laoghaire, and these forms were used in the 17th century Bedell's Bible - they were once used not just in Cork, or even just in Munster (as Bedell's Bible was not a Munster production, being produced by Uilliam Bedell in Connacht with help from translators from Offaly and Kilkenny - I am subsuming Domhnaill's New Testament in Bedell's Bible - and that is from 1602, before the flight of the earls). For example, Luke 20:38: "Achd ní hé Dia na marbh é, achd Dia na mbeo: óir a táid siad uile na mbeáthaigh dhósan". The phenomenon is discussed in paragraph 8.6 of Stair na Gaeilge, but I don't think anyone has ever discussed the date when these forms started coming in. Domhnaill's NT from 1602 indicates that colloquially the form existed then, and so must have existed before then.

As regards the synthetic vs. analytical forms, my impression (from reading Peadar Ua Laoghaire) is that the analytical forms are acceptable in Cork Irish in the 1st and 2nd persons of the future. At least there are examples in Ua Laoghaire's writings of that - so glanfaidh mé and glanfaidh tú are listed on my site, alongside glanfad and glanfair.

As for forms like feiceam - I take your point. They should have been there too. Not just in the subjunctive, but in the future too. They are definitely used by Peadar Ua Laoghaire at least sometimes, but my impression is that some of them could be confused with 1st person SINGULAR present-tense forms used in Ulster....

A fabulous resource. I have been busting a gut to try and find pronounciation aids. It is sometimes hard for more advanced learners or gaeilgeoirí to appreciate the struggle of trying to find out how to pronounce verbs, when almost all of the resources are written/visual based.

I am now going to spend some quality time with Eoiní's voice and An Leabhar Mór Bhriathra na Gaeilge.

Thanks for your kind response to my comments on "tugaid siad" etc in earlier literature. I was not aware of them. To be honest I am only a learner. I am fairly conversant with An Caighdeán Oifigiúil and I have spent more than fifty five years reading through whatever books in Irish attracted me from time to time. My favourite Cork Irish book is "SEANCHAS AN TÁILLIÚRA" edited by Aindrias Ó Muimhneacháin. I am currently browsing through "BEATHA MHICHÍL TURRAOIN MAILLE LE SCEULTA AGUS SEANACHAS" (sic) by Micheul Ó Cionnfhaolaidh. Published in 1956 this is a good example of the Irish of An Rinn, Co Waterford.

As you can see, David, I am no scholar and I do not want to discourage in any way the celebration of Irish in all its forms whether extant or historical.

I say "mo ghraidhn thú, David, coinnigh ort" (Bravo, David, keep going.)

I also wanted to thank David for making that Dillon and Ó Cróinín edition of TY Irish available on your "Why Cork Irish?" page. So much more grammar given than in my much later edition.

Hi Yobar,
Dia duit!
Dave Webb asked me to clear up a point.
I am the perpetrator of the TYI which you found linked on his site, and I am responsible for the link on his page.
There still remains, at least theoretically, a copyright problem with Dillon TYI.
Whereas Gael-Linn are happy for me to make freely available, their TYI audio recordings, Hodder and Stoughton cannot for some reason make the same commitment. However, they are fully aware of my work, and the site I am using to publish it, even the link used, yet they have taken no measures to force me, or the site to take it down.
This I am prepared to accept as benign disregard, which was one of the options I suggested as acceptable. It is of course tacit, as explicit disregard would possibly have legal consequences.
Le meas,
Déghebh (Smith).

Well, thanks to you, Mr Smith!