Dia duit,

I am hoping to learn a lot more about linguistics and more about the terms used in linguistics. Since starting to learn Irish I think I have learnt just as many new words in English as in Irish (e.g. "lentition", "eclipsis").

So has anyone got any introduction to linguistics books they can recommend? All my linguistics knowledge comes from a combination of English language history books and Wikipedia and I've become quite hooked on it and want to know more.

Also, I'd like to learn the IPA properly, what is the best way of going about doing this?

Go raibh maith agaibh,

Sam

Sam, in the kindest of manners, I would like to suggest you start with a learning textbook that teaches the language from the beginning. There is Teach yourself Irish (various editions). Also: Learning Irish, Tús Maith, Buntús Cainte and others.

You said on the other thread "I love translating Irish, but what does this word 'maith' mean? And I'm going to learn Irish grammar one day".

But Irish is not a language you can just write using the dictionary without having studied the grammar.

All learning textbooks will introduce lenition and eclipsis as you come across them. It doesn't make sense to follow any other approach than starting at the beginning.

Corkirish, the question was about linguistics in general not linguistics of Irish.

quote:

I am hoping to learn a lot more about linguistics and more about the terms used in linguistics. Since starting to learn Irish I think I have learnt just as many new words in English as in Irish (e.g. "lentition", "eclipsis").

Lenition is a term that is used for other languages as well. It means that a consonant becomes "weaker" (in Irish they become fricatives, in Welsh they become voiced when unvoiced, and fricative when plosive, roughly).
However, I don't think "eclipsis" is used for other languages (even Old Irish and Scottish Gaelic). They use "nasalisation" in Old Irish, for instance.

quote:

So has anyone got any introduction to linguistics books they can recommend?

There are loads. However, be careful because the grammatical terms change from language to language. You may read loads of books about linguistics, but still in the Irish grammar books you'll find specific words that aren't used in "general linguistics" books not in the grammar books of other languages (because the same phenomena don't exist in these languages or because they have other names).
By the way, have a look at the website www.uz-translations.net ...

quote:

Also, I'd like to learn the IPA properly, what is the best way of going about doing this?

Good idea, IPA is invaluable when you're learning languages. It makes you save much time.
This kind of site will help (you'll see the symbols and recordings of the corresponding sounds):
http://www.paulmeier.com/ipa/charts.html
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#
http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm

You'll find more information about phonetics, phonology and the different symbols and sounds on Wikipedia as well.

By the way, in Irish there are several sounds that you won't find on these websites because they are rare (they exist few languages), but you can write them anyway, by using an IPA symbol + some diacritics.
You'll find some of the specific sounds and symbols of the Irish sounds on my dictionary's website: http://annexedicoirlfr.ifrance.com/sons/sons.html

Feel free to ask for any help :-)

Aonghus, I was trying to be helpful!

I remember when I was 10, and before I had done any French lessons, I got a French dictionary and tried to read some French, but stumbled over some basic words. My Mum asked the Greek lady next door who spoke a lot of languages to help me, and I remember pointing out to her the word "c'est" that I **couldn't find in the dictionary for some reason**. Of course, the lady told me what it meant and how to pronounce it. But that's just an example of how not to learn a language!

quote:

"c'est" that I **couldn't find in the dictionary for some reason**.

reminds me of the time I was starting to learn Irish, I saw the song title "Mheall sí lena glórthaí mé" and I wondered why on earth I couldn't find "lena" (and some others words like that) in my dictionary... ...

Linguistics Glossary:
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOflinguisticTerms/

Some books from my days in school that I still use, and my reasons why:

- Analyzing English Grammar by Thomas P. Klammer, Muriel R. Schulz, and Angela Della Volpe

Great break down of the grammar with lots of tree graphs. I constantly use the methods in this book to understand the structure of Irish better.

- Historical Linguistics by Lyle Campbell

This pertains to Indo-European the most, but many of the sound changes etc. provide knowledge for understand why Irish is the way it is.

- A Course in Phonetics (with CD-ROM) by Peter Ladefoged and Keith Johnson

Why do some people not "get" Irish pronunciation. They might not even understand their own English pronunciation!

There is the IPA manual if you need help with that. This is good for reference. Also has a transcription of Gaobh Dobhair Irish, which is also online here:

http://www.archive.org/details/rosettaproject_gle_phon-1

- Handbook of the International Phonetic Association : A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet by International Phonetic Association

Also you can use the articles on Wikipedia. Most of them on linguistics are pretty good. Of course, feel free to ask here. I am sure there are better books, but these have helped me answer my general linguistics questions.

I learned a lot about IPA just from reading the wikipedia articles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipa

Wikipedia has a lot of information and before I read this I only knew lenition as "add h after the first letter" but after reading about the IPA it makes more sense as to why only certain letters are affected by lenition and why the sounds change the way they do (i.e. stops become fricatives)