It is almost unbelievable the number and quality of web resources now available for students of Irish. I will just list a few right now, but I will come back to this issue from time to time.
One fantastic site is published by "Foras na Gaeilge," and the web address is http://www.irish.ie/default1.asp?lang=en. At this site you can chose to read in Irish or English, and the resources available are incredible. The site states, "Foras na Gaeilge, the body responsible for the promotion of the Irish language throughout the whole island of Ireland, was founded on the second day of December 1999."
Another interesting site is www.daltai.com ("Daltai" means "students," as in "Students of Irish."). I enjoy looking at the language forums on this site.
[more coming]
Showing posts with label learning Irish-Gaelic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning Irish-Gaelic. Show all posts
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Do You Need a Dictionary?
Yes, you need a dictionary. Amazingly, the Pimsleur materials work without a dictionary or even written transcripts (though they are available--see previous post). And of course children learn to speak their native languages without dictionaries. But we are adults, and we don't live in areas where Irish is the community language. For this reasons, dictionaries are very helpful.
My friend Mike Gerrity is a Russian translator and he often uses online dictionaries in his translation of technical Russian materials. So online dictionaries are good tools and they're usually free of cost. Here's a fairly decent one: http://www.irishdictionary.ie/home. Still, I rarely use them. I much prefer old-fashioned bound dictionaries. If you go to Amazon.com and search for "Irish dictionaries," you will find there are lots available, at quite a range of prices. One that popped up first when I did my search on Amazon was the "Irish-English/English-Irish Easy Reference Dictionary," Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 480 pages, for $11.53. What a deal!
My favorite dictionary is "Focloir Scoile English-Irish/Irish-English Dictionary," published in Ireland by An Gum, the largest publisher of Irish books. The price is around $25. This is a very fine dictionary and it has a feature many Irish-English dictionaries lack--it gives phonetic transcriptions of the Irish words. That is a problematic thing to do because of the tricky dialect differences in Irish, but it can be helpful to a beginner. Here are the ISBN's of this dictionary: ISBN-10: 1857911210 and ISBN-13: 978-1857911213.
The best modern dictionary of Irish is a one-direction work, Irish to English (without the English to Irish dimension that most beginners would need) : Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (by Niall Ó Dónaill). This is a huge and sophisticated dictionary, one needed by serious intermediate and advanced students of Irish. It is available in both a paperback and hardback version. I believe the paperback version, around 1300 pages in length, can be purchased for around $40.
My friend Mike Gerrity is a Russian translator and he often uses online dictionaries in his translation of technical Russian materials. So online dictionaries are good tools and they're usually free of cost. Here's a fairly decent one: http://www.irishdictionary.ie/home. Still, I rarely use them. I much prefer old-fashioned bound dictionaries. If you go to Amazon.com and search for "Irish dictionaries," you will find there are lots available, at quite a range of prices. One that popped up first when I did my search on Amazon was the "Irish-English/English-Irish Easy Reference Dictionary," Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 480 pages, for $11.53. What a deal!
My favorite dictionary is "Focloir Scoile English-Irish/Irish-English Dictionary," published in Ireland by An Gum, the largest publisher of Irish books. The price is around $25. This is a very fine dictionary and it has a feature many Irish-English dictionaries lack--it gives phonetic transcriptions of the Irish words. That is a problematic thing to do because of the tricky dialect differences in Irish, but it can be helpful to a beginner. Here are the ISBN's of this dictionary: ISBN-10: 1857911210 and ISBN-13: 978-1857911213.
The best modern dictionary of Irish is a one-direction work, Irish to English (without the English to Irish dimension that most beginners would need) : Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (by Niall Ó Dónaill). This is a huge and sophisticated dictionary, one needed by serious intermediate and advanced students of Irish. It is available in both a paperback and hardback version. I believe the paperback version, around 1300 pages in length, can be purchased for around $40.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Pimsleur Irish Approach
Here's an idea for getting started learning irish--the Pimsleur Irish Language tapes or CDs. They can be purchased for as little as $10 (up to about $35) and they will get you speaking and understanding some basic Irish in hours. To find these resources, either google "Pimsleur Irish" or go to Amazon.com and search for "Pimsleur Irish." There are a few different versions of the Pimsleur program, but they will all get you started. The advantages are that you will speak and understand basic Irish quickly; the disadvantage is that you will be learning the Munster dialect of Irish, which is a bit different than the Connacht and Ulster dialects. That's not a huge problem and you will hear other dialects as you progress through other Irish materials. Another problem is that the Pimsleur materials work without transcripts, without pencil or paper. You are learning aurally, as a child would. If this drives you nuts, you can locate a transcript of the Pimsleur materials online (http://www.gaeilge.org/pimsleurtranscript.html). When you examine the transcripts, you will discover how unusual the Irish spelling system is--how different it is from what you may have expected.
I recommend the Pimsleur approach as a first step. It cannot be the last step, and you won't be too deep into the language when you are finished. But you will be able to understand and speak some basic Irish (with a Dingle accent, no less!).
Here's a link to the Pimsleur-Irish site: http://www.pimsleurirish.com/.
I recommend the Pimsleur approach as a first step. It cannot be the last step, and you won't be too deep into the language when you are finished. But you will be able to understand and speak some basic Irish (with a Dingle accent, no less!).
Here's a link to the Pimsleur-Irish site: http://www.pimsleurirish.com/.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The First Baby Steps
If you are thinking about learning to speak and read Irish-Gaelic (what we prefer to call "Irish"), you need to do some general reading and thinking about this language, and language learning in general, before diving in. Secondly, I want you to know that I think you are flat-out crazy if you want to learn this language; you probably should get your head examined. You are crazy--and I love you!
Irish is a difficult language, but it's not impossible. It's not Chinese, Japanese, or English, for God's sake! Three-year-old children growing up in a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) region in Ireland can speak this language! And you can slowly and surely make progress in learning this tongue--which may be, by the way, the language of your ancestors. It was indeed the language spoken by my great great grandparents, Daniel Coghlin and Mary Crowley, and their four children when they left West County Cork in 1857 and landed on American soil. That's part of my motivation, and perhaps part of your own.
As a first step, I think you should google "Irish-Gaelic" or "Irish language" and see what's out there. Read a Wikipedia article on the language (but don't trust Wikipedia as God's truth!) or get hold of a print article from a good bound encyclopedia. Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_language. Don't get overwhelmed by the detail, but try to pick up some general knowledge about Irish. That would be a good start.
Irish is a difficult language, but it's not impossible. It's not Chinese, Japanese, or English, for God's sake! Three-year-old children growing up in a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) region in Ireland can speak this language! And you can slowly and surely make progress in learning this tongue--which may be, by the way, the language of your ancestors. It was indeed the language spoken by my great great grandparents, Daniel Coghlin and Mary Crowley, and their four children when they left West County Cork in 1857 and landed on American soil. That's part of my motivation, and perhaps part of your own.
As a first step, I think you should google "Irish-Gaelic" or "Irish language" and see what's out there. Read a Wikipedia article on the language (but don't trust Wikipedia as God's truth!) or get hold of a print article from a good bound encyclopedia. Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_language. Don't get overwhelmed by the detail, but try to pick up some general knowledge about Irish. That would be a good start.
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