As Gaeilge: How I improved my Dialectal Irish (you can do it too!)

[I do my best to speak the Irish of Corca Dhuibhne, so I don't use Standard Irish in my subtitles] Read more below:
THINGS I MENTIONED:
Fuaimeanna: fuaimeanna.ie/ga/
Mar a Déarfá!: www.maradearfa.ie/
Saol Ó Dheas: www.rte.ie/rnag/an-saol-o-dheas/
TG4 Player: www.tg4.ie/en/player/watch-li...
TOP IRISH BOOKS I RECOMMEND:
☘️ Teach Yourself Irish (1961) amzn.to/3sCWmhu
☘️ What's That as Gaeilge amzn.to/3d3HpyE
☘️ Focloir Gaedilge Agus Béarla amzn.to/3w2oEEn
☘️ Proverbs in Irish amzn.to/39hByok
☘️ Turas Teanga amzn.to/2P8FyAE
☘️ Gaeilge Gan Stro! amzn.to/2NTWkTp
MY BOOK:
Anseo: amzn.to/3sryrBQ
Find me:
🍃 » Twitch: / yunitex​
🍃 » Patreon: / unaminhkavanagh​
🍃 » Twitter: / unakavanagh​
🍃 » TikTok: / unaminh​
🍃 » Instagram: / ​
Kindly produced by:
Andrew Regan
Anne-Marie Fuller
Colin Crowell
Colm Casey
Conor Fowler
Eanna Brown
John Egan
Lucy Ryan
Niamh Feeney
Peter McManus
Music by Ben Sound: www.bensound.com/​
Some of the above links are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission if you purchase from them.
#gaeilge​ #irishlanguage​ #Ireland

[@unaminhkavanagh]

If you would like to support more of my Irish language work, consider checking out my Patreon where different tiers bring different benefits like dialectal notes and script, vids in advance, behind the scene content and resources: www.patreon.com/unaminhkavanagh

[@oddsockstango]

Aside from the absolute fuckery happening in reply to that complete knob in your comments, I wanted to take a moment to say I am DELIGHTED to have found your YT channel. My Irish is woeful and I'm keen to hear your tips and encouragement as I try to remedy that. You're a treasure and I appreciate the work you're doing!

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Go raibh maith agat :))

[@omlette0]

What a glorious language. Thank you. 🙏❤️☘️

[@unaminhkavanagh]

A few things I didn't spot while I was recording: - I meant to say 'gaoil' instead of 'gaol'. I mispronounced that one! - I also meant to say 'bheartaíos' instead of 'beartaíos. Forgot to add the séimhiú for the past tense. Also you can say: cainteoirí dúchasacha and leabhra instead of cainteoirí dúchais and leabhair. Leabhra is dialectal.

[@jamesclaffey6747]

Beautiful piece. Learning a language is to insert yourself in a culture, to inhabit a social world of practices, ways of acting and reacting. What your video shows that it not about uploading Google translate into your brain or memorising a dictionary. It's living a life. Many thanks.

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Thank you for your really lovely comment James!

[@bannistg]

Togha ar fad, Úna-Minh! Iriseoir den scoth thú a chuireann fuinneamh nua agus spraoi sa teanga d'aos óg na tíre seo! Molaim go mór thú! Nár lagaí Dia choíche do lámh!

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Oh Garry! Thá sé chomh deas tú a fheiscint anso - tháimse ana-ana-bhaoch asat do theachtaireacht agus an réamhrá iontach a thug tú dom héinig dom leabharsa. Thá súil agam go bhfuil tú i mbarr do shláinte

[@carcharoclesmegalodon6904]

A neat video! I love to hear someone who really cares about learning natural Irish, with all its grammatical nuances and proper pronunciation. Wish more people would pay attention to all this! And so right now I'm struggling with myself yet again; on one hand I sort of want to take up learning Irish again (I tried to a while ago but I've never progressed past being a complete beginner), and on the other I feel like it doesn't make sense for someone with zero actual connection to Ireland (no Irish ancestry, family, literally nothing), especially considering the language is somewhat complex and - on a practical level - ultimately useless to me (hell, I might not even use it once in “real life”, so as to speak). I don't even know why any part of me wants to learn it in the first place xP Especially hearing Munster Irish, which is (broadly speaking) the dialect I wanted to learn xP

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Thank you for your comment on my video and for your kind words! I wish you the best of luck with your journey. Have you joined my discord? It's active there everyday for the Irish language.

[@carcharoclesmegalodon6904]

@@unaminhkavanagh Thank you for the answer. I have now! It looks like a useful resource, I'll certainly use it once I get a better grasp of the basics. Thanks again!

[@mjw12345]

I see a universal drift to Connemara Irish - this is immensely welcome. With endangered languages we need merging of dialects not fragmentations. I also find Connemara irish quite lovely. I'm also pleased recent recordings I've viewed from Donegal it's more and more adopting Connacht/Connemara.

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Well I don’t speak Connemara Irish - that would feel very unnatural to me.

[@mjw12345]

@@unaminhkavanagh You speak with a rather 'neutral' accent certainly not Donegal! Connemara Irish - "very unnatural to me"! Bizarre comment!

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Plateau-ing is a common issue with language learners! What Irish language improvements are you making this year?

[@judithbell6937]

Have bought a bunch of books and have been trying to get into the habit of regular extensive reading. Also working on pronunciation which is probably the only aspect I *haven't* plateaued on.

[@Peru-fc3bi]

Táim ag foghlaim an chanúint Mhúscraí. Labhraím le chainteoir dúchas uaiir amháin gach seachtain (Zoom). I am using a website called corkirish as well. I download audio of native speakers and import phrases and words into Anki a flashcard app. I also use Audacity to slow down speech to inprove my pronunciation by mimickry. I watch An Loingseach's videos for help with phonetics. I read novels occasionally. I watch TG4 player and listen to RnaG especially programs that have people from Múscraí on them. I do the odd Ciorcal Cómhra over Zoom too and a little bit of Gramadach gan Stró! I enjoy your videos as sometimes it feels like I am the only one doing something like this but obviously there are many more like us! Go n-éirí leat! :-)

[@RuairiOTuathail]

Tá mo leibhéal fós íseal, ach cheannaigh mé leabhar gramadaí. (Collins Easy Learning Irish Grammar). An-áisiúil!

[@Peru-fc3bi]

@@RuairiOTuathail Coinnigh ort a Ruairí! :-)

[@RuairiOTuathail]

@@Peru-fc3bi tusa freisin!

[@ciarasloan7016]

I'm terrible at languages I don't know if I could do it too, but thanks for this 💖

[@lukeglennon1340]

Ia aoibheann liom an físeán seo. Tá do chánúínt go hálainn. Níl Gaelgeoir mé faraor, ach thosaigh mé ag déanamh staidéar ar Ghaeilge arís i rith an 'lockdown''. Your videos give me hope and encouragement that I can learn Irish too. Keep up the great work! Slán go fóill.

[@unaminhkavanagh]

GRMA a Luke! Go n-éirí go geal leat! Thank you for your kind words :))

[@ciaramaccormac7221]

tá sé seo an suimiúl - I applaud your dedication Úna!

[@unaminhkavanagh]

GRMA!

[@Oscar-xh5nm]

A Úna-Minh, tá mé díreach théis an video seo agad a aimsiú agus mé sa tóir ar ábhar i nGaeilge ar youtube, agus caithfidh mé a rá go bhfuil sé seo thar cionn! Tá mé cinnte go spreagóidh sé seo níos mó daoine le Gaeilge chanúnach a fhoghlaim. Maith thú! Liked and subscribed.

[@unaminhkavanagh]

GRMMA!

[@siubhanmacauley8116]

Maith thú a Úna-Minh, is le do tionchar féin go bhfuil mé ag déanamh iarracht mhaith bhlas Gaoth Dobhair a cheangal le mo chuid Ghaeilge, agus mé ag teacht ar aís chuig an theanga

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Ahh maith thú!

[@michealmacgearailt8232]

Iontach, grma !

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Fáilte romhat!

[@EoinP]

Físeán an-suimiúil. Bíonn a lán foghlama le déanamh le líofacht agus cumas teanga ar an leibhéal is airde a bhaint amach! Moltaí maithe

[@unaminhkavanagh]

GRMA a chara!

[@shay1macmullin]

Gu raibh maith agaibh!

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Fáilte romhat!

[@languageoffootball]

Is the Irish transcript available with this video machine generated or has it been created by a translator and so true to the words spoken in the video?

[@unaminhkavanagh]

No it wasn't generated - I wrote everything out myself.

[@languageoffootball]

@@unaminhkavanagh wow go raibh míle míle maith agat an Una-Minh. Hardly any KZbin videos appear to have a comprehensible Irish language transcript unless I’m missing something so this is a game changer. The reason I asked was that this fella claimed to have learnt a certain proficiency in Spanish in just 44 days by following an intensive method (kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGmpcnaMeZ6psJYsi=YhmJXefO1Syt2by5), and one of the techniques he used was finding 5 Ted Talks in Spanish and learning them more or less by rote with the aid of the Spanish language transcript available on KZbin or TedTalks. He said these were great because they aren’t autogenerated but translated by humans with good Spanish. And then he could learn idioms, verbs etc in context rather than via index card type memory techniques, and confident that it was a good standard. I then thought it would be something useful to do in Irish or at least couldn’t harm you, but then I realised that not only does there appear to be very few TedTalks as Gaeilge, but I couldn’t even see an option for the transcript to be in Irish which perhaps represents an area somebody like yourself might be interested in exploring. It might not be novel or particularly inspiring but if it works it works, as lots in the comments to his video appear to attest to, but alas we don’t appear to even have this option in Irish. I’m probably not doing justice to his method here, but it’s worth 10 mins of your time if you are intrigued.

[@KubotaNorthClare]

Iontach ar fad, ar aghaidh leat! 👍🏼

[@unaminhkavanagh]

GRMA!

[@IrishDemon]

Can we all agree that Daghda whatever is “that” guy we all can’t stand.

[@mairnealachamu]

Tá blas iontach Corca Dhuibhne agus Gaelainn cruinn álainn agat. Ba cheart go mbeifá an-bhródúil as.

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Mo mhíle baochas! Cinnte thá staidéar fós le déanamh agam ach, is iontach an rud é san a chlos!

[@mairnealachamu]

@@unaminhkavanagh Bímid go léir ag foghlaim i gconaí. Molim do chuid oibre, agus táim beagáinín in éad freisin!

[@matthewkearney833]

Iontach ar fad! Táim sa séú bhliain faoin am seo agus tá an t-ádh dearg orm toisc go bhfuil múinteoir dochreidte agam. Thit mé i ngrá leis an teanga. Chun a bheith macánta, táim cuíosach buartha nach mbeidh seans go leor agam chun mo Ghaeilge a úsáid nó fiú a fheabhsú taobh amuigh den scoil tar éis an Ardteist. Déanfaidh mé mo dhícheall, agus tá do chuid físeáin ag spreagadh dom gan amhras chun mo Ghaeilge a chóiméad suas sa todhchaí. GRMA!

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Go n-éirí go geal leat! An bhfuil Discord agat? Thá pobal cruthaithe agam ann ansan: discord.me/craiclegaeilge

[@matthewkearney833]

@@unaminhkavanagh táim i mo bhall don Discord seo cheanna féin. Faraor, mar a shamhlófá, táim thar a bheith gnóthach faoin am seo leis an Ardteist, so nílim á úsáid an oiread agus ba mhaith liom. Áfach, nuair atá an ama agam, téim ar an server chun féach ar na postáil nua. Is aoibhinn liom an cainéal gramadach atá agat go háirithe. Agus tá na méimeanna an-greannmhar chomh maith:) Ba chóir go mbeidh mé níos gníomhaí ann tar éis an Ardteist gan amhras!

[@thegaelicleaguela6135]

Álainn. Maith thú!

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Míle baochas :)

[@marthamacgilp623]

Are you able to understand any written or spoken Scottish gaelic? Since they come from the same language family id imagine an irish speaker would be able to understand some gaelic? :D

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Yes I can understand Scots Gaelic but sadly I wouldn't be able to speak it back!

[@marthamacgilp623]

@@unaminhkavanagh oh cool! I have been learning it and have been thinking of learning irish at some point too!

[@brendansweeney7468]

How do you find books written in a particular dialect?

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Do you mean how do I physically search them or how do I enjoy them?

[@brendansweeney7468]

@@unaminhkavanagh How do you determine which dialect a book is written in? I will be learning a Munster dialect. I haven't decided if I will learn the Corca Dhuibhne or the Muskerry dialect. It will probably depend on what resources I can find.

[@unaminhkavanagh]

@@brendansweeney7468 For me, I’ve gained an understanding of the dialect so I can see what’s written dialectally or not. It’s something you have to train yourself to. My recommendation is to study the dialect first to see the main traits and then look at books that were written by authors in that area.

[@brendansweeney7468]

@@unaminhkavanagh GRMA

[@davidmccormack99]

@@brendansweeney7468If the book has dialogue, Munster Irish is very quick to spot. Just look for past tense verbs because in Munster Irish the ‘person’ is implicit in the word (bhíos, bhís, bhíodar, srl.) instead of requiring a separate pronoun like the other dialects (bhí mé, bhí tú, bhí siad, srl.).

[@aphonos4600]

Thosaigh mé ag foghlaim na Gaedhilic Ghaoth Dobhair trí bhliain ó shin. Bhain mé sult as an fhíseán seo. Go rabh míle maith agat.

[@naomiseraphina9718]

Go raibh mile maith agat as an fisean seo! Ta me an-bhuioch as do gcabhair! --Naomi

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Fáilte romhat!

[@naomiseraphina9718]

@@unaminhkavanagh Go raibh maith agat, aris! I didn't realize anybody would respond to my comment, and I appreciate your doing so! (I am not terribly internet-savvy, and have much to learn.) I wish I had enough Irish to respond here as Gaeilge, but (faraor!) Nil lan go leor Gaeilge agam fos mar sin a tharlu. Is foghlaimeoir me, agus bim ag muinn mo fein, (so it's the blind leading the blind out here i mo cheantor na Meiricea.) Ta fonn orm a faigh gaeilgeoiri eile agus cairde, ach ta aifealtas orm faoi mo scil dona le Gaeilge... mar sin nil a fhios agam. Dean dearmad ar gach rud a chloiscriobh me... Tam eile beidir? Ach ta me buioch as do fiseain, agus d'obair, gan amhras! Nar laga Dia thu! Beannacht! --Naomi

[@jimmcintyre2837]

Maith thú, a Una-Minh. Tá an físeán seo an-spreagúil.

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Mile baochas a Jim!

[@jimmcintyre2837]

@@unaminhkavanagh Mhol mé an físeán seo do mo mhúinteoir Gaeilge

[@patdeVerse]

Go n-éirí leatsa, Úna. Ach i mo thuairmse féin, an fadhb is mó atá againn mar gheall ar an teanga, ná go bhfuil daoine ar fud na tíre le Gaeilge (ní cainteoirí dhúchais, ata i gceist, nó Gaeilgeoirí ata lonnaithe sa Ghaeltacht) ach daoine a bhfuil roinnt mhaith Gaeilge acu, agus bíonn eagla orthu an teanga a úsáid. Bíonn eagla orthu meancóg a dhéanamh, bíonn eagla orthu go mbeidh cainteoirí dhúchais ag mágadh futhu. Ach, is trua liom a rá go bhfuil an ceart acu! Tá Gaeilgeoirí ann, cainteoirí dhúchais ina measc, agus bíonn siad ag gáire nuair a chloiseann siad stráinsearaí ag caint i' nGaeilge lofa', nó 'Gaeilge briste'! Ní rud nua í seo, caithfidh mé a rá. Bhí an meon sin ag na manaigh fadó nuair a chuala siad na Lochlannaigh ag caint i nGaeilge. Do chuir siad an t-ainm 'Gioc a Gaic' ar a gcuid Gaeilge.

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Hmmm caifead a rá na'aontaímse go hiomlán leat. Na laethanta so don chuid is mó cainteoirí dúchasacha agus Gaeilgeoirí ana-spreagach 'gus táid ana-shásta an Ghaelainn a chlos. Cinnte thá daoine (Béarlóirí 'gus Gaeilgeoirí) na'bhfuil cabhrach nó deas ach thá formhór na ndaoine deas, cineálta agus thá meas aca ar a chéile. Cíonn tú na léithéidí san maidir le meancógaí srl i cibé teangan athá á bhfoghlaim agat ach caithfidh daoine fáil réidh leis na hangups san. Ach ceann desna fadhbanna eile ná go bhfuil go leor Gaeilgeoirí cáiliúla sna meáin agus níleadar sásta aon fheabhas a dhéanamh (mar a luadh sa bhfíseán do bhíos sa bhád san). An rud is measa i mo thuairim, ná go bhfuil daoine ann agus iad ag 'múineadh' ach táid ag múineadh drochnósanna agus is mór an trua é san. Ní sé féarálta ar a gcuid leantóirí.