Pronunciation & History of the Definite Article ("The") in Irish/Gaelic/Goidelic

[@Peru-fc3bi]

I would love to see a video about intonation in Munster Irish. Sár-jab!

[@CCc-sb9oj]

0:00 - 10:00 - 11:20 (examples of masculine words in genitive) 10:15 (quick broad vs slender L demonstration) 26:11 - 27:27 (a'ng' cóta, a'm' bainne) 17:16 (the shame, how could anybody get those mixed up) Tá sé ró-eagraithe na laethanta so, á chur as post mé! Ach tá a stíl nua sna fiseáin is déanaí thar barr ar fad, á chur féin in oiriúint dosna sluaite móra! (ach is breá liom na fiseáin is luaithe comh maith, mar gheall ar an méid sin eolas atá iontu)

[@ronanpalmer6933]

Awesome - in one video, the article, gender and orú/séimhiú all explained like I've never understood them before; the análú introduced, and so much ore besides. Thank you!

[@limmeh7881]

I'd be interested in seeing a video on pre-Standard spelling vs Standard spelling, how words used to be spelt before they were standardised.

[@EGFritz]

I'm not learning Irish but am an amateur of languages and yours are the only videos on this language of any interest or use available on this site

[@iavv334]

Your videos are amazing! Please, If there's anywhere we can support you to allow you to keep producing these lessons, I would happily give whatever I could. You're giving explanations with a modern and comprehensive linguistic knowledge that I wish I could find in the online resources I have access to, and I greatly appreciate it. Keep up the great work!

[@phumgwatenagala6606]

I know. The man has talent, is attested to from every serious Gaeilge learner and he clearly exudes joy when giving this knowledge. He could make a living from it, he has a community already ready to help, wdf is he doing?

[@cormacbritton1715]

Another great video! Of particular interest to me is the various allomorphs of the article which you have briefly covered. It might have been beyond the scope of this video here, and it's a factor that I rarely see covered anywhere, but I'd like to point out that there are about 10 allomorphs of the definite article "an" in the Modern Irish language. Each allomorph is a variant affected by assimilation to the surrounding phonological environment. The list of allomorphs is simply /ə/, /ɪ/, /ən/, /ɪn´/, /n/, /n´/, /m/, /m´/, /ŋ/, /ŋ´/. As you can see, there are two phonemic central vowels for unstressed environments, and this is another element that I rarely see covered in Irish phonology. /ə/ is, of course, the central vowel used in unstressed environments, as generally represented. However, it also has a raised/fronted counterpart /ɪ/ which is also used in unstressed environments. The difference being that /ə/ belongs to velarised environments while /ɪ/ belongs to palatalised environments. The reason why they are phonemically distinct rather than two different allophones of one phoneme is because they contrast in at least one minimal pair: "tuatha" /tuə̯.hə/ vs "tuaithe" /tuə̯.hɪ/. The following environment determines the quality of the vowel for the article: if it's a broad environment then the vowel should be /ə/; if it is a slender environment then the vowel should be /ɪ/. The suitability of the glyph ⟨ɪ⟩ to represented the raised/fronted central vowel phoneme for unstressed syllables is debatable. However, at least one phonologist uses it: Diarmuid Ó Sé in his publication Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne. Most phonologists have seemingly either been unaware of the existence to two distinct central vowel phonemes for unstressed syllables or have ignored their distinction. /ɪ/ should also be considered distinct from /i/, though there could be some potential allophonic overlap. Then we see that there are 6 possible nasals. If the qualifying noun begins with a vowel or a coronal consonant, the nasal is pronounced as /n/ in broad environments or /n´/ in slender environments. If the qualifying noun begins with a labial consonant, the nasal is pronounced as /m/ is broad environments or /m´/ in labial environments. If the qualifying noun begins with a dorsal consonant, the nasal is pronounced as /ŋ/ in broad environments or /ŋ´/ in slender environments. Of course, the surrounding environment really determines how the article is pronounced, whether it should be pronounced with just a vowel, with just a nasal, or with both. If the article is either the first word in the sentence or if it follows another word that ended in a consonant, then the article's vowel is pronounced. Then, if the noun being qualified by the article begins with a consonant (including a prothetic consonant), the nasal should be dropped. However, if the article is not the first word in the sentence and the preceding word ended in a vowel, then the article's vowel should be dropped and the nasal should always be pronounced, appending itself to the end of the preceding syllable, regardless of whether a consonant follows or not. Both the vowel and nasal are pronounced only when the article is either the first word in the sentence or if the preceding word ended in a consonant, and if qualifying noun begins with a vowel. The "potential allomorphs" /əm/, /ɪm´/, /əŋ/ and /ɪŋ´/ don't appear to occur in any environment as there are no environments suitable for their existence. Another factor that deserves exploring is homorganic delenition. The DeNTaLS rule was born out of homorganic delenition and solidified itself grammatically. It is arguable that homorganic delenition occurs in certain phonological environments, and some of these environments could be caused by the nasal of the article when pronounced. Consider the sentence "tá an bhean ann": arguably, in the flow of natural speech, and analogical to the DeNTaLS rule, one could potentially hear /taːm´ b´an au̯n/ instead of /taːm´ v´an au̯n/. Phonological (though ungrammatical) homorganic delenition has been documented in cases similar to this: Rev. M. Sheehan points out, in Sean-Chaint na nDéise (1944 ed.), p. 117, that "chúig céad" and "chúig cinn" are heard instead of "chúig chéad" and "chúig chinn" simply because it is easier to say them without the lenition. Unfortunately, homorganic delenition in Modern Irish doesn't seem to have been explored extensively, but I think it should be noted that the DeNTaLS rule is probably not the only phonlological case of homorganic delenition, even if it is the only grammatical case of homorganic delenition. It is my understanding that "na" is always pronounced as /nə/ regardless of the surrounding phonological environment. That table you did for the declined forms and their mutations was great and a good, simple presentation. I borrowed the concept for the following wiki article (minus the arrows), giving you the credit of course: www.celtic-languages.org/Irish/The_Article

[@EowynCwper]

Irish morphological history is so rich! Thanks for taking the time to delve into it!

[@benedyktjaworski9877]

“or at least I don’t know what the etymology is” (14:42) - Stifter derives it from Proto-Celtic *senūnākos, from n-stem noun *senū ‘old one’ + adjectival suffix *āko-, ‘old one’ supposedly being a common euphemism for a fox replacing older taboo-word. Though I don’t know if it’s been published in anything peer-reviewed, he wrote about it in a tweet (at ChronHib, the status number 1453350329681072133)

[@maceain]

suimiúil

[@unaminhkavanagh]

Iontach an físeán athá agat aríst! Sár ja mar ba ghnáth.

[@yukiwhitley]

yes! happy to see a new video! 😊 haven't any specific topic requests at my current stage of learning - what if you just do freestyle/stream-of-consciousness...? 🤗

[@Miglow]

It is great to see another video from you. Thanks for taking the time to share your linguistic knowledge of Irish for everyone to learn from. I am eagerly waiting to see what else you have to teach. One question I have is what resources you use or would recommend to others that are learning Irish. Also, more Sean nos singing would be nice. I really enjoy your rendition of An poc ar buille (which is still awaiting a translation, I think). Go raibh míle maith agat. Keep up the excellent work.

[@CCc-sb9oj]

I'm not he, but I'll answer anyway to the recommendations for learners bit For Connacht Irish (specifically Connemara, Cois Fharraige) - 'Learning Irish' by Mícheál Ó Siadhail' (with the audio, very important) For Ulster - 'Buntús na Gaeilge', the 'Now you're talking video series' (its on youtube) and after that you could follow it up with the 'Céim ar aghaidh' programme For Munster - 'Teach yourself Irish 1961', with Donncha Ó Croinín and Myles Dillon (with audio) As an adjunct to any of these, the book and audio courses 'Fuaimeanna' and 'Blas' are good but sadly, they are only in Irish so maybe not as useful for beginners. Thankfully you'll have Loingseach's videos to help you with phonetics too though! Chapter one of Learning Irish also has a very good phonetic description with the audio, so if you don't have a specific dialect in mind I guess I'd recommend that one for now. Those should get you going within a few months, maybe six or less depending on how many hours a day you do, and will provide you with plenty of comprehensible input to listen back over for refreshments. After that if you can find things like Radio na Gaeltachta pieces with transcripts, the Nuacht transcript exercises from vifax.maynoothuniversity.ie/ and just listening to the radio (RnaG) would all be great exercises. Hope that is in some way helpful

[@Miglow]

@@CCc-sb9oj well one reason I asked here is that many beginner resources simplify things too much. They sacrifice accuracy and phenomes and more for the sake of ease of learning. At the moment, I'm working through Buntús Cainte books 1 through 3, with audio. I talk online with a friend that's a fluent speaker. Plus I have friends that are learning. I follow several channels on KZbin. Including TG4 and even a gamer that streams in Irish. Not to mention this channel. I've watched the pronunciation vídeos on here several times. Which has helped immensely. I'm in several Irish language Facebook groups, learning and otherwise. Plus, I play traditional Irish music so I also see it in tune names and listening to songs in Irish. I'm learning a few songs, as Gaeilge. As far as hours per day? I'm spread a little thin and unorganized so Im not studying daily. But, I still see and hear Irish somewhat regularly. Which is pretty good for someone in Texas. At the moment I have maybe a few dozen vocabulary words, if that. I understand very little of the grammar. My pronunciation, I would say, is moderately fair.

[@CCc-sb9oj]

@@Miglow Sounds like a good start! It's true that most beginner resources for Irish aren't very good, especially on the audio and phoneme side of things. There's probably a culture of mass producing low quality resources for use by school children/teenagers, where learning good quality native Irish isn't the goal so much as knowing enough to pass exams (for which you won't be judged on things like bilabial v's, broad l's and vowel quality, so you can just plough on with your English sounds without it affecting your marks). Irish classroom resources are mass produced as part of the same moneymaking racket that leads to the mass production and sale of all school books. They have a captive market (students have to buy the books they are told to buy every year). I can vouch for Mícheál Ó Siadhail's Learning Irish. It's one of the few (maybe only?) Irish learning resources for beginner - intermediate that does a good job of explaining the phonetics.

[@ferncat1397]

Sárfhíseán mar is gnách! An bhfuil aon eolas agat ar Ghaeilge Chill Mhantáin?

[@rossmoore2598]

Go míle maith agat!

[@Peru-fc3bi]

Ardfhear!

[@josephmmcg]

An físeán is fearr atá déanta agat, dar liom. Ábhar fíorshuimiúil agus é mínithe go breá agat. (Gan an iomarca 'scéal roimh scéal')

[@ersulhith]

I have a question about Irish phonology. Are 'th' and 'sh' pronounced the same by native Irish speakers? Is it actually a glottal 'h' sound with the tongue close to flat, or is the tongue raised up in the same position as it is for 'dh'? It seems that the séimhiú process is simpler if the only difference between 'dh' and 'th' is the voicing, but that is not how 'th' is generally described. An unvoiced 'dh' would be nearly or completely allophonic to a glottal 'h', at least for native English speakers who are often the ones writing descriptions of the Irish language for people learning Irish.

[@disappointedenglishman98]

Th and sh are pronounced exactly the same, as /h/. Shuigh se - he sat down. Thuig sé = he understood. These are pronounced identically in Munster (at least).

[@PyckledNyk]

Go raibh maith míle agat! Is maith liom an scéal a thug tú dúinn. Le do thoil, déan físeáin níos mó, má tá tú in ann. Tá fúm a foghlaim níos mó leat.

[@didavecancan]

Videó iontach aríst a chara! Ba mhaith liom ceann fé chaint leanúnach - cad a tharlaíonn le tús agus deireadh na bhfocal is mar sin

B'fhiú go mór na físeáin a thaifeadadh i nGaeilge amháin.

[@CCc-sb9oj]

Ní aontóinn go hiomlán leis sin mar nach bhfuil mórán ábhar ann a mhúineann fóineolaíochta na Gaeilge do dhaoine nach bhfuil Gaeilge acu cheana féin... ach aontaím go dteastaíonn ó dhaoine a bhfuil Gaeilg acu cheana na físeáin seo comh maith, ós rud é gur mhúineadh an teanga dóibh agus am ar bith caite ag foghlaim na (fíor)foghraíochta (dá mbeadh áiseanna mar seo ar fáil i mBéarla agus iad a tosnú b'fhéidir go mbeimís i riocht níos fearr i dtaobh san!) Ach, dá mbeadh leaganacha Gaeilg desna físeáin agus rogha againn bheinn go mór i bhfábhar a leithéid ar ndóigh

@@CCc-sb9oj Go raibh maith agat as d'fhreagra.

[@CCc-sb9oj]

@ Go raibh maith agat féin as d'fhreagra do m'fhreagra. An dóigh leat go mbeadh mórán lucht féachana aige dá mbeadh na físeáin taifeadta i nGaeilge amháin? Bheadh sé go deas an ceann so a bheith as Gaeilge cinnte, ach tá na físeáin a mhúineann fóineolaíochta níos fónta i mBéarla. Right says she, táim ag imeacht. Go raibh maith agat arís as d'fhreagra.

[@Fortyball]

"Arguably Proto-Irish is Middle Irish". what?!

[@vampyricon7026]

Because all Irish Gaelic dialects come from Middle Irish. So if you reconstruct Proto-Irish from the dialects, it will only bring you back to Middle Irish. I assume he meant Primitive Irish when he was referring to "Proto-Irish".

[@TheMichelle1982]

go diail ar fad.

[@disappointedenglishman98]

Ní bhogann béim an fhocail go dtí an siolla deirineach i bhfoclaibh mar "gileacht", ainm theibhí a thagann ón bhfocal "gile". "Poblacht" ceann eile den tsaghas céanna. Cuir i gcúmparáid iad le "beannacht", focal 'na mbogann an bhéim. Dáltha an scéil, do scríodh Brian Ó Cuív "gutha" le "vowel" (gutha le t séimhithe) agus "cunsain" le "consonant", agus cunsainí san uimhir iolra. Is í Bannrín na gCunsainí leitir S. /bau'ri:nʲ nə gunsi'nʲi:/