At least once a month there is a person who posts on the Irish Language SubReddit or on the ILF asking for help finding resources for learning Irish and many times people post the same list of resources but in every instance, some of the best resources are left out. It also seems to me that some of the older lists of resources have a large number of dead links or lack some of the better more recently created resources. For these reasons, I’ve decided to put together a list of the best resources that I have found for beginners. I’ll cover resources for intermediate learners in another post. I will also note when the resources are paid and when they are free and if there is a specific dialect being taught by the resource in question.
My 12 Week Italian Language Challenge
For 2015 I’ve decided that I am going to try a 3 month language challenge for learning Italian. Currently I have no knowledge of the language beyond what the average American would have from TV and other media. I’ve chosen Italian because I’ve always wanted to learn another Romance language. I’m fluent in Portuguese and can fake it pretty well in Spanish, though I’ve not studied it formally for very long – I’ve only read a couple of books and some poetry. I really wanted to learn a non-Ibero-Romance that was ideally not one of the main national languages such as Jèrriais, Occitan, or Sicilian but I’ve just spent the last year working on Irish where I have had a huge issue finding native speakers to assist me as well as a glaring gap in resources at the upper-intermediate level. With the less commonly studied Romance languages it seems my plight regarding a lack of learning material would be even worse. Combining that with my grand over-estimation of how good my Irish was when I started back on it in December, 2013, I want a quick win before going on to a non-Indo-European language in mid-2015. Thus, I chose Italian as it would potentially open up resources for learning Sicilian in the future and I can leverage my knowledge of Latin and 2 other Romance languages.
So, here is my plan:
1. A 12 week challenge to go from A0 to a high B1
2. Using Pimsleur Italian, Colloquial Italian 1 & 2, and Assimil
3. Memrise to help build vocabulary
4. Book weekly lessons on iTalki with a native speaker
5. A twice monthly report out on YouTube to keep me honest
6. Keep working on Irish!
My challenge begins on January 4, 2015 and will continue until the 28th of March. I think the biggest challenge for me will be to maintaining my study habits with Irish as I am committed to getting out of the B1 level and up to the B2 level in 2015 and that means a lot of work. I’m still struggling conversationally and in writing making stupid mistakes with irregular verbs and poor pronunciation. But I think that a short distraction into another language will help me regain my motivation.
Comhrá – Máire Feirtéar
This is a transcript with audio of the first three minutes of the episode of Comrá featuring Máire Feirtéar. The transcription was done by the Redditor 0regan0 so please throw him some up votes.
Go mbeannaí Dia dhaoibh agus tá fáilte romhaibh ag clár na seachtaine seo. Bean as An Rinn ar an gCeathrún Rua a bheas ag comhrá liom ar an gclár seo anocht, sin í Máire Feirtéar. Ní shin sloinne, anois, go deimhin, a bhí an-choitianta sa Rinn ar an gCeathrún Rua, ná tada mar é, ach phós sí Breandán Feirtéar as Dún Chaoin sa mbliain 1970, agus chaitheadar cúig bliana déag ag cónaí ó dheas i gCiarraí. Tá siad ar ais anois ina gcónaí, bail ó Dhia orthab, ar an gCeathrún Rua, agus ansuim ag Máire i ngaolta agus i gcanúintí agus seanfhocla agus rudaí dhen chineál sin. Céad fáilte, a Mháire.
Go raibh míle maith agat, a Mháirtín.
B’fhéidir go bhfuil sé chomh maith agam tosaí leis na gaolta nach bhfuil, mar sin? Ó labhair muid orthab! Bí ag inseacht dhúinn dhe do chine féin ar an gCeathrún Rua agus, b’fhéidir, cé chomh fada siar is atá tú in ann a ghabháil leob.
Bhuel tá rud amháin gur féidir leat – nó go bhféadfadh muid – roimhe seo, a Mháirtín, a ghabháil siar ar ár ngaolta, mar go mbíodh ainm na muintire orthab. Agus tá sé sin ag dul i léig anois agus is mór an truaidh é. Mar is cuimhneach liomsa, mar shampla, nuair a bhí mé ag breathnú ar Griffith’s Valuation 1850, bhí mé in ann mo sheanmhuintir a dhéanamh amach díreach mar gheall go raibh a fhios agam cén t-ainm a bhí ar mo shin-sheanathair.
Sea.
An áit go raibh mise i mo chónaí, bhí muid inár gcónaí ar an áit a dtugaidís An tSráid Thíos air – agus bhí comharsannaí geanúla ansin againn – agus tá mo mhuintirse ansin, isteach is amach, is dóigh. Má chuireann tú ainm na muintire (mar is mise Máire Stephen Stiofáin Choilm Mhaitiú Sheáin Shadhbh) agus má thugann tú cúig bliana fichead do chuile ghlúin, bhuel déarfainn go bhfuil muid isteach is amach ann ins an áit chéanna –
Sea.
Le thart ar thrí chéad bliain.
Trí chéad bliain!
Anois, deireadh m’athair, abair, roimhe sin gur – ón nGleann in Uachtar Ard a tháinigeadar – roimhe sin, agus gur beirt deartháireacha a tháinig, agus gur tháinigeadar roimhe sin aduaidh ar ndóigh, mar…
Anoir as an nGleann in Uachtar Ard?
Sin é anois a deirtear fúthu.
M’anam gur airigh mé go dtáinig cuid de na Seáiníní anoir freisin as, níl a fhios agam an bhfuil aon ghaol againn le chéile, ós ag caint ar ghaolta…
M’anam d’fhéadfadh go mbeadh! Go bhfuil gaol againn i bhfad amach le chéile.
B’fhéidir go bhfuil.
Bhí fear ansin, an dtuigeann tú, go dtugaidís Murchadh na hOrdóige air, ach le gabháil siar agus le gabháil ar ais is rud a bhí mé á rá leat faoi bheith in áit amháin, deireann an béaloideas linn nach maireann aon sloinne in aon áit níos mó ná seacht nó ocht de ghlúnta.
Sea.
Agus más sin é, tá – má tá sé sin fíor – tá an bua faighte againn ar an nginiúint!
Tá! Bhí mé ag gabháil a rá go raibh sibh ag teacht ar an tanaí píosa ó shin ach tá sé gabhte thairis anois, bail ó Dhia oraibh.
Tá sé gabhte thairis.
Tá. Muintir Stephen, ab ea?
Muintir Stephen Stiofáin. Sin iad muintir m’athara.
Sea.
Meaití Jó Shéamuis Ó Fátharta ag léamh as an leabhar ‘The Irish of Chois Fhairrge, Co. Galway’
Chaith mé seachtain leis an gceoltóir Meaití Jo Shéamais Ó Fátharta nuair a bhí seisean i Meiriceá an mhí seo caite. D’fhoghlaim mé go leor, leor Gaeilge agus rinne mé caraid nua!
Guia Rápida da Gramatica Irlandesa: A Preposição ‘ag’
Significado Geral
Ag, geralmente traduzida como em, está usada para marcar a locação do substantivo que modifica em certas classes de lugares como lojas, casas, e escolas e também para marca a que horas acontece ou aconteceu um evento. Seguem alguns exemplos destes usos:
Tá an fear ag an doras. (O homem está na porta)
Tá an gasúr bocht ag an dochtúr. (Ele está no médico, i.e. na oficina do médico)
Ní bhíonn sé anseo ag an am seo. (Ele não está (normalmente) aqui a esta horário)
Tá Cáit ag a ngeata. (A Cáit está na portão)
Éirím ag a sé a cholg ‘chuile lá. (Eu me levanto às seis horas todos os dias)
Nótaí an tSeachtaine Seo Caite – 29/04/2014
D'fhoghlaim mé cúpla focail nua an tseachtain seo caite sa rang comhrá. Bhí Seán agus Scot ag baint úsáid as “seanléim” agus as “mo sheacht ndícheall.” Is ionann “seacht ndícheall” agus “dícheall,” dháiríre.
Seanléim - Deirtear “velha forma” i bportaingéilis agus “old self”, “old ways”, nó “old tricks”, b’fhéidir, i mBéarla.
Bhí sé ar ais ar a sheanléim.
Sin é mar sin, is cosúil anois go mbeidh Sean-Phádraic ar ais ar a sheanléim, nó ar a sheansuí ar laghad ar bith.
seacht ndícheall agus dícheall – Deirtear “seu máximo” nó “o maximo” i bportaingéilis agus “your best” nó “the utmost” i mBéarla.
Deir Enda Kenny go ndéanfaidh sé a sheacht ndícheall feabhas a chur ar a stíl cheannaireachta.
Chuaigh siad go Sasana, rinne siad a seacht ndícheall ach anois tá siad níos sine, caite agus spíonta.
Tá siad ar fad ag déanamh a ndícheall, gan dabht.
Bhí mé féin ag baint úsáid as cúpla frásaí i siollabas an meánleibhéil TEG.
“... i lár X [ginideach]” mar shamplaí:
Tá sibh ina gcónaí i lár na cathrach, nach bhfuil?
Tá sí ina cónaí i lár an bhaile.
“... ar imeall X [ginideach]” mar shamplaí
Tá arasán beag aige ar imeall na cathrach.
Tá páirc phoiblí áilinn ar imeall na cathrach. Níl sí i bhfad ó anseo ar chor ar bith.
Os Verbos Is e Bí no Irlandês Moderno e sua Comparação aos Verbos Ser e Estar
Este artigo é uma comparação do uso dos verbos is e bí em Irlandês moderno. Seu objetivo é dar o estudante uma compreensão básica de como são usados estes verbos e também destacar casos importantes de quando seus usos diferenciam dos verbos ser e estar em português. Na maioria dos exemplos usei as formas e principais gramaticais do Padrão Oficial da língua Irlandesa (An Caighdeán Oifigiúil) mas também dou as formas comuns no dialeto que se fala na Gaeltacht (área onde a língua irlandesa é usado como língua cotidiana) no oeste da cidade de Galway, geralmente chamado de Cois Fharraige. Qualquer transcrição fonética é na pronuncia deste dialeto a não ser que é anotado ao contrário.
Changing the Interface Language of Microsoft Office to Irish
This is pretty simple and of course applies to any language other than Irish. Just go to the LIP page on Microsoft's web site and download the interface pack for the language or languages you wish to install. By default Office will use the interface language of your PC. You can change this by searching for Office Language Preferences from your Start Menu or Start Screen.
You can then select the default interface, edit, and help languages from the Language Preferences dialog.
Do Ríomhaire i nGaeilge? Change your Windows 8 Pro Computer Interface to Irish.
Disclaimer
This is a pretty simple process. I have only tested it with Windows 8 Pro/Enterprise. It is not clear to me if Windows 8 Core has the same functionality. The Irish Language Pack for Windows 8 RT is not yet available.
How To
From the start screen begin typing the word “language”. Then click on settings. In the second column of search results click on the Language result as show in the image.
The Add a Language dialog will appear as in this image:
You will then be sent to the Change your language preferences page. Click options next to Gaeilge.
Then click Make this the primary language.
You will have to log off and log back on to your computer for the changes to take effect.
There you have it. Your PC will now use Irish as its display language.