Irish for beginners. Irish language
Ireland is a completely small state, which, however, gave the whole world St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, a huge number of words that most people consider English. The Irish language belongs to the family of Indo-European origin. Other languages from the same group are Scottish Gaelic and Breton.
Who speaks Irish?
According to statistics, Irish is spoken by about 1.6 million people. These are residents of Northern Ireland. There are also residents in the United States who use this language in everyday speech. Irish is one of the officially recognized languages of the European Union. In total, about 42% of Irish residents communicate in it. The vast majority of Irish people, about 94%, also speak English fluently.
Irish language: words of interest and other features
One of the most interesting features The way Irish speakers think is that they use an unusual base-20 number system. This means that for them the number 60 means three times 20. Another characteristic is that Irish does not have the pronoun "you", just as English does not have the pronoun "you". If a tourist visits Ireland for the first time, he should not be surprised if an Irishman, after the first acquaintance, begins to address him as “you”.
Irish thinking characteristics
What is even more unusual is that the language does not have the concepts of “yes” and “no”. For example, to the question: “Were you at home today?” - the Irishman will not answer affirmatively or negatively. He will say: “I was at home today.” Negation is conveyed using special forms of the verb. The order of words in a sentence is another feature that distinguishes this language. Irish is interesting because it uses reverse word order. In other words, the phrase “I went home” will sound like “I went home.”
Most peoples view the concept of time linearly, that is, they say: “The house was built three hundred years ago.” The Irish see the time axis a little differently. For them it flows as if from bottom to top. They will say the same phrase as follows: “The house was built three hundred years down.”
History of the language
The initial stage of the emergence of Irish dates back to the period from the 7th to the 10th centuries. At this time, the Old Irish language was born. It contains the epic works of the people of the emerald island. Old Irish is one of the oldest languages in all of Europe - second only to Ancient Greek and Latin.
This is followed by the period of the Middle Irish language - from the 10th to the 13th centuries. Then Old Irish, being a literary language, is also used in everyday speech. From the XIII to the XVII centuries. the classical form of Irish is formed. For two centuries, the Irish authorities pursued a policy of destroying the Irish language. It was prohibited not only in official use, but also in everyday communication. In 1798, a popular uprising was suppressed, after which the indigenous people emigrated en masse to other countries.
Attempts to exterminate the language
The paradox was that at the beginning of the 19th century there were a huge number of Irish people using their native language. Irish was the language of communication of peasants and workers - a total of about 5 million speakers. Although the language, like local Catholicism, was banned, almost all ordinary people used it in everyday communication.
The year 1831 was fatal for the Irish: this year Britain ordered that a single united state be established throughout Ireland. school system. Whereas previously the Irish language had been transmitted through illegal schools, now every child was required to attend an English school.
But an even greater disaster was the economic crisis that struck in 1845, which resulted in a terrible famine. About 1.5 million people died from it.
Irish for beginners: why and how to learn?
Many, inspired by reading the Irish epic, want to learn at least the basics of Irish. Many myths and prejudices exist about this mysterious and unusual language. Some believe it is a dying language. Irish, however, is not included in this group: it is a minor language, but not a dying one.
Then, for those who want to learn Irish, another question arises: “What practical use can it have, besides personal interest?” The fact is that this language is a whole collection of unusual grammatical and lexical phenomena. Therefore, anyone who is interested in linguistics and would like to expand their horizons can try to master the Irish language. The self-instruction manual in Russian, like the dictionaries, is a rather rare publication. However, you can find English-Irish and Irish-English dictionaries, as well as tutorials in English.
More reasons to learn Irish
Irish grammar presents a real challenge for linguistic enthusiasts. For example, the word "woman" will be used in various forms. The use of one or another option depends on the context and the adjacent pronoun - my, your or his woman is meant. When studying foreign language Usually difficulties arise with changing the ending of a word. But in Irish, not only the ending of a word changes, but also its beginning.
The motivation for learning Irish can also be its belonging to the western branch of the Indo-European language family. The Russian language belongs to the English group of Germanic languages. Slavic and belong to the northern branch. Therefore, we can judge that even the Russian language is closer to English than Irish.
Also, knowledge of the Irish language provides an opportunity to become familiar with the rich Irish folk art. Most of Irish folklore has never been translated into Russian. Many will also be interested in contemporary Irish prose.
You have decided to learn Irish, and congratulations! This selection is for you. A couple of tips for beginners:
- Unfortunately, most resources are only in English. But we also found a couple in Russian!
- In Irish the language is called Gaeilge. Then you will look for materials yourself - look not only for Irish, but also for Gaeilge.
PHONETICS
Textbooks for levels A1-A2
Thomas Ihde, Máire Ní Neachtain, Roslyn Blyn-LaDrew, John Gillen. Colloquial Irish. The complete course for beginners. The textbook is an older model, with features of a Western dialect. Dialogues, audio, exercises.
Diarmuid Ó Sé. Teach Yourself Irish. The textbook is from the famous Teach Yourself series, written with features of the southern and western dialects.
Textbooks for levels B1-B2
Éamonn Ó Dónaill. Gaeilge gan Stró! – Lower Intermediate Level. An excellent communication textbook, quite serious. In addition to everything good that was at the first level, excellent texts for reading and grammatical analysis were added.
Siuán Ní Mhaonaigh, Antain Mac Lochlainn. Speaking Irish. An Ghaeilge Bheo. Initially, this is a film that was made to show the beauty and diversity of dialects. Speakers from all over Ireland talk about a wide variety of topics. Then they cut audio from this film, wrote scripts and made assignments for them and analyzed some dialect features. This is how this tutorial came about.
GRAMMAR
Online
Pimsleur Irish. Course from the Pimsleur series, southern dialect.
Rosetta Stone Irish. Course from the Rosetta Stone series, southern dialect. There are also grammar exercises.
LEXICON
http://www.eabhloid.com/ another publishing house Éabhlóid
TESTS AND EXAMINATIONS
TEG is a certification exam for Irish language proficiency. There are exam type tasks for all levels.
http://www.gaelchultur.com/en/assessment.aspx – language proficiency test from the creators of Gaeilge gan St ro!
https://www.transparent.com/learn-irish/proficiency-test.html another language proficiency test
According to official figures from the Irish government for 2004, there are 1,570,894 people in the country who speak Irish. Of these, 339,541 use Irish in everyday communication, 155,039 use it once a week, 585,300 less often, 459,657 almost never, and 31,357 did not answer the question about the frequency of language use.The number of people who speak Irish to some degree is estimated at 167,487 in Northern Ireland and 25,870 in the USA.
The following periods are distinguished: history of the Irish language: "Primitive Irish" (before the 4th century AD); Ogham Irish (language of inscriptions, 5th-7th centuries); Archaic Irish (7th century, often included in the next period); Old Irish (VII-IX centuries); Middle Irish (900-1200); New Irish (from the 13th century to the present day; in this period the Early New Irish period is also distinguished, approximately 1200-1600). The most detailed information Treatment of drug addiction in Kyiv.
The first monuments of the Irish language date back to the 4th century AD. These are inscriptions written in a special Ogham script, apparently borrowed from continental Europe.
After the Christianization of Ireland by St. Patrick, borrowings from Latin penetrated into the Irish language (mainly through the British languages), and Latin writing based on minuscule began to be used (the so-called insular style). Not too many monuments have come down directly from the Old Irish period; these are mainly glosses to Latin texts, including those made by Irish monks in monasteries on the continent (in Würzburg, Milan, St. Gallen). Most Old Irish texts survive in manuscripts dating back to the Middle Irish period, which begins in the 11th century and is characterized, in particular, by the significant influence of Scandinavian languages. Thus, the declension system is significantly simplified, the verbal system is restructured, and inflected pronouns are lost. Around this time, the Scots language separated from Irish.
During the New Irish period, the area of distribution of the Irish language was reduced, but the system of bardic schools maintained the existence of an all-Irish standard. After the English conquest of Ireland, borrowings from English and Norman-French penetrated into the Irish language.
In the 19th century, the famine and subsequent emigration of the Irish, mainly from the villages, had a very negative impact on the Irish language. The number of native speakers fell sharply, which was also facilitated by the introduction of universal education in English. Since the second half of the 19th century, organizations have appeared with the goal of reviving the Irish language (for example, the Gaelic League of Douglas Hyde).
After the declaration of independence of Ireland, compulsory language teaching was introduced in all schools, Irish newspapers began to be published, and television and radio broadcasting appeared. However, the number of people speaking Irish as their first language was declining. They now mainly live in the Gaeltachts, rural areas in the west of the island.
Recently there has been an increase in interest in the Irish language, including in cities. On June 13, 2005, a decision was made to include Irish among the working languages of the European Union, which came into force on January 1, 2007.
On 31 March 2005, a law prohibiting the use of in English on maps, road signs and other official signs in the western regions of the country: Cork, Downegal, Galway, Kerry and Mayo, as well as on a number of islands. Under the new law, all civil servants are required to use Irish in business correspondence, and 2,300 settlements and regions of the country will lose their English names.
Since the 18th century we can talk about dividing the Irish language into 4 main dialects: southern (Munster), western (Connacht), northern (Ulster) and eastern (Leinster, extinct in the 20th century). Mutual understanding between some dialects is difficult. There is an official standard based mainly on the Connacht dialect, but there is also dialect literature.
Among the distinctive features of the Irish language are mutations of initial consonants, the word order "predicate-subject-object", the existence of 2 linking verbs, and conjugated prepositions.
Writing- Latin font with diacritics. Previously, a proprietary Gaelic script was used, dating back to the Insular style. Until the mid-20th century, books in the Irish language were published in it; now it is used for decorative purposes.
All necessary materials for learning the Irish language - reading rules, phrase books, textbooks, tutorials, grammar reference books, texts, forums - presented
Most of the resources are in English, so the selection will be useful for those who have decided to move on.
The number of languages you know is the number of times you are human.
Arab
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Arabic for Beginners 1
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Amharic
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Bulgarian
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Cambodian
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Catalan
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Chinese
Real Chinese
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Chinese Basic
langcen.cam.ac.uk A web application developed by the University of Cambridge's Linguistics Center for beginner Chinese learners. The app focuses on listening and reading and includes a variety of activities to help you practice speaking and writing Chinese.
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Chinese Course – Seton Hall
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Learn Chinese - Mandarin Chinese Lessons
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If you speak to a person in a language that he understands, you are speaking to his head. If you speak to a person in his native language, you speak to his heart.
Nelson Mandela
Czech
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FSI Czech FAST Сourse
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Danish
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Dutch
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Finnish
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Special Finnish
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French
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FSI Basic Course
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FSI Basic Course: Phonology
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FSI French Fast
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Learn French with Coffee Break French
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Learn French With Alexa
Funny and effective French lessons from French Ecole.
Le Journal en français facile
Nightly news from RFI in slow French that helps with listening comprehension.
Learn French by Podcast
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French in Action
Video lessons from Yale University are based on the story of an American student and a young French woman studying French in Paris.
Ma France
24 French video lessons from the BBC.
Talk in French
YouTube channel with short video tutorials on various topics. There's a playlist of words for beginners, entire phrases for those who want to work on their pronunciation, and some travel and cultural information.
Scottish (Gaelic, Gaelic)
Learn Gaelic
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One Minute Gaelic
10 audio lessons of the Scottish language.
German
Mission Berlin
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Basic German
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FSI German Basic Course
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Greek
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Classical Greek Online
10 Greek lessons from the UT-Austin Linguistic Research Center. Text materials only.
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Hebrew
HebrewPod 101
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FSI Hebrew Basic
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Elementary Hebrew
Audio and video lessons for beginners in iTunes.
Hindi
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11 podcasts for beginners.
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Hindi in Three Minutes
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Hungarian
FSI Hungarian Basic Course
Two books in PDF format and 24 audio lessons of the Hungarian language.
Let's Learn Hungarian
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Icelandic
Icelandic Online
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Indonesian
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Indonesian in Three Minutes
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Irish
One Minute Irish
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Bitesize Irish Gaelic Podcast
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Italian
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LearnItalianPod.com
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My Daily Phrase Italian
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Speak Italian with Your Mouth Full
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Japanese
FSI Japanese Headstart Course
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JapanesePod101.com
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Survival Phrases
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Let's Speak Japanese Basic
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Let's Learn Japanese Basic II
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Korean
FSI Korean Basic Course
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FSI Korean Headstart Course
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Korean Learning for Correction Pronunciation
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Online Intermediate College Korean
Online Korean course from the University of California. An indigenous language of New Zealand. The course includes video lessons - excerpts from the TV program.
Norwegian
FSI Norwegian Headstart Course
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Norwegian on the Web
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Polish
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Portuguese
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Ta Falado: Brazilian Portuguese Pronunciation for Spanish Speakers
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FSI Brazilian Portuguese Fast
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Romanian
FSI Romanian Grammar Course
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One Minute Romanian
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Spanish
5 Minute Spanish
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Swahili
FSI Swahili Basic Course
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Swedish
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Learn Swedish with SwedishLing
Vietnamese
FSI Vietnamese
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Survival Phrases
A collection of basic phrases necessary for a traveler in Vietnam.
Welsh
Say Something in Welsh
25 half-hour Welsh lessons.
This concludes our list of free resources.
Where do you learn the language? Share your favorite resources in the comments to the post.
Irish language(Gaeilge) is a Celtic language primarily spoken in Ireland (Éire). Irish speakers are also found in the UK (Ríocht Aontaithe), USA (Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá), Canada (Ceanada) and Australia (an Astráil). According to the 1996 census, 1.43 million people in Ireland claim to know Irish, of which 353,000 are regular speakers of the language. The majority of Irish speakers live in the Gaeltachtaí - areas that are located primarily along the west coast of Ireland and number 82,715 people, of whom 76.3% speak Irish.
Irish language names
The Irish language is known by the following names: Irish, Gaelic or Irish Gaelic. The official standard name in Irish is Gaeilge /’geɪlɪk/. Before the spelling reform of 1948, the written name was Gaedhilge (Middle Irish Gaoidhealg and Old Irish Goídelc).
Other regional variations of the name in modern dialects of Irish include: Gaedhilic, Gaeilic, Gaeiligor Gaedhlag in Ulster and northern Connacht, and Gaedhealaing, Gaoluinn or Gaelainn in Munster.
Related relationships with other languages
Irish belongs to the Goidelic group of Celtic languages, also known as Q-Celtic languages. This language is closely related to Manx (Gaelg/Gailck) and Scots (Gàidhlig), which also represent the Goidelic language group. There is a certain degree of mutual intelligibility between these languages, especially between the Scots language characteristic of Fr. Islay and the historical region of Argyll, Ulster Irish and Manx. The grammar and lexical composition of these languages are quite similar, but the spelling and pronunciation are different, especially the spelling of the Manx language.
Irish is distantly related to Welsh (Cymraeg), Cornish (Kernewek) and Breton (Brezhoneg), which form the Brythonic group of Celtic languages, also known as the "P-Celtic languages". All Celtic languages are similar in their grammatical structure, but share only a small part of the common vocabulary.
Using the example of the phrase “I live in Ireland” we can demonstrate some distinctive and similar features of the Celtic languages:
- Irish language – Tá mé i mo chónaí i nÉirinn
- Scots - Tha mi a’ fuireach ann an Éirinn
- Manx - Ta mee cummal ayns Nerin
- - Dw i'n byw yn Iwerddon
- Cornish language – Trigys ov yn Iwerdhon
- — E Iwerzhon emaon o chom
Dialects
There are three main dialects of the Irish language: Munster (An Mhumhain), Connacht (Connachta) and Ulster (Ulaidh). The Munster dialect is used primarily in County Kerry (Ciarraí) and the settlement of Muskerry (Múscraí) in western County Cork (Contae Chorcaí). The Connacht dialect is used mainly in the Connemara region (Conamara), the Aran Islands (Oileáin Árann) and the village of Tuar Mhic Éadaigh in County Mayo (Maigh Eo). The main region of use of the Ulster dialect is Rosses (na Rosa). The dialect used in the Irish village of Gaoth Dobhair is essentially the same as the Ulster dialect.
Official standard
Throughout the 1950-1960s. a standardized form of Irish was developed, known as An Caighdeán Oifigiúil (Official Standard). It combines elements of the three main dialects, and the Connacht dialect is taken as the basis for the phonetic transcription. This is the version of Irish taught in most schools.
Decline and rebirth
During the period of the XVII-XX centuries. Irish was gradually replaced by English in most of Ireland. Famine and emigration of the XIX-XX centuries. led to its further decline. However, with the advent of the Irish Republic in 1922, the Irish language received the status of an official language along with English, and the government and public services became, in theory and practice, officially bilingual. Irish equivalents were also adopted for the names of political figures and organizations, for example: Garda (police), Taoiseach (prime minister), Dail (parliament).
Recently, a revival of the Irish language has begun, which is based on the release of new printed publications, radio and television programs, as well as the development of education in the Irish language. In addition, the Irish language is increasingly used on independent radio stations in Ireland.
Origin of writing in Ireland
The Irish language first appeared in written form in Ogham inscriptions during the 4th-6th centuries. When Saint Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century, the Irish began to write in Latin, and at the same time Irish-language literature written in the Latin script began to appear. Viking raids in the 9th-10th centuries. led to the destruction of many manuscripts, so most of the manuscripts that have survived to this day were created in a later period.
The Ogham alphabet was used to write Old Irish, Old Welsh and Latin. Ogham inscriptions have been found in various parts Ireland and the British Isles.
Irish Uncial/Gaelic
The Irish uncial script originates from medieval manuscripts as a variation of the Latin alphabet. Until recently, the uncial was used in Irish printing. To this day, this variant of the letter can be found on road signs and signs throughout Ireland.
Modern Irish alphabet
Currently, Irish is written using a variant of the Latin alphabet, which is similar to the Scottish alphabet. However, spelling reforms in 1957 removed some unpronounceable letters that are still used in Scots today.
| A a | B b | C c | D d | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i |
| á | bé | cé | de | é | eif | gé | heis | í |
| L l | M m | Nn | O o | P p | R r | Ss | T t | U u |
| eil | eim | ein | ó | pe | ear | eas | té | ú |
The letters j (jé), k (ká), q (cú), v (vé), w (wae), x (ex), y (yé) and z (zae) are not used in Irish pronunciation words, but are found in some words borrowed from English, for example: jab (job) and veain (van).