"Gaeilge", the Irish language

Are you interested in Ireland? A bit of a hibernophile, maybe or just vaguely interested, even?

Ireland has so much to offer; nice people, a culture that includes everything from Riverdance to Guinness...

But, what about its language?

Well, the traditional language of the Irish is called "Gaeilge" [gwael-guh]. It is a language which is not very widely spoken now, but used to be spoken all over the island and in parts of Scotland too, which isn't too far away from Ireland, so I suppose it was easy for the language to travel.

There are still small Irish-speaking areas nowadays, especially in the west of Ireland and of course every Irish kid, in the Republic at least, has to learn Irish.

An Irish-speaking area is called a "Gaeltacht" [gwael-tocht] and the plural of this Irish word is "Gaeltachtaí" [gwael-tocht-ee]. The Gaeltacht is quite geographically dispersed and each region has its own dialect. These are currently Munster, Connacht and Ulster. Attempts have been made to standardise the Irish language, and "An Caighdeán Oifigiúil" [on kai-john iff-ee-gool], or "The Official Standard" was first produced by the Irish Government in 1958, in an attempt to bring some order to the language. The "Caighdeán" is a mishmash of the various dialects and despite what some native speakers will say, I think it was a fairly good compromise between them. Anyway, "An Caighdeán Oifigiúil" is under review now at the moment by a relevant Government department in order to iron out any disparities which may still exist in terms of grammar and so on. See http://www.pobail.ie/en/CentralTranslationUnit/ You'll get all the info there, if you're into that sort of thing.

How about a little "Gaeilge"? Want to learn a bit?

There are three ways to say "How are you?" in Irish, depending on the dialect you use.

I suppose the easiest one, for the learner, is Munster's "Conas atá tú?" [kun-ass uh-taw too]. You can try saying that. Move those lips and exercise your vocal cords, if it's safe to do so now. Go on, it won't hurt. Try to emphasise the first syllable in "Conas", which means "how". Do it.

Now, we move on to Connacht's "Cén chaoi 'na bhfuil tú?" [kane qwee nuh will too]. Say that too, you never know, you might find yourself speaking Irish in a Connacht Gaeltacht one day! So it's time to practise.

Finally, we have Ulster's "Cad é mar atá tú?" [cod-jay marr uh-tah too].

Try those, sound them out loud and see how you get on with them. You might like to try practising them every day, for a few minutes. You can read this page again and again, over and over. You can always come back. After all, if you want to learn, practice makes perfect, so do come back. Maybe leave a comment. You can learn here.

All these versions may seem confusing, but each phrase is not really that different once you get to know Irish more deeply, if you are planning on learning. (And if you're planning on learning, just do it.) Each phrase is simply using slightly different words to express the same concept, that's all. Pick the one you prefer and maybe click on some learning resources here below, if you want to and you're into it that is. I'm sure they'll help. With a little dedication, everything does, I think.

Poor old Leinster doesn't have its own version of "How are you?" because Irish there died out years ago. I wonder how they used to say it. Mmm, an interesting thing for me to find out! I wonder how I'll go about that, now? Maybe research is called for. I'll see, I might try and do a little.

Another thing, wanna know how to say "thank you", in case you get served a nice tea or an excellent cup of coffee or whichever lovely beverage or meal you're into and want to thank the nice person who served you? Well, if you want to know, it's "go raibh maith agat" [guh ruh maw ah-gut], go raibh maith agat. Try saying that at bus stops and in random places too. You never know what might happen.

And if you should meet the boy or girl of your dreams, at a bus stop or in a random place, and you want to say "I love you", or if you want to say "I love you" to someone you already know intimately, it's "tá mé i ngrá leat" [taw may inn-raw lat] in Irish, I love you.