Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A history of Ireland in 100 goodbyes

irishtimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–35 of 35 posts

Re: A history of Ireland in 100 goodbyes

#31

Post by rbanffy »

fullspectrumdev wrote: post #30
rbanffy wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gather they won their independence in no small part due to infuriating the invaders with phoneticisation. I live in Ireland and was onde fluent in Hungarian. I laugh at anyone who says Hungarian is the hardest language to learn. They obviously never saw Irish.

Part of the issue is that Irish is - in a large way - a reconstructed language. It was almost wiped out, and then basically rebuilt from a bunch of isolated regional dialects and extremely limited source material. A lot of Irish speaking communities historically had a largely oral tradition. A LOT of mistakes (or weird choices) were made in the standardisation of the “new Irish” back in the day, which have been made…

It was THREE YEARS before I figured out “Luas” was not only a pronounceable acronym, but it meant “quick” or something like it.

But yes. Listening to Radio Na Life (best radio in Dublin, and pretty much best radio I ever listened to) it doesn’t sound effortless to speak. And I completely agree the way to inject life in the language is via the Gaelscoil system.

Also, much like Hungarian, an excellent language to keep secrets.

Re: A history of Ireland in 100 goodbyes

#32

Post by chris_j »

lettergram wrote: post #18
rbanffy wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gather they won their independence in no small part due to infuriating the invaders with phoneticisation. I live in Ireland and was onde fluent in Hungarian. I laugh at anyone who says Hungarian is the hardest language to learn. They obviously never saw Irish.

My wife and I spent a few years practicing Irish. Enough we could have small talk in it and when we traveled to Ireland we could read all the signs and understand when people spoke it. I look at welsh and still go wtf lol I find Irish easier when you put on the accent tbh. Makes much more sense when you read / speak it like that

> I look at welsh and still go wtf lol

Ironically, Welsh is a much simpler language than Irish, and easier to learn for an English speaker. Almost completely regular orthography, much simpler grammar (with no grammatical cases). But, simple or not, the grammar and orthography are very different to English.

Do you mind if I ask how you learned Irish? It's a language that I would like to learn a little of at some point, but so far I've been too daunted to attempt it.

Re: A history of Ireland in 100 goodbyes

#33

Post by dghughes »

dmurray wrote: post #26
dghughes wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to learn it and basically it helps if you at least know the sounds of H letters/consonants which throw off English speakers. mh or bh = V, ch = sloppy och "loch" (means lake) rhymes with Bach, dh and gh = guttural G, fh = silent.

Good start but mh and bh can also be W, dh and gh can also be Y or silent. I'd add: ph = F, sh = H, th = H or silent.

Yeah dialects throw a monkey wrench into it I think some bh can be V or W. Maybe concentrating on a specific dialect may help with learning. Maybe that was my problem if I though it was W and then V and then W again.

Re: A history of Ireland in 100 goodbyes

#34

Post by lelima »

mobilene wrote: post #19

I married into a large Irish family and goodbyes take bloody forever as everyone has to have a ten-minute conversation with everybody else on their way out the door. Irish ghosting goodbye my eye.

That's with family, with the lads/co-workers the Irish goodbye it's not saying anything and leave.

Re: A history of Ireland in 100 goodbyes

#35

Post by username135 »

chris_j wrote: post #32
lettergram wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I spent a few years practicing Irish. Enough we could have small talk in it and when we traveled to Ireland we could read all the signs and understand when people spoke it. I look at welsh and still go wtf lol I find Irish easier when you put on the accent tbh. Makes much more sense when you read / speak it like that

> I look at welsh and still go wtf lol Ironically, Welsh is a much simpler language than Irish, and easier to learn for an English speaker. Almost completely regular orthography, much simpler grammar (with no grammatical cases). But, simple or not, the grammar and orthography are very different to English. Do you mind if I ask how you learned Irish? It's a language that I would like to learn a little of at some point…

Late to the party but Duolingo is pretty good.
Post reply on HN