Irish dialects

In this post, I’m going to talk about the different dialects which exist in Ireland. This is a very interesting topic because, as we all know, the national language in Ireland is Gaelic, although both English and Gaelic, are the official languages in the country nowadays. Irish Gaelic is spoken by over ten thousand people in Gaeltacht which consider it their mother tongue. There are close to a hundred thousand who speak it fluently. It is the first official language in the Republic of Ireland and also an official language in the European Union.

We have to admit that Gaelic is a very complex language, spoken mainly in the area of Gaeltacht. And to complicate matters, Ireland has three different dialects which are: Ulster in the north, Connacht in the centre region and Munster in  the south. Connacht is the most difficult to understand of the three because of its strong pronunciation. 

Taking into account that there are big differences between each dialect in terms of vocabulary, pronunciation, words, etc, I will now mention some important features of these dialects to help us differentiate them.

 Munster Irish, the most archaic of all three, is mainly spoken in the Gaeltacht areas of Kerry and Muskerry, Cape Clear Island in the western part of County Cork and in An Rinn in County Waterford. Some typical aspects of this peculiar dialect is that:

-The Munster pronuntiation of the final -igh or -idh is -ig.

-In front of “ll” and nasals, some short vowels become longer and others are diphthongized.

-The particle “ea”, which serves to unify the subject and predicate, is frequently used.

-The eclipsis of nouns after a simple preposition + article. This eclipsis also affects d and t: 
 Munster: ag an ndoras instead of ag an doras= "at the door". 

Connacht Irish in the centre of Ireland, is mostly spoken in the Aran Islands and in Connemara. This last one is known as Connacht Irish. This dialect mostly shows an initial accent and it is the least archaic. There’s a sub dialect which is spoken in the  smaller region on the border of Galway and Mayo (Tuar Mhic Eadaigh, Eachleim, etc.)        

Some aspects are:

-The intervocalic h (ortography: -th-) tends to dissapear: bó'r= bother= "road".

-Connacht dialects show a particular form of verb used in direct relative clauses, ending in -s. This is used in the present and future tenses. 

-The initial variations are very similar to the ones of standard Irish, but sa (= "anns an" of Scottish Gaelic) does not lenite - it eclipses: sa mbaile instead of sa bhaile= "at home".

And lastly, the main area where the Ulster dialect is spoken is the Rosses and Donegal.

-Ulster shows a preference for compound prepositions: ionsar, "towards" instead of "chuig", ar son, "for" instead of "as" in "díol ar son ruda" = "pay for something" instead of "íoc as rud".

-The verbal conjugations in Ulster are more complicated than anywhere else. For example, most strong verbs still have a distinction between absolute and dependent forms in the present: tchí, "sees" - chan fheiceann, "doesn't see". Also, the verbs tabhair! and tar! use the present verbal particles even in the past tense: cha dtáinig, go dtáinig (standard: níor tháinig, gur tháinig); cha dtug, go dtug (standard: níor thug, gur thug).

-One notable feature feature of Ulster Irish is the use of the negative particle cha(n), whereas in Munster and in Connacht they say ni.

-The short clear o and a tend to be confused. 

-The combination simple preposition + article aspirates: ag an fhear instead of ag an bhfear= "by the man".

As you can see the differences are very complex and there has been a lot of discussion as to what standard Irish is. A good example is the greeting "how are you?". This greeting varies among Irish speakers just as it does between regions and social classes of English speakers:

• Ulster: Cad é mar atá tú? ("What is it as you are?")
• Connacht: Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? ("What way [is it] that you are?")
• Munster: Conas taoi? or Conas tánn tú? ("How are you?")