The Irish National Anthem

Dia duit to everyone!

     Today I want to show you a piece of music really significant for the Irish: the National Anthem, or as we would say in Irish: an Amhrán Náisiúnta. 

     The first Irish Anthem was called God Save Ireland, the Fenian anthem. But it was replaced later on, in 1907, when Peadar Karney and Patrick Heeney composed 'Amhrán na bhFiann' (The Soldier's Song), although it was not published until 1912 in the newspaper 'Irish Freedom'. And still, it did not become popular until it was sung during the Easter Rising of 1916. Something curious about the anthem is that a part of it is also used for the Presidential Salute.

     I leave you the lyrics for the second one here, both in irish and translated into english. I hope you enjoy the videos, bain sult as!

Amhrán na bhFiann

The Soldier’s Song

Seo dhibh a cháirde duan Óglaigh, Cathréimeach briomhar ceolmhar, Ár dtinte cnámh go buacach táid, 'S an spéir go min réaltogach Is fonnmhar faobhrach sinn chun gleo 'S go tiúnmhar glé roimh thíocht do'n ló Fé chiúnas chaomh na hoiche ar seol: Seo libh canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann. Sinne Fianna Fáil A tá fé gheall ag Éirinn, buion dár slua Thar toinn do ráinig chugainn, Fé mhóid bheith saor. Sean tír ár sinsir feasta Ní fhagfar fé'n tiorán ná fé'n tráil Anocht a théam sa bhearna bhaoil, Le gean ar Ghaeil chun báis nó saoil Le guna screach fé lámhach na bpiléar Seo libh canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann. Cois bánta réidhe, ar árdaibh sléibhe, Ba bhuachach ár sinsir romhainn, Ag lámhach go tréan fé'n sár-bhrat séin Tá thuas sa ghaoith go seolta Ba dhúchas riamh d'ár gcine cháidh Gan iompáil siar ó imirt áir, 'S ag siúl mar iad i gcoinne námhad Seo libh, canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann. Sinne Fianna Fáil A tá fé gheall ag Éirinn, buion dár slua Thar toinn do ráinig chugainn, Fé mhóid bheith saor. Sean tír ár sinsir feasta Ní fhagfar fé'n tiorán ná fé'n tráil Anocht a théam sa bhearna bhaoil, Le gean ar Ghaeil chun báis nó saoil Le guna screach fé lámhach na bpiléar Seo libh canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann. A bhuíon nách fann d'fhuil Ghaeil is Gall, Sin breacadh lae na saoirse, Ta scéimhle 's scanradh i gcroíthe namhad, Roimh ranna laochra ár dtire. Ár dtinte is tréith gan spréach anois, Sin luisne ghlé san spéir anoir, 'S an bíobha i raon na bpiléar agaibh: Seo libh, canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann. Sinne Fianna Fáil A tá fé gheall ag Éirinn, buion dár slua Thar toinn do ráinig chugainn, Fé mhóid bheith saor. Sean tír ár sinsir feasta Ní fhagfar fé'n tiorán ná fé'n tráil Anocht a théam sa bhearna bhaoil, Le gean ar Ghaeil chun báis nó saoil Le guna screach fé lámhach na bpiléar Seo libh canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann.

We'll sing a song, a soldier's song, With cheering rousing chorus, As round our blazing fires we throng, The starry heavens o'er us; Impatient for the coming fight, And as we wait the morning's light, Here in the silence of the night, We'll chant a soldier's song. Soldiers are we whose lives are pledged to Ireland; Some have come from a land beyond the wave. Sworn to be free, No more our ancient sire land Shall shelter the despot or the slave. Tonight we man the gap of danger In Erin's cause, come woe or weal 'Mid cannons' roar and rifles peal, We'll chant a soldier's song. In valley green, on towering crag, Our fathers fought before us, And conquered 'neath the same old flag That's proudly floating o'er us. We're children of a fighting race, That never yet has known disgrace, And as we march, the foe to face, We'll chant a soldier's song. Soldiers are we whose lives are pledged to Ireland; Some have come from a land beyond the wave. Sworn to be free, No more our ancient sire land Shall shelter the despot or the slave. Tonight we man the gap of danger In Erin's cause, come woe or weal 'Mid cannons' roar and rifles peal, We'll chant a soldier's song. Sons of the Gael! Men of the Pale! The long watched day is breaking; The serried ranks of Inisfail Shall set the Tyrant quaking. Our camp fires now are burning low; See in the east a silv'ry glow, Out yonder waits the Saxon foe, So chant a soldier's song. Soldiers are we whose lives are pledged to Ireland; Some have come from a land beyond the wave. Sworn to be free, No more our ancient sire land Shall shelter the despot or the slave. Tonight we man the gap of danger In Erin's cause, come woe or weal 'Mid cannons' roar and rifles peal, We'll chant a soldier's song.

  

Sources:

http://www.irishroots.org/aoh/anthem.htm

Lets test your Irish skills!

Find out in a more entertaining way if you are really Irish or not with this test:
  

What's the craic?

What’s the time? How is the weather? How are you?

Slán Hello! Goodbye! Good morning!

Dia duit Hello! Have a nice day! Good night!

Le do thoil Your welcome Please Thanks

Go n-eírí leat Good luck Good evening See you soon

Táim go maith I’m cold To the country I’m fine

Buíochas Thanks! I’m hungry! It’s cold!


Sources: An Irishman (Austin Durack) and an Irish girl (Laura Biggins)

Typical Irish expressions or as the Irish would say…seanfhoical!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am going to talk about some typical Irish expressions, with the help of the Irish composer, Austin Durack. I think this may be something interesting to know and I hope you all enjoy it!

Here are a few examples:

Weather

Ireland is known for its irregular weather and because of that there are plenty of sayings:

-Hardy! (It’s cold) It’s lashin’/It’s raining cats and dogs (it’s raining heavily)

-It’s bucketing down! (It’s raining hard or a lot)

-The sun is splittin’ the stones! (it’s very hot)

Sayings

-Mura gcuirfidh tú san earrach ní bhainfidh tú san fhómhar (If you don’t sow in the spring, you’ll never reap in the autumn).

-A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush ( Be happy with what you have and don’t be greedy)

-You can´t kill a bad thing (Bad things are always around you)

- “Can you sing?”; “No, I’m a crow” (I´m a horrible singer)

-Éirinn go Brách! (Ireland forever)

-Mol an óige, agus tiocfaidh se (Praise the youth and they will blossom)

-Cuir síoda ar ghabhar i gcónaí é (Put silk on a goat and it will still be a goat)

Toasts

-Nollaig shona duit! (Merry Christmas)

-Beannachtam na Feile Padraig! (Happy St. Patrick Day)

-Sláinte! (Cheers)

-La breithe sona duit! (Happy birthday)

-Athbhlain faoi mhaise duit! (Happy New Years)

-Go dtabharfadh gach phiotal ar an tseamróg dea-dhúil chughat, dea-sláinte, da buíochas agus sonas. I gcomhair inniu agus gach lá eile. (For each petal on the shamrock, this brings to wish you good health, good luck and happiness for today and everyday)

Curses

As we all know, the Irish are very superstitious and they have many sayings such as:

 -Go n-ithe an cat thú, is go n-ithe an diabhal an cat (May the cat eat the devil and the devil eat the cat)

-Go mbeire an diabhal leis thú! (May the devil take you with him)

-Nach mbuailfeadh naimdhe na h-Éirann le aon chara riamh (May the enemies of Ireland never meet a friend)

CURIOSITY:

There are other sayings used by Americans (in movies, books, plays, etc) to portray Irish people which they don’t like. Maybe they were used a long time ago, but the Irish certainly don’t speak like that anymore. They are normally used with an artificial Irish accent and make them look silly.

Here are some examples:

-Top ‘o the mornin’  to ya! (Good morning to you)

-Be Gorrah (By God)

-May the road rise under you! (Have a good trip, or as the Irish would say: Go neírí leat)

I hope you’ve all learned a little bit more about Ireland. To conclude, I will like to leave you a link so you can all listen to my friend Austin´s music. Bain sult as!
http://www.austin-durack.com/

Sources: an Irishman

The survival of Gaelic

      Gaelic  is the main language of 3% of the population of Ireland. Such information was showed in last year’s census which showed that 4, 581,269 Irish have a full knowledge of Gaelic.

      In the year 2001, there was a census in Northern Ireland which showed that around 10.4% of the population had some knowledge of Gaelic. This means that only one in three people in Ireland can understand the language to some extent. On the other hand, there are areas in which Gaelic still remains as a vernacular (local speech) where there are between 40,000 and 80,000 fully native speakers; this areas are referred to as the Gaeltacht areas. The areas in which English is the main language are referred to as "Galltacht".

      Unfortunately, though there are some attempts to preserve Gaelic as a language,  the number of Gaelic speakers is decreasing little by little. This may be the consequence, among other reasons,  of the migration from the rural areas to the big cities, where English is mostly Spoken as an international language in business, or the powerful influence of new technologies such as Internet or North American films and shows in television.

      A friend of mine who is doing her apprenticeship in a school in Galway has told me that, although children study Gaelic at primary school and high-school, they don’t actually dominate the language. Gaelic is, in fact, the subject with higher rates of failure. This is because out of the classrooms they don’t actually speak Gaelic with anybody else and when they finish their studies they forget the little Gaelic they have learned.

      Still in all, Gaelic is the first official language in Ireland along with English; In 2003 there was the Official Languages Act by which, officially, all legal documents passed by the government should be written both in Gaelic and English, or Gaelic alone, giving Gaelic an equal status and power. But from what I have been reading in internet forums this is not always the case, and many legal documents are only passed in English.

      Irish people want Gaelic to be recognized as the official language as it is, and they want to ensure that the government upholds the Official Languages Act to guarantee the survival of Gaelic. Also, they don’t want English to be an imposed language because it would give a negative connotation to English to those native speakers of Gaelic who don’t want their language to become extinct because of the imposition of another language.

      Language diversity is one of the richest elements that a country and its culture can have, and so I believe it is very important for Irish people to fight for the survival of their traditional language. I think that new technologies can be used in a positive way to increase the number of speakers of those languages which are in danger of extinction such as Gaelic. There are a lot of self-studying Gaelic web pages and dictionaries in the net for those who are interested in learning the language, and blogs like this one can make people all over the world know more about different countries like Ireland, the beauty of its landscapes and the importance of preserving the Gaelic language.

Irish Accent

Ireland has two official languages, Irish and English. We have already told you that Irish (Gaelic) is compulsory in schools but is a limited part of the country which has this as the main language, in fact most of the population speaks English. That's the reason why we are going to see some peculiarities of the Irish accent.

According to some sources there are more than just a single English accent in this country. They have South-Western accents, Northern accents and the accents typical of the East Coast of Ireland. In this case we are going to have a look at the main one, the East Coast Irish English, from Dublin and we will make some comparisons with the other accents.

Rhotic
Okay, the first we should know is that the Irish accent is said to be rhotic and... What the hell does it mean?

It means that the /r/ will be pronounced in words like "water", while the British accent will omit it, anyway in some very working class variants we can find this lack of the /r/ preceded by a vowel but it is not usual in everyday life in Ireland.

Diphthongs
Another feature to consider is the change in diphthongs. They are pronounced as similar to most American and British accents. However, in the rest of Ireland diphthongs usually become monophthongs. Let's see the changes:

• /eɪ/ tends to sound more like /e:/, for example, the word "face" sounds like "fe:s". Some authors say that it comes to sound like /i:/, for example in "name" we find the sound "ni:m".

• /aɪ/ usually sounds like /ɔɪ/, for instance, "like" can sound a bit like “lɔɪk”. There is also another point of view in which the diphthong sounds like /a/, for example in "time" we would hear something like "tam".

• /aʊ/ sounds more like /eʊ/, for example, "mouth" can sound like “meooth” Referring to the South-Western accent "about" would sound more like /ɔʊ/, like “a boat”.

Changes
The third special feature of the Irish accent is the change of fricatives by plosives.

      - Every time we find a word with the sound /θ/, like "think", "thanks", "thumb", it becomes /t/, for example in this sentence: He is a thin person  /hiz ə 'tɪn 'pɜ:sən/  
     - The same happens with the sound /ð/, words like "this", "the", "breathe" are pronounced with a /d/ sound. Have a look at this sentence: Go to that street   /'gəʊ tə 'dæt 'stri:t/

Finally, here is a video in which, if you still don't get an idea, you'll be able to listen to these special features. I hope you like it, as I do. 

I went through a lot of websites in which the information was not so clear but I've tried to explain it the most clear way possible for you to learn. I hope it was worth it, I'll be back soon with more stuff. See you.

Sources:

http://html.rincondelvago.com/irish-accent.html

http://dialectblog.com/irish-accents-dialects/

Let's play!

Currently I was looking for some information for my next blogpost when I found this amazing website where you can have fun while learning some useful Gaelic vocabulary.  I couldn't just skip it and go on with the search, I thought I had to give you the link. Have a look at this site, I'm sure you'll like it. 

http://www.digitaldialects.com/Irish.htm

Soon to come

In my next post I will introduce you to an Irish singer named Austin Durack. He’s going to share some typical Irish sayings and their meanings with us. Who more than a native Irishman will know so much about this theme?

Besides the expressions I will also be sharing a link where you can hear some of his music.

Stay tuned and Slán leat!

Bases of the Gaelic Phonology

As you have learned with my fellows' posts, the Irish Gaelic is a Celtic language, has nothing to do with English, so words and pronunciations are completely different. We also know that there are some particular dialects and by consequence particular pronunciations.

Well, in this post we will have a look to the bases of pronunciation, just a brief introduction to phonology. In terms of phonology, the first thing you have to know is that in Gaelic, you will find  just 18 consonant sounds (phonemes), these are: /b/ /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /tʃ/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /dʒ/ /v/. When learning Gaelic it is also helpful to distinguish 10 vowel sounds, five long vowels and five short ones.

Long vowels                                                            Short vowels

í: /i:/ For example: sí (She).                                      i: /ɪ/ For example: sin (This).

é: /eɪ/ For example: mé (Me).                                   e: /e/ For example: te (Hot).

á: /oʊ/ For example: lá (Day).                                  a: /ʌ/  For example: cat (Cat).

ó : /ɔ:/ For example: bó (Cow).                                o:  /ʊ/ For example: donn (Brown).

ú : /u:/ For example: tú (You).                                  u:  /u/ For example: bus (autobús).

Dipthongs

Pronounced as short vowels           

ai, ea: /a/                                ei: /e/               ui, io: /ɪ/

Pronounced as long vowels

aí, oí, uí, uío, ío, ao, aoi: /i:/  oi: /ɜ:/              eo, eoi, eó: /ɔ:/           úi, iúi: /u:/

Pronounced as dipthongs

iai: /ɪə/                                    uai: /ʊə/          eá, eái, ái: /oʊ/           ae, éa, éi, aei: /eɪ/

Gaelic speakers also have the so called non-written vowels which are pronounced between some consonants although they are not written. This happens between  r, l, n  and m, b, bh, g, where it is necessary to pronounce a /ə/.

Now, let see the consonants. Consonants are different when they come to be analyzed as phonetic elements, so that we will find a particular pronunciation for a single consonant depending on the vowel that follows it. For instance, consonant "t", followed by "a", will sound  /t/ and when followed by "e" it will sound /tʃ/; that is how they work. Here is the whole list of consonants and their pronunciations.

T: ta, to, tu sound  /t/, while te, ti sound /tʃ/.

D: da, do, du  sound /d/, while de, di sound /ʒ/.

L: la, lo, lu sound  /l/, while le, li sound  /dʒ/.

N: na, no, nu sound /n/, while ne, ni (In this case the pronunciation is not clear but seems to be like the Spanish /ñ/).

S: sa, so, su sound /s/, while se, si sound /ʃ/.

R: ra, ro, ru sound /r/ (strong "r" in this case), while re, ri sound /d/ (soft, like an Spanish simple "r").

C: always sounds /k/.

Ph: always sounds /f/.

Fh: is mute.

Th: always sounds /h/.

Ch: cha, cho, chu sound /k/, while che, chi sound /h/.

Bh/mh: sound /v/, but in the middle of a word, bha, bho, bhu sound /oʊ/.

Gh: gha, gho, ghu sound /g/, while ghe, ghi sound /ʒ/.

Dh: dha, dho, dhu  sound /g/, while dhe, dhi sound /ʒ/. In the middle of a word they always sound /ʒ/.

As you will have observed, the sound switches every time we find an "e" or "i" after the consonant we refer to.

These are the basic issues every learner of Irish Gaelic has to deal with for the first time. Nevertheless we must keep in mind that this is an standard, and depending on the region words will be pronounced in a different way. 

I hope you all have learned a little bit and have enjoyed this post.

Sources:

http://www.ehowenespanol.com/hablar-gaelico-irlandes-como_133865/

http://innisfree1916.wordpress.com/curso-de-irlandes/

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?")