Our inability to rely on sounding out words is causing a lot of consternation among my Irish language classmates. Take the phrase “Go raibh maith agat” or “may you have goodness,” meaning thank you.
Go on, take a guess at how it is said. You’re wrong. Perhaps spelling out a pronunciation is useless with knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), but the scribbled notes in my Irish textbook reads something like “gurrav mahagut”.
Intimidating as this may sound, I cannot help but be thrilled when I find myself reciting back basic phrases three times a week in this “Introduction to Modern Irish” course (or module, as they’re called here). Though Irish is not so helpful in my day to day navigation of Cork, it has been a conversation starter (though not in the way you would think!).
Also, it’s quite rich of a native speaker of English to complain about nonsensical pronunciations, as any English learner can tell you. Ten weeks in “Introduction to Modern Irish” does not prepare us to do much more than say our names and recognize the phrases on a few road signs and touristy t-shirts. However, already the value of this brief exposure is apparent. Especially since taking the class not for credit eases my anxiety about learning to pronounce “buíochas” and “ceathair.”
History and Cultural Context
- Irish may be an official language of the Republic of Ireland (and a recognized minority language in the United Kingdom), but this one language has four fairly disparate dialects. Even in the modern era, the divergence between these dialects reflects the historical provinces (Leinster, Munster, Connact, and Ulster), which divided the island beginning during the reign of James I in the 17th century
- Irish is thought to have the oldest vernacular literature in Europe. I was delighted to learn from my art history lecture that one the more famous artifacts of Old Irish is Pangur Bán, a poem by a monk about his pet cat.
- The Irish language is also a critical aspect of understanding 19th century Irish Nationalist and the development of a distinct Irish identity.
- The Irish language teachers inadvertently communicate some aspects of Irish culture through what they prioritize teaching us. Immediately after we got to the point of holding a basic conversation consisting of “hello,” “what is your name,” “how are you,” and “goodbye,” weather was the next topic. Before counting, food, or any number of other topics. Even in English, it’s become apparent that commenting and complaining about the weather is somewhat of a national sport. As it was described to me, seasons in Cork are just “different temperatures of rain.”
Novelty
- Irish offers an interesting challenge, not least because it bears little resemblance to the two other languages I have studied, French and Mandarin Chinese. There is not much similarity to English either…However, prior exposure to French was helpful in a few ways. For instance, the similarities between elision in French and Irish lenition, both ways of blending sounds between words.
- Still, previous experience only goes so far. As someone who never took German, Latin, or Russian, cases are still a strange concept to me as French thankfully dropped declension a few centuries ago.
- Generally, Irish people around me have reacted with a sense of shock that I’m “doing this to myself” when I disclose that Irish is one my classes for the semester. The main benefit has been indirectly learning about the Irish school system. The very mention of these classes causes students my age to burst out complaining about their high school days.
Names
- This class has equipped me to make more respectful attempts at the pronunciation of traditional Irish names. This extends beyond the familiarity with names that are known well enough in the US such as Seán, Siobhan, Cillian, Ciaran, Padraig, and Seamus. More recently, Saoirse Ronan’s popularity has made the proper pronunciation of her name commonly known. However, I have since come to learn that Caoimhe (pronounced “queeva”) is as equally common as Katie.
- No one has ever said “top of the morning” here, except to mock Americans. Similarly, as common as the name Erin has become, it’s far more rare here on the island where it originated. If nothing else because it’s actually a variation of Éireann, the native name for Ireland. You don’t meet too many people named America either, right…
- When you think of the Emerald Island, the city and town names that may come to mind are often distortions of their original names. So much information is embedded in the original Irish terms. For instance, the name of this city “Cork” does not make much sense since there is no apparent connection to wine bottles or cork trees. In reality the name Corcaigh comes from “corchach,” and means “a marshy place”.
Looking forward, I plan to seek out an opportunity to my limited vocabulary into action. Ireland is home to a few regions known as Gaeltacht, where Irish is “the main spoken language of a substantial number of the local population.” University College Cork has cultivated relationships with such regions in Counties Cork and Waterford. By the end of my semester here, maybe I will feel empowered to buy one of the cheesy “Super Irish-Speaker” shirts that are present in most souvenir shops.
For those whose interest is piqued by this article, this overview video of Irish pronunciation by notable polyglot Benny Lewis started me off on the right foot. I have learned since arriving in Ireland, that Duolingo has an Irish course.
Slán go fóill! Tabhair aire!
Goodbye for a while. Take care!
