learning gaelic

[styphonthal]

I want to start learning Gaelic with my son, who is 8. I prefer to use books, workbooks, and computer applications as opposed to websites. I have not been very successful in my search for these. Any recommendations?

[javankrona]

Funny thing, that. I've just begun the journey down that road myself. I have two books on order, but cannot give a recommendation on either as I've not yet received them, nor begun using them ... where the hell is that drone delivery service ...

In the meanwhile I have turned to video instruction using the YouTube, BBC Alba, Speaking Our Language lessons. There is also a website I'm using in conjunction with the BBC Alba series that breaks the video into bite sized chunks for rapid repetition and review ... kind of how I used the pimsleur series for other languages.

Books I'm starting with:

1) Scottish Gaelic in 12 Weeks, Roibeard Ò Maolalaigh
2) Gaelic Verbs, Colin Mark

The website I'm using in conjunction with the BBC Alba series is:
http://www.learngaelic.net/sol/episodes/1-18.jsp

Sláinte

[neloon]

javankrona,
Your link is missing a "p" at the end - should be
http://learngaelic.net/sol/episodes/1-18.jsp

I don't know either of the books. You have set yourself quite a challenge. One problem is that spoken Gaelic is very idiomatic and varies from place to place especially as regards colloquial usage and accent. The BBC course is a good middle-of-the-road place to start but I'm afraid you really need to be in close contact with a native speaker to achieve success.

Ailean

[javankrona]

Thank you, neloon

My heritage is from Argyll. Some of the Canadian census records denote (Gael) parenthetically with the native country being Scotland. I would assume they would have spoken the Dalriada dialect. But being that Scotland has lost so many native speakers, I thought that a middle of the road background would be a good path to begin upon. It is my understanding that the scots and Irish can communicate in Gaelic without much difficulty, so Scot to Scot shouldn't be too bad ... even if one of the scots is American ")

[O'Callaghan]

I can't really speak either, but, for example, Irish = Gaelige (with the terminal e voiced), whereas Scots Gaelic = Gaelidh (with the dh pronounced like th). So, even if they can largely understand eachother, some of the differences are apparently fairly basic.

[Profane James]

The LearnGaelic website is very useful, LOTs of lessons...
Here's my pile:


I would recommend the 'colloquial Scottish Gaelic' due to the great website with corresponding audio files for the lessons...

[neloon]

I can't really speak either, but, for example, Irish = Gaelige (with the terminal e voiced), whereas Scots Gaelic = Gaelidh (with the dh pronounced like th). So, even if they can largely understand eachother, some of the differences are apparently fairly basic.

Sorry, but Scots Gaelic is "Gàidhlig" in Scots Gaelic - pronounced Gaallik .

Ailean

[jthk]

Thank you, neloon

My heritage is from Argyll. Some of the Canadian census records denote (Gael) parenthetically with the native country being Scotland. I would assume they would have spoken the Dalriada dialect. But being that Scotland has lost so many native speakers, I thought that a middle of the road background would be a good path to begin upon. It is my understanding that the scots and Irish can communicate in Gaelic without much difficulty, so Scot to Scot shouldn't be too bad ... even if one of the scots is American ")

First of all, I would like to offer encouragement and support in your journey! Do it! Now, based on the conversation, I'm assuming you mean you'd like to learn Scottish Gaelic ... of which I have none. But I am a fluent Irish Gaelic speaker and yes, I can communicate with Scottish Gaelic speakers but it's touch and go at best -- for me. I speak Donegal Irish (Ulster) and our spelling is similar to some of Gaelic spelling but with regards to pronunciation, I'd say Gaelic speakers are a bit more similar to Munster Irish speakers.

Anyway, both Scottish and Irish Gaelic are lovely languages and I heartily congratulate you and offer support.

Best,
Jonathan

[jthk]

I can't really speak either, but, for example, Irish = Gaelige (with the terminal e voiced), whereas Scots Gaelic = Gaelidh (with the dh pronounced like th). So, even if they can largely understand eachother, some of the differences are apparently fairly basic.

The Irish word for their native language (Gaeilge) varies between regions. The Munster folks say, Gaelainn and the Donegal folks often say "Gaeilic" but Connacht may say Gaeil-ige. Anyway. Lovely stuff all around.

Jonathan

[OC Richard]

I was lucky in that the University I attended offered a course in Scots Gaelic.

Not that one can attain any semblance of fluency from such, but it served as a great introduction.

We used Speaking Our Language.

Our teacher wasn't a Native Speaker. He was a Welsh speaker who subsequently learned both Irish and Scots Gaelic. He evidently was fluent enough- many's the time I heard him conversing with Native Gaelic Speakers.

In any case it seems to me that given enough hard work and motivation one can become pretty good.

Case in point was the enthusiastic young man who came to me for uilleann pipe lessons. While he was doing that he was Skyping regularly with a Native Irish Speaker in Connemara. As soon as he finished school here he moved to Ireland, to the Gaeltacht, and AFAIK has been there ever since. According to his Skype teacher he was fluent when he arrived.

Yes both Irish and Scots Gaelic are plagued (if that's the right word) with numerous dialects, and hard (arbitrary?) choices have to be made as to which dialect will be taught.

English certainly suffers from this. I've known a number of foreigners who learned British English back home, moved here to the USA, and often found themselves having a hard time understanding what we were saying.