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Gleanndún

Would any native speaker (preferrably munster irish) with a mic be willing to give me blás? I want my accent to be beautiful like a native speaker's, but there aren't any here for me to listen to, so I'm somewhat floating around lost unsure of how to pronounce things má's é do thoil é!

Walter Ego

Use your own accent. There is nothing as sweet as hearing an obviously non-Gaelteacht blás. It shows the language lives outside the ghetto / reservation.

Scaoíl amach an bobalín.

uberwolf

TBH you're better of without the squeaky, whiny accent anyway - make yourself intelligible

You're concerned about making yourself sound genuine, don't be.

dudara

If you want to improve your accent, listen to radio na Gaeltachta every day at lunchtime for the news. They have news from all the different regions so you get to hear all the different accents. Don't force yourself to have a Donegal accent, or a Galway one though, just speak away and enjoy the language.

simu

Watch Imigh le Sruth on TG4 - the presenter has perfect Kerry Irish.

Also watch out for Nuacht an Deiscirt (News from the south) and An Saol Ó Dheas (Life in the south) on Radió na Gaeltachta.

Tape them and play them over and watch out for how things are pronounced.

If you can afford it, try to go to one of the Munster Gaeltachtaí - you could do one of these courses for example.

Or try these books - each one gives basic info on each dialect (words, pronunciation etc):


West Kerry Irish

Oileán Cléire in Co. Cork

(By the way, the Irish of West Kerry and Oileán Cléire are pretty similar).

Gleanndún

thanx4 ur guys suggestions, but i dont get radio gaeltachta and i havent the money now to order tg4. plus its so much easier to have sum1 explain it 2 u and pronounce it 4 u slowly. and a respect ur opinion uberwolf, and its a very kind consolation, but 4 me the accent is just part of the language, like letters, that u have to learn otherwise pp wont be able to understand u as well, and it just sounds prettier that way^^ all this of course in my own opinion. i hope i dont sound 2 whiny>.<

Gleanndún

i want 2 get tg4, ive heard its good, and im plannin on it, jus can afford it yet;)

Dun

You can listen to Raidió na Gaeltachta anseo . They have programmes that you can download and listen to at your leisure, or you can listen to them streaming. If you don't have RealPlayer on your computer, do a google for RealAlternative - much smaller download and a lot less obnoxious.

Gleanndún

go raibh breá agat!^_^

Gleanndún

hey simu, where ru from? just curious.

simu

Originally posted by Gleanndún
hey simu, where ru from? just curious.

Is Corcaioch mé ach is Ciarraioch i mo mháthair mar sin tá Gaeilge Chiarrai agam!

I'm from Cork but my mother is from Kerry so I have Kerry Irish!

(tá brón orm - ni féidir liom i fada a dhéanamh leis an méarchlár seo)

(sorry, I can't do i fadas with this keyboard)

Gleanndún

coo, i think sum o my fam is in kerry:D

p.s. but i c fadas

simu

gach fada ach amháin i fada! (every fada but i fada)

á
é
ú
ó
i

Gleanndún

ah, feicim anois:)

jerenaugrim

I'd go with uberwolf- just develop your own blas if you're not a native speaker. I get asked where I'm from when I talk Irish with someone I don't know- is Tiobraid Àrannach mise- so I must be doing something right (or very wrong!). And, since TG4 came along, all these Galway and Donegal phrases have crept in. The whole standardisation is a bit contentious tho'- we were taught bainne for milk, but Seàn Ò Riordàn used lachd.

simu

Úsáidtear focail neamhchoitianta sa bhfilíocht go minic - thuigfeadh gach aon duine le Gaeilge an focal bainne.

Unusual words are often used in poetry - everyone with Irish knows the word bainne.

jerenaugrim

Sea, cinnte, ach ceapaim go bhfuil sè suimiùl go ùsàideann an Rìòrdànach "lachd" in àit "bainne" i gcònaì. Tagann "lachd" òn Laidin, is dòcha...

Sure, but I think it's interesting that O'Rìordàn uses "lachd" in place of "bainne" all the time. "Lachd" seems to come from Latin...

zynaps

Originally posted by uberwolf
TBH you're better of without the squeaky, whiny accent anyway - make yourself intelligible

You're concerned about making yourself sound genuine, don't be.

Good point there uberwolf (and Silent Death)

Don't try to consciously model your accent on that of others, though the basic rules of pronunciation are important I spose

Déan iarracht éisteacht le meascán réimse mór canúinteanna (?) éagsúla!
(Try to listen to a wide range of different accents)

Just keep working on it when you get a chance to talk to someone in Irish, even if you feel your grammar/pronunciation is bad, else it won't get a chance to improve and become more fluid.

Go to gaelgóir-head events! Not all of them are super-hardcore-al-qaeda type fanatics; I recommend the Conradh on Harcourt St sometime.
In fact there's probably loads of events going on, they just need to be publicised better...

zynaps

Gleanndún

first, jerenaugrim: i always thought u were from scotland, u use ts where irish has ds and ur síní fada go the other way:p

and on 2 the point:) i guess the reason 4 this would b the fact that irish is a dying language and there are only a few people left with authentic accents anyway, forcing all the other people to make their own. its just as i said previously, to me an accent is just as much a part of the language as spelling, handwriting, syntax, &c. and the pride of my japanese is my near native accent (it sounds like 1, but since its not really NATIVE---i didnt grow up w it. wut would u call that?) neway, i guess maybe ill just have 2 get used to the whole accent situation in irish:dunno:

zynaps

Well what constitutes an 'authentic' accent?

Just because it's no longer the primary language of the people doesn't mean those who do speak it have less 'valid' accents!

Sure, there may not be as comfortable and confident a base of people to balance out variances and stuff, but still.... if we're the ones who speak it, our accents are surely authentic?

zynaps

zynaps

Originally posted by simu
(sorry, I can't do i fadas with this keyboard)

Why not? Do you have something mapped onto ctrl-alt-i or what?

alt+161 on the keypad should work, anyway...

zynaps

simu

Originally posted by zynaps
Why not? Do you have something mapped onto ctrl-alt-i or what?

alt+161 on the keypad should work, anyway...

zynaps

Níl a fhios agam. Tá an ríomhaire a usáidim san ollscoil socairte i slí ait.

I don't know, the computer i use at uni is set up in a weird way.


As for Gleanndún, I'm not saying you should only use words from one dialect but it's easier to stick to the rules of one dialect for verbs and some sounds and things like that instead of switching around all the time. For example, saying táim all the time like they do in Munster or saying tá mé - it's better to pick one way and stick to it IMO. Plus having a near native accent does not mean non-native irish speakers won't understand you - you just have to speak it out clearly and if the person you're talking to is a complete beginner, make allowances for that and go a bit slowly. You'd do the same in English - you wouldn't put on a really Irish accent in English or use lots of slang when talking to sb with little English.

jerenaugrim

An- mhaith, Gleanndùn!;)

Caith mè trèìmhsì fada i mo gcònaì i nGaidhealtachd na hAlban (ar an eilean Sgìtheanach). Is dòcha go bhfuil saghas teanga meascaithe agam anois! Ach nìor "cop" mè fèin riamh è.

Very good, Gleanndùn!

I have spent long periods living in the Scottish Gaidhealtachd (on the isle of Skye). No doubt I have a kind of mixed language now! But I never noticed it before, myself.

Gleanndún

I feel special:D
I didnt know that skye was a gaidhealtachd tho, thas cool. hehe, thas my sisters name 2, init a pretty name?

o, and simu, i dont remember u sayin nething bout how i should only use words from 1 dialect, but it is wut i would like 2 do. and as for accents, im afraid u completely understood me? i said earlier that i didnt think i would b intelligible WITHOUT a good accent, because i know that many pp who come over here have very strong, unamerican accent and it can b dreadfully hard 2 comprehend wut theyre saying. 1 o the profs that subbed 4 my physics class had a very think italian accent, and after a while i just drifted out of it bc i could not understand a word that the man was saying. but back on topic, this is usually not a problem that i have in language, but accent is 1 of the things that i pride myself on most. i won the pronunciation award in my last jpese speech contest a while back, and it is 1 o my most prized awards i have ever achieved. so accents a big deal for me, and in my opinion is just another basic part of learning a language, just like handwriting, grammer, syntax, etc. its the 1 thing that makes me VERY self-conscious when trying to speak irish: lack of grammar, syntax, vocabulary, to me are not nearly as embarassing as poor accent. o, and 2 clarify what i said b4 about an "authentic accent" i mean 1 that has been passed down by native speakers to their children for generations, and not the personal invention of sum1 who is trying 2 learn the language at a later stage, or sum1 whos a native speaker from their parents who r not native. u get the idea.

zynaps

Yeah Skye is a lovely name

My little sis won a trip to Japan from some Japanese speech contest thing last year!
Her having spent a year or so there means she has a 'good' accent, at least from Tokyo and I think Okinawa, or more likely, something like her teachers'.

It depends on how you use your ear and who you speak to most, in the early stages, I suppose.
Since we learnt Irish in school, I can't really remember where I cultivated my accent (if anywhere), but I'd say it's a quite dull, Dubliny blas.

That said, I have to admit I hate over-the-top connemara accents and such... strong Kerry accents are more of a laugh but Connemara/Donegal kinda ones wreck my head.

A friend of mine from secondary school in Coláiste Eoin had this kinda poshy-southeast Dublin accent when speaking English, and would switch to deep Donegal bog voice instantly when speaking Irish - I found it unnatural and quite annoying at first, but you get used to that I suppose.

To each their own

zynaps

simu

I didn't realise you were American, Gleanndún!

What are you using at the moment to find out how to pronounce Irish words? Do you have a course with tapes or are you just going by explanations of pronunciation given in text form?

The best thing for you would be to pick an accent and stick to it if you're American because it would sound very odd if you spoke Irish with an American accent (as opposed to say a Dubliner who speaks Irish with a bit of a Dublin accent - that's a lot easier to understand) but you should also be able to understand the other dialects. It's not as hard as it seems as there are only 3 major ones and the differences are quite uniform.

Gleanndún

Originally posted by zynaps
Yeah Skye is a lovely name
A friend of mine from secondary school in Coláiste Eoin had this kinda poshy-southeast Dublin accent when speaking English, and would switch to deep Donegal bog voice instantly when speaking Irish - I found it unnatural and quite annoying at first, but you get used to that I suppose.

personally i would find this hilarious. u find this a lot in japanese: i.e. the usually rises an octave or so when u switch 2 jpese. my sis has a friend haruka, and when she answers she almost sounds like a man, but then when she spks jpese, she sounds like a cartoon char.:D

neway, in terms of irish accent, i was really hoping 4 wutever would b closest 2 co. laois, bc thats where my fam is from, so sum kina munster irish accent. i have a friend, native speaker from dublin, but he doesnt have a mic:( so thats my story. corcaí accent sumwut fits that description, doesnt it? u have a mic simu? *hopin*:)

simu

Well, I guess I could record some words and phrases for you with Windows sound recorder if you really want!

zynaps

Originally posted by Gleanndún
my sis has a friend haruka, and when she answers she almost sounds like a man, but then when she spks jpese, she sounds like a cartoon char.:D

Heh, my sister does this too, she switches up into this really cutesy voice.... personally I find it stupid

zynaps

Gleanndún

thanx simu:D

zynaps, ithink its just a jpese thing, cuz every1 does it;)

simu

Yeah but prolly next weekend at the earliset as I only have access to a microphone then.