Do you Speak Irish?

An Coilean wrote: »

Neither Sea, nor Tá are later. Neither mean Yes either.

Sea, comming from 'Is ea' means 'it is',
Tá - 'Tá mé'/'Táim', means 'I am', both can be used for Yes in certain situations, depends on the question.

The situation is not helped by lazy/uninformed teachers when asked what the Irish for Yes is, saying Sea.

Indeed, but that was my point AC. They have often become to mean yes, but aren't yes like in English(or dutch, german, spanish etc). Just like in Latin. Both speakers would come back with a contextual response to a question. Irish/Latin "are you awake? I am(awake). Is it cooked? It is", rather than a definitive yes or no. TBH I prefer it, though the addition of yes or no is a handy in a language if you want to be slightly more definitive. Funny enough more Romans spoke Greek as a lingua Franca(IIRC correctly ancient Greek is more definitive and freewheeling), reserving Latin for more high falutin, more precise and binding discourse. Maybe that how we should approach Irish. I say bring back full on Bardic Irish with it's heavy duty complexity and use English as the Greek. Jesus can you imagine the school system That's a course I'd sign up to(and defo fail...)

Gluaisteán dosen't mean fast thing, It comes from the Irish 'Gluais' Meaning move/glide
Other related words would be Gluaiseacht - Movement(Political)

Gluaisteán is really a translation of Automobile. Its a recent made up word, but then again, so is Automobile.

OK not fast thing, rather moving thing(but implying speed). I'd prefer Carr. Better to say, "yea that's ours(and the Gauls) ya fecker".

While i'm on it, why when discussing this topic, do some people say 'Thats only a made-up word' as if that means something, every word was made up.

Oh very true, but there's a difference between a naturally occuring "made up" word and one designed by committee(in Kerry a committaaaay). The French can be mad crazy biscuits on that score. They have sit down meetings to discuss how to Franco up a borrowed word and get right pissed off if the actual French people ignore them. French language zealots make the most spittle flecked Chucky spouting Gaelgoir with a Fainne prince Albert through his bellend you could regret to find look like a wishy washy liberal.

dlofnep wrote: »

Yawn.

Irish spans three different countries. Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Mann. All three nations have a language derived from a primitive form of Irish (Gaeilge, Gaidhlig and Gaelg respectively).

I'd add Welsh to that D. Go back 1500 years and it's likely an Irishman, Scot, manx and Welsh could get more than the general gist of each other. Though maybe not... I recall the venerable Bede when he listed the languages about in his time - Irish, Saxon(english), Pictish, British and Latin - British was proto modern Welsh so there seemed to be a distinction at that stage.

dlofnep wrote: »

It sure is, and contrary to popular belief - it's not actually a part of the UK. It's what is known as a self-governing British Crown dependency.

One of the oldest if not the oldest parliaments in the world IIRC.

I'd say not as popular, but it seems to be gaining popularity over the last number of years. Quite a few groups forming around Glasgow and Edinburgh. It's spoken mostly as the majority language on the Hebrides (Scotland's equivalent to the Aran Islands), and is very strong there. Outside of that, it only has a few pockets of speakers here and there - but Gaidhlig schools are gaining support.

Funny enough, it seems it gained ground waaaay back in the day, because of the influence of Irish colonies and especially Irish monastic types coming into the "land of the Scots", such that the old Pictish languages went the way of all flesh. Even the name Scotland is as much down to us Paddies making the place our own or being associated with us. Look at someone like the philosopher and all around mad bastid John Scottus(the monk on the old punt fiver). His full name was Johannes Scotus Eriugena. Scottus was the overall term in Latin for Irish, either by birth or regional influence. Eriugena is added to cement his Irishness. It translates as Irish born(generated by Eriu, the old name for hereabouts and IIRC a pre Celtic language word to boot).

Stained Class wrote: »

Nice to know that my USC & other income taxes goes into paying for your hobbyhorse & Paveepoint & all the other pressure groups that drain the decent people of Ireland.

The actual people who keep Ireland running.

Yea I DO get your point and yes there are some daft "pressure group"s doing the rounds who take up far too much of our collective time and money and yes I would agree Irish is for a minority.

However, I do like that even with all the BS we still have some semblance and knowledge of it imparted to us. Even if it's just to ignore as irrelevant half of the government missals that pop through our letterbox. Even if we choose to ignore it or pay lip service to it I'm happier that it's still there as some sort of a presence.

I'd really hate to see it go entirely, or down to a couple of thousand hobbyists, put it that way. TBH I couldn't abide it in school, but I'm kinda glad retrospectively that it was part of the background. Though I can't begin to claim any fluency it informed me as a person. I hated Latin too as a school kid and couldn;t begin to claim any fluency, but I'm now glad I did it. With Irish I couldn't be arsed now, but I'm glad some -even if it's a minority - can be arsed. With Latin? Damn handy in Spain and Italy. While I may be all adrift in general convo signs and such do make more sense and if I ever ended up living in either country I'd have a heads up.

I figure with education that even if seeds are planted an don't grow a decent crop, some seeds do germinate. That said if I could go back in time and shoot Peig in the face with a pump action, I would