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Five Words a Day as Gaeilge: Nov 2, 2019 - Color Vocab part 1

Red: Dearg /'dʲa.ɾˠəɡ/ or Rua /'ɾˠuə/

Rua typically describes more natural reds like hair color or redwood, though there are plenty of exceptions.

Dearg is typically used for something that is dyed or painted red, though roses and apples are also described using dearg.

Orange: Flannbhui /'fˠl̻ˠa.n̻ˠə.vˠə/

Yellow: Bui /'bˠi/ or Fionn /'fʲin̻ˠ/

Bui means yellow almost universally, but it means tan when describing hair or fur.

Fionn (fair) is used to describe yellow or blond hair or fur.

Green: Glas /'ɡl̻ˠasˠ/ or Uaine /'uə.nʲə/

Glas is typically used to describe more natural greens, as found in grass or leaves. (Glas is also used for gray animal fur. It is not used to describe human hair that is gray.)

Uaine is typically used for artificial greens found in paint and cloth.

Blue: Gorm /'ɡo.ɾˠəmˠ/

Gorm is also used to describe brown skin, since calling someone black or brown in Irish would be interpreted as referring to hair color most of the time.

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Seán Ó hEinirí (Seán Ó hInnéirghe, 26 March 1915 – 26 July 1998), known in English as John Henry, was an Irish seanchaí and a native of Cill Ghallagáin, County Mayo. He is believed to have been the last known monolingual Irish speaker.

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irish dark academia (gaelic revival period)

learn middle irish

translate medieval texts

sit and study with your secret lover over a bottle of whiskey in the library

everyone knows something. nobody knows everything. you are all suspicious of one another.

scrawl lines from yeats in the margins of your mythology textbook

you dream of cú chulainn in the night and you hear the echo of dierdre's lament in the daytime

somewhere, a group of mourners is humming the parting glass

you attend the theatre every night. one night right after the play you are spoken to by a man with a green ribbon on his jacket and you realize there is a double meaning behind each of his words

write nature poetry

a smell of gunpowder from the school's basement. you don't ask, but you smile to yourself

a conspiracy of poets and writers and researchers and all the dreamers of the intellectual underworld

you think maybe you saw a gun in the teacher's desk. you smile to yourself

rebellion? someday

you hear about farm raids in munster and connaught. you discuss it with your friends. no one is surprised.

i have spoken with god upon his holy hill

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ag teacht anoir go tír mo mháithre ag teacht anoir seachas anonn nílim in ann fanacht anseo nílim in ann fanacht níos mó.

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I’m trying to find out how to pronounce the old Irish fíad or modern fiadh, any suggestions? I found a a site where it’s spoken but it’s too fast for me to listen and understand. Thank you.

I usually use Forvo for Modern Irish, which has fiadh pronounced here. It seems like it’s pronounced like “fee-ah”. 

There’s also abair, which lets you control the speed. Also “fee-ah” on that website.

I hope that helps! Great question :)

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Brógalí

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Irish with Hozier:

- uisce = water

- uisce beatha = whiskey (lit. water of life)

- uiscefhuaraithe = water coolness

- Níl aon tinteán mar do thintéan féin = There’s no hearth like your own hearth

- Níl aon tóin tinn mar do thóin tinn féin = There’s no sore ass like your own sore ass

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I’m looking to read the Ulster Cycle in English. Any recs for translations/editions?

so, i should preface this by saying that the “ulster cycle” is an incredibly nebulous (and modern) concept; it’s not a unified body of texts that fit together chronologically and can be read one after the other like a series of books. it’s just a whole mishmash of dozens and dozens of texts that have some of the same characters and appear to take place against the same pseudohistorical backdrop, so have been grouped as “ulster cycle” by modern scholars because it’s the easiest way of classifying them. we don’t know to what extent medieval authors thought of them that way, and we don’t know what texts they would’ve included under that header, either

(also, like, there are a lot of texts that are considered to be ‘ulster cycle’. if we go to CODECS, which is one of the most useful online resources for celticists, there are 194 texts tagged as belonging to the ‘ulster cycle’ in some way, shape, or form. so reading the whole lot would be ambitious! and probably impossible given that several of those are likely lost, or exist only in unedited manuscripts, or have been edited but not translated, or are fragmentary, and so on and so forth)

i’m saying this not bc i expect you to know that or whatever, just that i’ve seen a lot of people referring to ‘the ulster cycle’ as if it’s a unified thing that you can just read and it’s … not. and i think this idea’s quite misleading and limiting, especially because it means people expect like… internal consistency between texts that were never really intended to be read in that way. i need someone to do a blog post or video or something about where the cyclical classification comes from and why it’s limited, because i know there are academic articles on it but i don’t have any to hand and those aren’t super accessible, so it would be useful to be able to direct people somewhere

(basically, these first three paragraphs are not just @ you, they are a more general PSA to others interested in medieval irish material)

ANYWAY

what you probably want to read is táin bó cúailnge and the various remscéla or ‘foretales’ that go with it. (which is something medieval audiences seem to have understood as being a group of texts. not necessarily a cohesive, consistent, and chronological group of texts, but a group nonetheless)

lucky for you, there are translations of this that are easy to find, reasonably accessible, and not expensive. yay!

i personally like ciarán carson’s translation of the táin, but i know others who don’t; it’s the most colloquial and modern, as well as the cheapest (especially on kindle)

thomas kinsella’s translation is probably the most popular more widely, and he also includes quite a lot of the foretales / prequels / background info, such as the exile of the sons of uisliu, which is a useful story to know if you want to understand why certain characters are doing the thing in the táin

you may also find gantz’s early irish myths and sagas useful – this is a collection of stories, some of which are ‘ulster cycle’ (some are ‘mythological cycle’, such as tochmarc étaíne) – if you end up going for carson’s translation but still want the foretales, most of them are in here too, though gantz’s translations aren’t massively stylish

once you’ve read those it starts to get trickier because i don’t think any of the other stories have really been published in like… mainstream translations? most of them got published in academic journals in the 19th century which means they’re now out of copyright and can often be found online, but this also means the translations are… not always great lol. sometimes there are more recent translations but they’re in journals or someone’s thesis or whatever so can be hard to find

anyway, here are some places to find translations online:

CELT (the corpus of electronic texts) – solid translations, though usually on the older side, with bibliographic info, also has some of the original irish which is great when you want to look for a specific quote

the celtic literature collective – a LOT of texts, like, more texts than CELT, but with less info about who did the translations or when, which means i tend not to rely on it so much (because it could be any old randomer or it could be whitley stokes and you just don’t know!)

but yeah, would definitely advise going for one of the books above as a first port of call

hope this helps!

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how do you learn gaelige rip

I did/do Duolingo for a bit. Though I also had a 10 week course at Uni which was helpful to understand Ulster dialect more.

Irish has 4 main dialects. For each of the provinces, whilst each of the Gaeltacht villages might speak differently, the 4 provincial dialects are the big ones. Duolingo teaches in Munster dialect I think.

Listening to whatever dialect you want to learn helps though. Radio is best for this. It doesn’t matter if you understand it, as long as you get a feel for the dialect. The way an Ulsterman from Antrim speaks is different to the way a Munsterman from Dingle speaks it. Raídio Fáilte is the Belfast radio for Irish speakers and thus is useful for Ulster dialect speakers, though it’s also slow enough to pick up individual words. Meanwhile Ráidio na Gaeltachta covers all dialects but speaks much faster.

So whilst I feel I haven’t quite answered the question, I recommend Duolingo to break yourself into it. You’ll learn Irish words and you’ll accustom yourself to the Language, and if there’s Gaeilge classes nearby - take them! If not, just take it slowly with Duolingo and listen to Irish media to familiarise yourself with the language itself. One issue many people have is pronunciation. I can only easily read some Irish, and can hear bits of it, but I’m shite at speaking and writing. I’m not the only one like this.

Tl;dr - Duolingo is good, but be sure to familiarise yourself to the tempo and feel of Gaeilge.

PS. It helps me since I drink in bars which usually have Gaeilgeorí (Irish speakers) drink so I can practice and learn from them (whilst drinking).

To familiarise yourself I’d also recommend listening to the Clancy Brothers Gaeilge songs. Óró Sé Do Bheatha Braille and Cruiscín Lán are two I recommend.

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My Spanish teacher mentioned this website that helps you learn a language by taking songs and making you put the next word in the language after listening to it. I cant remember what it’s called anyone got an idea of know what it is?

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Can U please recommend any good Irish language movies or shows. I'm trying to get better at recognising stuff when it's spoken :D

That’s grand!!! 🙌🏻😊

I think TG4, Macalla Teoranta etc. dubbed things of all kinds, from The Life of Jesus Christ to Bee Movie. The main problem with TG4 is that they don’t hold the rights of the films, so they can’t legally release them (which kind of sucks really).

Among the easiest to find out there (apart from the shorts, such as Cáca Milis, Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom, An t-Ádh, Cúilín Dualach etc. all available on YouTube), I love Cartoon Saloon’s triptych (two of them - Song of the Sea and The Secret of Kells - are already available on dvd, the Irish version of The Breadwinner - An Saothraí - was screened in cinemas a couple of years ago, but I’m not sure if it actually made it to dvd), Black ‘47 (a dual language remake of the Irish language short film An Ranger). An Béal Bocht is a pretty little thing, (currently in the public domain), also Cré na Cille. They’re based on two of the best Irish language books ever written (I have a thing for Flann O'Brien 😇).

As for TV series, I tend to give up on long running shows (Ros na Rún is a classic, but way way too time consuming, and Aifric is meant for - and hated mostly by - young kids).

The mini series I can recall right now are Eipic, Fir Bolg (I’m after watching it), Corp + Anam, Grace Harte (worth watching mainly for the photography as well as the acting), Dochreidte Gan Dabht (extremely casual, basically Officially Amazing as Gaeilge), and Na Rúin (I’ve never personally watched it but a friend of mine says it’s watchable enough 🤷🏻‍♀️).

Hope this helps! ☺️

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Linguistic prescriptivism is inherently racist and classist

Linguistic prescriptivism is inherently racist and classist

Linguistic prescriptivism is inherently racist and classist

Linguistic prescriptivism is inherently racist and classist

Linguistic prescriptivism is inherently racist and classist

Linguistic prescriptivism is inherently racist and classist

Linguistic prescriptivism is inherently racist and classist

Linguistic prescriptivism is inherently racist and classist

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Notetaking

Sound Note - take notes while you record audio

Evernote - notetaking that syncs across platforms

Paper 53 - minimal notetaking that syncs

Microsoft OneNote - collaboration and syncing, best for Office users

Google Keep - jot things down, best for Google suite users

Notability - take notes and annotate PDFs

Mindly - create mind maps

Day One - a digital journal

Flash Cards

Quizlet - the quintessential flash card app

StudyBlue - another commonly used app

Cram - best for its “cram mode”

Eidetic - uses spaced repetition for effective memorization

Planner 

My Study Life - schedules, tasks, reminders, and more

StudyCal - keeps track of tasks, exams, and grades

24me - automated reminders and event planning

iStudiez - schedule and prioritized task list

Google Calendar - a calendar, best for Google users

Glass Planner - a calendar and to do list with incredible functionality

To Do List

Clear - organized to-do and reminders

MinimaList - simple to-do and focus timer

Trello - collaborative project organizer

Todoist - clean and functional task manager

Default notes app on your phone

Time Management

Forest - plant trees by staying focused

Pomotodo - pomodoro timer with to-do list

Timeglass - custom timers

Tide - pomodoro with white noise

Alarmy - forces you out of bed 

Pillow - smart alarm that tracks sleep cycles

Productivity

Workflow - automate tasks

Habitica - turn your habits into an RPG

Continuo - simple, colorful activity tracking

Freedom - block distracting apps

Free Learning

Coursera - free MOOCs

TED - listen to Ted Talks

Duolingo - language learning

Memrise - spaced repetition language vocabulary

Khan Academy - free video lessons

Ambient Noise

8tracks - curated playlists

Spotify - online music streaming

Coffitivity - cafe ambience

Noisli - background sound generator

Rain Rain - rain sounds

Binaural - binaural beats

Health

Rockin Ramen - recipes based on ramen

MealBoard - meal planning

Lifesum - healthy eating

Stop Breath And Think - mindfulness meditation

Pacifica - mental health management

Sworkit - personalized video workouts

Waterlogged - hydration tracker

Reference

WolframAlpha - Google on steroids

Oxford Dictionary - all of English at your fingertips

RefMe - citation generator

PhotoMath - solve math problems by taking a photo

Mathway - step by step math help

Desmos - free graphing calculator

Wikipedia - not the best source, but it’s handy

Miscellaneous 

Companion - stay safe when walking alone

Mint - money management

Toshl - finance manager

Tiny Scanner - scan documents

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9 points about language learning and how I’m learning 20+ of them

I’ve had a few requests to write about how I learn my languages. To different degrees, there’s currently 20+ of them and I don’t see myself stopping yet. The thing is, learning languages comes really easily to me and I want to share, maybe it will be helpful to somebody else.

First, I’d like to have a look at first versus second language acquisition. I’m a linguist and I’m super interested in Child Language Acquisition. That however, has a critical age of 14 (or so I was always told) and is then no longer possible and any language learned after that age will never progress as quickly or can’t be learned perfectly. Well. I disagree. The simple difference is - first language acquisition is how you acquired your first language(s) as a child. By imitating, finding patterns, etc. Second language acquisition is what you know from language courses. Vocabulary, irregular verb tables, endless exercises. Now that we got some of the terminology off the table, let me see how I actually learn languages: 1) I utilise elements of the first language acquisition rather than second language I’ve only studied vocab a couple times at school, when I put them into Quizlet or when someone forced me to. I’ll get back to it in another point. I don’t learn patterns. I know there is one and I let the input do its magic of slithering into my head. Again, more on that in point 2. You always get told you’ll learn a language better when you’re thrown into the country where they speak it.  And it’s so true because of the processes behind it. Because input and immersion are the keys and that’s how children learn, too.

2) I don’t cram languages. I process them.

Around langblrs, I keep seeing all the ‘crying over verb tables’, ‘trying to learn a 1000 words this week’ and the like. That may work for you, sure. But I’ve never done that. I did learn a few irregular verb patterns for German in class, but while I could recite them, it wasn’t helpful. In Irish, I sometimes still wonder which verb ‘An ndeachaigh tú?’ comes from. The thing is, you’re able to process language. You know this word is probably irregular. If you come across it and don’t know what the irregular form is, look it up. After you’ve looked it up for the tenth time, you’ll probably remember by then. Same with anything else. Don’t try to learn things by heart when it comes to languages. 3) Vocab?? Same rule applies here. I’ve only learned vocab at school and then a handful of times when I wasn’t too lazy to put it into Quizlet (which is fun and I learn something, but it’s more of a useful pastime than anything). When you read, just skip the words you don’t know and only really look them up if you can’t tell by context. NEVER translate vocabulary. I mean, sure, look up what it means, but don’t connect it to the word itself. Connect it to the meaning. Pictures work better. As for abstract words, imagine the concept. Just try not to bridge the meaning of the word with your native language. Languages in your brain are meant to be two separate units. Unless you’re working on a translation piece, they shouldn’t be ‘touching’. 4) I use example sentences for everything.

Grammar guides are useful but rather than learning all the rules at once, take it one step at a time and remember some example sentences and let them guide you through the grammar rule you need.

5) Input is everything. Output is hard, but you’re basically imitating input and utilizing patterns you know (or think you know). Let me give you an example. Let’s say I’m writing a piece on my daily routine, for example. I make use of the example sentences and try to tailor them to my own needs. Trial and error, if I make a mistake, it’s okay, if somebody points it out, I probably won’t make it next time. As I progress, I will gradually remove the mistake. Same goes to new words and new verbs. Use the input you’ve got. Does this verb sound like some other verb you’ve heard before? It’s might have a similar conjugation pattern. You can check it, you don’t have to.

6) Learning languages should NOT be stressful! I never stressed over learning a language. Sure, I’m frustrated that after a year and a half of learning Irish, I’m not 100% fluent, but I’ve never stressed over it. I’ve never cried over it. I’ve never cried over a language (I only cried after a French oral exam which I thought I failed). Don’t be hard on yourself and try learning through a method that’s not stressful. Watch videos for children. Read books for children. Write down cool things in your target language(s). 7) You’ve learned a language before. Why wouldn’t you be able to learn it now in a very similar way? This is basically me saying that I have little belief in the efficiency of pure second language acquisition. Maybe a few individuals can reach fluency by cramming a language, the thing is, I think that if we concentrate on processing instead of remembering, just like we did when we were children, we can reach better results in a shorter amount of time. Also, if this is your third or fourth language, compare to languages you already know. 8) I don’t start with basics. I start ‘somewhere’.

Delve into the language the second you’ve started. Are you overwhelmed? That’s fine! You’ll find your way around it. Start with word meanings, finding out what kind of sentences those are and then build your way around it. Don’t start saying ‘hello’ and ‘I’m from’. Those are cool, but usually, they are used in a different way when you actually go out and speak. You’ll get them along the way.

9) Don’t rely on instructions (only). Rely on yourself.

This is just my two cents. I’ve pieced this together trying to remember how I’ve learned what I’ve learned and comparing it to how others around me learned. Please, let me know if it makes any sense. I may edit this and post this again later if I have any more ideas. Feel free to contribute or to bombard me with questions. I’m happy to answer.

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The Duolingo forums do not disappoint.

(if you think that says “I choose you, Pikachu! then you’re exactly right.)

(id: a screenshot from the Duolingo forums, showing Irish language text from an exercise reading “Cad a roghnaíonn tú?” Translated to English as “What do you choose?” Below is a comment from Duolingo commenter AzureFjord reading “Roghnaím thusa, a Phíocaitsiú!” End id)

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- 26.mar 2019 -

welcome to my studyblr!

a proper introduction post will come soon. though for now, a little insight in my irish notes - a language that i’m learning with the help of duolingo and a handful of resources that i have found!

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saw this on twitter, thought it might be helpful!

source: alisonykim