#irish vocab

[kevin-ar-tuathal]

"Béarlachas"

I've been meaning to write this post for some time now. As a person from the Galltacht (English-speaking Ireland) living and working in the Gaeltacht (Irish-language Ireland), and operating most of my life through the medium of Irish, I can honestly say that English-language Ireland, Second Language speakers of Irish and Learners of Irish tend to have a really skewered understanding of a) what Béarlachas is, b) the different forms it takes and c) what effects/damage/meaning each of its forms holds.

Contents of this post:

•Perceptions of Béarlachas

•Loanwords Vs Béarlachas

•Different Languages, Different Sounds

•Language Purity Vs Language Planning

•Conclusion

Perceptions of "Béarlachas"

Outside of the Gaeltacht, most people's understanding of "Béarlachas", or "Anglicisation" in Irish (which I am deliberately putting between inverted commas!), is the use of so-called "English-language words" in Irish. The usual list people like to list off include:

• Fón

• Teilifís

• Giotár

• Raideo

• Zú* (see Language Purity Vs Language Planning below)

• Carr*

*The ironic thing about the last item being that 'carr' (the word for a personal vehicle) is older than the English-language word 'Car' 🚗.

Second language learners with a bit more exposure to the language deride native speakers, particularly speakers from Conamara, for "using English words and adding '~áil' at the end to make a verb". Several examples being:

• Gúgláil (Google-áil)

• Sioftáil (Shift-áil)

• Sortáil (Sort-áil)

• Péinteáil (Paint-áil)

• Vótáil (Vote-áil)

• Focáilte (F*ck-áilte)

• Supósáilte (Suppose-áilte)

(⚠️NB: it is HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT that I spelt these words in these specific ways in Irish - to be explained below!⚠️)

Other so-called "English language words" in Irish include:

• Veain • Seit • Onóir • Ospidéal • Aláram • Cóta • Plaisteach • Leictreach, 7rl, 7rl...

And what about: "Halla" or "Hata" ??

Loanwords Vs Béarlachas

Before I explain where I'm going with this, I am going to introduce some words that have their origins in other languages, like:

"Seomra" from the Middle French "chambre".

"Séipéal" from the Middle French "chappelle".

"Eaglais" from the Greek "ekklesiastes".

"Pluid" from the Scots "plaide".

"Píopa" from Vulgar Latin "pipa".

"Corcra" from Latin "Purpura" (from before Irish had the sound /p/!)

"Cnaipe" from the Old Norse "knappr".

"Bád" from Anglo-Saxon "bāt".

ALL of these words, like the ones above, came into Irish via the most natural means a language acquires new words: language contact.

The reason WHY the word gets adopted is usually -and this is very important - the word is for something that the culture of the language Borrowed From already has, which is introduced to the language Borrowed Into.

For clarification, what I am trying to say is that languages NATURALLY oppose cultural appropriation by crediting the culture they got a word from by using their word for it...

I.E. "Constructing" a new "pure" word for an item that has come from another culture, is, in effect, a form of cultural appropriation - which is why institutions such as Alliance Française and Íslensk málstöð are at best puritanical, and at worst xenophobic*.

*There is nuance here - there is a difference between institutional efforts to keep a language "pure" (re: those such right-wing English/British and American opinionists who claim that the English language itself is endangered 🙄), and language planning (which also falls under the remit of Íslensk málstöð).

Furthermore, there is also such thing as "dynamic borrowing". This is where technically a language has adopted a word from another language, but has changed its meaning/adapted it to its own need. Let us take two Irish language words for example: "Iarnród" and "Smúdáil"

Iarnród is made up by two words taken from the English language: Iarann, from English language "iron" and Ród, from English-language "road".

Together, these two words mean the English-language term "Railway" - but English has never had the term "Iron Road" to refer to this object.

Similarly, Smúdáil comes from the English-language word "smooth". Only adapted to Irish, and adding the Irish-language verb suffix creates a word which means "to iron (clothing)". 😱

Different Languages, Different Sounds

Every single language on this planet has its own sound system, or "phonology". It is VERY rare for a new sound to be introduced into a different language, and some languages are MUCH more sensitive to what speakers of another language would consider a "subtle" difference, or not a difference at all.

Now...

IRISH HAS DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF SOUNDS AS THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE!!!!!!!

(^roughly ~ish) I am making this simplistic statement to DRIVE home the fact that what English-language speakers and Learners of Irish hear as "the same as the English", Irish speakers hear a SIGNIFICANT phonetic difference.

All consonants in Irish [B, bh, c, ch, d, dh, f, fh, g, gh, h, l, ll, m, mh, n, nn, p, ph, r, rr, s, sh, t, th] - and YES, séimhiú-ed consonants and double consonants count as separate consonants - EACH have at least TWO distinct sounds. Ever heard of that old rhyme "Caol le caol, leathan le leathan"? Well, the reason why it exists ISN'T to be a spelling tip - it's to show how to pronounce each consonant in a word - which of the two distinct sounds to say.

What I mean to say by this is that, when we adopt a word into Irish, we aren't just "grabbing the word from English and hopping a few fadas on it"; we are SPECIFICALLY adapting the word to the Irish language phonetic system.

I.E. when an Irish language speaker is saying the word "frid" THEY ARE NOT USING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WORD "fridge" !!!

The sounds used in the English-language word belong to the English language, and the sounds used in the Irish-language word belong to the Irish language.

As a linguist I get very passionate about this distinction - the AMOUNT of times I have come across a self-important Irish language "learner" from the East of the country come to a Gaeltacht and tell native speakers that they are not using the "official" or "correct" version of a word in Irish just GRATES me to no end. PARTICULARILY as these so-called "learners" cannot hear, or typically have made NO effort to understand phonetic differences between the two languages. (Though honestly, on that point, I cannot wholely blame them - it is a fault on Irish language education as a whole that the differences in sound are hardly, if ever, mentioned, let alone taught!)

Language Purity Vs Language Planning

Moving on, as I mentioned earlier, it is very rare for a sound to be adapted into a new language. As many Irish language speakers and learners know, there is no /z/ sound in (most of the dialects of) Irish.

And yet, somehow, the official, modern translation given for the Irish language for "Zoo" is ...

Zú

Whenever I think on this given translation, I am always reminded of a good friend of mine, a lady from Carna, who used to always talk about "Súm" meetings she used to go on to talk with friends and family during COVID.

This woman only speaks English as a second language, having only ever learnt it at school and only ever used it in professional environments. She does not have the sound /z/, and as such, pronounces words that HAVE a "z" in them as /s/ sounds, when speaking in Irish OR in English.

As such, I often wonder how An Coiste Téarmaíochta can be so diligent in creating and promoting "Gaelic" words for new things, such as "cuisneoir" instead of "frid"; "guthán" instead of "fón" (which is actually pronounced "pón" in Conamara, as that suits the sound system of that dialect better); or "treochtú" instead of "treindeáil" ... And then turn around and introduce sound and sound combinations such as /z/ in "Zú" and /tv/ and /sv/ in "Tvuít" and "Svaedhpáil" 🤢

It's such this weird combo of being at the same time puritanical with regard to certain words, dismissive in regards to vernacular communities, and ignorant with regards to basic linguistic features of the language.

(Especially when, i mbéal an phobail, there are already such perfectly acceptable terms for these kinda words, like Gairdín na nAinmhithe for "Zú; Tuitéar and Tuít for "twitter" and "tweet"; and Faidhpeáil for "Svaedhpáil".)

Conclusion

This really prescriptivist approach by Irish language institutions needs to end. Not only is it not addressing or engaging with the Irish language as it is spoken by vernacular communities, it is creating this really twisted dynamic between second-language Irish speakers who apparently "know better" than first-language and native speakers of Irish.

This is what "Béarlachas" is. Not the natural adaption of words from a language with which Irish in the present day has most contact with. Not the dynamic inventions of native speakers, and even Second-language-as-vernacular speakers, utilising all the linguistic features available to them, whether that be their own dialects of Irish, English, or whatever OTHER languages/dialects are available to them.

"Béarlachas" is the brute enforcement of English language mentalities and an obsession with "purity" onto Irish, a language that has FOREVER adopted and integrated words, features and people into itself.

Gaeilge, like Éire of old, like the Ireland I want to be part of today, is open, inclusive, non-judgemental - knowing where it is coming from, and knowing that its community is its strength and key to how it has and will survive!

#Gaeilge #Béarlachas #postáil fhada #irish language #minority languages #gaeltacht #irish vocab #tráchtas #English #Langblr #Essay

[tricksterstudies]

Bee vocabulary as Gaeilge

Was watching a documentary about bees on TG4 so I decided look up some words to help me better understand Gaeilge - English Ál beacha - Bee brood Beach - Bee Beachaire - Beekeeper Beach bheala - Honeybee Beachlann - Apiary Beachnaireacht - Apiculture Beach oibre - Worker bee Bláth fiáin - Wildflower Bumbóg - Bumblebee Céir bheach - Beeswax Cíor mheala - Honeycomb Coilíneacht - Colony Coirceog - Beehive Cráinbheach - Queen bee Glóthach ríoga - Royal jelly Ladrann - Drone Larbha - Larva Mil - Honey Neachtar - Nectar Pailin - Pollen Pailneoir - Pollinator Pailnigh - To pollinate Saithe - Swarm

#feel free to correct me if i got any of them wrong #also bumbóg is probably my new favorite word alongside bolb #bug tw #insect tw #gaeilge #as gaeilge #vocabulary #irish vocab #langblr #irish langblr #language learning #learning irish #polyglot #irish language

[briosca-sa-speir]

So, bit of a random Gaeilge question, but I've been thinking about if there are Gaeilge equivalents to "my love" and "sweetheart", things like that. I know ghra is love, but would it be normal to say "Mo ghra" as a pet name/term of affection?

typically they’re not direct translations of English endearments, as they naturally tend to vary from language to language, but yep! Irish has many many terms of endearment!

One thing to note is that in Irish you do have an equivalent of ‘my’, but you also have what is called a vocative case, easily recognisable by the particle ‘a’ right in front of the noun. Maybe you're already familiar with it, it’s a grammatical case used to address someone, if you're talking to someone directly (e.g. how are you, darling? darling is a vocative). So if you're calling someone a ‘pet’ or a ‘sweetheart’ or whatever without saying ‘my’, the vocative steps in (tbf ‘my’ just kind of masks the vocative, but that's a whole another story which i won't bore you with, especially since most endearments are considered grammatical exceptions anyway).

When addressing someone, i think that the vocative might sound a bit more ‘natural’ than the use of ‘my’, (which may be considered a bit ambivalent or a bit redundant, or maybe just a little too intense), but technically speaking neither is wrong so i'll list them both.

So here's a few common ones that come to mind:

noun vocative my [noun]

cara = friend a chara mo chara

stór = treasure a stór mo stór N.B. stóirín (little treasure/little darling) is an endearment usually reserved for a child, same as réaltín (little star), etc.

muirnín = darling a mhuirnín mo mhuirnín

cuisle = pulse/throb a chuisle mo chuisle

grá = love a ghrá mo ghrá N.B. to answer your question, I think the use of grá in Irish has a bit more of a serious connotation than its English counterpart, less colloquial or ‘casual’, if that makes sense

croí = heart a chroí mo chroí

grá mo chroí = my heart's love a ghrá mo chroí

rún = secret (darling) a rún mo rún

rún mo chroí = my heart's secret a rún mo chroí

rúnsearc = secret love a rúnsearc mo rúnsearc

síorghrá = eternal love a shíorghrá mo shíorghrá

fíorghrá = true love a fhíorghrá m'fhíorghrá

ceol mo chroí/mo shaoil = my heart's/my soul's music a cheoil mo chroí/mo shaoil

searc mo chléibh = light/love of my life a shearc mo chléibh

#bosca poist #irish vocab #terms of endearment #gaeilge

[la-galaxie-langblr]

(shoutout to Canva for having literally the most perfect template - the only thing I added was the exclamation mark :D)

Crash Course In Irish!

Greetings, manners, goodbyes

Dia duit - Hello (to 1 person)

Dia daoibh - Hello (to 2 or more people)

Conas atá tú? - How are you?

Tá mé go maith - I'm good

Tá mé go measartha - I'm OK

Tá mé go breá - I'm fine

Go raibh maith agat - Thank you

Le do thoil - Please

Agus tú féin? - And yourself?

Slán agat - Goodbye, said by person going

Slán leat - Goodbye, said by person staying

You can also just say slán!

And now, the weather

Tá sé ... inniu - It is ... today

Tirim - Dry

Te - Hot

Fliuch - Raining/wet

Scamallach - Cloudy

Fuar - Cold

Bonus: above phrase + go deimhin eg Tá sé fuar agus fliuch inniu go deimhin - It is cold and wet today indeed

Introductions and nationality

Cén t-ainm atá ort? - What's your name?

(name) atá orm - My name is (name)

Is mise (name) - My name is (name)

Deas bualadh leat - Nice to meet you

Cárb as tú? - Where are you from?

Is as (country) mé - I'm from (country)

Is (nationality) mé - I'm (nationality)

And finally...

Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit! - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hopefully you'll get to use some of these phrases from this wonderful language today :)

#irish #irish vocab #st patricks day

[londubhgaeilge]

Stór Focal below the cut !

Dinnéar na Nollag - Christmas Dinner

Turcaí - Turkey

Liamhás - Ham

Builín ilchnónna - Nut loaf / Nut roast

Maide milis - Candy Cane

Maróg - Pudding

Pióg mhionra - Mince Pie

Brioscaí - Biscuits

Scailtín fíona - Mulled wine

Arán sinséir - Gingerbread

Císte na Nollag - Christmas Cake

Maisiúcháin Nollag - Christmas decorations

Soilse Nollag - Christmas Lights

Crann Nollag - Christmas Tree

Fleasc Nollag - Christmas Wreath

Cuillean - Holly

Tinsil - Tinsel

Cloigíní - Bells

Drualus - Mistletoe

Fear Sneachta - Snowman

Pléascóg Nollag - Christmas Cracker

Focail Eile :

Cárta Nollag - Christmas Card

Bronntanais - Presents

Stoca Nollag - Christmas Stocking

Lá Nollag - Christmas Day

Nollaigiúil - Christmassy

Lá Fhéile Stiofáin - St Stephens Day

Daidí na Nollag - Santa Claus

Síofraí - Elves

Carr Sleamhnáin - Sleigh

Réinfhia - Reindeer

Aingil - Angels

#gaeilge #gaeilge notes #leaving cert #leaving cert irish #blag as gaeilge #leaving cert gaeilge #irish notes #irish vocab #as gaeilge #nollag #nollaig #christmas

[trans-cuchulainn]

favourite Irish phrase I've learned from reading books is "beidh ár bport seinnte" (or tá, depending on how hypothetical the situation is). our tune is played, lads. it's over.

#english also has 'the jig is up ' #but the irish phrase seems to have stronger connotations of We're Fucked And It's Done #also idk if the idiom means just 'tune' or 'jig' #i would think of port as jig specifically but that's bc i learned dancer vocab before normal vocab #irish #gaeilge #in this specific instance in the book I'm currently reading it's conditional i think #but I've seen it in present tense in a different book

[irishmammonagenda]

“What do you think you’re doing?” The Avatar of Gluttony says, uncharacteristically angry, demon form out, bhí a sciatháin ildaite ag bualadh go feargach.

You’re trembling still, the previous altercation sparking in your nerves, although, cool, refreshing relief courses through your veins as you look up at the redhaired Demon.

Beel’s eyes. That was all you could look at. You had seen a plethera of emotions painted in his purple pupils, most commonly serenity, or joy, hunger or thirst, less commonly sadness poisoned his expression, rarely anger, annoyance yes, the expression he’d make before he went on a rampage that was a mix between hunger and anger, yes. But you’d never seen the pure unbridled fury ablaze in his eyes like you were seeing right now.

Not directed at you, never at you. Rather directed at the demon who had tried to give you a beating; Beel had stumbled upon it whilst looking for his twin, and A Thiarna is a Dhia, was he furious. You shivered, it was a scary sight.

Iridescent ildaite wings buzz angrily. The air is thick, Beel runs his tongue over his fangs threateningly, staring menacingly at the demon, who, gaining its senses, flees, tail between its legs. Beel lets it run, having a longtime learned from Lucifer how to play an cluiche cleasach.

Besides, letting the demon wallow in its fear for a while would make it taste a lot better when he disposed of the threat.

He wouldn’t tell you that, though, to protect your soft, pure, sparkling human soul.

Leaving you alone with a seething Demon, you trembled. Normally, you would trust Beelzebub with your life, but the sheer power buzzing around him paired with the rage doused you in icy cold water, a strong reminder that your reisdent softy was ifnfact capable of horrors beyond you comprehension.

You whimper, Beel snaps his head towards you in an instant, the fury in his eyes softening. Suddenly, his hands are on you, pulling you into strong arms. You shake involuntarily.

Beel coos at you in a language long dead, the syllables are harsh and guttural, like waves crashing into the shore. A huge hand comes up to pet your hair, so gentle it almost hurts.

You stay there for a while, in that empty classroom, enveloped in Beel’s arms. Slowly but surely you lean into his touch, your heartrate calmed, your head resting against his muscled chest, it was silly to think even for a moment that he would hurt you, laughable even.

divider by @saradika-graphics

dia daoibh (hello to you [plural]) grma for reading as per usual 🫶🫶, heres the meanings of the words:

‘A Thiarna is a Dhia’ (A year-nah is a Yee-ah’) is a way of saying, ‘Goodness Gracious’/‘Good God’ etc

as per usual I cant write pronounciations😔

‘An Cluiche Cleasach’ (An Clue-Heh Clah-Sa) -The Sneaky Game’, bc i have no idea how to say the long game in irish and cluiche fada sounds wrong.

Now for the big one😰:

‘bhí a sciatháin ildaite ag bualadh go feargach.’

(pronounced: Vee ah Scee-ah-han ill-dat-che egg beh-whale-oo go fair-eh-gawk’)

as per usual the ‘k’ sound in feargach is pronounced with your throat, its technically right to just pronounce it ‘k’ (like the word chick in english) but its not the way native speakers pronounce it‼️

this roughly translates to: ‘His colourful wings were flapping angrily’

bualadh comes from the verb ‘buail’ which can mean a lot of things, but paired with ‘ag’ and ‘sciatháin’ it means ‘flapping wings’

heres a photo of me trying to explain it, please ignore my handwriting i tried to make it neat😔✊

#also i have an ask im working on and im actually really enjoying writing it #for anyone wondering i like to add 🇮🇪 words in my fics/drabbles bc i can and i want to #i cant speak fluently but i can get by; i like getting to hopefully teach yousens some words and revise my own vocab #bc in my opinion languages should be shared; irish is a class language as well so (im biased) #obey me imagines #obey me shall we date #obey me x reader #obey me headcanons #omswd #obey me mc #obey me beelzebub #obey me beel x reader #beelzebub x reader #om! beelzebub #om! beel x reader #obey me drabble

[skirting-board-iix]

10 Verbal Nouns in Irish that I very much enjoy

Ag Smúrthacht - prowling, slinking around the place

Ag Airneán - staying up late into the night

Ag Plobarnach - gurgling (of water or porridge)

Ag Santú - ‘greeding’ for something (((also to desire seggsually)))

Ag Slaparnach - trudging around/through shallow water/mud

Ag Spréacharnach - glittering

Ag Rógaireacht - swindling or otherwise engaging in divilment

Ag Pleidhcíocht - fooling around, messin’

Ag Goilliúint - wounding emotionally

Ag Meabhrú - brooding or pondering

warning: 🚨not caighdeán approved🚨 (also these are rough estimations of meanings and there are 100% other verbs which cover these same things please dont break my tibia)

#gaeilge #irish language #brooding #ponderings #language #linguistics #swamp #ireland #irish #northern ireland #insomia #vocabulary #new vocab #porridge #river #prowl #i love the caighdeán pls give my family back #verbs #celtic languages

[drumlincountry]

Every ✌️🏳️‍🌈💖queer vocab as gaeilge 💖🏳️‍🌈✌️ infographic I see has like aerach, maybe ait, and then the same list of terms that were directly translated from English by USI in like 2016. Cowards. Tell me the slurs.

#There's a serious conversation to be had about how terms for queer experiences can't be clearly translated across cultural and linguistic #Boundaries. B/c like. How does each culture define gender transgression? #What's a deviant sexuality? It depends on what the culture defines as normal #And EXTREMELY IMPORTANTLY FOR PPL WRITING THESE VOCAB LISTS #just importing English terms makes it seem like queerness is foreign and like. That Ireland didn't have queers #Until the Brits told us what bisexual and transgender were #So while I understand ppls discomfort with inclusing slurs. Well. They're proof that we've always been here. #I'm infinitely interested in the fact that dyke I.e. pejorative term for lesbian is the same as the verb to complain #That at least one person I know got called 'pale/white boy' growing up. Like that was how kids would call each other gay insultingly #And that 'queer ' is best embodied by words meaning strange and crooked #I want to know what queer Irish speakers called themselves!! I want to know how they were understood by their communities #Even when it was negative ! #I wanna know all the slurs and idioms and double entendres. Idc about leispiach #Unless! That was a term that was used! In that case i want to know the hows and wheres very badly pls!!! #queer tag #irish language #An ghaeilge #gaeilge #Irish shit #Gotta say trasinscneach is adorable tho :-) tras!

[finnlongman]

Still gets me every time that William & The Werewolf has ad breaks. Less than 200 lines in and it hits you with "end of part 1 :) please pray for Sir Humphrey de Bohun, who caused this tale to be translated :)"

#guess what i was reading today #(for actual phd reasons! the irish translation eachtra uilliam has fascinating friendship vocab) #finn is not doing a phd #william and the werewolf #medieval #medieval literature

[crowley1990]

I hate the word movie going to the movies I’m virulently opposed to it I will always say film I will always say cinema

#But I’m just Irish and trying to reject the Americanisation of our vocab

[the-clockwork-three]

okay this is to just gauge interest but: Would you guys be interested in me doing a quick and dirty Introduction To The Irish Language for Seachtain na Gaeilge? It's not 'til march (the week leading up to paddy's day) but... idk it would take a bit of work on my part and I wanna know if it'll be worth it

You can DM/Comment/Reblog/whatever if there's anything in particular you'd like to see

#is mise an crann #look either way its going to be way more focused on grammer than vocab because if you wanna know the word for steak you can use teanglann #I straight up dont know many food words because of how irish is taught here #the absolute gall of galway to say that SnG is 1st-17th of march #do you know what a seachtan in my dudes. Ill give you a hint. its not 17 days

[tricksterstudies]

Irish Vocab from Éasca Péasca - Caibidil 2

From the book Short Stories to Learn Irish by Olly Richards Highlighted by the book: An-chraic - Great fun Cúthail - Shy Thar a bheith - Exceedingly Thar mholadh beirte - Not great/Below par Aerfort na Sionainne - Shannon Airport Carrchlós - Car park Tost - Silence Árasán - Apartment an Fhaiche Mhór - Eyre Square Radharc - View Stiúgtha - Starving In aice láimhe - Nearby Bia mara - Seafood Fadhb - Problem Plódaithe - Crowded Go háirithe - Particularly Suaimhneach - Peaceful Luasbhus - Express bus Cadhnra - Battery Ar an dea-uair - Fortunately De ghlanmheabhair - By heart Ag geonaíl - Grumbling Splanc inspioráide - Flash of inspiration Tuirse arthurais - Jetlag Highlighted by me: Aimsigh - To find Tuirling - To descend Meangadh - Smile Leiceann - Cheek I gcroílár - In the very middle of... Urlár - Floor Tobann - Sudden/Unexpected Airigh - To sense/perceive/feel Ullmhaigh - To prepare Anonn - Over/to the side Tit i laige - To faint Suíochán - Seat Duine uasail - Sir Leaindeáilte - Landed Gabh - Take Cinn - Step/Fix/Determine Teagmhaigh - To meet/touch Gortaigh - To hurt/injure Géar - Sharp Uafásach - Horrible Múch - To extinguish A leithéid de lá! - What a day!

#irish vocab #gaeilge #irish language #irish langblr #vocab list #vocab #vocabulary #langblr #studyblr #learning irish #as gaeilge #polyglot #language learning #learning languages #langblr vocab

[dullahandyke]

literally put the gnáthleibhéil adjustments into google translate bcos itd forgotten what they were and i couldnt fucking read them 😏 so basically my study plan is 'fuck it we ball' and 'read over the achoimre the night before'

#tbh ill be leaning on the original composition bit even tho im not that brill at speaking irish #i still mix up my tenses so much and my vocab is limited as fuck #but! it is however fun to take the 'write about what you do on the weekends' prompt #(bcos thats the level ordinary level irish is at during finals lol) #and turn it into a surrealist piece of short fiction #like during the mocks i wrote a short story abt me being happy that my grandfatrher was in the hospital #because 'ní mhaith leat na daoine aisteach' or aiteach idk whiever one means gay

[galacticlamps]

green emoji asks 🦖🌴🥝? c:

🦖 - what’s your favorite dinosaur?

as a kid I loved any of the ones with really long necks because I loved going to the natural history museum and being in one of the biggest rooms I'd ever seen and there being a GUY whose NECK took up practically the whole length of it all on its own

as an adult, I have a little dino carved from some kind of rock that I keep on my bookcase which I choose to believe is like a low-res stegosaurus even tho the ridges on its back are not individually marked & that specific (vaguely defined) dude is my favorite dinosaur

🌴 - what’s your dream vacation?

Hmm, I don't really feel like I have one? There are plenty of places I know I'd like to go if I ever get the chance but in my mind calling something a dream vacation implies a bit more of a plan than that. (I think that's bc I'm not very good at the whole relax & do nothing kind of vacation - if I'm going somewhere I really feel like I've gotta research all the details before to make sure I'm doing & seeing enough that it's not a waste of time or money. But that includes taking into account seasonal/temporary events/shows/exhibits, and I don't bother looking into those things unless I know I have an opportunity to follow through on them coming up soon, which hasn't been the case for a while now)

But if I stop being fussy about the fact that I'm not actually dreaming about a specific itinerary for five seconds, then the answer's definitely Scotland. Of all the places I want to see, it's got the worst ratio of minutes I've spent in the country (being zero) to number of things I want to see there, from whole cities and areas down to individual museums, historical sites, places relatives came from, national parks, and even distilleries. But it's also way too much to fit into one trip, so I think of wanting to go there as less of a specific vacation than other things I want to do less badly but can at least conceive of more clearly - like saying that in the fall, I hope to visit a relative's house in the mountains and spend a few days in a little town with a nice cider mill.

🥝 - what’s your music taste like?

A mess! Really, I'm so bad at putting music in categories. My main playlist is literally called What's a Genre - and it's 90% Irish & Scottish bands (though even saying that feels misleadingly homogeneous, since I can count everyone from the Dubliners to Hozier & the Tannahill Weavers to the Proclaimers that way) but there's also other things that kinda maybe fit there, like The Amazing Devil (and Robert Hallow & the Holy Men? does anyone know if they still exist?) and The Decemberists, and then ones that even I know don't belong there, like ELO and MCR. And that's just the one playlist. If I'm working from home, my go-to is Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald & co for some reason. When it comes to decades, I tend to favor 60s pop (or is it rock? I'm not sure I know the difference), and I'd take the Kinks over the Beatles - but I also keep them on a playlist with ABBA, David Bowie, Queen, and They Might Be Giants (which is mainly for both cleaning & hanging out with friends). I also still own & regularly listen to a lot of music from different genres whose only unifying factor is 'was actively on the radio when i was in middle school.' And I'd be lying to make myself sound cooler if I didn't also admit that I have a pretty sizable library of cast albums & show tunes, which I'll also shuffle through like any other playlist. The last album I bought was Skerryvore's Tempus that came out last week, the only concert I've been to as neither a friend nor a worker was Billy Joel. I think the Waterboys might be my most 'any context, any mood' safe to put on in the background to vibe with w/o getting distracted, especially Fisherman's Blues. When I'm not looking to listen to something very specific, the only deterrent from putting my entire library on shuffle is the fact that random Big Finish audio tracks will play if I do that.

So I think the friends who've called it 'eclectic' were being generous, but I also don't have any better descriptors to offer up.

#thanks for the ask! #sorry about the length as usual #i feel like i dont get enough flack for how poorly organized i keep my music so i wanted to be v honest #and while my main playlist does include a bunch of stuff not in english #it's just there bc i like it at this point #especially since the gaelic very much outnumbers the irish so i'd get very confused very quickly if i leaned on music to like #actively teach me anything #it's more that i'll be listening to a song i've known for ages #and just suddenly realize i recognize more of the grammar or vocab than i used to

[trans-cuchulainn]

things that have helped me make progress with irish lately:

attending a conversation group regularly where i'm forced to cobble together grammatically incorrect sentences and therefore learn how to make less incorrect ones, in real time, without spending five minutes teanglanning everything

reading books without looking up every word i don't know, using context and guesswork and breaking down words into their constituent parts to puzzle them out but otherwise not letting any single sentence delay me too long -- if i don't understand it, i charge ahead and often the next sentence clarifies it anyway, building my confidence and helping me recognise more unfamiliar sentence structures

complaining about shit in irish on my sideblog that has like 5 followers, which takes away the anxiety of "but i have to get it RIGHT" and makes me think about how to re-word a sentence if i don't know the structure i wanted, so i can use simple phrases to say more complicated things

the general theme here is: stop agonising over correctness and be willing to make mistakes; stop looking up every single thing and get creative talking around a word or grammatical construct i don't know instead; use the language instead of just studying the language

#what hasn't helped: endless vocab lists #honestly they HAVE been useful in the past but i think i hit the point where the words are not the problem #putting them together is the problem #irish #gaeilge