This is what happens when you let monks invent your spelling rules.
Even little Irish children can work out the initial mutations, but the
monks needed the extra letters to keep matters straight.
Slán,
John Mullen
Liam Smith wrote:
>
> > Gearóid Ó Laoi/Garry Lee wrote:
> > > My experience is that you have to learn Scots Gaelic, though it's
very
> easy
> > > if you speak good Irish.
> > > It's not a dialect. Dialects are mutually comprehensible. It's a
> separate
> > > language.
> > > Before I learnt some of it, I could get the gist of it but no more.
> > > Some of the key words are very different.
> > > Also, Irish = chomh maith, freisin. SG cuideacht.
> > > Very Irish = an- ana-. SG glé-
> > > etc.
> > >
> Einde O'Callaghan replied (in part):
> > I can still remember some of the differences: in Connacht "How are
you?"
> > was/is "Caidé mar atá tú?" whereas I remember "Conas taoi?" in Donegal
> > and "Conas tá tú?" in the Caighdeán. I also seem to remember major
> > differences in the form of the genitive plural and the use of the
> > séimhiú (aspiration was what we called it) and urú (called lenition, I
> > believe), although large parts of the grammar were more or less
identical.
> >
> > Here in Germany, most Germans find it impossible to understand Swiss
> > Germans - so much so that when Swiss German politicians are
interviewed
> > on television (e.g. in the news) there are subtitles, although when
> > Swiss French or Swiss Italian politicians are interviewed they require
> > no subtitles since they speak excellent High German (the standard
> dialect).
>
> Liam chimed in:
> We, in my Irish Study Group, have learned that "How are you?" is
> "Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú?" in Connacht, while it's
> "Cad é mar atá tú?" in Donegal, and
> "Conas atá tú" most everywhere else.
>
> The séimhiú is, indeed, aspiration in most applications, but it is now
> referred to as lenition. The urú is called eclipsis, in that the initial
> letter of a word is eclipsed to a pre-pended letter, thus causing the
> desired phonic mutation.
>
> Simple? (Not really!)
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