Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

[Sahara]

Originally Posted by irishgrl

I dont speak Gaelic, but Im trying to learn, and its really tough because of the letter combinations and the certain letters that are silent (like "h") (for example you say TIN Lizzy NOT Thin Lizzy....) and other sounds that you dont realize you are supposed to make by looking at the letters....its weird.......like if you see an "si" together its a "sh" as in Sinn Fein
(pronounced Shin Fain) or Bann Si (did I spell that right?) is Banshee and certain combos like mb or mv (I cant remember!) is actually a particular sound ("V", I think)

But I know that Mo Chride is My Heart which is so cool........(actually Im not sure if that is the Scotts Gaelic or the Irish Gaelic....) ARRGH!

The Tin Lizzy thing is probably just our accents...! Getting some Irish people to say thirty three and a third is hilarious.

Bean si I think is Banshee [bean [BAN] meaning woman and si [SHEE] meaning fairy].
Also things like mo mhala, meaning my bag, is pronounced "MOH WAWLL-AH".
Mo bhean, my wife, is "MOH VANN".

I find it difficult because the grammar is complicated, like when you stick a H into this word, but not this one, and so on. But it sounds beautiful.

There are different dialects in Ireland and so the way a word is pronounced in one end of the country is sometimes different to the way it's pronounced in the other end, or a completely different word.

It's difficult! I hope I'll be able to study it well in the next two years and get a good mark in my exams.