Irish Language

The Irish Language Today

Today, the Irish language is in a phase of surprising growth. Daily users in the Gaeltacht areas of Ireland are still in steady numbers, however online and app usage is on the increase. In the last Irish census, over 1.7 million people happily confirmed their ability to speak in Irish, and over Duolingo, the language learning app, has had over 4.5 million downloads of their Irish language course, with over 900,000 active users of this course. These are amazing figures for a language which was not in a good place ten years ago. 'Pop-up Gaeltachts' for social evenings are on the increase, especially across the large populations of dormant Irish speaker in Dublin, Cork and London.

Also, political events like Brexit and the re-establishment of Stormont have put the Irish Language back on the agenda and front of mind for a lot of people. The EU is giving fresh support to the protection and promotion of the Irish language, and the Ulster Scots language, as it comes to terms with the significant reduction on the number of people who have English as their primary language.

The national Irish Language broadcaster, TG4 (owned by the national Broadcaster, RTE), has one of the best Player Apps in the world as is also in a strong phase of growth, with hundreds of thousands of regular viewers around the world. They are seeing growth in everything from their drama series (soap opera) 'Ros na Run', to their huge catalogue of Irish music, and their wide range of documentaries about life in Ireland today and in the past is also getting more and more popular.

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The History of the Irish Language

The Irish language dates back to pre-Christian times, over 2,500 years according to many scholars and is thought to have originated from Common Celtic, which originally came from the Indo-European language.^[1] The changing geographical and historical landscape of Ireland over the years, from the arrival of Christianity to the invasion of the Vikings and Norman settlers and mass emigration due to the Great Famine or An Gorta Mór, has coloured the Irish language, resulting in a variety of spellings, pronunciations and other quirks of language quirks from a range of cultures. Irish is the first official language of the Irish state^[2], with approximately 1.77 million people (41% of the population) defining themselves being able to speak Irish according to the 2011 census.^[3] Irish is also spoken as the primary language in certain areas of the country, known as Gaeltacht areas, which are located in counties Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Kerry, Cork, Waterford and Meath.^[4]

Traditional Irish Baby Names

The Irish language, more commonly known to some as “Gaelic” or “Gaeilge” (gayal-ge), boasts a vast array of beautiful names, full of rich sounds and with meanings enveloped in mysticism, history and folklore.

Ireland101 has amassed a comprehensive list of Irish baby names from A-Z, along with their associated meanings.

Before we delve into these names however, let us give you a quick tour of the landscape of the history and structure of the Irish language.

Dialect and Alphabet

There are three main dialects across the country of Ireland; Munster Irish, Connacht Irish and Ulster Irish. These three dialects vary in terms of pronunciations, grammar and vocabulary. Another point to note is that the Irish language uses an abbreviated alphabet - omitting the following letters (except in the case of loanwords e.g. café in English)

j, k, q, v, w, x, y, and z

Pronunciation

The síneadh fada (she-nah fah-da), known as the fada for short, is an accent that can change the meaning and pronunciations of words. Phonetically it broadens vowel sounds, for example the word for man is fear, pronounced far, while the Irish word for grass féar is pronounced fair. There are some other common hints and tips about the idiosyncrasies of the Irish language outlined below to help you pronounce and find your perfect baby name!

The pronunciation of the consonants of some words can be softened through the addition of a h in the Irish language, for example

Initial consonant	Modified consonant	Pronunciation
P	PH	F
T	TH	HEH
C	CH	KH
B	BH	W or V, depending on the spelling of the rest of the word.
D	DH	GH
F	FH	Silent
G	GH	DH
M	MH	W or V, depending on the spelling of the rest of the word.
S	SH	HE

In fact, the addition of some letters to consonants can make their sound disappear altogether!

Initial consonant	Modified consonant	Pronunciation
P	BP	B
T	DT	D
C	GC	G
B	MB	M
D	ND	N
G	NG	N
F	BHF	W or V, depending on the spelling of the rest of the word.

Here are some examples of such names, along with their phonetic description to help you get started.

Example	Pronunciation
Brónagh	Bro-nah
Réaltín	Rayal-teen
Saoirse	Seer-sha
Úna	Oon-a
Máire	Maw-rah
Gráinne	Grawn-nea
Aodhán	Aid-awn
Seán	Sheawn
Míchéal	Me-hawl
Aonghus	Ain-gus
Daithí	Da-he
Diarmuid	Dear-mwid
Eoghan	Oh-in

Bibliography

http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com/wombat/download/wombat_irish_grammar.pdf

Irish Language

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