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Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 Lexicon  





2 Phonology  





3 Morphology  



3.1  Nouns  





3.2  Verbs  







4 Notable speakers  





5 Notes  





6 References  





7 Bibliography  





8 Literature  





9 Music  





10 External links  














Connacht Irish






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Connacht Irish
Connacht Gaelic
Gaeilge Chonnacht
PronunciationGalway: [ˈɡeːlʲɟə ˌxʊn̪ˠəxt̪ˠ] Mayo: [ˈɡeːlʲɪc ˌxʊn̪ˠəxt̪ˠ]
EthnicityIrish

Language family

Indo-European

Early forms

Primitive Irish

Writing system

Latin (Irish alphabet)
Irish Braille
Language codes
ISO 639-1ga
ISO 639-2gle
ISO 639-3gle
Glottologconn1243

The three dialects of Irish. Connacht's speakers are spread from Galway and Mayo to Meath.

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
An Irish-language sign in County Galway

Connacht Irish (Irish: Gaeilge Chonnacht) is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Connacht. Gaeltacht regions in Connacht are found in Counties Mayo (notably Tourmakeady, Achill Island and Erris) and Galway (notably in parts of Connemara and on the Aran Islands). Connacht Irish is also spoken in the Meath Gealtacht Ráth Chairn and Baile Ghib. The dialects of Irish in Connacht are extremely diverse, with the pronunciation, forms and lexicon being different even within each county.

The Irish of South Connemara is often considered the "standard" Connacht Irish owing to the number of speakers however it is unique within Connacht and has a lot more idiomatic connection to extinct dialects in North Clare (for example "acab" instead of "acu" in the rest of Connacht). Words such as dubh and snámh tend to be pronounced with a Munster accent in South Connemara whereas in Joyce Country, Galway City and Mayo they are pronounced with the Ulster pronunciation. In addition to this the standard in Connacht would be to pronounce the words leo and dóibh as "leofa" and『dófa』however in South Connemara and Aran they are pronounced "leothab" and "dóib". Lexical and pronunciation differences exist within Mayo with Tourmakeady featuring an『í』sound in vowel endings much more commonly. In addition to this the lexicon of Dún Chaocháin to the east of Belmullet tends to be far more Ulster influenced than that of Eachléim (murlasvsronnach) and there is a huge Ulster influence on the dialect of North Mayo in general owing to historic migration. The Irish of Eachréidh na Gaillimhe and Dúiche Sheoigheach tend to share more phonetic commonalities with neighbouring Mayo than with South Connemara

Documented sub-dialects include those of Cois Fharraige[a] and Conamara Theas,[b] both of which are in Galway, and Erris in Mayo.

Lexicon[edit]

Some differences between Mayo and Galway are seen in the lexicon:

Mayo Galway Gloss
Cluinim / Cloisim / Moithím / Airím Cloisim I hear
Doiligh Deacair Difficult
Úr Nua New
Nimhneach Tinn Sore

Some words used in Connacht Irish that are not found in other dialects include:[1]

Connacht Standard Gloss
Cas Buail, Bualadh Meet, uses verbal noun of casadh
Gasúr - Young child; Mayo, Munster & Ulster: Young boy
Cisteanach / Cistinidh Munster: Cistin Kitchen

Variant spellings include:

Connacht Standard Gloss
Tíocht Teacht verbal noun of tar: To come
Aríst Arís Again
Caiptín Captaen Captain
Col ceathrar Col ceathrair Cousin
Feilm, Feilméar Feirm, Feirmeoir Farm, Farmer
Ariamh / Iriamh Riamh Ever / Never

Variants distinctive of, but not unique to Connacht include:

Phonology[edit]

The phonemic inventory of Connacht Irish (based on the Tourmakeady accent[2]) is as shown in the following chart (see International Phonetic Alphabet for an explanation of the symbols). Symbols appearing in the upper half of each row are velarized (traditionally called "broad" consonants) while those in the bottom half are palatalized ("slender"). The consonant /h/ is neither broad nor slender.

Consonant
phonemes
Labial Coronal Dorsal Glottal
Bilabial Labio-
dental
Labio-
velar
Dental Alveolar Alveolo-
palatal
Palatal Velar
Plosive

        t̪ˠ
 
d̪ˠ
 
 
 
     
c
 
ɟ
k
 
ɡ
 
   
Fricative/
Approximant
   
 
  w
 
   
 
   
ʃ
   
ç
 
j
x
 
ɣ
 
h  
Nasal  
          n̪ˠ
 
 
    n̠ʲ    
ɲ
  ŋ
 
   
Tap                   ɾˠ
ɾʲ
               
Lateral
approximant
              l̪ˠ
 
 
    l̠ʲ            

The vowels of Connacht Irish are as shown on the following chart. These positions are only approximate, as vowels are strongly influenced by the palatalization and velarization of surrounding consonants.

In addition, Connacht has the diphthongs /iə, uə, əi, əu/.

Some characteristics of Connacht that distinguish it from the other dialects are:

Morphology[edit]

Nouns[edit]

In some dialects of Connacht the plural endings -anna and -acha are always replaced by -annaí and -achaí. It is also common in many Gaelic-speaking areas of Connemara that the dative singular form of all 2nd declension nouns has been generally adopted as the nominative, giving these nouns the typical ending in palatalized consonants in the nominative singular. This is indicated in the spelling by the letter i before the final consonant.

Connemara form Standard form Gloss
-achaí, -annaí -acha, -anna Plural ending
bróig bróg Shoe
ceird ceard Craft
cluais cluas Ear
cois cos Foot, Leg
láimh lámh Hand

Verbs[edit]

Irish conjugation is characterized by having a mixture of synthetic forms (an fhoirm tháite), which provide information about person and number in the verb ending, and analytic forms (an fhoirm scartha), which require the addition of a pronoun. In Galway and Mayo, as in Ulster, the analytic forms are used in a variety of forms where the standard language has synthetic forms, e.g. molann muid "we praise" (standard molaimid) or mholfadh siad "they would praise" (standard mholfaidís). However, the synthetic forms, including those no longer included in the standard language, may be used in answering questions.

Connemara Standard Gloss
Díonaim Déanaim I make/do
Íosaim Ithim I eat

Connacht Irish favours the interrogative pronoun cén and forms based on it such as cén uair, "when" instead of Munster cathain, or céard instead of Munster/Ulster cad. Relative forms of the verb such as beas for beidh, "will be", or déananns/déanas, "do", for déanann are frequently used.

Notable speakers[edit]

Some notable Irish singers who sing songs in the Connacht Irish dialect include Seosamh Ó hÉanaí, MacDara O Conaola, Darach Ó Catháin, Seán Mac Donncha and Máire Áine Ní Dhonnchadha.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ As documented in books such as Ó Siadhail (1980) and Ihde et al. (2008)
  • ^ As documented in Wigger (2004), which recorded speakers from one town in the Conamara Theas district, Rosmuc
  • References[edit]

  • ^ de Búrca 1958.
  • ^ Mhac an Fhailigh 1968, pp. 38–42.
  • Bibliography[edit]

    • de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1944). The Irish of Cois Fhairrge, Co. Galway: A Phonetic Study. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN 978-0-901282-51-4.
  • —— (1953). Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge: An Deilbhíocht [Cois Fharraige Irish: Morphology] (in Irish). Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN 1-85500-029-6.
  • —— (1985). Foirisiún Focal as Gaillimh (in Irish). Dublin: Royal Irish Academy.
  • de Búrca, Seán (1958). The Irish of Tourmakeady, Co. Mayo. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN 0-901282-49-9.
  • Literature[edit]

    • a Búrc, Éamon (1982). Eochair Mac Rí in Éirinn: Eochair, a King's Son in Ireland (in Irish). Dublin: Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann, University College Dublin.

    Music[edit]

    External links[edit]


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