Is Irish Really a Language?
Whenever I tell people that I’m learning Irish, they say either “Oh, you mean like Gaelic?” or “What’s that? Don’t they just speak English?” Well, in both of these cases, they’re not entirely wrong, but they’re definitely missing something.
In this article, I hope to give you a brief introduction to Irish: What the actual name of the language is, where it comes from, some weird features of the language (and there are A LOT), and some resources to help you learn it in case you’re interested in keeping this language alive.
Irish, Celtic, Gaelic, English with a Funny Accent…?
It’s Irish. That’s it. The name of the language is Irish. It’s an entirely different language from English (though I suspect some of the phonological features lend themselves to the Irish accent of English) and there is virtually no mutual intelligibility.
So then what is Celtic? You know how English is under the branch of “Germanic languages?” Well, similarly, Irish is under the branch of “Celtic languages,” specifically the Goidelic language branch along with Manx (spoken in the Isle of Man) and Scottish Gaelic (spoken in parts of Scotland). It’s basically just a classifier.
OK, and what is Gaelic you might ask? Gaelic is basically the adjectival form of “Goidelic,” so Irish is a Gaelic language, just as Scottish Gaelic is also a Gaelic language.
So hopefully it’s clear that we’ll be discussing Irish in this article. Now, let’s delve into some of the features of Irish that make it one of the coolest languages I’ve tried learning.
Phonology
For those familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the above chart should tell you all you need to know about Irish phonology. For those who don’t know IPA, let’s explore some of the sound features that make Irish unique.
For the most part, Irish phonology is similar to that of English. The two share almost the same set of vowels, though English has a few more monophthongs (a single vowel like the “e” in “bed”) and significantly more diphthongs (two vowel sounds combined to make one, like the “ay” sound in “day,” which in IPA is represented [eɪ]). Unlike in English, though, the vowels in Irish can sometimes change the pronunciation of surrounding consonants which, in turn, changes the grammar.
The consonants are where Irish and English differ the most. While English may have some sounds that Irish doesn’t have and vice versa, the primary difference lies in Irish’s use of broad and slender consonants.
Broad consonants make more-or-less the typical sound that you would expect them to make. For example, the “b” in buachaill “boy,” makes roughly the same “b” sound that this letter makes in English, but it is slightly further back in the throat (IPA [bˠ]). Broad consonants occur when surrounded by the vowels “a,” “o,” and “u.”
Slender consonants, on the other hand, are palatalized, meaning the middle of the tongue is pushed to the roof of the mouth. The letter “b” in bia “food” is pronounced with a slight “y” sound after the “b” ([b ʲ]). Slender consonants occur when surrounded by the vowels “e” or “i.”
I’ve been saying that these consonants are “surrounded” by certain vowels. What I mean is that, in Irish, in order for a consonant to be considered broad or slender, it must “agree” with the vowels around it. If the consonant in question is at the beginning of a word, the following vowel will denote it as either broad or slender. If the consonant appears in the middle of the word, though, then it will be surrounded on both sides by either the vowels that make it broad or those that make it slender. This partially explains why Irish spelling sometimes looks so weird.
Let’s look at a quick example. The word for “way” or “route” in Irish is bealach and is pronounced [bʲælax]. This word could just as easily be spelled balach*, but then the “b” would be broad and not slender as it is in the real word. If we tried belach*, then it would be unclear if the “l” should be broad or slender. As such, we need the vowel cluster “ea” to keep the consonants in the appropriate form.
Word Order
In English, word order in sentences is usually SVO, or subject-verb-object. So, in the sentence “Patrick gives Mary a cup of tea,” we see the order SVO, where “Patrick” is the subject, “gives” is the verb, and “Mary a cup of tea” is the object part. I’ll point out there are two objects here, with “Mary” being the indirect object (the receiver of the giving) and “a cup of tea” being the direct object (or what is actually being given).
In Irish, we have a different story. Most sentences are in the order VSO, with some constructions using VOS. In our English example, this would be “Gives Patrick Mary a cup of tea.” Looks kind of weird and confusing, eh? Well, there are changes to the words that make it clear in Irish who is doing what to whom to eliminate any confusion.
Let’s look at two examples that demonstrate the two common word order constructions:
- Itheann na madraí bia ar maidin. “The dogs eat food in the morning.”
- Is buachaill é Pádraig. “Pádraig (Patrick) is a boy.”
In the first example, we see the typical word order of VSO. Itheann “eat” is the verb, na madraí “the dogs” is the subject (who is eating?), and bia “food” is the object (what is being eaten?). Ar maidin means in the morning and is part of the predicate and tells us when the action is happening, and these types of phrases typically go at the end of the sentence.
In the second example, we see the other word order of VOS, though since this sentence uses the copula (“to be,” or linking verbs in English) it is technically incorrect to use the terms verb, object, and subject. We’ll use it as an analogy anyways, though, to demonstrate this unique case.
Is is one of the two ways to say “to be” in Irish and is the verb (called the copula in linguistics), buachaill “boy” is equivalent to the object, and é Pádraig “Pádraig” is the subject.
Lenition and Eclipsis
One of the primary grammatical features of Irish (another thing that makes the written language look so weird) is the mutation of initial consonants. This occurs in two ways: lenition and eclipsis.
Lenition changes stops (consonants like “b,” “c,” and “p”) into fricatives (English consonants like “v” and “f”). In Irish, this is denoted by adding an “h” after the initial consonant, which comes with a change in pronunciation. Let’s look at some examples:
- bean -> bhean “woman” (IPA: [bʲæn] -> [vʲæn]) the initial “b” sound becomes a “v” sound
- cailín -> chailín “girl” (IPA: [kalʲi:nʲ] -> [xalʲi:nʲ]) the initial “k” sound becomes the “ch” sound in Scottish loch or German Bach
- peann -> pheann “pen” (IPA: [pʲæn] -> [fʲæn]) the initial “p” sound becomes an “f” sound
Eclipsis is a similar idea, except it changes voiceless stops to their voiced counterparts and nasalizes voiced stops. Even though the original consonant is still written, the sound is overtaken by the introduction of the new consonant. So, as we’ll see in “t” -> “dt,” even though the t is written, the sound produced is simply “d,” and the “t” is ignored. Examples include:
- buachaill -> mbuachaill “boy” (IPA: [bʊəxalʲ] -> [mʊəxalʲ]) the voiced stop “b” becomes a nasal “m”
- teach -> dteach “house” (IPA: [tʲæx] -> [dʲæx]) the voiceless stop “t” becomes the voiced stop “d”
- capall -> gcapall “horse” (IPA: [kapal] -> [ɡapal]) the voiceless stop “c” becomes the voiced stop “g”
Lenition and eclipsis are used after certain words and can be used to differentiate between homonyms, such as a, which can mean “his,” “her,” or “their,” depending on the type of consonant mutation. This grammatical idea takes a bit of practice to get used to and it makes the words in Irish look weird sometimes, but you’ll grow to appreciate it once you get the hang of it!
Irish Today
Irish was the dominant language in Ireland since the end of the Roman Empire in the 5th century CE up until the 18th century, when it started declining in usage. The main culprit for the decline was English, which existed in a state of diglossia (the coexistence of two languages where one language is considered the “prestige” language and has a higher social value) with Irish. English was encouraged by the ruling English and eventually pushed by the Catholic Church as the preferred language. The impetus to flee to the United States caused by the Famine also encouraged the adoption of English.
Despite the push for English, many Irish people in all social classes preferred to use Irish throughout the 19th century, everywhere from the home to law courts. There was also a minor revival movement headed by the Gaelic League ( Conradh na Gaeilge) that kept people interested in the language.
Today, there is a strong movement in both Ireland and abroad to expand usage of the Irish language. The numbers of daily users of Irish and those that have some degree of knowledge of Irish are slowly dwindling, but there are efforts pushed by both the government and language enthusiasts to keep Irish alive.
The public schooling system in Ireland (both primary schools and the universities) require proficiency in Irish for most students. While this has some degree of success, if you’ve ever been forced to study a foreign language in school, you’ll know that this is not the most effective way to generate excitement for a language. Some schools teach only in Irish, and these produce students that are much more proficient and passionate about the language.
Outside of the schools, the Irish government has designated areas of Ireland as strong havens of Irish usage called Gaeltachtaí (sg. Gaeltacht). The strongest Gaeltachtaí are located in South Connemara, the west of the Dingle Peninsula, and the northwest of Donegal.
Beyond Ireland, there are communities around the world that, thanks to the Internet and programs like Duolingo, have come together to preserve and expand the learning of Irish. If you’re interested in learning Irish, Duolingo has a great course for Irish and a passionate and supportive community for those learning it. The Teach Yourself series is great if you prefer to learn from a book.
I encourage you to do what you can to help preserve this beautiful and fascinating language!
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_language#History https://www.omniglot.com/writing/irish.htm http://www.udaras.ie/en/an-ghaeilge-an-ghaeltacht/stair-na-gaeilge/ https://www-britannica-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/topic/Irish-language
Originally published at https://urbancitizenblog.com on August 27, 2019.
