Connacht Irish

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Connacht Irish
Connacht Gaelic
Gaeilge Chonnacht
PronunciationGalway: [ˈɡeːlʲɟəˌxʊn̪ˠəxt̪ˠ] Mayo: [ˈɡeːlʲɪcˌxʊn̪ˠəxt̪ˠ]
Ethnicity Irish
Early forms
Dialects
Latin (Irish alphabet)
Irish Braille
Language codes
ISO 639-1 ga
ISO 639-2 gle
ISO 639-3 gle
Glottolog conn1243
Gaeltachtai le hainmneacha2.svg
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 Iers.jpg
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.

Contents

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 (murlas vs ronnach) 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

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

MayoGalwayGloss
Cluinim / Cloisim / Moithím / AirímCloisimI hear
DoilighDeacairDifficult
ÚrNuaNew
NimhneachTinnSore

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

ConnachtStandardGloss
CasBuail, BualadhMeet, uses verbal noun of casadh
Gasúr-Young child; Mayo, Munster & Ulster: Young boy
Cisteanach / CistinidhMunster: CistinKitchen

Variant spellings include:

ConnachtStandardGloss
TíochtTeachtverbal noun of tar: To come
ArístArísAgain
CaiptínCaptaenCaptain
Col ceathrarCol ceathrairCousin
Feilm, FeilméarFeirm, FeirmeoirFarm, Farmer
Ariamh / IriamhRiamhEver / Never

Variants distinctive of, but not unique to Connacht include:

Phonology

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.

Connacht Irish vowel chart.svg

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

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

Morphology

Nouns

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 formStandard formGloss
-achaí, -annaí-acha, -annaPlural ending
bróigbrógShoe
ceirdceardCraft
cluaiscluasEar
coiscosFoot, Leg
láimhlámhHand

Verbs

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.

ConnemaraStandardGloss
DíonaimDéanaimI make/do
ÍosaimIthimI 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. As in Ulster, Scotland and the Isle of Man, relative forms of the verb such as beas "that/who/which will be", or déananns/déanas, "that/who/which do~does" are frequently used.

Notable speakers

Some notable Irish singers who sing songs in the Connacht Irish dialect include Seosamh Ó hÉanaí who was the subject of a 2017 feature film, Song of Granite, by director Pat Collins, MacDara Ó Conaola, [4] Darach Ó Catháin, Seán Mac Donncha and Máire Áine Ní Dhonnchadha. [5]

Inis Meáin storyteller Dara Beag Ó Fátharta was a notable exponent of Inis Meáin Gaeilge and appeared in several television programmes about the island on Irish and international screens. [6] [7]

Notes

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

References

  1. Ihde et al. 2008.
  2. de Búrca 1958.
  3. Mhac an Fhailigh 1968, pp. 38–42.
  4. "Life on the Aran Islands with MacDara Ó Conaola". YouTube. Irish American Heritage Museum. 8 February 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
  5. Breathnach, Diarmuid. "NÍ DHONNCHADHA, Máire Áine (1919–1991)". ainm.ie. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  6. Ni Fhlatharta, Bernie (8 November 2012). "Inis Meáin's Famed Son Dara Beag Laid to Rest". Connacht Tribune. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
  7. "Ag Bogadh go hInis Meáin: Geimhridh". TG4. 8 February 2009. Retrieved 10 November 2024.

Bibliography

Literature

Music