I came across this study of the spoken-Irish in gaeltacht schools and gaelscoileanna. http://www.spd.dcu.ie/main/academic/edu ... de_POD.pdf

For me, one of the more interesting parts was the list of the top 50 most common words that gaeltacht children use, so I decided to post the list here.

A couple of things to note about this list: the children in this study were given the task of designing a playground, and were given a budget and pricelist to work from. This accounts for the frequency of sleamhnán, euro as well as all the numbers in the list. If the kids had been given a different task, these words would not rank so high.

Also, watch out for fá and choinne. Only two gaeltacht schools were included in the study, and one of them was in Donegal. The Donegal expression “fá choinne” is the reason why fá and choinne rank so high. If there were more Connacht and Munster schools in the study, these would be less common.

There are 4 English words in the top 50: so, yeah, no, right.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

Grma as sin - an suimiúil. Tá a lán le léamh san nasc sin! Almost enough for another study group!

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I should have mentioned, the list I quoted is from page 107 if anyone wants to have a look at it in the original document.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

Very interesting dissertation. Many nice quotations, e.g. p. 126:

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Here's a couple of interesting observations about the copula. The first is from page 134-135.


The next one is from page 137.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

how do they say "it is possible (to)" then? Féadtar????
To say "I can" you'd say "thig liom" but to say "it's possible" you can't use "thig", I think... I'd love to know what they say, so that I get read of the unnatural "is féidir", that I sometimes use...

Avoiding the conditional mood? As if it were difficult to learn, especially for a child...

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

The conditional form of is féidir would be b'fhéidir, but I don't see how that is any more difficult than saying is féidir. Maybe someone who went to a Gaeltacht school (Bríd? Cian?) can jump in here.

My other thought was that the Gaeltacht pupils were using the conditional mood of other verbs: dhéanfainn, chuirfinn etc. But those mean "I would do, I would put" which is not the same thing as is féidir liom: "I can" or "it's possible for me."

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

I don't think tig is used much outside Ulster, is it?

in ann is the more usual and has an impersonal usage in Connemara:

Níl sé in ann é a ligean "It can't be let".
Tá dhá gharraí beaga in ann a ghearradh "We have two fields that can be cut."
Bhí an t-arbhar fásta ... in ann a ghoil á ghearradh. "The crop was mature ... able/ready to be cut."
Níl sé in ann a ghoil isteach ná amach (of blocked road) "one can go neither in nor out."
Tá an fluid céadtach ann, chaitheadh sé nach mbeidh áit ar bith in ann siúl amáireach. "There is a great flood, one wouldn't be able to walk anywhere tomorrow"
Ní raibh an aimsir in ann blas a dhíonamh. "The weather didn't permit anything to be done."
Tá an lá in ann a ghoil go Carna ach ní raibh sé in ann an simléar a ghlanadh. You could go to Carna todat but you couldn't clean the chimney."
An bhfuil aon cheann in ann a ithe? (of over-ripe tomatoes). "Are any of them able to be eaten."
Spáin é go bhfeicthidh mé an bhfuil sé in ann é a ól "Show me it (straw) to see if one can drink it with it. "

(Source: The Irish of Iorras Aithneach County Galway, Brian Ó Curnáin, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies 2007)

But if they were using in ann, you would expect in and ann (or i and ndán or ndan to be on the list.


I think this is precisely the case (despite your reservations.)

In English you might say "you can't do that" and use the modal verb "can", whereas Irish (and other languages) would happily use a subjunctive "you wouldn't do that", etc.

As Lughaidh says, the problem isn't that the subjunctive is difficult, it is that people are trying to translate modal verbs into a language that doesn't traditionally use them.

And when people back-translate into English they think "that doesn't mean the same thing" but that is because they are translating the words, not the syntax, as noted above.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

I'm almost sure it is used in Connachta too...

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

"Thig"
'Thig sin a dhéanamh',"thiocfadh a rá go bhfuil do chroí istigh i nGaeilge Ghaoth Dobhair", srl.




I wonder how big the sample was? I've heard the odd TSF from young native speakers. I also heard a middle-aged presenter recently on RnaG say "Tá mo thuismitheoirí as X" and "Tá mise as Y" -though I know it was a very untypical aberration in this case.