The other book I managed to get hold of today is 'Deirdre agus an Fear Bréige' by Úna Leavy - as you can see, I'm widening my horizons. I understood nearly every word, though I was helped by the pictures, I must admit. Anyway, I thought the rule is that you don't put 'agus' between adjectives - that is the perogative of 'is'. So I was rather surprised by what I found on page 22 - que voici:

Ansin chonaic sí geansaí a rinne Aintín Nuala di.
Geansaí buí agus dearg agus corca agus oráiste - nach é a bhí gránna!

I suspect a bit of Béarlachas here?

I think it should be:

Geansaí buí, dearg, corca, flannbhuí - nach é a bhí gránna!

You could get away with using agus, for effect, if you used the noun dath instead:

Geansaí agus dath buí agus dath dearg agus dath corcra agus dath oráiste uirthi†/air.

(†It would be uirthi in dialect because clothing is treated as "she/her" just as machines are in English).

Oráiste on it's own is a fruit. The colour is either dath oráiste or (dath) flannbhuí.


No, is can't be used between adjectives either.

Wait for correction or further comment ...

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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).

By 'is' I mean the other form of 'agus' not the copula; Here's an example of what I mean taken from - 'Ulchabháin Óga' -
Istigh i gcoill, tá trí ulchabhán óga ina suí i gcrann, Sorcha, Peadar agus Dónall agus iad ag smaoineamh is ag feitheamh go dtiocfaidh Mamaí Ulchabhán abhaile.
Dála an scéil, Úna Leavy is múinteoir agus údar í. Úna a bhfuil na leabhair No Shoes for Tom, A Garden for Tom agus Barry's New Bed sa tsraith PANDA, Molly's Night Out sa tsraith PANDA CUBS, Bróga Thomáis agus An Rún Mór sa tsraith SOS, agus The O'Brien Book of Irish Fairy Tales and Legends scríofa aici.

strange. I'd say "Dála an scéil, is múinteoir agus údar Úna Leavy".

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

Yes, I know. I wasn't referring to the copula either. Neither is nor agus can be used between adjectives (there aren't any adjectives in your example sentence.)


Well, "múinteoir agus údar", perhaps, but clearly not a native speaker. Non-native speakers can achieve near-native proficiency, but there is always the possibility of their mother tongue influencing their Irish.

What we really need is for more native speakers to become "múinteoirí agus údair", preferably in their own dialects to allow them to express themselves freely.

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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).

we also need publishers that publish such books in the dialect they were written in, instead of butchering them by translating them into standard Irish...

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

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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).

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Táim ag foghlaim Gaelainn na Mumhan

Tá fáilte roim nach aon cheartú!
I am a learner. Any translations offered are practice and should not be used unless confirmed.

More native speakers of the standard language would be good too, as would people who can use both their native dialect and the standard language with equal ease. You know, like non-endangered languages (English, French, German) have.

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well, not sure it would ever happen, because very few people speak 100% standard Irish (and btw there's no accepted standard pronunciation) and those who do aren't native speakers, etc. And what's the use in bringing your children up speaking an artificial language - while speaking a natural one is just as easy?



The problem is completely different... English, French and German aren't minority languages in their own country ; they are spoken by everybody, and most people of these countries are native speakers. And their standard dialects aren't really artificial ones, and they have native speakers. Impossible to compare the situation of Irish with those...

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