Madam, – Brian Ó Broin deserves our thanks for raising some of the thorny questions that beset the Irish language (“Schism fears for Gaeilgeoirí”, WeekendReview, January 16th).
It seems unfair, however, to compare a well-funded, professionally staffed national broadcaster like Raidió na Gaeltachta with a local station staffed by volunteers like Raidío na Life. That aside, his findings were interesting but concentrated perhaps too much on the grammar deficiencies of non-native speakers.
What is important is that there is an enormous amount of goodwill towards the language and a willingness to speak it, but that enthusiasm alone is not enough. There must also be a willingness to continue to learn the language.
Learning how to avoid the mistakes mentioned by Brian – “missed almost every opportunity to lenite or eclipse . . . failing to mark any masculine nouns that were in the plural or genitive” – are part and parcel of learning any language, and seem daunting to the learner in the beginning, but it is well worth persevering.
Perseverance would also help the listener he mentions in Limerick who will not tune in to RnaG “because she found the presenters very difficult to understand”. Over the course of one day, this station covers a wide range of subjects in all the dialects, some easier to follow than others, but once the ear becomes attuned to one, the rest will follow over a period of time.
It is an unfortunate consequence of our history that we have the two classes of Irish speakers mentioned by Brian, Gaeilgeoirí and the rest of us who learn Irish as a second language. But maybe the difference could be bridged by the latter working a bit harder to improve their knowledge of our beautiful language, and by the Gaeilgeoirí being a little more tolerant of our efforts.
Beir bua agus beannacht. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I would be categorised as what Mr Ó Broin would call an “urban speaker”. However, despite having been born and educated in Dublin, I was taught Irish by teachers who spoke the Connemara dialect, and throughout my school years attended Irish college each summer in Connaught.
Two years ago I returned to my grá for the language, and as a result I take weekly classes and attend a weekly ciorcal comhrá in Dublin city centre. Last summer I returned to Connacht to attend an adult Irish College.
What surprised me most there was that the “Friends factor” has entered the Language, ie the conversation of younger speakers is heavily influenced by international television programmes such as Friends. They include the words such as “right” and “okay, like” in their conversations, and do not attempt to find a translation. Most interesting is that the people speaking like this were mainly from Dublin, and not natives of the area. At secondary school, we would have been told that such conversational Irish was not acceptable.
Perhaps Mr Ó Broin underestimates the extent to which this new way of talking Irish has already arrived, and that the next generation will have no problem understanding each other at all. It is we who must work harder to understand them. – Yours, etc,