#conamara irish

Yeah for learning Conamara Irish I'd use

the textbook Learning Irish by Mícheál Ó Siadhail

If you already know some Irish and want to know more about the dialect specifically you can use An Teanga Bheo - Conamara by Séamas Ó Murchú, or the translation online here

A lot of the media produced in Irish has strong conamara speakers, especially Ros na Rún on TG4, and some of the dubs of kids shows like Miraculous

Iris Aniar and Adhmhaidin are both Raidió na Gaeltachta shows hosted by strong Conamara speakers

In terms of more linguistics heavy books there's stuff like Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge and The Irish of Iorras Aithneach which talk about all the sounds in the dialect and can be found online

For books written in the dialect, the biggest name is Máirtín Ó Cadhain who was a really influential writer, wrote Cré na Cille which is one of the most well known novels in Irish. There's also people like Pádraic Ó Conaire who wrote many short stories in the dialect.

I'm gonna talk about an interesting feature of Conamara Irish, for a change, but of course I'm gonna tie it back in with Munster Irish (my beloved) In munster, you often conjugate the verb to represent the person rather than adding a pronoun to it. E.g. bhíos (bhí mé), chuireamair (chuir muid), bhailíodar (bhailigh siad)

This happened in the other dialects too, the pronouns being used there is an innovation, though the pronouns are much more common now for the non-munster dialects. What's interesting though, is that in Conamara, the -dar (they) ending is still used sometimes, but has in some ways morphed into a pronoun of its own since it's not only being used in the past tense (like in munster), but is also used in other tenses:

Tádar - They are

Bíonn dar - They do be

Nuair a thiocfas dar arís - When they come again

I'll have a look for some clips of this and try and reblog with them if I can find them.

PS dar here is plural, it's not a new gender neutral singular pronoun, though if you wanna use it like that go ahead, since Irish doesn't really have a gender neutral singular pronoun

@sleepvines Good question, it can be pretty hard to find things especially when they're scattered about.

First I'll give general advice and then I'll mention some stuff for Cois Fharraige specifically.

Top Down Search

If you know the geographic region of your dialect, it's good to try and look for things labeled with the larger geographic region it's in and then narrow down, since often things aren't labelled specifically with "Cois Fharraige" (at least not in marketing) so you might have to look for "Connacht", then "Galway" then "Conamara" then "Cois Fharraige"*.

(e.g.) on teanglann.ie the pronunciation tab is just labeled "Connacht" but some of their speakers are from Cois Fharraige.

Adjacent Search

This is less necessary for Cois Fharraige specifically, but remember to be aware that geographically neighbouring dialects tend to be similar, so if you can't find a lot of resources about one dialect, a good starting point can be the closest one you can find. E.g. in Kerry, the Corca Dhuibhne dialect is a lot stronger than the Uíbh Ráthach dialect, and as such there's a lot more information about it, if you were looking to learn Uíbh Ráthach specifically, I would recommend starting with Corca Dhuibhne as a basis, and then shifting.

A Lot of Resources are in Irish

If you want information on specific dialects in Irish, often the information is only accessible in Irish. Books like An Teanga Bheo are in Irish, a lot of dialect studies like Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne are in Irish, so using whatever you can get your hands on to get started, and then transitioning/focusing once you're a bit more advanced is very reasonable.

Don't Shy away from Academic Sources

For specific dialect info, often the best info is in dialect studies, these tend to be called things like "The Irish of West Muskerry, The Irish of Iorras Aithneach, Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne".

Recommendations for Cois Fharraige specifically

The textbook Learning Irish by Mícheál Ó Siadhail focuses on this dialect specifically so that's a really good place to start.

If you're looking for something more descriptive, An Teanga Bheo - Gaeilge Chonamara by Séamas Ó Murchú is quite good and mentions distinctions between subdialects in Conamara including Cois Fharraige*. But as mentioned it's in Irish. There is a translated version online here though.

If you want something really in depth, that's when you want to look for the dialect studies, Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge - An Deilbhíocht by Tomás De Bhaldraithe is in Irish and gives a very in depth look at the dialect, and The Irish of Cois Fhairrge - A Phonetic Study also by De Bhaldraithe but in English talks about the pronunciation in the dialect. Note that Cois Fhairrge is spelt in a prereform way here, which also makes them harder to find!

Anyone feel free to add on if they know other resources for Cois Fharraige Irish.