#irish language

Learning a new language is political, being a speaker of any endangered language is political, being able to write in any language is political, being able to read in any language is political, speaking in any language in public is political, having the freedom to speak your native language is political, watching content in your native or second language is political, outwardly being a speaker of a language is political, making linguistic rules is political, who you speak to is political, the language you choose to use with a select person is political.

This can confuse people a lot when they're learning verbs, especially when they're taught with a mix of the dialects but each dialect is quite internally consistent with it.

This also applies to -idh as slender dh and slender gh have merged in every dialect.

In Connacht these are entirely silent, so in an unstressed syllable they're just pronounced like a schwa, a neutral vowel.

Cheannaigh (bought) -> Cheanna

Bhailigh (collected) -> Bhaile

Cuirfidh (will put) -> Cuirhe

Samhraidh (of summer) -> Samhra

In Ulster and Munster, the pronounciation is also a schwa when it is a verb form before a pronoun:

Cheannaigh sé (He bought) -> Cheanna sé

Cuirfidh sé (He will put) -> Cuirhe sé

But, if it isn't before a pronoun then it is pronounced like 'í' in Ulster and like 'ig' in Munster.

Cheannaigh Seán -> Cheannaí Seán (Ulster), Cheannaig Seán (Munster)

Nigh (Wash) -> Ní (Ulster), Nig (Munster)

It's an Irish-language murder mystery TV series set in Donegal, though it's subtitled in English, so you don't need Irish to follow it. It's not a cheerful series - Crá translates to torment - and nearly every single character is in some way corrupt, compromised or morally grey. But it's extremely well-produced, it's gripping, it has an utterly stunning soundtrack (by a Breton composer!) and it's visually gorgeous: