LL-L "Language varieties" 2006.01.25 (03) [E]

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25 January 2006 * Volume 03
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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2006.01.25 (02) [E]


Isaac wrote:
"It's something called the Lárchanúint (er... I guess it literally 
translates as Middle Dialect, though it's generally called Standard Irish). 
It's meant to be a compromise (and grammatically, from what I can see, it 
generally is), though in vocabulary it's actually somewhat biased against 
the Ulster dialect."

Lárchanúint means "central(ised) speech / dialect". The general perception 
is that it is basically Connacht Irish in another guise, although as far as 
I am aware it was actually formed to be close to written speech - hence 
_mná_ ("women") is pronounced as such rather than as _mrá_ which is the 
current Gaeltacht pronunciation nearly everywhere.

Most of its vocabulary looks biased against Ulster Irish, but that is mainly 
because Connacht Irish and Munster Irish tend to agree on lexical items 
where Ulster Irish disagrees - e.g., _bórd_ (CIr. and MIr.) vs _tábla_ 
(UIr.), both meaning "table"; _madra_ (CIr! . and MIr.) vs _madadh_ (UIr.), 
both meaning "dog". It permits formations like _an-ghnóthach_ "very busy" 
which are unknown in Ulster Irish (the counterpart is _iontach gnóthach_  - 
pronounced [in'ta:.groihja] which should be spelt /iontá gróidha/, but 
that's a post for another day.)

O'Rahilly suggested that the division between the two was ancient, and part 
of the general cleavage between Irish and Scottish Gaelic, with Ulster Irish 
being at least as much Scottish as Irish. Such a view, however, was informed 
by his personal preference for Munster Irish which he considered the most 
valuable dialect in terms of purity and literary history.

"Personally, I find the Ulster dialect most interesting, and the Munster one
most... off-putting, or at least hard to understand."

I have shamefully little knowledge of Munster Irish. It is seldom heard on 
television (or perhaps I simply ca! nnot distinguish it), either on RTÉ or 
TG4 which would, I presume, both prefer the Lárchanúint or Conmara Irish, 
although Ulster Irish is frequently heard on both. All I do know of Munster 
Irish is that it maintains its own distinct set of verb endings.

Go raibh maith agat,

Criostóir. 

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