The GaelMinn Gazette: September, 2013 http://ezezine.com
THE GAELMINN GAZETTE (#100): September, 2013
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The GaelMinn Gazette, a monthly e-newsletter from Gaeltacht Minnesota,
carries helpful items for anyone studying the Irish language, anywhere,
as well as news of interest to local and regional students.
Please FORWARD this newsletter to any friends who may want to learn
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Content (C) 2013 Gaeltacht Minnesota
CONTENTS
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Tips, Tools, & Tricks
Céad & Céad & Cead
GaelMinn News & Announcements
Lessons Learned
Apps & Software: Generic But Good
About Gaeltacht Minnesota
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TIPS, TOOLS, & TRICKS
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----------CÉAD & CÉAD & CEAD
Happy Something To Us! This is issue #100 of The GaelMinn Gazette, and
we thought we would celebrate by sorting out usage of "céad". This
short word comes in a couple of versions, one of which means "hundred".
But depending on the meaning, the grammar varies a bit, and it is easy
to get different versions mixed up
Speaking of mix-ups, let's deal with the most common error with these
words: leaving out the fada when you mean to write "céad". You've
encountered countless "Céad Míle Fáilte!" signs ("100,000 Welcomes!")
at Irish fairs, at community events, at performances, and in pubs.
It isn't unusual for that fada (accent) to get lost, so you see "cead"
instead of "céad". "Cead", without the fada, means "permission", so be
sure you know when you mean to use "cead" and when you mean to use one
of the "céad" words.
With that taken care of, let's turn our attention to "céad" as
"hundred." The most common use of this word is to describe "100 of
something", and in that usage, céad is followed by the singular form of
the noun, no mutations. Thus, céad fear = 100 men, céad bliain = 100
years. (If "100" is just part of the number, as in "103 dogs", then you
may have to take the other part of the number into consideration: "céad
is trí mhadra" or "trí mhadra is céad".)
Céad will follow other numbers to indicate 200, 300, etc., and will be
subject to the usual mutations for those numbers: dhá chéad ubh = 200
eggs.
The plural, céadta, is used to refer to "hundreds" of something, often
with the definite article. "Hundreds came ..." (to the fair, the play,
the meeting) would be, "Tháinig na céadta ...".
And "faoin gcéad" is used to express "per cent":
caoga faoin gcéad = 50%.
Now, there's another "céad" which is used for "first". While we have
seen that "céad fear" is "100 men", "the first man" would be "an chéad
fhear".
You'll notice a few differences from the "100" céad. To start with,
céad meaning "first" is used with the definite article, an. Second,
céad is lenited after that an. (But when other rules apply, such as
possessive adjectives or prepositional phrases, those rules take
precedence. For instance, "an chéad charr" is "the first car", but
"THEIR first car" is "a gcéad charr".)
When the following noun is plural, the plural form of the article -- na
-- is used, rather than an. But, oddly, céad is still lenited: "na
chéad daoine", "the first people".
Finally, a noun following this céad will also be lenited. But because
the word ends in 'd', a following 'd', 's' or 't' will not be affected.
That leads to "an chéad bhean" vs. "an chéad duine".
One of the most common twists on this céad is to follow the noun with
"eile" to express "next": an chéad lá eile = the next day.
"Hundred," "first", and "next" are all concepts you'll use often in
conversation. That makes it worth your while to master the details in
how they are used, to get your mutations, etc., right.
At The GaelMinn Gazette, we are grateful to na céadta who subscribe, we
are happy to have sent out céad eagrán of this e-zine, and we hope you
are looking forward to an chéad eagrán eile.
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GAELTACHT MINNESOTA NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
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----------GREAT WORKSHOP OCT 4-6 IN MADISON, WI
Our friends at the Celtic Cultural Center in Madison, Wisconsin will
hold their annual Irish language weekend October 4-6. Lovely time of
year in a lovely place, and always an interesting and fun event.
Workshop organizer Dineen consistently brings in great faculty, and
among the instructors at this year's event will be Liam Ó Cuinneagáin
and Brian Ó Broin.
Visit their web site for registration forms and information:
http://www.celticmadison.org/events/irish-weekend.html
----------IF YOU LOVE SINGING IN IRISH ...
It is very exciting to hear that a reunion of the group Skara Brae is
on tap for late October, and that they will be touring the midwest and
northwest.
Skara Brae consists of Dáithí Sproule, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, and
Maighréad Ni Dhomhnail, all of them outstanding musicians and fluent
Irish speakers. They only get together every few years, so this is a
rare opportunity to enjoy an exceptional performance.
In the Twin Cities, they will perform at the Celtic Junction on Sunday
evening, Oct. 27. More information at
http://thecelticjunction.com/home/skara-brae-in-concert-october-27/ .
Before that, they will be in Milwaukee and Madison. After Minnesota,
they head to Portland, OR and Seattle. Go to Dáithí's site for that
schedule: http://www.daithisproule.com/dates/ .
----------WELCOMES
We'd like to welcome the 20 new students who signed up for our fall
"Introduction to Irish Gaelic" course, which began last Monday night.
We're looking forward to having many of those students continue with us
in our regular Monday sessions for years to come.
We'd also like to extend our welcome to the Irish language teaching
staff at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Tom Jeffers has
returned to teach the Irish courses there, and Tom is an old friend
whom we are delighted to see back in St. Paul. We've enjoyed a good bit
of help from Tom in the past and are looking forward to working with
him again this year.
Maeve Clancy has recently arrived from Uachtar Ard in County Galway to
be this year's Irish language Fulbright Teaching Assistant. We're
looking forward to getting Maeve together with our Gaeltacht Minnesota
folks in the near future, and we hope she enjoys her year in Minnesota.
(We KNOW she will love the weather, at least ...)
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LESSONS LEARNED
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Sharing ideas we learn from both instructors AND students.
----------APPS & SOFTWARE: GENERIC BUT GOOD
There are many electronic resources available to language learners,
even Irish language learners. The development of smart phones has made
online resources even more convenient, whether through access to the
Internet or through specialized apps.
Now, if you search whichever application store is appropriate for your
operating system, you can find a number of language learning tools for
your phone or tablet. You can find Irish-specific tools like
dictionaries and practice apps, and you can also find more general
language learning tools like flash card apps.
Similarly, there are courses and coaching services available online to
help you master the Irish language. If any of these tools prove useful
to you, that's great.
But don't overlook tools you are likely to already have on your phone
or computer. Generic software and built-in tools can be adapted in many
ways to further your Irish language studies. For example, here are just
a few ideas for using tools you already have available:
* REMINDERS 1: set a reminder on your phone or computer to pop up at a
certain time and simply tell you to say something in Irish, or to do
some little exercise. Using your calendar system to schedule
appointments with yourself to use your Irish, to listen or read
something, or to do your studies is just like managing any other task
or behavior you want to keep on track.
* REMINDERS 2: another option is to simply have a reminder message pop
up that asks you a question in Irish: "Céard atá tú a dhéanamh anois?"
simply asks you what you are doing right now, and a quick mental answer
in Irish is an excellent activity to repeat a couple of times in your
day. Ask yourself about the weather, or any other question that is
appropriate to your level.
* REMINDERS 3: you can also use reminders like a simple flash card
device. If you are working on the future tense, say, have a reminder
pop up with five verbs listed, and take just one minute of your day to
put each of them into future form.
* CALENDAR AS GAEILGE: it may seem obvious, but why not use "cruinniú"
instead of "meeting" on your calendar and in your alarms? Using Irish
words where possible means that whenever those events pop up in front
of you, you'll be reminded of your interest in the language.
* NOTE TAKING: it is always nice to collect English words that you
would like to express in Irish as part of your daily activities. The
point is that when you come across a word you know you would use in
Irish conversation, you are much more likely to remember it because it
already fits your interests. At other times, perhaps in response to one
of those reminders mentioned above, you might think of something you
want to look up in your reference materials. But by the time you get to
your dictionary or your materials, you have forgotten what you wanted
to look up! Take a moment to make a text note, or record an audio note,
that you can check later so you don't lose these little inspirations.
The most generic of tools these days, of course, is your Web browser,
especially now that you may have a phone that includes a browser as
well. A basic set of bookmarks, on your computer and your tablet and
your phone, allows you to take advantage of the moment. For instance,
as discussed above, you might think of a word that you want to
translate into Irish early in the day. If you can look it up
immediately, instead of waiting until that evening, say, you are much
more likely to learn it.
Some recommended bookmarks:
* DICTIONARIES: take a look at http://www.focal.ie/ ,
http://www.focloir.ie/ , and http://www.potafocal.com/ . They all have
different strengths, but if you are familiar with them, they can help
you strike while the iron is hot when you want to add to your
vocabulary. (And they can help you when you are reading Irish on your
coffee break.) NOTE: At the Oirechtas cultural competition this fall,
Foras na Gaeilge will be launching online versions of the de
Bhaldraithe (1959) and Ó Dónaill (1977) dictionaries. These are the
major dictionaries, still, and we'll learn more about their online
incarnations on October 31. We'll have more to say about the online
versions, which could be incredibly useful if done well, in November.
* GRAMMAR: An Foclóir Beag is great for conjugations of verbs,
declensions of nouns and adjectives, etc. Enter the word you want and
see the various forms: http://www.csis.ul.ie/focloir/ .
* PRONUNCIATION: type Irish text into http://www.abair.tcd.ie/ and hear
a synthesized pronunciation. Available only in northern and western
dialects, sorry Munsterites, but comes in handy.
* READING/PRACTICE MATERIAL: don't think of written material as merely
something to translate. Capturing short online articles and using them
to practice tenses, identify mutations, recognize the genitive and so
on, without translating at all, can do a lot for your Irish language
skills. Nuacht 1 http://www.nuacht1.com/ aggregates material from a
wide rance of sources. Beo! http://www.beo.ie/ is great because it
provides English hints in the original article, in a couple of ways, if
you want to turn that feature on. (And Beo is experimenting with adding
sound files, readings of their articles, so watch for that feature in
the future.) Copy text from these sites into your word processor and
change tenses of the verbs you find, or modify the sentences in various
ways to create your own exercises.
* AUDIO: listening to sound streams is always good, especially if you
can control your need to understand every single word. Start with
Raidió na Gaeltachta at http://www.rte.ie/rnag/ , but you also might
have some fun listening to Raidio na Life (celebrating 20 years on the
air) http://www.raidionalife.ie/ and the pop Rí Rá station at
http://www.rrr.ie/ .
* VIDEO: TG4, at http://www.tg4.ie/ , is the Irish language television
source. YouTube also has lots of material in Irish that you can search
for.
Finally, a somewhat more specific cateogory of application: sound file
editing software, aimed at your computer, not your phone. You can
download MP3 files from, say, RnaG (look for "podchraoltaí") and then,
with the right tools, slow them down.
A common free application that does this nicely is Audacity, available
for Windows or Mac platforms at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ . With
Audacity, you simply open the MP3 file, choose the Effect menu and then
"Change tempo". (You may want to select just a portion of a file to
work with, as this takes some space and processing power.) Enter a
negative percentage, or use the slider -- we recommend starting with
-15% -- and the file will be slowed down by that amount, without
changing the pitch of the voices you hear. If you've tried listening to
radio programs and find they just go too fast for you, this can be a
big help.
Again, specialized language learning apps can be great. But don't
overlook the generic tools that are already available. With a little
creativity, you can do a lot to study Irish more efficiently and
effectively every day.
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ABOUT GAELTACHT MINNESOTA & THE GAZETTE
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Gaeltacht Minnesota is a volunteer organization that has been teaching
free weekly classes in Irish for more than two decades. Besides free
classes, we offer several workshops each year, publish a printed
newsletter for learners, and participate in a wide variety of community
events.
The GaelMinn Gazette is distributed to our subscriber list on the 25th
of each month: Will Kenny, editor.
---------- CONTACT US
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