The GaelMinn Gazette: February, 2016
THE GAELMINN GAZETTE (#128): February, 2016
==========================================
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 Irish. And if you received this Gazette from someone else, go to www.gaelminn.org to sign up.
To read this newsletter as a web page, go to www.gaelminn.org/lastgaz.htm .
Content (C) 2016 Gaeltacht Minnesota
CONTENTS
==========================================
Tips, Tools, & Tricks
---Dictionary app
GaelMinn News & Announcements
Lessons Learned
---Meaningless Exercises
About Gaeltacht Minnesota
*******
TIPS, TOOLS, & TRICKS
==========================================
----------DICTIONARY APP
Let us start by saying we are not getting into the business of writing app reviews. There are way too many of them out there, for one thing, and we'd rather focus on other tools.
But we'll make an exception in this issue because the app in question is tightly linked to an on-line tool we have recommended in the past, namely, the "New English-Irish Dictionary" (NEID) that Foras na Gaeilge created a couple of years ago.
If you have not tried the NEID yet, take some time to visit it now at http://www.focloir.ie/ . Remembering that this is an English-to-Irish dictionary only, type a common English word in the search box and you will quickly get extensive results. And some of the features of this dictionary make it valuable in its own right, as much more than just a modern supplement to the classic De Bhaldraithe dictionary (also available on-line at http://www.teanglann.ie/en ).
For instance, type in "dog" and you will get a quick list of entries, each of them an active link that will take you to the item you want. "Dog" produces entries for "noun …. animal" and also for " verb - follow relentlessly". That helps you refine your desired usage right away.
Let's say we take the verb. We'll find the options "greamaigh de" and "lean go dlúth", and next to each one will be the letters C, M, and U, representing the three dialects. Click on one of those letters and you will hear the phrase spoken in that dialect.
Even better, the entry includes a common expression: "to dog somebody's every step" (fanacht go dlúth sna sála ag duine). Scroll down to the Phrases section and you'll find translations for "dog eat dog", "to have gone to the dogs", and "to work like a dog".
Below that, you'll see links to "Related Terms" like "bird dog", "dogged", and "dog sledding".
That's one of the real beauties of this on-line dictionary, the wealth of expressions it covers. There are many more features to explore, including pop-up grammatical forms for many entries, but I'll leave it to you to visit the web site if you are not already a regular user of this tool.
Now, you can already access this web site on your smartphone, and it will reformat nicely to fit your small screen. So why would you download and install the app version on your app or tablet? (Cost is less than five bucks, by the way.)
There are two and a half good reasons to take the app route:
#1: the app will give you all the text, the entries and grammar etc., even when you don't have Internet access.
#2: the app has a couple of features that are missing or harder to access on-line.
#2.5: the app is lightning quick, compared to using the Internet on your phone.
Let's look briefly at each of these:
#1: OFFLINE ACCESS
I recently spent a week in a cabin in the north woods of Minnesota. No cell phone reception, no Internet access. But I could still get translations for English words very quickly.
Or think about having a compact English-to-Irish dictionary available for those long airplane flights when you can have a live cell connection.
One caution: the sound files are only available when you have a live data connection … for now. But this year Foras plans to release a version that will also store the sound files offline for immediate access.
All this offline capability comes at the cost of some memory, and as far as we know, the current version is not installable on your memory card. We encourage users to send Foras feedback about the app (at aiseolas@focloir.ie) to request that data files, at least, be made movable to the memory card for phone use.
#2: ADDITIONAL FEATURES
The NEID site has a page devoted to their app, http://www.focloir.ie/en/page/app.html , that includes links to Apple and Google sources. You'll find an overview of the app's features, and plans for further development, there. We'll just mention a couple of nice touches.
One feature found in the app, but not on-line, is "Recent Searches". You can tap on a menu dropdown to access this feature, which will then show you words you have recently entered in the search box.
We all have had the experience of looking up the same word again an hour, or a day, after looking it up the first time. Or you may get interrupted when working with the dictionary, and this makes it easy to go back to a previous entry.
If there is an entry you use a lot, or that you want to make sure is always quickly available, you can add it to your "Favorites" list.
And this app has wildcard searching, something available only in "advanced search" on-line. If you can't remember whether a word is spelled "separate" or "separate", you can enter "sep*rate" and you'll quickly see that "separate" is what you want.
#2.5 SPEED
Even the best sites – and the NEID is very responsive – are often tiresome to use on a smartphone. Use the app for a while and you may get addicted to instant results.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND DOWNLOAD
Again, visit http://www.focloir.ie/en/page/app.html for all the details on this app, including links to Apple and Android versions. There are other dictionary apps available, it must be said, and we haven't tried them all for comparison.
But it is nice to have an app that mirrors an excellent on-line tool, effectively making that tool available as a speedy, offline, full-featured resource. If you use the NEID, you might want to look at this app.
And if you don't use the NEID yet, give it a try. It continues to grow and its usability and responsiveness are exceptional.
*******
GAELTACHT MINNESOTA NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
==========================================
----------MANY THANKS TO ALL OF OUR SUPPORTERS!
We have had terrific support, not only from our current students, but from past students and friends outside of Gaeltacht Minnesota! Many thanks to everyone who made a donation during January. With the recent gifts we have received, we took in about the same amount that we have traditionally raised with a separate fundraising event, so that puts us in excellent shape for the coming year.
----------WORKSHOP NEWS
We are working on scheduling our annual Saturday workshop for some time in April. This is a great event for beginners and advanced students alike. We're having a little trouble nailing down the date, so keep an eye on this space or on your GaelMinn Gazette for the final date and all the other details.
Our friends in Milwaukee are having an Irish language weekend March 5-6. Visit their site for details. https://www4.uwm.edu/celtic/ .
Looking farther down the calendar, the Indiana group will host a weekend May 1-3. http://www.indianaceltic.org/
And our pals in Iowa are holding their language weekend June 11-12.
On a side note, Gaeltacht Minnesota does NOT plan to hold its annual summer workshop. We're having a bit of a re-think about how we manage workshops in general, and that means, in part, taking a pass on the July event this summer.
----------VOLUNTEERS WILL BE NEEDED
We'll need help at our booth at the annual St. Pat's celebration, Thursday, March 17, and on the following Sunday, the 20th (Day of the Dance). We'll have more details soon, but for now, please check your schedule and see if you could give us a couple of hours of your time.
----------CLASS SCHEDULE
No nights off in March.
No Class April 4, spring break.
*******
LESSONS LEARNED
==========================================
----------MEANINGLESS EXERCISES
If you have been reading this newsletter for a while, you have seen several themes repeated from time to time.
One is that the natural human urge to get at the meaning of everything, to never be satisfied until you have translated Irish into English, actually gets in the way of learning sometimes. For example, sometimes it is good just to listen to the sounds of an audio source without worrying about what any of it means.
In general, we harp on learning to work with forms separately from working with meaning. And another theme that is at the heart of this newsletter is that you should be creating your own activities and exercises, going well beyond what's available in your textbooks and reference materials.
That all sounds good in theory. But let's put it into practice.
We'll work with a fairly simple paragraph from popular adventure novel used by many students over the years, "Dúnmharú ar an Dart"! PLEASE, do NOT look up a single word in the passage that follows. Do your darnedest to turn your translation urge off!
Here's the paragraph:
Líon an chaint seo le fearg é. Léim Niall ar an bhfear. Thit an bheirt acu go talamh, agus thosaigh Niall á bhualadh arís agus arís. Go tobann rith Henk isteach agus léim sé ar dhroim Niall. Lean Niall air ag cicáil agus ag troid mar ainmhí, ach thóg Henk amach gunna agus chuir sé lena cheann é.
Now, what can you do with that? Here are a few activities:
READ ALOUD
Read this paragraph out loud five times. Circle words that you hesitate over. Also circle words that you realize you say differently, from one reading to the next. Then look at the spellings that are giving you trouble and turn to your textbooks or ask your teacher for help in settling on a consistent, accurate pronunciation.
CHANGE TENSES
One of the first things you can do with the passage you have selected is change the tense of the verbs you see. (If you are very much at the beginner stage, then just underline the verbs inn the paragraph, simply identify them.)
With our example, we could put verbs into the past, or into the future, or into another tense. (Note: In our examples, we give the word as it appeared in the text, and then the modified version.)
Future: líon, líonfaidh; thit, titfidh; thosaigh, tosóidh
Present: léim, léimeann; rith, ritheann; thosaigh, tosaíonn
MUTATIONS
We can always use practice with initial mutations, eclipsis or lenition. At first, just pick one consonant and look for it. If you are more advanced, lenite or eclipse everything you can. And if you see words that already have mutations, remove them. And be sure to read the results out loud!
Eclipsis with t: thit, dtit; thóg, dtóg; troid, dtroid
Lenition with c, g: ciceáil, chiceáil; gunna, ghunna
Remove mutations: chaint, caint; bhfear, fear; bheirt, beirt
ADD ADJECTIVES
This is really a gender exercise. Simply add beag or mór after selected nouns. Don't worry if the result doesn't make sense, the object is simply to know whether or not to lenite the adjective because it is following a feminine noun.
From our example, you might get results like these:
fearg, fearg bheag; beirt, beirt mhór; ainmhí, ainmhí mór; gunna, gunna beag
FIDDLE WITH NOUNS
See if you can change selected nouns from singular to plural, or from plural to singular, as appropriate:
fear, fir; dhroim, dromanna; ainmhí, ainmhithe
Naturally, if you have a little more experience with the language, you can move nouns between nominative and genitive:
talamh, talún; droim, droma; cheann, cinn
ADDITIONAL TIPS
One nice thing about this approach is that you can adapt it to your level. If you are just getting started, then just labeling "verbs" and "nouns" and other parts of speech, finding the "subject" of the sentence, and, of course, reading aloud can all add up to good practice. If you are more advanced, then irregular verbs, gender, genitive forms, or comparative forms of adjectives are all fair game.
The other nice thing about this activity is that there is limitless material to work with. You just need to select a few sentences from just about any source. You may have a book you could practice on, but it is easy to find stuff online. Nuacht RTÉ is a good one because their reports are short: http://www.rte.ie/news/nuacht/ . You could also look at Nuacht1, which collects material from many sources. Their short summaries could work for you, or you can follow their links to the original articles. http://nuacht1.com/ .
Finally, it's not a bad idea to make a few of these activities a habit BEFORE you translate material. Even when you definitely intend to translate a bit of text from the Irish, reading aloud and taking a closer look at verbs or nouns or mutations before you reach for the dictionary not only gives you grammar practice, it will often set you up to grasp the meaning more quickly.
So find the OFF switch on your translation urge and use activities like these to help you see the grammar of the language more clearly.
*******
ABOUT GAELTACHT MINNESOTA & THE GAZETTE
==========================================
Gaeltacht Minnesota is a volunteer organization that has been teaching free weekly classes in Irish for more than three decades. Besides free classes, we offer several workshops each year, publish introducing the language to readers of columns in regional publications, 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
You can stay up to date with Gaeltacht Minnesota at www.gaelminn.org , or drop us a line anytime at info@gaelminn.org .
---------- MANAGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION