Connacht Irish

Connacht Irish () is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Connacht. Gaeltacht regions in Connacht are found in Counties Mayo (notably Tourmakeady, Achill Island and Erris) and Galway (notably in parts of Connemara and on the Aran Islands). Connacht Irish is also spoken in the Meath Gealtacht Ráth Chairn and Bailie Ghib. The dialects of Irish in Connacht are extremely diverse, with the pronunciation, forms and lexicon being different even within each county.

The Irish of South Connemara is often considered the "standard" Connacht Irish owing to the number of speakers however it is unique within Connacht and has a lot more idiomatic connection to extinct dialects in North Clare (for example "acab" instead of "acu" in the rest of Connacht). Words such as "dubh" and snámh tend to be pronounced with a Munster accent in South Connemara whereas in Joyce Country, Galway City and Mayo they are pronounced with the Ulster pronunciation. In addition to this the standard in Connacht would be to pronounce the words "leo" and "dóibh" as "leofa" and "dófa" however in South Connemara and Aran they are pronounced "Leothab" and "dóib". Lexical and pronunciation differences exist within Mayo with Tourmakeady featuring an "í" sound in vowel endings much more commonly. In addition to this the lexicon of Dún Chaocháin to the east of Belmullet tends to be far more Ulster influenced than that of Eachléim ("murlas" vs "ronnach") and there is a huge Ulster influence on the dialect of North Mayo in general owing to historic migration. The Irish of Eachréidh na Gaillimhe and Dúiche Sheoigheach tend to share more phonetic commonalities with neighbouring Mayo than with South Connemara

Documented sub-dialects include those of Cois Fharraige and Conamara Theas, both of which are in Galway, and Erris in Mayo.

Lexicon

Some differences between Mayo and Galway are seen in the lexicon:

Some words used in Connacht Irish that aren't found in other dialects include:

Variant spellings include:

Variants distinctive of, but not unique to Connacht include:
*, "potato", "potatoes"
*, "whiskey"
*, emphatic form for the first person plural pronoun, Ulster Irish uses this form as well, whereas Munster Irish uses although are used in Mayo, particularly in the Erris dialect.
*, "every" (contraction of gach + uile)

Phonology

The phonemic inventory of Connacht Irish (based on the accent of Tourmakeady in Mayo) is as shown in the following chart (see International Phonetic Alphabet for an explanation of the symbols). Symbols appearing in the upper half of each row are velarized (traditionally called "broad" consonants) while those in the bottom half are palatalized ("slender"). The consonant is neither broad nor slender.

The vowels of Connacht Irish are as shown on the following chart. These positions are only approximate, as vowels are strongly influenced by the palatalization and velarization of surrounding consonants.

In addition, Connacht has the diphthongs .

Some characteristics of Connacht that distinguish it from the other dialects are:

* In some varieties, vowel lengthening before word-internal clusters of voiced plosive + liquid (e.g. "church")
* In some varieties (e.g. in Erris Irish (Co. Mayo) and, as seen in the table above, in Tourmakeady) a four-way distinction among coronal nasals and laterals: , , often without lengthening of orthographic short vowels before them.
* In the variety spoken in Cois Fharraige (the area along the north shore of Galway Bay between Barna and Casla), underlying short is realized as a long front while underlying long is realized as a back .
* is realized as (or is replaced by ) after consonants other than . This happens in Ulster as well.
* Broad is rendered even in initial positions, with a few exceptions.
* The inflected pronouns ''agam'', ''agat'' and ''againn'' are usually reduced into monosyllables , , .
* The prepositions are both realised as and their inflected forms are frequently pronounced (and sometimes written) in their lenited forms.
* The preposition-article compound (''i'' + ''an'' "in the") causes eclipsis, where it causes lenition in the Caighdeán and in the other dialects.

Morphology

Nouns

In some dialects of Connacht the plural endings and are always replaced by ''-annaí'' and ''-achaí''. It is also common in many Gaelic-speaking areas of Connemara that the dative singular form of all 2nd declension nouns has been generally adopted as the nominative, giving these nouns the typical ending in palatalized consonants in the nominative singular. This is indicated in the spelling by the letter ''i'' before the final consonant.

Verbs

Irish verbs are characterized by having a mixture of ''analytic/an fhoirm scartha'' forms (where information about person and number is provided by a pronoun) and ''synthetic/an fhoirm tháite'' forms (where this information is provided in an ending on the verb) in their conjugation. In Galway and Mayo, as in Ulster, the analytic forms are used in a variety of forms where the standard language has synthetic forms, e.g. "we praise" (standard ) or "they would praise" (standard ). However, the synthetic forms, including those no longer included in the standard language, may be used in answering questions.

Connacht Irish favours the interrogative pronoun and forms based on it such as , "when" instead of Munster , or instead of Munster/Ulster . Relative forms of the verb such as for , "will be", or , "do", for are frequently used.

Notable speakers

Some notable Irish singers who sing songs in the Connacht Irish dialect include Seosamh Ó hÉanaí, MacDara O Conaola, Darach Ó Catháin, Seán Mac Donncha and Máire Áine Ní Dhonnchadha.

Notes

References

Bibliography

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Literature

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* olklore about the sea and seaweed in Cois Fhairrge dialect* hort stories, Maigh Cuilinn* hort stories, Maigh Cuilinn* olklore, Maigh Cuilinn* hort stories, Maigh Cuilinn* ovel, Maigh Cuilinn* hort stories, Maigh Cuilinn* ovel, Maigh Cuilinn

* torytelling_of_Tomás_Laighléis,_Mionlach.html" ;"title="Tomás_Laighléis.html" ;"title="torytelling of Tomás Laighléis">torytelling of Tomás Laighléis, Mionlach">Tomás_Laighléis.html" ;"title="torytelling of Tomás Laighléis">torytelling of Tomás Laighléis, Mionlach

* [autobiography]
* [short stories and journalism]
* [folklore, Connemara]
* [biography, Aran Islands]
* [collection of writings by Mícheál Breathnach, Cois Fhairrge]
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* [local history, Connemara dialect]
* [stories, Northern Mayo dialect]
* emoirs, Northern Mayo dialect*
* orthern Mayo dialect* olklore from the Aran Islands

* utobiography, Connemara dialect

* olklore, eastern Galway* ovel, Connemara dialect* hort stories, Connemara dialect* hort stories, Connemara dialect* hort stories, Connemara dialect* hort stories, Connemara dialect* ssays, journalism, history, politics, miscellany, Connemara dialect* hort stories, Connemara dialect* ovel, Connemara dialect* ournalism, Connemara dialect* ssays, Connemara dialect* istory, politics, Connemara dialect* ovel, Connemara dialect* esearch and opinions, Connemara dialect & English* hort stories, Connemara dialect* olklore, Achill Island dialect* olklore, Northern Mayo dialect* olklore, Northern Mayo dialect* ovel, Connemara dialect* ovel, Connemara dialect* hort stories, Connemara dialect* olklore, Connemara dialect* ocal history, Aran Islands dialect*
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* tory, Aran Islands dialect* tory, Aran Islands dialect* olklore, Aran Islands dialect* hort stories, Connemara dialect*
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* ovel, Connemara dialect* olklore, autobiography, Connemara dialect* est Galway dialect* olklore, Bearna/Na Forbacha dialect* utobiography, Aran Islands dialect* oetry, Aran Islands dialect*
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* ovel, Tourmakeady dialect* hort stories, Connemara dialect* hort stories, Aran Islands dialect* utobiography, Ros Muc dialect* olklore, memoirs, autobiography, Connemara dialect* utobiography, Connemara dialect* ovel, Aran Islands dialect* ovel, Aran Islands dialect* ournalism, Aran Islands dialect* ocal history, Southern Mayo dialect* exicon, expressions, Connemara dialect* istory, Connemara dialect*
* hort stories, Connemara dialect* ovel, Connemara dialect* ovel, Connemara dialect*
* ovel, Connemara dialect* ovel, Connemara dialect* ovel, Connemara dialect* orthern Mayo dialect

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* emoirs and folklore, Ros Muc

* olklore, Achill Island dialect

Music

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External links

Boston and the Irish Language: Fifty Years of Cultural Connection in Oral History

Gaeilge Chonamara - An Ghaeilge mar a labhraítear i gConamara í

Irish language in Mayo

{{Connachta

Irish dialects
Connacht