@saethwr Haha, yes! That very well may be in our future 
And if she doesnât want to, then no reason for me not to get double practice. Plus, I think itâd be nice to practice with someone whoâs also learning as well! Less pressure haha. Yes!
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I agree. SSi format makes all the difference for me.
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Iâve been looking at some of the comments on getting people with the right pronunciation for Duolingo. I canât really imagine how you would represent Irish on SSi unless you had three separate versions (Munster, Connacht and Ulster) or just decided to go with one on the basis of the most-spoken or just whoever you could find with the most authentic accent (that was still generally intelligible). The problem is also that the more authentic the accent is, the less likely it is that they are using standard Irish!
Apart from it being from my own âbackyardâ 
the Cois Fharraige dialect has the advantage of having the book âLearning Irishâ available in a Welsh language version âDysgu Gwyddelegâ, pub by Prifysgol Cymru Aberystwyth, which might be of interest to those learning Welsh also. âLearning Irishâ is by Micheal Ă Siadhail. It teaches only the Irish spoken out along the coast from Galway (with some non-standard spelling to reflect this).
The Irish of Tourmakeady (South Mayo) was very highly regarded but the number of speakers have declined a lot. North Mayo Irish on the other hand still seems to be fairly strong in one smallish area and has the advantage that, although a Connacht dialect, it has some tinge of a South Donegal pronunciation and therefore might be of interest to those who would like to move between Connacht and Ulster dialects.
I feel like Iâm rambling on a bit here⊠but I would be interested to read what others think. Iâm not mentioning Munster dialect as more people are already aware of its importance and it is a large influence on the standard (âAn CaighdĂ©anâ). Munster speakers would make the same comment on the influence of Connemara IrishâŠ
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Iâm kind of torn between something like that - obviously what we did with Welsh - and something more generic to save on the considerable complications that have arisen by having ânorthernâ and âsouthernâ options for Welsh⊠itâs tricky.
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Yes, three versions would be a huge undertaking. Any speaker will have some bias towards one of the dialects (just because they will have come from or based themselves on an area). However Iâve heard at least one native speaker argue strongly for the CaighdĂ©an/Standard and a lot of work went into honing it throughout the 20th century. No doubt it will be strongly affected by who would be available to do the recordings - and hope they will be somewhere in the middle!
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Hi, I would be really interested in this too! Iâve enjoyed Welsh and done a few of Manx and Cornish too, so Iâd love to learn some Irish as well!
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Can I just add my support for a SaySomethinginIrish. Have just finished Level 1 over the past couple of months and would really appreciate a course as good as SSiW for Irish. Being from County Down Iâd have to throw my support behind a three dialect split if at all possible as Ulster Irish is really what I would like to speak.
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There might be a fairly good argument for basing a course on just one dialect (at least to begin with). Before the loss of the language in Omeath it was to that area that the language revivalists (of Belfast) went for their Irish. This was covered in the very interesting documentary âScĂ©al na Fadgiesâ a few years ago. As Omeath was a more central dialect than Donegal (the dialect Belfast learners looked to after the loss of Omeath Irish speakers) and would surely have been the historical dialect of Co Down you might find this documentary interesting (although you may well have seen it already!). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql2xYTqTZVk
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Recordings here. The Omeath speakers come under Co Louth I think. Very interesting to listen to them as they have an Ulster âtwangâ but nowhere near as pronounced as modern speakers from Belfast or Donegal. https://www.doegen.ie/taxonomy/term/21984
This FB page also relates to South-East Ulster Irish. Mostly in Irish but a few posts in English and links to other pages and events. https://www.facebook.com/groups/210879922306774/?ref=group_browse_new
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I had heard that the Irish speaking population of Belfast arose from Omeath Irish speakers migrating there in the 19th Century but I hadnât seen that documentary. I do know that there were some Native Irish speakers in remote parts of the Mourne Mountains (South county Down, near to the Cooley Peninsula) up until the middle of the 20th Century. I would say given the close geographical relationship that linguistically they would likely be similar as well. I bought the book âUlster Gaelic Voicesâ several years ago and it features recordings that are taken from Doegen of speakers in County Down and possibly Louth as well. Interesting stuff.
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Any prospect for adding Scottish Gaelic to the inventory as well? I suppose GĂ idhlig is in an even more precarious position than Gaeilge at the moment.
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Weâre very keen to do exactly that, as soon as weâve got the software ready for the next round of beta testing - which I hope will be early next yearâŠ
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Newyddion gwych! Pob lwc i chi ac iâr beta testing, Aran. Yn ogystal, diolch yn fawr iawn i chi am fy nysgu i Cymraeg
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Croeso mawr - a llongyfarchiadau mawr ar safon dy Gymraeg!
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I canât imagine how difficult it must be to make that decision about which dialect to go for with this course. I would be very supportive of the 3 dialect split, but thatâs so much work! Personally, i feel like the standard would be perfectly fine, but my little selfish heart wants munster more than anything. Iâm working to move to cork early next year and thatâs what they speak there. I also personally encounter munster irish more than the other dialects. Even so, iâll take anything that i can get and hope that iâll be clever enough to adjust my accent and vocabulary when i move to a munster area.
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Itâll definitely happen - even the most dramatic of differences tend to become plain sailing after some time in the communityâŠ
Iâm currently thinking that we might go firmly in the âmultiple dialectsâ route, but just treat them all as separate projects - which means it would stop being as complicated a scenario as itâs been with Welsh, and become largely a matter of making sure our navigation works fairly tidilyâŠ
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Ah! Wonderful!! Iâm still so excited, i canât wait.
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Thatâs wonderful news. Iâve been interested in learning Irish for years now, and have been perfecting my Welsh for the sake of learning a Celtic language. I never thought Iâd learn Welsh, but since the company is a Welsh company and has focused Welsh as itâs primary course, I didnât doubt in learning it and here I am, Iâm way ahead in the language. But Irish will always have my attention, particularly the Irish Connacht dialect, since my goal in the language is to write a novel entirely in Irish, based in Connemara. So, I look forward to the courses. Thank you Aran! 
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Awesome goal! Iâll look forward to reading it 
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Will it be as black as Calvary?
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