Irish & Gaelic

My ancestry as far as I can discern is close to 97% Gaelic - 3% is Germanic/Iceland. The English ancestry I have is from Shrewsbury, Shropshire which used to be part of Wales.

Having said all that, I'm open to all Celtic sources to learn about my culture. Irish and Welsh sources are proving to be the most bountiful, as the Celtic culture appears to have survived in written and lived form in those places, more intact than elsewhere. England is a bit suspect when it comes to Celtic sources. I'm not discounting it, but the Crowley's and Gardner's of the world have ruined it a bit for me.

The same is true of learning the language.

I will happily learn Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh or Manx words as they come up. I’m not fussing about masculine and feminine and verb tense; I don't suppose I'll ever be a fluent Irish or Gaelic speaker - but learning the small bit of Irish and Scottish Gaelic that I have so far has been a huge part of my connection process.

The language does something really powerful to our brains in moving us towards understanding how our ancestors think and feel.

Add me on Duolingo!

Translation and Pronunciation

The spelling of Gaelic words is super hard to pronounce with my anglicized brain and mouth. Pronunciation websites have proved to be a big help.

• LearnGaelic.scot (pronunciation, dictionary, videos)

• Foclair.ie (English to Irish translation AND pronunciation - quickly becoming my favourite and first choice)

• Forvo.com (pronunciation)

• Teanglann.ie (pronunciation)

Even these websites are not complete in regards to all the words I’ve needed help in pronouncing, but it’s a good start and I’ll add more as I find them.

The Unofficial Guide to Pronouncing Gaelic

I first started reading this and was like “Yeah, I got this…” then it just went ON and ON and ON… The rules around Gaelic pronunciation are A LOT.

The skinny consonants and skinny vowels and RD and RT having a SH in them out of nowhere and H’s changing how a letter sounds and the CH’s in the back of the throat like German or Hebrew. Le Chaim!

It’s a lot, but we gotta start somewhere!

Irish & Gaelic Audio 

Click below for audio page. It is a growing audio resource of the Irish words and phrases I’ve learned that are specifically relevant to my Celtic reconnecting journey.