Irish books, cds, posters, etc

Re: Recommended dictionary and grammar?

Russell — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:13:52 GMT

I have Collin's Easy Learning Irish Dictionary. It's 560 pages long. The book explains some basic grammar, has a small selection of verb tables, and a section called "Irish in Action", which shows you how to say a lot of basic things in Irish. It has an Irish-English section and a somewhat larger English-Irish section. I think it is a very good dictionary for the price and definitely helpful to the beginner. However, there are times when I cannot find words that I need, and when this problem arises, a more thorough dictionary is needed.

A lot of the entries in the dictionary have examples that show you how the word can be used in a sentence. This is particularly helpful for contextual differences. Overall, it's easy to read and understand. The book also has a section that explains how you can more efficiently use the dictionary.

As for grammar books, I have the Irish Grammar Book by Nollaig Mac Congail and the Teach Yourself Irish Grammar book by Éamonn Ó Dónaill. Both were recommended to me by another learner. I have not yet started the Teach Yourself Irish Grammar book, so I can't tell you much about it, but I'm a little more than a third way through the book by Mac Congail. That book seems to be quite thorough, though, there are not translations for all the Irish in it. Most of the Irish is translated, however. The only way that I know for sure it differs from Éamonn's book is that Éamonn's book has practice drills and Mac Congail's book doesn't.

The same person also recommend A Learner's Guide to Irish by Donna Wong. This is supposed to be a very good book that was designed with classroom use in mind, and even has spiral binding instead of the more difficult traditional binding. That is, it will easily lay open flat on your desk. It's intended for the serious leaner and it's high price reflects that.

For more in-depth information, there is a good review on Wong's book available at Amazon. There are also good reviews for the other grammar books I mentioned at Amazon. Just look them up on Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Learners-Guide-Irish-Donna-Wong/dp/1901176487

For verbs in particular, I've heard that Leabhar Mór Bhriathra na Gaeilge (The Great Irish Verb Book) by AJ Hughes is the best book available on the subject.

You can purchase it here as a hardback (I'm not aware of a paperback version): http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=5338

A good review of the contents can be found here: http://www.daltai.com/discus/messages/13510/35061.html

The Great Irish Verb Book is the larger, more thorough version, including a lot of information on dialectal variations. There is a shorter version called The Abridged Irish Verb Book that excludes the in-depth look at regional differences, and therefore is a lot cheaper.

The Abridged Irish Verb Book can be purchased here at Litriocht.

Paperback Version: http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=5894

Hardback Version: http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=5893

Re: Recommended dictionary and grammar?

Frankie — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:37:56 GMT

Ahem (just clearing my throat) ... Ta.

Yeah I did get my Foclóir Póca, and for me its working great! I've only had it for a week now, but already I'm being introduced to words I would like to say in everyday speech.

The Foclóir Póca has the Irish phonetics, which is pretty cool (I was told that before I bought it, so was a big selling point), but I do find it a bit slow because I haven't quite learnt the phonetics off-by-heart, but some of it is coming together naturally. So I'll be flicking from the word, back to the beginning and then back to the word (maybe I should just write the phonetics down and then look at the chart?) but the chart of phonetics is on three consecutive pages near the start of the Foclóir Póca. Perhaps all I need to do is make a photo-copy of the chart of phonetics so when I need to find a word, I'll be able to pronounce it just as fast

And plus, the other great thing about it, is that its got your English words with its Irish equivalents in the English section. So I can think of a word in English, see its many ways it could be said in Irish. Then look up the Irish section, where it'll give me an example of the word in an Irish sentence (to see if it is the appropriate word) and it also has the same sentence translated as English in the Irish section. So for me I find it very useful.

But in saying all that, not all words come with helpful sentences, so knowing some Irish helps a little to use the 'Foclóir Póca'.
I wouldn't have it as a sole-source for your Irish, as it wouldn't contain all the words necessary. But for anyone learning, a very useful asset.

Frankie

Re: Recommended dictionary and grammar?

michelle — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:19:52 GMT

Well Frankie, did you get Foclóir Póca? What did you make of it?

Re: Recommended dictionary and grammar?

Frankie — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:41:05 GMT

Dia Daoibh,

Ta an-athas orm inniu! D'éist mé le "Seanduine" agus cheannaigh mé "Foclóir Póca".
Is maith sin! Níl mé fan bomaite eile.

Ach, I'll have to write back to you all to let you know what I thought of it.
And I'm gonna save up for "Foclóir Gaeilge – Béarla Ó Dónaill" or "Collins Irish Pocket Dictionary".
But great to have everyones input, very interesting.

Slán go fóhill.

Re: Recommended dictionary and grammar?

tora — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:30:35 GMT

Will do Michelle, and thanks to seanduine for the input about the pronounciation!

Slán, Tora

Re: Recommended dictionary and grammar?

seanduine — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:43:16 GMT

Did anyone mention that the Foclóir Póca is one of the few (only) dictionaries that provide pronunciation? Good to have along with something more heavy duty.

Re: Recommended dictionary and grammar?

michelle — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:03:28 GMT

Go n-éirí go geal leat

(may you succeed brightly)

Let us know which one you bought and how it worked out for you - it would be a great help!

Michelle

Re: Recommended dictionary and grammar?

tora — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:06:22 GMT

Go raibh maith agat a Michelle!

slán, Tora

Re: Recommended dictionary and grammar?

michelle — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 06:37:31 GMT

Tora, a chara,

I have three small pocket dictionaries:

Foclóir Póca Irish Dictionary by An Gúm
Collins Irish Dictionary by Collins Gem
Pocket Oxford Irish Dictionary

These are all Irish-English and English-Irish and are useful for beginners.

I'm not sure of the next step up. The next 'serious' dictonary recommended to me by Oideas Gael and several teachers was Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla by Ó Dónaill. Thing is, it's just Irish-English, not English-English. www.litriocht.com describe it as:

Standardised Irish-English dictionary featuring living Gaeltacht speech, the literary tradition, and new technical terms. Alternative forms included.
Generous exemplary phrases and grammatical information. Indispensable to student, writer, or general reader.

You can buy it at www.litriocht.com - the online Irish language bookstore that claims to have 'Gach leabhar Gaeilgei gCló' - every Irish book in print. I know you could order it from Amazon, but supporting Litríocht is a great way to support an indigenous business that is passionate about the language and are doing its best to support it.

There's a nice introduction to dictionaries on BBC NI here. The writer states that Ó Dónaill's Foclóir Gaeilge Béarla - is the best Irish to English dictionary available.

Ó Dónaill's dictionary also provides a lot of information about the grammar of words - genitive and plural and so on. It's also very useful for getting to grips with dialect and standard Irish. Now, you've probably heard of An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, the 'official standard' spelling and grammar which was published by the translators in Dáil Éireann in the nineteen fifties. It was an attempt to get to grips with the many different forms of Irish in Munster and Ulster and Connacht. The fear was that the language was being pulled apart by dialect differences. Take for example, a sentence as simple as 'I built myself a house'. In Munster it could be Do dheineas tig dhom féinig and in Ulster it might be Rinn' mé teach domh fhéin. If the Munster writer and the Ulster writer follow the standard rules they should both write the same thing: Rinne mé teach dom féin. It's a compromise and no-one ever suggested that the dialect forms were 'wrong' or that they should be banished from the language. You're perfectly free to write as you see fit, although most people will expect standard Irish in official or semi-official documents.

When Niall Ó Dónaill was compiling his dictionary he continued the standardising project and tried to arrive at one definitive, standard form of all the words in the dictionary. But because he didn't want to rule out the dialect forms he included them too, with the abbreviation 'Var' for 'variant'. So if you're not sure whether or not your spelling of a word is standard or dialect, you can check in Ó Dónaill's dictionary. What about domh in the sentence Rinn' me teach domh fhéin? If you go to the word domh you'll see that it equals the standard spelling dom. So you can write it in your letters, in your diary, or in your stories and poems, but you wouldn't expect to see it in a government policy document. And you might want to think twice about using it in an essay.

Hope this was useful - anyone else got any advice, please post here!

Recommended dictionary and grammar?

tora — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:30:25 GMT

Dia daoibh a chairde!

Just wanted to check if anyone can recommend an Irish dictionary? I'm just a beginner, but I'd like to have a good sturdy dictionary that won't be too basic once I get better...also, if there are any good grammar books out there I'd be interested to know!

Slán go fóill, Tora