Teach Yourself Irish Complete Course Audio Package

Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: From what I have seen, this is the best all around course on Irish language there is. I bought it awhile ago and was impressed with its comprehensive compilation. Remember, study everyday for a short period, Irish is hard to learn and easy to forget so it takes constant study.

A warning to the learner, Irish has a number of dialects, some of them are mutually unintelligable such as the Ulster and Connacht dialects. Don't be discuraged when you come across someone who speaks a different dialect and either A) they can't understand you B) they tell you you're pronouncing it wrong or C) both A and B. Irish people are extremely proud of the dialect they speak (if they do indeed speak Irish) since it's unalterably linked to the land and they are quite convinced that they speak the language the only correct way it can be spoken.

Rating:
Summary: The best course
Review: I always wante dto learn this beautiful language but I couldnt find the way as in my country there are no courses. When I saw in amazon that they had such an interesting book, I didnt doubt it. I recommend it because it has everything you could expect for. It has vocabulary, excercises, etc. Sometimes I thought "perhaps its not complete or its not understandable", but I was only being wrong. Its really complete and it helped me lots. Thanks amazon!!!

Rating:
Summary: Good to rehearsal, but...
Review: I think there's lot of space for fonetics, that can be interesting if you want to know how every letter is pronounced, but is useless for a quick fluency.
At hte end of thirty lessons you should be able to cope with very demanding texts, but only in theory, I'm afraid.
It's a pity there is no new edition of Teaching yourself Irish by Myles Dillon and Dònncha ò Cròinìn.
It was based on Munster dialect, but it was clear, full of vocabulary and with the possibility of having two long-playing records with it (!).
This one is based on standard Irish, a language that nobody seriously speaks; I thik this is a drawback ( for reference of various dialects, the best remains Now You're talking- in videotapes- I'm not sure that Amazon.com offers it.

Rating:
Summary: Is this supposed to be a parody?
Review: I try to be able to say at least 'thank you' and pick the right door at the public toilets when I visit another country. If you want to quickly learn priority phrases and vocabulary for your visit to Ireland, well . . . this is THE WORST program I've ever found!

First: You can't use it in the car (which is the only place many of us have time to work on a language). Example: Early on, you're asked to listen to a dictation (untranslated), write down the words and check your spelling with the book.

There are a lot of dialogues (also untranslated), to which you're asked to listen, and answer questions (in English) to test your comprehension (e.g., "Which one is the teacher?") But they don't first introduce the word "teacher" -- and besides, why do you care? Is "teacher" one of the first 25 words you need to learn in Irish? After 45 minutes of listening, I don't recall practicing the words for "yes," "no," "thank you," "good morning" . . . they're buried in the dialogues, but it's a secret. At other times, you're asked to first say a word yourself, in Irish (which hasn't been introduced on the recording yet)-- and then check yourself against the speaker. (Additionally, I thought the voice of the English-speaking 'guide' was louder -- and the voices of the Irish speakers were less audible and clear.)

There are much better products out there . . . I misplaced my original Irish tapes, and bought this as a replacement (thinking it was the same one) to brush up. Complete waste -- verging on humorous.

Rating:
Summary: Outright ridiculous
Review: In this review I'll try to explain
a. why I think Irish is a wonderful language that I wish everyone would learn.
b. why this book is the worst book on the market

a. The Irish Language
Irish is a Celtic language. It is almost identical to Scottish Gaelic and Manx Gaelic and once you speak Irish you will have no problem reading Scottish Gaelic although the pronunciation is somewhat harder. Still, these three language are very close to one another and share a common history. Irish is also related to Welsh, Breton and Cornish but much more distantly. Irish isn't closer to any of those languages than English is to German... In other words, don't expect any mutual intelligibility.

For most of its history, Irish was the main language of the all Ireland. If your ancestors left Ireland in the 19th century, as so many did, it is very probable that their language was Irish. If they left before the 19th century it is almost certain. In the late 19th century English began to replace Irish quite rapidly in most of Ireland but to this day Irish remains a living language in areas on the Atlantic coast. There are Gaeltachtaí (Irish-speaking areas) in six Irish counties today (Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Meath, Kerry, Cork and Waterford). No-where is the traditional Irish way of life so very much alive as in the Gaeltacht-areas. Hardly surprising, the areas which has remained true to the Irish language have also preserved most its culture - and it's a fabulous culture. The literature written in Irish is already over 1000 years old and to this day it expands. In fact, it has been growing stronger over the last fifty years and a large number of excellent books have been written. I could write a long list, but I'll mention the likes of Máirtín Ó Direáin, Muiris Ó Súilleabháin, Máire Mac an tSaoi, Séamus Ó Ríordáin, Máirtín Ó Cadhain and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.

I've lived in the Gaeltacht myself and I speak fluent Irish. The Irish are always friendly but I can promise you that by speaking their language you have really made a lasting impression and made yourself many new friends. The Irish language is also the key to everyday life in the Gaeltacht since everything is conducted through the medium of Irish there. Life in the Gaeltacht is absolutely wonderful and the "craic" (talk) is great. In fact, Irish even has a word, bothántaíocht, which means "visiting your neighbours at evening to talk".

b. Teach Yourself Irish
If you are not serious about learning Irish you would waste your money on this course. There are lots of much cheaper phrase-books on the market. They won't teach you much, but you will learn some everyday phrases.

However, if you are serious about learning the language this course is a disaster.
- It is poorly organised. The grammar is presented in a very random way and you will have to jump from chapter to chapter to learn points of grammar since one piece of grammar can be split up between many chapters.
- It does not take you that far. It says "explore the language in depth" but that is something written on the cover of every new Teach Yourself book. It is true for some of the courses but definitely not for this one. You will have learned a basic vocabulary and some grammar by the end of this book, but you will be far from competent in Irish. Other courses take you much further.
- The language used in the course. Irish is divided into three dialects as well as a standard dialect. Amazingly, this course is not based on any of these. Rather, it takes some aspects from one dialect, some from another dialect and some from the standard language. True enough, Irish speakers will understand you but you will sound very strange - not unlike a foreigner speaking English mixing Oxford English, Texas English and Cockney.
- The pronunciation on the CDs. I've never heard a more stilted pronunciation in my life (and I've heard lots and lots of Irish). If you use this pronunciation you will be understood (altough those to whom you speak will be confused) but you yourself will not understand what you hear. Spoken Irish isn't anything near the pronunciation given here.

My recommendation is that you look up the excellent course "Learning Irish" here at Amazon. I've written a review of that course too, so I won't repeat myself except from saying that it is superior in every possible way.

(This review is based on the newest version of Teach Yourself Irish, 2004. The earlier edition is identical except from the cover and some web-sites.)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent beginner's book
Review: Irish belongs to the Celtic language family, the most western of the Indo-European language groups. It is of interest to linguists since it may preserve features of the original Indo-European proto-language. The family has two branches, the first composed of Gaelic and Manx, which are very similar to each other, and the other branch, composed of Welsh, Breton, and Cornish, but they are too different to be mutually intelligible. Irish is known as Gaeilge, and Welsh is called Cymraeg. Breton and Welsh are grouped together as Brythonic languages, while Irish and Scots Gaelic are grouped together as Goedelic languages. Irish and Scots Gaelic speakers can understand each other with some difficulty and also Welsh and Breton speakers. However, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a Welsh and an Irish speaker to understand each other.

Irish and Scots Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton are still alive, but Cornish and Manx have died out. The other Celtic languages that have died out are Galatian (spoken by Celts in central Turkey), Gaulish, and Celtiberian or Hispano-Celtic. The last three were assimilated into the Roman empire. Lastly, there was Pictish, which may or may not have been a real Celtic language.

One of the first things students notice is the odd spelling of Irish words. This is because there are only 18 letters in the Irish alphabet. This isn't many letters compared to English's 26, Arabic's 29, Bulgarian's 30, Russian's 33, Hungarian's 44, Japanese's 52, or Chinese's thousands of characters (however, there are only about 220 basic characters, or radicals), but Malaysian still has less at 14.

One of the ways Irish gets along with such a small alphabet is that there are complex rules relating to combinations of consonants and vowels, with the vowels affecting the pronunciation of the consonants. You'll learn about all these in the first chapter, which is on phonetics and pronunciation.

To discuss the phonetics a little more, Irish has short and long vowels like English, but unlike English it has both long and short consonants, called slender and broad. If you are an American or Scottish speaker your consonants are all broad, but if you are Welsh or Irish your consonants are likely all slender, but old Irish has both slender and broad types. To give an example of this, the "l" in "leaf" is slender, but the "l" in "feel" is broad, and the word "little" has a slender initial "l" and a broad second "l."

Another interesting aspect of Irish phonetics is there are complex rules for mutation of sounds, such as in lenition and eclipsis of consonants, which I alluded to earlier. This often happens in the first consonants of verbs and nouns. Lenition means softening, or the replacement of a loud, abrupt sound by a softer hissing or continuous sound, as in the replacement of "c" by "ch." Eclipsis occurs when the sound of a consonant like "c" is overtaken by the sound of the consonant before it, such as a "g." I'm used to this phenomenon being referred to as forward or anterograde assimilation of consonants, and English also has it, as when the "s" in dogs sounds like a "z" because it is being assimilated by the voiced "g" sound. Russian is the reverse, and has regressive or retrograde assimilation of consonants.

Although Irish and Scots Gaelic are relatively difficult to pronounce for English speakers, Welsh isn't and is very similar to Spanish in that the spelling is completely phonetic.

However, this book does an excellent job of covering Irish pronunciation and there is an extensive chapter covering the differences between Irish and English sounds. After the first chapter, the remaining 20 chapters deal with phrases for practical situations that one encounters while travelling of the sort used in a typical Berlitz book, with the grammar being introduced as you go along. I would prefer a more systematic treatment of the grammar, and there is a 15-page section covering the grammar in the appendix of the book. But in the conversation chapters the various aspects of the grammar are just discussed as you go along.

Irish has masculine and feminine genders, and also something called the genitive singular, which affects different kinds of nouns when they are joined to the previous noun. Irish has similar verb tenses and moods to English, but the habitual past is more important in Irish. There are two perfect present tenses, based on the verbal adjective, or past participle, such as in "written," or the verbal noun, or gerund, as in "writing." Hence, Irish has present, past, present habitual, past habitual, and future tenses. It also has the imperative, conditional, and subjunctive moods, and there is a passive voice, similar to English and most Indo-European languages. Interestingly, the only exception to this is Basque, which does not have a passive voice. Basque is also the only language in Europe that is ergative-absolutive rather than nominative-accusative in terms of the case system. What this means is that the subject of an intransitive verb is declined the same way as the direct object of a transitive verb. The subject of ergativity is a very interesting one and worth reading up on in the chapter on it in a good general or structural linguistics book.

But getting back to the present book, this is an excellent, basic introduction to Irish and also has the advantage of the optional set of tapes that will help you with speaking and pronunciation. If you're like me, you'll want a fuller treatment of the grammar, but this is a fine beginning book and you can always pick up a more rigorous grammar later when you're a few chapters into this book and are ready for it.

Rating:
Summary: The Worst Teach Yourself Book
Review: This is by far the worst teach yourself book I have ever read. Irish is a very beautiful language but it has very difficult pronunciation, you have to practice for months before you can predict the pronunciation of a word. This book has a pronunciation section with cassettes, you hear a word said by a native speaker, but you have no idea how it's written, it is not in the book!!! The book is a complete disorder in this section. The Grammar explanations are a joke too.

I have used very good TY books like TY Czech, Hindi, Finnish, Hungarian, Sanskrit, Danish, Russian, Dutch, or modern Greek; and very bad ones like TY Romanian or Polish; but this is the worst so far. This book is amazingly far, far below TY standards.