What did the Old Gaelic Language Sound Like?

A look at the evolution of the Irish and Scottish Gaelic languages and what they sounded like in the ancient and medieval period, using historical examples and reconstructed pronunciation. The reconstructed pronunciation strives to follow the scholarship on the correct pronunciation though there is not always full agreement on the sounds during specific periods.
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Пікірлер: 936

  • @conorsheehan9929
    @conorsheehan99296 ай бұрын

    At the age of five I was sent to the Model school in Limerick . My grasp of English was still childish . From the first day in school I happily encountered lots of new words and ways of speaking . I was commpletely unaware that I was learning another language , it was just lots of new words . We had no books , grammar was never mentioned at all . We learned childish games in Irish . It was fun . By the time I moved to a higher school I was completely comfortable speaking our national language . I learned to read and write Irish in the Sean Chló which was a beautiful , graceful script and inseperable from the spoken words . That beautiful old script was obliterated in the 1960’s for an ugly brutalist imposter . I will never understand why that uniquely Irish pillar of our ancient culture was assassinated overnight and hurriedly buried in an unmarked grave . A gre,at wrong was done to us , but this time by ourselves . I can still read and write in the sean chló and I would dearly love to have it revived to a place of honour . P.S. Here is the spelling of my name in the old script...Concúir . Here is the imposter version....Conchubhair !

  • @iavv334

    @iavv334

    6 ай бұрын

    The war of friends destroyed many things, and unfortunately the Gaelic was one of them. Pro-Anglo elites imposed a horrific spelling reform and an intentionally destructive education system to try to kill of the language in public spaces, and they've more or less been successful. Pride for the language has been at an all time low, and it's up to our generation to try to save the language before its lost. Conchobhar is ainm dom, leis, agus gaiscígh na teanga is ea sinne. 💪 Bail ó Dhia ort. ✝

  • @michealbreathnach2928

    @michealbreathnach2928

    6 ай бұрын

    Bail ó Dhia oraibh. Chuaigh mo thriúr iníonacha go dtí an Mhodhscoil, tá duine acú án í gconaí. Is scoil mhaith í, cé go bhfuil an teannga beagan níos laige intí le cupla blíain anuas.

  • @andrewfahy9153

    @andrewfahy9153

    6 ай бұрын

    I often wondered and thought the same as you Conor. Linguistic vandalism on our beautiful script. It can be brought back.

  • @michealbreathnach2928

    @michealbreathnach2928

    6 ай бұрын

    @@andrewfahy9153 Ní cheapfainn go dtabharfar ar ais and sean bealach litriú arís. Caithfidh muid úsáid a bhaint as an bealach nua chomh maith is feidir linn.

  • @andrewfahy9153

    @andrewfahy9153

    6 ай бұрын

    Beidir Michael, ach is feidir linn an sean bealach litriu a dtabharfar ar ais. Beidir go mbeidh an suim leis na ndaoine oige. Nil an teanga in ait ro laidir anois, ach leis na ndaoine oige, beidir go mbeidh an sceal nios fearr san t-am seo chugainn. @@michealbreathnach2928

  • @ryleefeehan9170
    @ryleefeehan91706 ай бұрын

    My grandfather’s grandma was the last of us to speak and sing Gaelic and I would love to bring it back

  • @TheHeathenCoalition

    @TheHeathenCoalition

    6 ай бұрын

    Its a beautiful language!

  • @kredonystus7768

    @kredonystus7768

    6 ай бұрын

    Duolingo has Gaidhlig. Both Gaidhlig and Irish Gaelic have lots of resources online. If you are in the UK there are so many places to learn.

  • @teramitchell4074

    @teramitchell4074

    6 ай бұрын

    I have found Rosetta Stone to be the best app for learning languages.

  • @johnboyce8279

    @johnboyce8279

    6 ай бұрын

    Just do it!

  • @maryjacobs5920

    @maryjacobs5920

    6 ай бұрын

    Cape Breton has a school. Canada

  • @KGTiberius
    @KGTiberius6 ай бұрын

    Poetry is a great way to “hear” older linguistic rhyming sounds. Such inferred sounds point to former phoneme inventory or phonemic correspondences, phonological and phonetic change, rephonemicization, and allophonic differentiation (distribution of allophones of phoneme changes). Well done!

  • @alanflood8908

    @alanflood8908

    4 ай бұрын

    ❤❤❤❤

  • @jordanandrei4984
    @jordanandrei49845 ай бұрын

    VERY IMPORTANT CORRECTION! In modern Irish, in ALL dialects, the distinction between a tapped r (broad r) and a palatal tap (slender r) and sometimes even the trill (double r) is absolutely still made, it is not at all an old or archaic feature. The use of the English r is a feature of neo speaker who have English as their mother tongue, it’s not a new feature of the Irish language at all. Edit: spelling mistake.

  • @arjgro

    @arjgro

    5 ай бұрын

    Neo Irish seems to be the norm nowadays. Even 25 years ago, I did hear mostly English phonology whenever listening to Irish speakers. Even in the Gaeltacht, the areas of Gaoth Dobhair, Cois Fharraige and An Daingean, I vividly remember those few old people that still spoke a distinctive kind of Irish. The conservative dialects will not survive the havoc caused by An Caighdeán Oifigiúil as taught by teachers with English as their mother tongue. Perhaps confined already to a small group of passionate linguists as we speak...

  • @Hadraedan96

    @Hadraedan96

    5 ай бұрын

    Considering that most Irish speakers have English as their native language, it is probably fair to say that most Irish speakers do not pronounce R with either a trill or a tap. While tapped and trilled Rs certainly do exist in spoken Irish, I find it is very much a feature of Gaeltacht Irish. As a native Irish speaker from Dublin born to non-native speakers, I rarely, if ever, tap or roll my Rs. As the influence of Irish speakers from non-Gaeltacht areas increases, tapped and trilled Rs as a standard feature of spoken Irish will decline.

  • @docastrov9013

    @docastrov9013

    4 ай бұрын

    ​@@Hadraedan96I'm not a speaker but I can tell on the radio they are effectively using their Irish accent English to speak gaelic which makes no sense. Listening to native gaelic speakers from the Hebrides it doesn't sound like Scottish English.

  • @oisinlarkin6885

    @oisinlarkin6885

    3 ай бұрын

    ​@@Hadraedan96 How are you a native speaker if your parents aren't? They learned it as a second language and raised you with it I guess?

  • @wisdom.research1051

    @wisdom.research1051

    2 ай бұрын

    You got a lot of comments on this distinction between r' s. May I add that in ancient Hebrew there were two R s, a trilled double (if letter has a inner dot as reading sign) and a basic R. Some Israelis know which R words to trill, but most do not, as it was not figured out by the revival of modern Hebrew, thus not taught . You showed me that other ancient lanquages went thru a similar process, as your Irish speakers point out in comments to you.👍 Good day 😇

  • @millar6070
    @millar60706 ай бұрын

    When my mother, made myself to learn Gallic, when I was 37, here in Melbourne,Victoria, Australia, this was difficult for me but I had learnt, I believe she gave me a insight into my heritage.

  • @brackloon4584

    @brackloon4584

    5 ай бұрын

    Nuair a labhraíonn tú nádúr labhraíonn tú an fhírinne.

  • @OakwiseBecoming

    @OakwiseBecoming

    4 ай бұрын

    English must be a second language for you. Correct English is “made me learn Gallic.” And “learned.”

  • @janewrin1830

    @janewrin1830

    3 ай бұрын

    @@OakwiseBecoming although in old English, she is correct and in proper British English it is 'learnt' not 'learned'.

  • @johnc3403

    @johnc3403

    22 күн бұрын

    Your English is not great though. Time would have been better spent improving that.

  • @janewrin1830

    @janewrin1830

    22 күн бұрын

    @@johnc3403 this is a reply to millar6070? It is a curious sentence construction, which I assumed meant that English was a 2nd or 3rd language. Now I wonder if it was just affectation.

  • @FirefoxisredExplorerisblueGoog
    @FirefoxisredExplorerisblueGoog6 ай бұрын

    Fascinating how the connection to Italo-Celtic becomes apparent in some of the proto-Celtic words.

  • @thegreatermysteries4134

    @thegreatermysteries4134

    6 ай бұрын

    I was thinking the same thing 👍

  • @paulohagan3309

    @paulohagan3309

    6 ай бұрын

    I read somewhere the two were amongst the earliest langages to split in the Indo-European family.

  • @Eugensson

    @Eugensson

    6 ай бұрын

    ​@@paulohagan3309the earliest split was probably the Centum-Satem split

  • @maureen9115

    @maureen9115

    Ай бұрын

    My grandmother’s language was Gaelic (1882) until she learned English much later in life after moving to America with her husband & children. I noticed there was some minor similarity to Latin & or Spanish words from getting the old newspaper “Ireland’s Own” & hearing her speak. She raised me alone, her grandchild, so I spent most of my time with her. I wondered about if there was some ancient connection. When she got very old, she forgot English & none of us could no longer communicate. It was very sad.

  • @boris035..4

    @boris035..4

    27 күн бұрын

    Coz of Slavic origin..

  • @jangtheconqueror
    @jangtheconqueror5 ай бұрын

    The comment on the druids preserving the older forms of the language reminds me of how the Icelandic tradition of studying and preserving the Norse Viking sagas has helped Icelandic remain relatively close to Old Norse, whereas the other Scandinavian languages have undergone much more drastic changes

  • @weejackrussell

    @weejackrussell

    2 ай бұрын

    That's very interesting.

  • @boris035..4

    @boris035..4

    27 күн бұрын

    They are all connected true common Slavic origin... You can trace it true the root's of the words.

  • @nerthus4685
    @nerthus46856 ай бұрын

    Proto Celtic sounds so similar to Latin and reminds me of the tribal names of Gaul reported by the Romans.

  • @BaileyJPope

    @BaileyJPope

    6 ай бұрын

    Proto-Celtic and Proto-Italic are the closest siblings of the descended PIE languages, even Caesar during his conquest of Gaul remarked at how similar Gaulish and Latin were in sound

  • @FaithfulOfBrigantia

    @FaithfulOfBrigantia

    6 ай бұрын

    ​@@BaileyJPope Could the similarity between Celtic and Latin be a reason why the Celtic languages were so thoroughly replaced by Latin, while more distinct languages, such as Basque and Albanian, remained?

  • @Leptospirosi

    @Leptospirosi

    6 ай бұрын

    @FaithfulOfBrigantia Possibly in Gaul, where the spoken Language was close to the roots. Briton, Cornish, Welsh and Irish had gone so far to be almost unrelatable with Romance languages. It is instead possible that the old Gaulic language pronunciation was at the base of how modern French sounds compared to the written version Also, because the Franks the Burgudians and the Visgoths were old german speakers, Latin would work as a lingua franca and they would take over the local pronunciation, rather then the classical one.

  • @FaithfulOfBrigantia

    @FaithfulOfBrigantia

    6 ай бұрын

    @@Leptospirosi The Insular Celtic languages had gone that far off because they first made their appearence in writing during the high middle ages. Back in the pre-Roman Iron Age, Goidelic, Gallaecian and Celtiberian would be the most archaic and thus closest to Proto-Italo-Celtic, Brythonic would have had large similarities with Gaulish due to second introduction of Celtic in the Islands from Gaul having been only a couple centuries prior. And if Gaulish is similar to Latin, by association so would Brythonic.

  • @darkdevil905

    @darkdevil905

    6 ай бұрын

    ​@@FaithfulOfBrigantiayes

  • @LobertERee
    @LobertERee6 ай бұрын

    Great video. I'm always happy when actual good advice on pronouncing the Celtic languages gets out.

  • @lowlandnobleman6746

    @lowlandnobleman6746

    6 ай бұрын

    Off topic, but your username is pure meme gold. That is all.

  • @bigbadseed7665
    @bigbadseed76656 ай бұрын

    As someone who's always been fascinated by language in general, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I now know why "Alba gu brath" is pronouced "Alba gu brach."

  • @finnkennedymusic

    @finnkennedymusic

    6 ай бұрын

    "Alba gu brath" is actually pronounced "Aliba gu bra" (nowadays anyway). In Scottish Gaelic the "th" is silent and there is a slight separation between the "L" and "B" in "Alba".

  • @LobertERee

    @LobertERee

    6 ай бұрын

    Another weird detail: The word bràth means 'judgment', while brath (short vowel) means 'betrayal'. So it could variously mean 'Scotland until (the day of) judgment' and 'Scotland until betrayal'.

  • @ukpatcopatcouk9748

    @ukpatcopatcouk9748

    6 ай бұрын

    Earliest settlers were not Indo-European. DYOR

  • @bigbadseed7665

    @bigbadseed7665

    6 ай бұрын

    @@ukpatcopatcouk9748 Let me guess. Were they a master race of divine solar beings from Hyperborea?

  • @davidmandic3417

    @davidmandic3417

    5 ай бұрын

    @@LobertERee In this case, t's definitely gu bràth (forever) which used to mean 'to the judgement day'.

  • @helenamcginty4920
    @helenamcginty49205 ай бұрын

    I am a teacher of English as a foreign language. English spelling is also often not a clue to pronunciation. My poor little Spanish students where only stresses can pose a problem to new learners, often struggled. A favourite is 'ough'. There are 8 ways to pronounce this group. Eg. Through, bough, cough....... No rules. You just have yo learn them. All languages have their quirks. ❤

  • @helenamcginty4920

    @helenamcginty4920

    5 ай бұрын

    Ps. My grandad was bilingual but after years living in England he complained about the Gaelic on Radio Eirean. My (know it all but nice) mum reckoned it was because he had forgotten his Gaelic. But he came from Mayo aged 14 in 1895 ish so maybe the pronunciation by the 1950s Dublin based radio presenters was what had changed.

  • @neveo9428

    @neveo9428

    5 ай бұрын

    British establishment looted, committed genocide I'm Ireland for centuries and banned Irish language often, and terrible torture, misunderstanding if an Irish person heard speaking Irish. This is tragic because it wired out the language gradually over the whole if Ireland and iften the native speakers felting feel ashamed of their 'rubbish' language. As a child I asked my Irish mother how to cou t to 10 in Irish - she told me but shrugged off the language as silky or suchlike. Very sad but British did this worldwide ie treated tge people worse than vermin in order to steal the land and anything valuable the coun try possessed. The 'Irish Famine' was a genocide idea by the British who had reduced most Irish to paupers by tge 19th century while the English lived lije King's on the best land and stole crops, cattle, people for slavery and more. During the 'Famine' the British stole many tons of quality food and shipped it to England or used it themselves while millions of Irish starved to death including whole families found on in their homes if they had one in the countryside. The Irish language is still beautiful of course eg 'Hello' translates as 'Dia duit' meaning 'God be with you' with one possible reply being 'God and Mary with you' etc. The language is respectful etc. I would love to speak Irish fluently:)

  • @neveo9428

    @neveo9428

    5 ай бұрын

    'misunderstanding" is a typo due to predictive text and should be 'murder'

  • @jhnshep

    @jhnshep

    4 ай бұрын

    @@helenamcginty4920 I was born in the eighties in north Donegal, in Irish classes we were using books from 20-30 years prior, and the teachers wouldn't use the latest 'national' print for schools printed in Dublin, and if we did use them, spelling and pronunciation 'mistakes' were corrected along the way for the next person. With something like' Ah the paleans don't know better' lol

  • 2 ай бұрын

    @@neveo9428 The same thing happened in Cornwall and is happening in France with Breton.

  • @marynoonan6111
    @marynoonan61115 ай бұрын

    My Great Grandfather spoke Welsh and when he came to Australia, he used to translate both written and spoken Welsh into English for people. My grandfather spoke a bit of Welsh and I liked to hear him speak it. For some reason as a kid, I thought he sounded like a Viking - haha. When I hear an Icelandic person speak English (usually flawlessly!) I reckon I can hear a Welsh accent coming through. He always called me Ionawr (Yonah) (January in Welsh) as I was born on the 2nd of January

  • @boris035..4

    @boris035..4

    27 күн бұрын

    Hollywood intelligence :(

  • @constantius4654
    @constantius46546 ай бұрын

    As an England born person of 100 percent Irish descent (Farrell/Harrigan/Slattery/Hayes) I am forever staggered by the massive knowledge and sheer brilliance dissipated by the Fortress of Lugh. Thank you so much Kevin.

  • @Irish780

    @Irish780

    19 күн бұрын

    Oddly enough irish language was before English

  • @feasogachsionnach1872
    @feasogachsionnach18726 ай бұрын

    A well timed video. I'm currently studying Old Irish in University at the moment and oh lord, it's a whole other thing altogether. It's a beautiful language though, would definitely recommend it if ya get a chance.

  • @gandolfthorstefn1780

    @gandolfthorstefn1780

    6 ай бұрын

    That's awesome. Wish we had Old Irish where I live. Is Old Irish grammar highly inflected? Slán. Hwyl👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

  • @feasogachsionnach1872

    @feasogachsionnach1872

    6 ай бұрын

    @@gandolfthorstefn1780 There's a lot of lenition, aspiration, nasalisation etc, that sorta thing. Double vowels, mutations and so as well. Might sound basic to some, I'm not the greatest when it comes to linguistic terms so you'll have to bear with me.

  • @gandolfthorstefn1780

    @gandolfthorstefn1780

    6 ай бұрын

    @@feasogachsionnach1872 Thanks for the feedback. It sounds even more complicated than Modern Irish. It seems the more ancient the more complicated and a movement towards simplification as a language evolves. As we say in Welsh, 'pob lwc a phob dymuniad da' , good luck and all the best learning Old Irish. 👍☘️Slán.

  • @feasogachsionnach1872

    @feasogachsionnach1872

    6 ай бұрын

    @@gandolfthorstefn1780 Nae bother. It's complicated enough but you can notice similarities if you've an understanding of modern Irish.

  • @gandolfthorstefn1780

    @gandolfthorstefn1780

    6 ай бұрын

    @@feasogachsionnach1872 Modern Irish is on my short language list to learn. I have the materials and am tempted to start but I'm learning Welsh at the moment. Target: Welsh,Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Breton. Hope I live long enough. The Old Irish resembles Welsh with the dh sound and the th. Mod. Irish sounds smooth whereas Welsh sounds more consonantal. You really use every muscle of your mouth with Welsh.

  • @siouxsiesiouxseyebrows
    @siouxsiesiouxseyebrowsАй бұрын

    loved the little poetry bit at the end, I'm Irish and speak a little bit of Gaeilge and I could understand a little here and there lol. an-deas 🌟

  • @westernmasswonderwoman3326
    @westernmasswonderwoman33266 ай бұрын

    Love this video. Excellent breakdown of the language history and stunning visuals!

  • @nbenefiel
    @nbenefiel6 ай бұрын

    I studied Old Irish in grad school. It was the hardest language I ever learned.

  • @barryb90

    @barryb90

    5 ай бұрын

    It's not really. It's just taught so poorly. I had one good teacher throughout school, and everyday he gave us a topic to write a postcard letter to someone, and it stuck in my head.

  • @crimthann-fathach

    @crimthann-fathach

    5 ай бұрын

    @@barryb90 They said Old Irish, not modern Irish

  • @barryb90

    @barryb90

    5 ай бұрын

    @@crimthann-fathach my mistake

  • @ferretyluv

    @ferretyluv

    5 ай бұрын

    You should try Chinese.

  • @vampyricon7026

    @vampyricon7026

    4 ай бұрын

    ​@@ferretyluvInfinitely simpler than Old Irish. Speaking as a native Cantonese speaker.

  • @nbenefiel
    @nbenefiel4 ай бұрын

    I studied old Irish in grad school in Dublin. It was the hardest language I ever tried to learn, worse than Chinese. Modern Irish is easier, but with old Irish you virtually have to memorize every form of every word in the old texts. Both the prefixes and suffixes disappeared, leaving only the middle of the original word.

  • @elliodhadh25
    @elliodhadh255 ай бұрын

    This is class! Thank you for all your research ❤ I speak Ulster Irish and love it. You do a brilliant job with your pronunciations!

  • @Admiralofthedeeps
    @Admiralofthedeeps5 ай бұрын

    As an Irish person, I am really impressed by your grasp of it. I judged you too soon from your accent and I learned a lot from this that I never got from school. Really impressive man, fair play. Its making me want to speak as Gaeilge more.

  • @AlyraMoondancer
    @AlyraMoondancer6 ай бұрын

    That poetry at the end was *gorgeous!* So beautiful!

  • @andrewfahy9153
    @andrewfahy91536 ай бұрын

    Congrats on your excellent presentation Kevin. Excellent scholarly work on our common high Gaelic cultural heritage. Wonderful pronunciation. If its not all 100% accurate, I would say 98%+. I've heard old Irish spoken in historical documentaries. The intonation and pronunciation was very like yours. Other language pronunciation influences I would agree have influenced how emphases have changed, I would think not for the better. The old language was powerful and for me showed great linguistic ability and understanding. Maybe we should restore our powerful old Gaelic. It is a wonderful achievement that shouldn't be lost, a powerful communication medium.Thank you. Aindreis O Fathaigh, Ireland

  • @christinequinn5355

    @christinequinn5355

    5 ай бұрын

    I totally agree.

  • @emom358
    @emom3586 ай бұрын

    I really enjoy when you do deep dives like this this. Keep up the good work!

  • @julescaru8591
    @julescaru85916 ай бұрын

    Enjoyed this so much ! Thanks for sharing! All the best Jules 👍💕

  • @48441000
    @484410006 ай бұрын

    I grew up as first generation where English was my first language. My parents and all my ancestors spoke the Gaelic. I pray in Gaelic and I have many expressions. I miss the Gaelic, the language of my heart.

  • @ciaranwalsh2131
    @ciaranwalsh21316 ай бұрын

    What a beautiful language predates English by over 1,500 years,what a beautiful lyrical language

  • @TineBeo

    @TineBeo

    6 ай бұрын

    Try thousands of years... goes back to Anatolia...

  • @marypetrie930

    @marypetrie930

    6 ай бұрын

    How do you mean pre dates English by 1500 years? What were the Angles Saxons or other Germanic tribes etc speaking at that time then ?

  • @EresirThe1st

    @EresirThe1st

    6 ай бұрын

    It doesn’t predate English, that’s not how languages work. What a stupid comment.

  • @alganhar1

    @alganhar1

    6 ай бұрын

    No, it does not, modern Irish and Scots Gaelic are very different from Old, it is the same with Cymraig (Welsh), the modern language is very different from Old Welsh, enough so that modern Welsh speakers find it very difficult to understand Old Welsh when it is spoken, just as modern English speakers find it difficult to understand much spoken Old English. No language remains unchanged over the course of a thousand and more years, and Irish and Scots Gaelic are NOT exceptions to this rule. The only possible exceptions, and even then not fully, are dead languages not usually spoken aloud any more. Good example being Latin and Ancient Greek. Indeed the fact that these are dead languages, so change very, very slowly over time is one of the primary reasons they are both used for in the Sciences for naming. People such as yourself ned to stop spreading myths such as this, the root languages of English are JUST as old as the roots of the Celtic tongues, and like English the Celtic languages have NOT simply stayed the same over time. Anyone who thinks so is a fool... And no, I am not English, there is a REASON I used Cymraig instead of Welsh for my native tongue.... It is the correct word and does not come from an Anglo Saxon word meaning foreigner....

  • @SeananOCoistin

    @SeananOCoistin

    6 ай бұрын

    ​@@marypetrie930 an early Germanic dialect. The Irish language was definitely in existence when was later to become the English language was just a regional dialect in northern Germany.

  • @selkieart99
    @selkieart994 ай бұрын

    just found this channel & am absolutely in love with this - I've been trying to learn about old Gaelic for ages but finding sources has been pretty difficult

  • @MidnightWillowWriter
    @MidnightWillowWriter6 ай бұрын

    I was just thinking about looking up this topic! Love how my favorite channel is one step ahead of me

  • @Bjorn_Algiz
    @Bjorn_Algiz6 ай бұрын

    Very interesting and informative to say the least on this topic 😊

  • @elorigendelaspalabras2349
    @elorigendelaspalabras23495 ай бұрын

    Amazingly well done!! ❤

  • @geraldinehughes4490
    @geraldinehughes44906 ай бұрын

    Thank you Kevin, this is so valuable and helpful to my understanding, I feel the beauty, I feel it all and I learn so much from you and your stellar productions. I’m charmed. I keep you and your in my continuing prayers. Geraldine

  • @SadieKay1
    @SadieKay1Ай бұрын

    Thank you for this video ❤

  • @erikdalna211
    @erikdalna2115 ай бұрын

    My 88 year old mother remembers her father’s family speaking (Scottish) Gaelic when visiting from Banff, an area entirely English/Scots speaking now.

  • @user-fc7is6jo2e
    @user-fc7is6jo2e6 ай бұрын

    I love the way the many wonderful varieties of modern Irish sound. I know that there are some very big differences between various cities and towns around the nation, but I love each one of them. They could read aloud something borking, like a phone book, and still make it sound both beautiful and interesting.

  • @jcr1029
    @jcr102929 күн бұрын

    13:31-end flipping amazing. I felt buncha goose-bumps when I tried to keep up and sound it all out.

  • @pumirya
    @pumirya6 ай бұрын

    Thanks for another interesting and informative video. Keep up the good work.

  • @MyMy-tv7fd
    @MyMy-tv7fd6 ай бұрын

    its a magical sound

  • @safeysmith6720
    @safeysmith67206 ай бұрын

    If you play as any of the Saxon nations in Total War:Britannia and have a battle with any of the Irish ones, and you zoom in to listen to your soldiers’ chatter, sometimes they say out loud, something like “Look! The Gaels are approaching!” And for some reason I always loved that and it made the hair stick up on the back of my neck!

  • @dreammachine2013
    @dreammachine20136 ай бұрын

    Many thanks for that fascinating and informative video! My heart goes out to you❤

  • @tobyplumlee7602
    @tobyplumlee76026 ай бұрын

    I enjoyed your video very much! Thank you for the great work!!

  • @FullaEels
    @FullaEels6 ай бұрын

    can clearly hear the norse influences in old irish. been trying to learn scottish gaelic on and off for about a decade and it would've been easier to wrap my head around if the th sound had remained in modern variants.

  • @mintcool4545
    @mintcool45456 ай бұрын

    Great video. I'm seeing a lot of familiar words from the poems with modern Irish, like "ard", "ron" agus "lán". I can just about understand what the sentences are saying. eg. Old Irish - "Gaeth ard uar" Modern Irish - "Gaoth ard fuar" English - High cold wind

  • @eamonnobroithe2988

    @eamonnobroithe2988

    6 ай бұрын

    Modern Irish: Gaoth ard fhuar

  • @rebekahcuriel-alessi2239
    @rebekahcuriel-alessi22395 ай бұрын

    Aacch. Loved this!!! Thank you!! Especially loved hearing the poetry. 🫂

  • @susannautterback6815
    @susannautterback68156 ай бұрын

    So many questions I have for my Irish ancestors now but they are gone. Sadly in my youth I really wasn’t that interested but there are detailed records that my mother wrote down and gave to me. Gives me clues to my past family.

  • @marcasdebarun6879
    @marcasdebarun68796 ай бұрын

    Few points regarding the loss of /ð/. You state that Munster Irish makes a /ɣ/ if a slender dh comes at the end of a word, which it doesn't. It makes a slender g-sound (i.e. /ɟ/), for example ‘tapaidh’ is pronounced as if spelt like ‘tapaig’. This is the case for final gh as well (e.g. ‘ceannaigh’ → ‘ceannaig’). It can even happen for some dialects with broad dh in past autonomous forms like ‘ceannaíodh’ → ‘ceannaíog’. I also think its incorrect to say that /d/ became /ɣ/ straight away for some dialects. /ð/ merging with /ɣ/ is something that happens universally across all the Gaelic languages in every position, even word-intially. It's much easier to posit that in some dialects /ð/ was just never lost at the end of a word, and later merged with /ɣ/ along with the rest of the /ð/ occurrences in the language(s).

  • @weepingscorpion8739

    @weepingscorpion8739

    6 ай бұрын

    Yeah, /d/ going to /ð/ first and then merging with /ɣ/ makes a bit more sense.

  • @alwilliams5177
    @alwilliams51772 ай бұрын

    Love your work. This one is a personal favorite.

  • @MrDan957
    @MrDan9576 ай бұрын

    That was very enjoyable I love your command of these beautiful languages

  • @stepaushi
    @stepaushi29 күн бұрын

    8:02 "It may have went" instead of "It may have gone". I assume that you are using the past participle of the verb "to wend" instead of the modern conjugation of "to go", which borrows its past tense from "wend" but has its own past participle "gone". "Wend" is quite appropriate here. 👍

  • @CarlsLingoKingdom
    @CarlsLingoKingdom6 ай бұрын

    Bhideo sgoinneil! Loved it. This really helps explain the confusing orthography in Gàidhlig, and reminds me of the odd spellings in Modern English which are holdovers from Old and Middle English. Glad I could understand a little bit of even the Old Irish, and I'm pleasantly surprised it had some similarities with Modern Welsh as well.

  • @RachelRaeCraft
    @RachelRaeCraft5 ай бұрын

    Thank you for your research. I enjoy watching your videos while crafting. Keep up the good work!

  • @FortressofLugh

    @FortressofLugh

    3 ай бұрын

    Thank you very much!

  • @67lionsoflisbon37
    @67lionsoflisbon376 ай бұрын

    Great video, thanks for posting. Very interesting.

  • @adamasaventus
    @adamasaventus6 ай бұрын

    Tha bhideo gle mhath seo eile. Sgoinneil! Thank you for your continued work and research.

  • @JALaflinOfficial
    @JALaflinOfficial6 ай бұрын

    Ngl, hearing those poems in Gaelic made me tear up. Like my ancestors calling to me from the distant shore.

  • @quinntheeskimooutdoors6234
    @quinntheeskimooutdoors62348 күн бұрын

    Thanks for sharing 😊

  • @mmiramm
    @mmiramm25 күн бұрын

    Beautiful, insightful, and marvelously wonderful!

  • @michaeldeloatch7461
    @michaeldeloatch74616 ай бұрын

    Thanks for this look at Gaelic morphological changes. I have never studied any of these languages and they all seem bewildering at first blush to an English speaker. I think I will put them on my to-do list because that poetry was sublimely rendered.

  • @alissaharris8035

    @alissaharris8035

    6 ай бұрын

    Same 😌

  • @tohaason
    @tohaason6 ай бұрын

    Proto-Celtic sounds like it's much more straight forward to pronounce for this non-Celtic European, relative to more modern variants. Very Latin-like indeed. A very good and interesting video by the way. Liked and subscribed.

  • @erikhoff5010
    @erikhoff5010Ай бұрын

    Love this video and information! Thanks

  • @lauriegili6312
    @lauriegili63126 ай бұрын

    Interesting topic and stunning videography.

  • @janinebean4276
    @janinebean42766 ай бұрын

    It’s amazing how much more proto-Celtic sounds like Latin!

  • @TOBAPNW_

    @TOBAPNW_

    6 ай бұрын

    Latin sounds like proto-Celtic!

  • @noelpucarua2843

    @noelpucarua2843

    5 ай бұрын

    Nobody knows for sure what it sounded like.

  • @lindahamilton800
    @lindahamilton8006 ай бұрын

    Wonderful presentation! I appreciate your work. I have been searching fruitless for any explanation of the Welsh u, pronounced almost like French eu, or the beginning of American y. Have you any pearls to drop before me, regarding this vowel shift? It haunts my reading. And thank you so very much for all this output!

  • @colleenfromnh5860
    @colleenfromnh58605 ай бұрын

    Fascinating!! Thank you!!

  • @carolinegray7510
    @carolinegray75104 ай бұрын

    The Gaelic sounds within the poems you spoke was beautiful to hear. ❤

  • @unisophia
    @unisophia3 ай бұрын

    Cladiwos means sword? wow! in Russian tales there’s an additional word always attached to the word “sword”, like a constant epitet, when it’s a sword of a protagonist, a hero: “kladenetz” (or “cladenets”? :)) “metch-kladenetz” (“metch” means sword in modern Russian, so it was like “sword-kladenetz”). the tales we were reading in the childhood weren’t really authentic and usually underwent pretty heavy adaptation, but certain old words were left for the sake of style, and this was one of them. I wonder if there was a connection between the Latin “Gladius”, Gaelic “Cladiwos” and this old Russian/Slavic “Kladenetz” :) if I’m right and it’s more than just incidental consonance (which would be pretty weird, given that it’s the same word in three languages spoken by peoples who obviously contacted each other) then the construction of two words “metch-kladenetz” is tautological, where the first word is basically a translation of the second to modern Russian, while the second word isn’t originally Russian but adopted from Proto-Gaelic, which in turn adopted it from Latin :) probably… :)

  • @lowlandnobleman6746
    @lowlandnobleman67466 ай бұрын

    What a lovely language, even if it isn’t always easy for non-native speakers to understand the spelling conventions. Very beautiful. Good video.

  • @grenien4109

    @grenien4109

    6 ай бұрын

    caol le caol, leathan le leathan

  • @lowlandnobleman6746

    @lowlandnobleman6746

    5 ай бұрын

    Fair point.

  • @cintage
    @cintage4 ай бұрын

    That was absolutely interesting. Instant follow!

  • @user-by2zl3vk5y
    @user-by2zl3vk5y4 ай бұрын

    My great grand parents were right from the old country,she was a Duffy,and he was a Daly from cork,I remember them arguing out in the kitchen speaking Gaelic 😢I miss the stories thy told 😊I am proud to be Irish ❤

  • @greenhealer7136
    @greenhealer71366 ай бұрын

    Im teaching myself Scottish gaelic ...its hard, but is such a beautiful language ...I just wish i had someone to talk to so as to learn much quicker...

  • @theflint7405

    @theflint7405

    Ай бұрын

    I have the same problem, sadly.

  • @belstar1128

    @belstar1128

    8 күн бұрын

    isn't it fun ?

  • @entwistlefromthewho
    @entwistlefromthewho6 ай бұрын

    Two minutes in and there's a whopper of a mistake. Irish did not "lose the /p/ sound" - Brythonic developed it from Proto-Celtic /kʷ/. The change of /kʷ/ > /p/ (and sometimes /p/ > /b/) is quite common. Irish changed /kʷ/ > /k/, hence the cognates 'mab' (Welsh) and 'mac' (Irish) both from Proto-Celtic 'makʷos'.

  • @HenrikBergpianorganist

    @HenrikBergpianorganist

    6 ай бұрын

    He didn't say that Irish lost its P sound, he said Gaelic retained the loss of P... But yes, the Brythonic P is a secondary development.

  • @marcasdebarun6879

    @marcasdebarun6879

    6 ай бұрын

    ​@@HenrikBergpianorganistIt's misleading though, because Brythonic also retained the loss of Proto-Indo-European /p/. Whether it later redeveloped it by some other means is immaterial (which Old Irish also did by borrowings from Latin).

  • @rapier1954

    @rapier1954

    6 ай бұрын

    It is a bit misleading for sure but not a whopper of a mistake. Overall I think he did a reasonable job. I am not perfect and I doubt anyone could give a perfect presentation. You're welcome to try and we'll let you know how well do!!!

  • @damionkeeling3103

    @damionkeeling3103

    6 ай бұрын

    The Gaelic for father is athair which is an example of the loss of initial p but the example he gave was wrong. He gave an example of the kw - pw sound shift which defines q and p Celtic branches.

  • @rapier1954

    @rapier1954

    6 ай бұрын

    @@damionkeeling3103Fine amd I agree, but overall the presentation was good. If you think you can do a better job have at it. Try not to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

  • @rogercarroll1663
    @rogercarroll16635 ай бұрын

    Great work. Thank you.

  • @rorymax8233
    @rorymax82336 ай бұрын

    Excellent, thank you 👍

  • @craiczaibatsu8930
    @craiczaibatsu89306 ай бұрын

    This is a great video! Despite being an Irish speaker myself, I never really gave the older versions of the language as much consideration as I have to Old English, outside of listening to pangur bán. You've made me want to read into the subject more. A similar video for the Brythonic languages would be fab.

  • @mikesavage8793
    @mikesavage87935 ай бұрын

    The bit of Irish I learned seems to have been of the old/archaic version. Ogham was pronounced "og ham" with a fairly soft g. My father was educated through Irish in west Cork. Going from primary school to secondary, the change in words and pronunciation made it like a third language and I didn't understand it.

  • @catmom1322
    @catmom13226 ай бұрын

    Fascinating. Thank you.

  • @alanoneill3065
    @alanoneill30652 ай бұрын

    Very interesting...great images...subscribed

  • @thomasmcshane7627
    @thomasmcshane76276 ай бұрын

    Bail ó Dhia ar an obair! - Had a question and comment. Do you know what evidence there is for there not being a slender 's' sound (the sh of English) in Old Irish? As far as 'fiodh' being a modern Irish word for wood. This is true, but it is rarely used except in the genitive in names for other things - e.g. Crann feá = Beech, Fiaire Feá = a rambler, Spáinnéar Feá = Cocker Spaniel. The Irish for wood (the material) is 'adhmad' and for the forest 'coill'

  • @yohanrives3752
    @yohanrives37526 ай бұрын

    I love irish and other celtic languages. Thank you for the history and linguistic lesson. It's funny how the word for sword sounds like the french word glaive, which is also an old type of sword...

  • @hiberniancaveman8970

    @hiberniancaveman8970

    6 ай бұрын

    The Latin word “gladius” is understood to be derived from the Gaulish language.

  • @yohanrives3752

    @yohanrives3752

    6 ай бұрын

    Interesting, thank you

  • @gandolfthorstefn1780

    @gandolfthorstefn1780

    6 ай бұрын

    The word glaive sounds similar to the Welsh word cleddyf for sword. If you took out the dd which happens in languages you get cleyf. The f in Welsh is pronounced like a v and so it could be cleyv. French: Glaive Welsh: Cleyv.🤔

  • @yohanrives3752

    @yohanrives3752

    6 ай бұрын

    @@gandolfthorstefn1780 that's very interesting, it's like our languages are cousins without even knowing it

  • @gandolfthorstefn1780

    @gandolfthorstefn1780

    6 ай бұрын

    @@yohanrives3752 That's a very good analogy. Unknowing cousins discovering each other.

  • @allieeverett9017
    @allieeverett90176 ай бұрын

    Beautiful voice. Thank you.

  • @jfrbachega
    @jfrbachega5 ай бұрын

    What a nice video, thanks a lot!

  • @chrisoleary9876
    @chrisoleary98766 ай бұрын

    Go raibh maith agat Caoimhín! Bhi se seo an-suimiuil agus faisneiseach! 😊

  • @iavv334

    @iavv334

    6 ай бұрын

    *a Chaoimhín and make sure you aren't forgetting your fadas, they are very important in comprehending words :p (se is actually a short form of seo, and is read differently from sé) Your Irish is not bad at all! Good on you for making an effort, we definitely need to see more of that.

  • @chrisoleary9876

    @chrisoleary9876

    6 ай бұрын

    @@iavv334 Thanks for the impromptu Gaeilge lesson. Fada's weren't working on the device I was using. Duh.

  • @michealbreathnach2928

    @michealbreathnach2928

    6 ай бұрын

    ​@@iavv334Nach aisteach an duine thú. Ar a laghad scríobh sé í ngaeilge agus tá tusa dhá ceartú í mbearla.

  • @iavv334

    @iavv334

    6 ай бұрын

    @@michealbreathnach2928 Dá mb'fhoghlameoir na teanga Chris O'Leary, canathoabh go thabharfainn dó cúnamh nach féidir leis a thuiscint? Tuigim gurbh fhearr linn Gaelainn a úsáid dosna freagrachaibh agus sin i nGaeilscoil, ach is in KZread comment section atáimid a chara

  • @carlosmacmartin4205
    @carlosmacmartin42056 ай бұрын

    Very interesting, indeed. The Proto Celtic sounds like Greek to my ears. I subscribed. Thank you for sharing.

  • @seasickdave

    @seasickdave

    6 ай бұрын

    Yes - Greek to me also

  • @molecatcher3383

    @molecatcher3383

    5 ай бұрын

    The further back in time we go the Indo-European languages, to my ear, begin to sound increasingly similar. At what period did the "common" indo-european language start to splinter into it's different paths ? 3000BC ? , 2000BC ?, 1500 BC?

  • @colinjames7569
    @colinjames75698 күн бұрын

    This is greatly appreciated. You are very astute. You have obviously done your homework into learning more about the archeology of the Irish language. Or rather, Goidelic language(s). And you also placed time frames. Very much appreciated. Gaelige is no chroi ❤. Gia duich. Big fan of your work. ✌️

  • @HansMartinHammer
    @HansMartinHammer21 күн бұрын

    The S-sound insterting itself between R and D is basically the same that we do in Faroese today between R and T. My middle name Martin, is pronounced more like Marstin. Whilst Faroese is clearly a West-Norse descendant, the close proximity to Scotland and our history with the Irish, has definitely had an impact on our language, and perhaps the Norse had an impact on Gaelic too. Interestingly, the LL-sound from Welsh is also quite similar to the Faroese and Icelandic LL-sound. I know we have words in common with the Scottish dialect of English, probably some with the Irish dialect as well, but it might surprise you to know, that we also share some words with the Gaelic language. Tarbh in Gaelic is Tarvur/Tarfur in Faroese/Icelandic. There are definitely other words too.

  • @cathalodiubhain5739
    @cathalodiubhain57396 ай бұрын

    Go hiontach ar fad, taighde mionchúiseach. Maith an fear

  • @th8257
    @th82576 ай бұрын

    It would have been interesting to add Welsh into the comparison.

  • @fintan9705
    @fintan97056 ай бұрын

    The video clip used at 4:54 is of baltyboys hill in the foreground and moanbane and lugnacoille mountain in the background, pretty cool to see my own back yard in one of your videos kevin.

  • @RemusKingOfRome
    @RemusKingOfRome6 ай бұрын

    Excellent video .

  • @williebourke9962
    @williebourke99626 ай бұрын

    Like all languages the modern irish language has evolved through time That said there a at least 3 different dialects in modern irish .The connacht ,The munster and the dinegal which has serious inputs from scotch gaelic and is full of colloculasims aka local names for things . Personally i think the munster is the clearest as its spoken in parts of waterford Co cork and co kerry and a smattering in clare and limerick .whereas donegal and connacht is spoken largely in only one county galway and donegal .Ta me abhailte an ghaeilge a chaint agus ta se nios silear e mumha agus nios deachair e contae dunnna ghall .agus nios tapaidh i gallaimh .

  • @gothfather8741
    @gothfather87416 ай бұрын

    The old language sounds very beautiful. Thanks for making this video! Keep it coming. Kevin, are you of Celtic descent ?

  • @s1nd3r3llee
    @s1nd3r3llee4 ай бұрын

    Ancestors from over there. Thank you for the history language lesson. So important to keep our past alive. 👍🏻

  • @RenaeTaylor-gu7ke
    @RenaeTaylor-gu7ke15 күн бұрын

    Thank you for making this video! The ancient Gaelic has such a wonderful airy, mythical sound to it. Now I can see where Tolkien was inspired. Beautifully made, again, thanks!

  • @gustafduell4948
    @gustafduell49486 ай бұрын

    Lugus makes me really associate to loki in norse myth. Or laugarday or laukar on brakteats

  • @mercianthane2503

    @mercianthane2503

    6 ай бұрын

    That's a bad association

  • @gustafduell4948

    @gustafduell4948

    6 ай бұрын

    @@mercianthane2503 why?

  • @EresirThe1st

    @EresirThe1st

    6 ай бұрын

    They aren’t close at all. He is clearly the Celtic Woden.

  • @mercianthane2503

    @mercianthane2503

    6 ай бұрын

    @@gustafduell4948 Lugh's origins are mithraic. He is a deity commonly associated with oaths, justice and order, basically his true equivalents are norse Týr, roman Deus Fidius and Vedic Mithra and Dharma.

  • @gustafduell4948

    @gustafduell4948

    6 ай бұрын

    I did not mean it is the same but i think it is more to the namne Loke than we know. Why else the utgårda-loke, company on travels, creation of man, laugarday and the lin laukar runik inscriptions? Or mayby it is a heiti/kenning- an onion has many layers, as the complex world? Trixter i always read and just find it sounding stupid. In those days the learned surely knew of both nordic and gaelic gods. Otherwise i am glad found this and taelisins map channels. Gaelic mythology is rather unknown to me. Nordic litterature on the pre christian religion is often rather narrow.

  • @sornehdoty6691
    @sornehdoty66916 ай бұрын

    as a proud mexican of aztec descent i find the different cultures of gaelic languages fascinating!!

  • @aonghusmor333
    @aonghusmor3336 ай бұрын

    fascinating stuff!

  • @fortheearth
    @fortheearth5 ай бұрын

    Very interesting. Thank you.

  • @twindad3158
    @twindad31584 ай бұрын

    Thank you for this amazing informative video!

  • @PhilShnider
    @PhilShnider5 ай бұрын

    Brown man speaking Irish for the past 20 years. While doing my major did a minor in Irish 😊

  • @inhale.exhale.2527
    @inhale.exhale.25275 ай бұрын

    as a 500 year old irish monk, i endorse this video. 🙏

  • @inhale.exhale.2527

    @inhale.exhale.2527

    5 ай бұрын

    i meant druid. and listening to this at 2x is mindbending. 😂

  • @rhodatuckey7119
    @rhodatuckey71194 ай бұрын

    Thank you for sharing...

  • @learningoldgermaniclanguages
    @learningoldgermaniclanguages6 ай бұрын

    Amazing video, Kevin.