Sunday, April 26, 2015

The first step! .... The accent..0.0

                   Lets learn Gaelic I say! But what's the first step? The accent. YIKES! I know. But thankfully this will only take up one of my posts.  So many things go into learning the Irish accent. For starters there's so many Irish accents! There's the North Dublan Irish accent. The "th" will turn into a "d" sound, and the "Ir" will become "oor". There's also the South Dublan Irish accent which is the same thing but more mixed with American phrases. So they'll say things like, "Oh my Gods", "Hellos!", and "Totallys!". There's also the stereotypical lepricon of American media, but never mind that. The one I will focus on is that of Northern Ireland. Hence, the actual place Gaelic originated.
                   So the Northern Ireland accent is quite similar to the North Dublan. You bring every phrase up at the end like a question, and you use all of the front of your mouth. For me I had to first go to the English accent and then slide to the Northern Ireland. Since I am American, its just easier that way. The same as North Dublan, the "th" is "d", and the "ir" is "oor". In this accent, I always feel like I am using my nose like the voicing is coming straight out from in between my teeth and my nose. It's also kind of like I am using my head voice, where everything is breathier and not as bright as the American accent.     
                  It's kind of funny if you witnessed me attempting to learn this accent. I would be in the cafeteria repeating phrases over and over, changing the shape of my mouth, and making so many annoying noises to sharpen the phrase that my friends thought something was wrong with me. Their first words to me were,"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?". I think you can imagine their reaction when I said I was learning Irish.
                  So many things go into learning the Irish accent. It's so hard! But it's the first step to getting the language right, so I am determined to do it.

Go to the Youtube links below if your interested in learning any Irish accents. I encourage you! It's fun!
I will post a video of my Irish accent soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9SApeProCY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2PHch4IPPQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fch8MqqhQw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNukOsD7Nuc - This one is where I got most of my info :)

Monday, April 13, 2015

Can i learn to speak an endangered language?

       Can I learn an endangered language? I hope so! I have a passion for learning languages , and have currently came from learning Ukrainian. It's not easy but it's not impossible! My goal is to learn endangered languages and help those languages grow.  A lot of them are really cool!
             I researched the most endangered languages of the world and found that there are many. But one that really caught my mind was that of the Irish language. Also known as Gaelic, the Irish language began to decline at the start of the British rule in Ireland in the seventeenth century. The fate of the language was influenced by the increasing power of the British, and by the end of the British rule, the language was spoken by less than 15% of the national population! Efforts have been made to revive the language but those efforts have not been too successful.
           This has motivated me to learn and explore the world and language of the Irish. I'm so excited! It may be random and foreign to me but that's what's so awesome about it. I'm so interested to see what the Irish are all about!
         I may fail and get frustrated with the Irish language, but I know I'm determined to see through this awesome project. So stay tuned, learn some words, and have fun with the videos I post! This is gonna be the best rollercoaster ride ever!