Hi!

[draguakale]

I'm just barely starting out learning Gaelic. I doubt as an American that I can ever truly get my accent down correctly. I LOVE Irish accents. And Scottish.

I'm 34, single, and a Mom. Sorta. I miscarried a baby a little over a year ago. And in dealing with this, one of the things I want to do (because my Fiance is actually a 4th Gen Irish-American) is put a t*tt** of a sleeping baby faery and put the date and "My darling baby" in Gaelic under the t*tt**. But I want whoever reads it in Gaelic to know that it is a tribute to my miscarried baby.

For those of you who believe in past lives, I think I was Irish in the past. I have ALWAYS been drawn to Ireland, Her green hills, Her mysticism, Her majesty, Her beauty, Her fertile lands, everything. I want to go live in Ireland, but I think that is just a pipe dream. I will at least visit Her. I am just drawn to her. Can anyone suggest some good (English) books to read on Ireland? I'm particularly interested in Her mythos. I know some words, ban, dearg, bandearg, glas, rua, madrarua. That's all I can remember from my BYKI lessons. For any who may ask, BYKI is short for Before You Know It and is a program that has Gaelic as one of the languages they teach. Anyone who wants to throw words here and there my way with the proper pronunciation (if you can). Might as well toss grammar in there as well because I think it'd help.

Do people really speak Gaelic in Ireland? Is it really a "live" language? Do people speak only Gaelic anymore? Anyway thank you all.

[Mairead]

Hi draguakale, welcome to the forum! I love Ireland too. However, this is a Scottish Gaelic forum so if you'd like to learn Irish Gaelic rather than Scottish Gaelic, this isn't the best place. I think there are some people who know Irish here but the focus is Scottish Gaelic. The languages are related but not the same, like Spanish and Italian. But if you'd like to learn Scottish Gaelic, this is a great resource! Your t*tt** idea sounds like a beautiful tribute, and I'm sorry for your loss. Don't worry about your American accent when learning the language--there are plenty of non-Scottish people on here also learning Gaelic, and I'm sure the same is true on an Irish-language forum! I myself am from Wisconsin although I live in Scotland now.

In both Ireland and Scotland, people do still speak Irish and Scottish Gaelic (respectively) as living languages. It's stronger in Ireland than in any other Celtic-language country, but Scottish Gaelic is still spoken as the day-to-day language in parts of Scotland, mainly in the western edges but also in some Gaelic medium schools in the cities.

[GunChleoc]

What Mairead said - Irish and Scottish Gaelic are two different languages, although they are closely related. So, if you wish to learn Irish, this is not the place for you, because we dont have enough fluent Irish speakers on board. So, if you are serious about learning Irish, you will have to try to find another place that can help you. Accents can also be trained, if you spend enough time on it and have a good teacher - think of learning an accent as learning a musical instrument. It does take practice

About the t*tt**, I recommend that you ask a professional tr*nsl*t*r and pay for it rather than asking on a learners' form, to make sure it is actually correct. The situation you are dealing with is emotionally difficult enough without having to deal with a tr*nsl*t**n that might contain errors.

[draguakale]

What's with the asterisks?

[GunChleoc]

For Google, to keep the t*tt** crowd away.