Celtic language study

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Do you know any books to learn old Celtic languages?

There were many forms in time I believe... I'd like to learn one that used words like Hu Gadarn or Craigh na Dun.

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Totally love those animal names in Celtic https://www.animalsandenglish.com/celtic-mythology.html

that language is so beautiful and arcane.

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Google translate put some basic translator to play with for Scots Gaelic:

[Firebird]

Yea! Now lets learn how to pronounce them.
A friend put a Gaelic app on his phone that would translate and pronounce the word. I think it was a delux phone, not sure what kind, probably smart

[Micheál]

When it comes to old Celtic languages (Old Irish for example), we have Ogham inscriptions, texts, glossaries, and can translate them, but there's just (probably good) theories into how it was properly pronounced. Much different than what's spoken today.

"Craigh na Dun" is from modern Scots Gaelic(Gàidhlig), and still spoken. It was just added tom the Duolingo app fairly recently, and doing well. That's how a lot of people are learning languages today.

I'm an Irish/Gaeilge speaker (Gaeilgeoir), so can help with Irish pronunciations at least

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Hey Micheál
Would require some youtube channel or audio upload site such as archive.org... if you were to record some pronunciation that would be really valuable to me.

[Micheál]

Never tried those before lol. Except youtube, I made a vid on how to pronounce the greater Sabbat names once(only vid I ever did!), but those are pretty well known I think.

[Firebird]

I for one am really tired of folks calling May day, Bel-Tane, instead of Be-el-cha-na.
Yet these same people seem to be able to pronounce Samhain just fine.
why is that?
I would love a Gaelic tutorial!
BB, FF

[Micheál]

I know! They'll go through the hassle of spelling "Lughnasadh" correct(even the old way), and then use the anglicised "Beltane," and call it an ancient festival. In Irish the month May is still Bealtaine.

Here's the little one I only did on the Irish names used for the greater Sabbats if it's of interest to anyone...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh7OIK1-H7s

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That is great. Love the Irish accent on English too.
thanks for the absence of w explanation... were is it that you pronounce that 'w', when 'mh' meet in whatever word?

Made my attempt ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCASHRu ... e=youtu.be and praying for your revision Micheál

[Micheál]

lol cheers! . There's a few ways to get the "w" sound, usually with bh and mh, and depends on if it's a broad or slender consonant. (slender if it comes before or after an i, or e; and broad with an a, o, or u) So bh&mh make a "V" sound when broad, by standard at least, we do it different in the north . When bh or mh are in the middle of a word after a short vowel, it gives that "ow" sound, like Samhain- 'sowin', or 'summer,' which is "samhradh,"(sounds like sowroo)

Nice one! Now my dialect of Irish is Ulster Irish, which is the one closest to Scots Gaelic, but still different, so we don't have the exact same words and pronunciations, but for the ones that are about the same, oak was correct(but let it flow more, like "darra") "seileach" would sound like 'shillak,' but our willow is "saileach"-'salla' it would be draighean here, which sounds like 'drain,' man, as in a human person for us duine-'dinya'. Fairy is a lot different but probably starts the same as ours, "sí-'shee'( "th"'s are either silent or make an "h" sound) life is the same, beatha-'baha'(like whiskey, the "water of life"/uisce beatha-'ishka baha') river is the same, abhainn,-'owen', swan is the same, eala-'alla', lag is correct, morning for us "maidin"-'mawjeen'.......the rest look very similar to our words, but would be too different to give an accurate pronunciation for without giving just our equivalent.

[Firebird]

Very good you guys!! love the videos. Were going to need more. I didn't realize there were so many different Irish dialects.
SR, yours is good except I cannot hear you too well, and it was difficult to see the bottom words. You have a lovely accent by the way What is your native tongue ?
Michael I don't know how to put the little accent on your name, so how is it pronounced? Like mik a el? And is that you trying to do the drunk back flip? LoL.
I love that giant book you have could you put the name and publisher here? Thanks.
BB, FF

[Micheál]

Lol cheers. Yea there are three main Irish dialects, and a writing "official standard," that are mainly taught in schools, however ours teach our dialect, and just to recognise the others. Scots Gaelic and Manx are different ones, descended from Middle Irish, but have a lot in common.

The accents are "fadas"(fada means long) and just stress vowel sounds more. My name sounds like "mee-hole." And yes that was me doing the drunken flip lol. The book is "Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla" by Niall Ó'Dónaill, but is strictly an Irish to English dictionary. For English to Irish there was another one we used.

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Thanks Micheál

FF thanks, same as my country's name. Nobody has accent like me, people usually speak dry accentless English here.

I like pron. of sìtheanach from here https://learngaelic.scot/dictionary/ind ... word=false

Otherwise I expected these pronunciations to be quite different.

[Micheál]

Not a bother! Yea that's actually how it would sound if you tried to pronounce it in Irish as well, but since the word is specifically Scots Gaelic, I left it alone.

For us fairy is just "sí", and sounds like the end of "banshee", which is exactly what it is lol. Banshee literally being anglicised from "bean sí," a female fairy.