On the subject of numbers . . . can one of you tell me how to ask someone's age?

Cén aois is what I was taught in school, but it doesn't sound right for Munster Irish. I looked it up in the dictionary from corkirish.com and got cén t-aos é and cén t-aos atá aige. But then he added a footnote asking if it should be cad é instead of cén.

Next time I'm in Ring, I should tell people it's my birthday and see if anyone asks.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

Cad é an t-aos tú? – How old are you?

I've split this off because it is worthy of its own thread.


TYI has Cad é an t-aos tú ? as WFM has mentioned above, but I have also seen Cén t-aos thú ? given as a Munster form, albeit is a less reliable text.

Cén aois thú ? (with the disjunctive pronoun) in Connemara, I think.

FGB also has Cá haois é ? (as well as Cén aois é ?). I suppose the standard uses tú for the object pronoun?

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WARNING: Intermediate speaker - await further opinions, corrections and adjustments before acting on my advice.
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

As Breandán mentioned, Cad é an t-aos tú? is in the original Teach Yourself Irish (the one that specifically teaches Múscraí Irish). Also, a native speaker from the Múscraí Gaeltacht once told me that Cad é an t-aos tú? is the normal way to say "How old are you?" in Múscraí, so I'm very, very sure about this one.

In Ulster we say "cá haois thú?". Off-topic ach is cuma liom

Strangely enough, what you say in Múscraí, "aos" normally means "people" in Old Irish (áes actually) (it is "taos" in Ulster, the t of the article has been incorporated in the word). I don't know why your s is broad

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

I would have assumed, could be totally wrong, but it would be because aos is the original nominative and
aois the dative, which replaced the nominative in some dialects.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Actually you're right (I hadn't verified before writing my last message), áes meant "age" but "aois" isn't an old dative in the first place. áes was neuter, o-class. I think the word was reinterpreted as feminine (with áeis as the nominative) later.

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Go raibh míle maith agaibh.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

Since you mentionned Ring, in Déise Irish that would be:

'Dé an t-aos athá agut?
or
'Dé an t-aos athá tú?

'Dé is a contraction of cad é (or god é actually, d is broad or slender in the Déise). Both go(i)dé and 'dé are very common in East Munster, Ulster and Scotland (= (gu) dé) and was in Ossory and possibly in the rest of Leinster too.

Agat is spelled agut since the stress in usually on the second syllable and the vowel is pronounced as a short u (sometimes there is no stress and both vowels are pronounced as shwas).

Aos and aois are used interchangeably in the Déise and are both as commonly used as the other traditionally. I also found the sentences "'dé'n t-aois a bheadh sé" and "... agus an aois athá aige", where aois is used as a masculine noun in one sentence and as a feminine noun in another from the same source and from the same speaker (who's actually from South Tipperary, a dialect nearly identical to that of Waterford and uncontestably classified as part of the Déise dialect).