Apologies if this has been asked before, but has anybody here reviewed or used this product?

http://www.amazon.com/Spoken-World-Iris ... Descending

Thanks,

Domhnall

I had an older version several years ago (before my first trip to Ireland in 2008), which I found very useful for honing my listening and reading skills. That was an intermediate version, though -- I already had a good grasp on Irish syntax, pronunciation, and spelling -- so I can speak to its usefulness for a beginner. I was impressed with the way the intermediate version worked, though, so if the beginning version is organized similarly, I suspect it's a good program.

Redwolf

Thanks. There are a few reasons I ask. I've come across a couple of typos before getting past Chapter 1 (leabhair for book, not books, for example). Also, the pronunciation of broad and slender R are unlike anything I've heard elsewhere. Broad, they pronounce it as a rhotic R. Slender, the trill it just like a Spanish initial R. And their example word features a slender R at the beginning of the word!

Anyway, it states at the outset that the course complies with the CO. Perhaps that's correct for CO, but I was very surprised by my initial interaction with this package. Thanks.

Can you give the example of when they used leabhair for 'book'? Is it possible it was in the genitive case? As for the pronunciation, that does sound odd; Irish uses the flap, certainly, but not the trill (at least not anymore, that I'm aware of). Also, there is no CO pronunciation; it's merely a literary standard, so anything that says it's using an 'official' pronunciation is off.

That would be my instinct too. 'ag léámh leabhair' looks wrong for reading only one book until you understand the genitive.

_________________

Likely this ^^. Can't comment on the pronunciation, as I'm not familiar with the terms involved!

I asked about this book/cds earlier this year, and had concerns about one of the speaker's accents. Here's the thread where it was discussed:

http://www.irishlanguageforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3530

On page xvii of the edition I have, leabhair is translated as "a book". Perhaps it's CO standard, I just don't know; I always thought this was the plural form of that noun.

Could you give the example of where it's translated that way? As said, it is possible in certain cases for leabhair to mean 'a book'

As Saoirse said, context is important. "Leabhair" is the genitive case for "a book." It's also the nominative plural. So if the sentence is "ag léamh leabhair" (reading a book), which requires the genitive, it's correct. If it's something like "tá an leabhair ar an tábla" (the book is on the table), it's incorrect, as the nominative singular is "leabhar."

Irish uses the genitive case in instances where we wouldn't use it in English. One of those instances is after the participle...instead of saying "I am reading a book," Irish literally says "I am reading of a book."

Redwolf

Crossed with galaxyrocker