Dia daoibh. Noël is ainm dom. Tá brón orm, níl mórán Gaeilge agam. Is foghlaimeoir nua mé.
(Apologies, that's recycled from my intro post in the intro thread, but it's still testing the boundaries of my Irish. Please let me know if it's mangled!)

I'm a beginner using a couple of the most readily available self-teaching methods here in the US, the current edition of Teach Yourself: Complete Irish, and Living Language's Spoken World: Irish, and I'm having some concerns about the native-ness of a speaker, and this seemed like the right place to seek advice on what resources might be better for me to seek out.

As a rank beginner, the only basis I have for evaluation is how literally foreign/difficult it feels inside my English-speaking mouth to (attempt to) reproduce the sounds I'm hearing. Sometimes the problem comes even before that, when I can tell that I'm not fully mentally equipped to distinguish the sounds i'm hearing (yay for slow-downer / transcribing software). Anyway, there's a speaker on one of my book's CDs who presents me with no new or difficult sounds to make, so I'm guessing he's primarily an English speaker. For now it seems smartest to save my extra time and effort to imitate as closely as possible the speakers who most challenge the habits of my English-habituated vocal apparatus. (Did that make sense? I've studied languages before, and some linguistics, but all that was a long time ago).

Before delurking, I had explored around here enough to get a copy of Learning Irish (the new one with the DVD), and it looks like something I'd enjoy a lot *after* I did a "softer" introductory course. In terms of difficulty and pace, the books I have are right on target, given the amount of concentration I have to spend on this as my life now stands. I've been looking around for other audio-heavy (but with fun grammar) book/CDs, and am now considering Gaeilge gan Stró, and Colloquial Irish, as being somewhat lighter introductions to the language than Learning Irish. Can anyone comment on the quality of the speakers in these? I've considered Buntus Cainte, but I think I'd be unhappy with insufficient grammar to keep me feeling grounded. Also I'd like to focus on the Connemara dialect. I love the landscape of western Ireland. I've been watching Muintir na Mara on the TG4 archives, though I only recognize the odd word here and there. "Agus" is always an old friend.

The author of Gaeilge Gan Stró, Éamonn Ó Dónaill, is himself a native speaker from Gaoth Dobhair. He's quite a stickler for good pronunciation and grammar (I know him, as he's taught the level four classes at our Deireadh Seachtaine Gaeltachta here in San Francisco from time to time), so I think you can be comfortable with what's on the CDs. If I recall correctly, he uses speakers from different parts of Ireland rather than focusing on one particular dialect, so if you're very strongly interested in the Connacht dialect, you may want to be aware of that.

It would be interesting to know on which of your CDs you're hearing someone who you think is primarily an English speaker. If some of us have the same CDs, we could have a listen and let you know if your concerns are justified.

Redwolf

It's the male speaker on Spoken World that I have particular concerns about. His pronunciation sounds too intelligible to me, in the way that a learner of a second language has a easier time understanding another non-native, especially if that other non-native shares the same native language group.

In contrast, the speaker who challenges my vocal flexibility and listening skills most is the woman on Teach Yourself: Complete Irish. She's the one I tend to slow down and listen/imitate most carefully.

Thanks, Redwolf, that's just the kind of info I needed. I had been leaning toward Gaeilge Gan Stró because I had read that it uses speakers from different areas, though several Amazon reviewers had suggested Colloquial Irish as an introduction or companion to Learning irish, because it uses the same dialect. I had decided to go with Connacht if forced to choose a dialect, but I'd prefer to get a better overview before deciding to focus one way or the other.

I don't have those CDs, so I can't comment, but maybe others here can.

It can also happen that it's a dialect thing. One of the reasons I leaned toward Ulster when I first started is, for some reason, I found the sounds a little easier to comprehend and reproduce from the standpoint of my Western U.S. dialect of English. My ear just seemed to "click" on it.

Redwolf

I think it would be great to have some informed opinions on these methods searchable within the forum for other potential shoppers. I ended up with what I have because Amazon suggested them, our library had them for me to preview, and so they seemed the most obvious choices.

To make things easy, the books in question are:
** Spoken World Irish by Living Language (AmazonLink)
** Teach Yourself: Complete Irish by Diarmuid Ó Sé (Amazon Link)

You can listen to some samples from the Spoken World recording there at Amazon. To my ear, neither speaker sounds native. The pronunciation of the broad "t" in "tá" particularly stands out. They're pronouncing it like an English "t" (with the tongue against the hard palate).

Others, please go to the Spoken Word link above, click on "play" and have a listen. Am I correct in saying that neither speaker sounds native? That "t" especially is really bothering me.

In the meantime, I'll have a listen to the Gaeilge Gan Stró CDs over the next day or two. I haven't used them, because I bought the book for a class that didn't end up materializing.

Redwolf

I'm bumping this up, as there's a question about the pronunciations in one of the links (see my post directly above this one). It would be nice if others weighed in. To my ear, neither the male nor the female speaker on the Spoken World program has native pronunciation (especially noting the broad "Ts"). You can listen to some of the recordings by following feadógaí's link to the Amazon.com page and clicking on the "play" button.

Feadógaí, I've just contacted a few people and asked if they could weigh in on this.

Redwolf

The man does say some of the words oddly, like you said the "t", and the way he says "duit". The woman sounds better. She is possibly a native but speaking unnaturally slowly, although the way she said "bualadh" is not the way I'd say it.

Yeah...I noticed the "duit" too. Sounded like he was pronouncing the slender "t" the same way he pronounces broad "t."

Redwolf