Hi Everyone

I don't need to study any particular dialect so the easiest one is the best but that is also very subjective.

Does anyone know what dialect has the fewest vowel blends ?

Thanks for reading-Patrick

Pat, I was hoping that Lughaidh, resident expert on Ulster Irish, would comment, but he hasn't done so yet. He has told me that Ulster Irish has the fewest diphthongs. Only three are shown in the Wikipedia article on Ulster Irish, compared with 7 plus one triphthong in Cork Irish.

That said, I think the resources available for the study of Ulster Irish are not comprehensive. As the dialect with the most speakers is Conemara, which is also central and represented in the irish-language media (TG4, etc), the simplest thing would be to learn Conemara Irish with the help of Mícheál Ó Siadhail's Learning Irish.

The diphthongs are actually not a major problem in the study of Irish at all. This is the first time I've seen someone raise this as a "difficulty".

If you listen to the pronunciation in three dialects of "ann" (meaning "there" or "in it") at https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/ann, you can see Munster is more diphthongal. Many words are pronounced in all three dialects in that dictionary, making it easier to learn a real dialect.

English is full of diphthongs too

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

Yes, and English is full of vowels that are different, but are often broadly transcribed as the same. E.g the vowels in "livid" are different. So, just as in Irish, the exact quality of vowels is a little difficult to pin down.

Thanks djwebb.

Actually, I haven't been studying Irish very much for the past year or so(wasn't far along with it before this either) but I have two reasons for resuming. One, I want to keep my elderly dad busy and the other is, I have a speech delayed loved one that taught herself a ton of Irish watching TG4 on the internet.

She knows way more than my dad or I. She won't be able to handle the writing system so I am going to write a program to translate into a home-brewed writing system and we will target the easiest dialect to pronounce, so we will go with Ulster

Thanks again-Pat

I disagree with dj that there aren't a lot of great resources for Donegal Irish (in fact, I think it has the best beginners-intermediate level resources). In fact, there's one in particular that might really suit your purposes if you're wanting to focus on speech and not the writing system: Now You're Talking.

See the website here: http://ultach.org/ which also contains supplemental exercises and a pdf of the book that originally came with it. It's honestly, imo, the best way to start learning Irish.

Maybe. I thought people had said in other threads that this wasn't fully dialectal Ulster Irish? There is also Sgéilín na Finne when people get up to a certain level (https://www3.smo.uhi.ac.uk/oduibhin/sf/index.htm)

Ciarán Ó Duibhín's site also mentions this:
Seanchas Rann na Feirste le Maeleachlainn Mac Cionnaoith — also in book form with 6 CDs, but out of print

It must be possible to find that somewhere. There is a site that is transcribing, with audio, Gaeltacht stories. See http://www.rannnafeirste.com/mo-bhaile-dchais

Thanks djwebb and galaxyrocker, these links are very helpful