Dia 's Muire Dhaoibh,

I have just seen a programme on TG4, in which Dermot Somers goes on a journey from Dún na nGall to the South of the country (all the way to Corcaigh, I believe). The show is called An Bealach Ó Dheas, and the main question that I have is about the accent of the man on this programme. To me, it sounds like his dialect is highly standardized, and he tries to pronounce the words based on their spellings, rather than the traditional features. It sounds like he has a largely Munster based pronunciation and grammar, but with some influence from Ulster Irish (although I don't take it to be pure Donegal Irish, or the like, because it lacks the typical musical vowel sounds taken to be very iconic feature). He lacks, however many if not most modern day Munster pronunciations, e.g. sléibhe as ʃl´e:v´ɪ, instead of ʃl´e:. He also possesses some phrases exclusive to Ulster dialects, e.g. tig liom-sa oileán a shiubhal (this might be found in some sub-dialects of Munster, but as far as I know it's not particularly common today). My best theory is that he grew up in the Donegal area, and thus retains some subtle features from that region, but studied or learned most of his Irish in Munster.

My second question is about a phrase that I found in another TG4 series, An Klondike (Dominion Creek). On TG4, it's the fourth episode of the first season, about 25 minutes and 10 seconds in, one of the characters says what sounds to me like Tom, tá mise i do dhearbh-bhráthair [= dhriotháir]. At least, that's my best guess at what he's saying, as I'm familiar with such constructions as táim [= tá mé] i mo dhearbh-bhráthair(= I am a brother), but I have to admit that I have never heard of this being used with possessive adjectives that don't agree with the subject. Does anyone else know about this, or know when this form first started to arise, if it does exist as its own form? AFAIK the actor Dara Devany (Darach Ó Dúbháin) is a native speaker with pretty strong Irish, so I would be somewhat surprised to learn that this is improper.

Any help whatsoever is highly valued, especially given how I just sort of laid it all on there. Hope you all are doing well,

N

1) Dermot Somers is from Roscommon. He was educated in Coláiste Mhuire, Dublin, acc. to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermot_Somers

2) He seems to say "Tom, tá mise do dheartháir", subtitles: "Tom, I am your brother"
(if there’s an "i" it is of course mute – and it would not make it better at all)

In his favor, it probably is: "Tom, Tom-[, is]-mise do dheartháir".
(both Tom-"m" are quite slender. When I first listened, I heard: Táim, tá mise … But if the first is Tom, the second Tá-m… could be Tom, too.)
https://www.tg4.ie/en/player/categories ... ode=390998
(25:10)

Go roiḃ míle maiṫ agat, a Laḃráis,

I thought that I sort of picked up that Somers was from Ros Comáin, as he talks about growing up around those areas as a child. I also guess that his Irish might just be a little less lacking in native qualities (e.g. he says [ɹ] for r, both broad and slender, pronounces ḋá as gá, and aċ as ac).

As for the line in the show, Tá mise do ḋrioṫáir is what I heard first too, which would undoubtedly be incorrect, but the example you gave (Tom-Tom, ' mise do ḋrioṫáir) makes a lot of sense, as if the character was perhaps stuttering the name, and omitted the optional copula. Thank you for providing this example

I definitely heard "Tom, Tom, mise do dheartháir" on the first go.

> pronounces ḋá as gá

This is common enough in Conamara. Even with good speakers such as Éamonn a' Búrc, you'll see that Mac Coisdealbha transcribed it as anything between gá and dhá, leading me to guess it was in free variation, at least with things such as 'gá dhéanamh'.

Thank you, that's very interesting and I didn't realize that a phrase such as á dhéanamh could be transcribed as gá dhéanamh in Connemara. Specifically, though, I was talking about the numeral dhá, as in 'two'.