There was a thread here some time ago about accents and speaking Irish with an accent from the west of Ireland when being from Dublin etc. (I think it may have been hijacked from a question someone asked!) I was reminded of it yesterday.

When stopping off in Newcastle West (Limerick), at the table beside us, there was a group of people speaking in Irish. I couldn't make out any words, but instantly knew by the rhythm and 'music' of the language that it was Irish. Except that it wasn't! After about a minute, I heard some words that were definitely English and then paid more attention. The entire conversation was in English, but the accent and way of speaking sounded very much like Irish.

I don't know if the people involved were local to the area or from somewhere else, but it made me wonder that if you are not a native Irish speaker, but learn Irish as a second language later on, will you actually sound 'more like a native speaker' if you are from the west of Ireland than someone from Dublin (or anywhere else in the Galltacht) whose first language is in fact Irish - simply because of the accent?

I am talking about comparing people both with a high level of accuracy. My point is not about different standards of Irish, but more about accents.

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maybe for the general melody of the sentences etc, but not for the consonants etc, since they are different in the 2 languages (there are no slender/broad consonants in English, there are sounds in Irish that don't exist in English, etc).

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

That strikes a chord with me. If I were learning French, I would like to learn to speak like a native French speaker. The same should apply with Irish. The problem is that I am Irish and from Dublin. It would be ridiculous for me to assume a Conamara accent when speaking English, and I just can't help feeling the same about Irish - whatever the logic or otherwise of the argument.

...and then I listen to some of the presenters on various independent radio stations doing their best on the occasional token show in Irish and I am just appalled at how removed their accents are from natural Irish. I just don't know!

People don't need to change their accents in order to speak Irish properly, in my opinion. But they do need to pronounce words and features of the Irish language that are disinctly Irish correctly instead of finding the English language equivalent such as "Lae" often pronounced "lay", tú as "too". Unfortunately urban Irish pronunciation is quite poor from most; so that inturn leaves people thinking that their accents aren't suitable for Irish. I speak Déise Irish but you can still hear a distinctive Corkonian accent when I'm talking.

Back to people speaking English and thinking its Irish, I get what your saying there is a sort of rythm to some people's speech particularly country people.

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Some Irish dialects of English retain sounds that are closer to the original native phonemes in Irish. So speakers of those dialects may be able to approximate the native Irish phonemes more easily.

Dublin English is closer to British English (relatively speaking) and so the phonemes are further removed from native Irish than other dialects of Irish English.

As a learner of Irish you can use the accents of Gaeltacht speakers English to gain hints (but only hints) as to the differences between native Irish phonemes and English equivalents.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
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), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Yes, there are some Gaeltacht people who wouldn't speak English at all before learning it at school, and then when they speak English, actually they do the contrary of Urban Irish, ie. they replace every English sound by the closest Irish one, and they translate many sentences word for word from Irish. It's quite funny :-)
Gheas, d-air ár som Gaeltacht píopal thú bhúdant spíc ínglis at abhal biofór lórninn iot at scúl... srl

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

Yeah! isn't that how most Irish culchies would say that line generally? , no? That's kinda how I would say it in my farmer accent. That's usually the first question I get when I meet a new person- Am I a farmer? No I'm not

Not there's anything wrong with being a farmer Breandán!

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

Lughaidh, your surname wouldn't be Na gCopaleen by any chance?

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

I hear quite a few Conamara teenagers speaking Irish with some kind of hybrid Dublin/American/British accent. Whatever it is, it's nothing at all like their parents Blás. But of course it's happened in Hiberno English too, with the AA roadwatch 'Rind-a-bite (roundabout) accent of RTE.

what is a Dublin/American/British accent in Irish? it's difficult to me to figure out how it might sound Must sound awful anyway

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