Why was the more divergent 'Gaeilge' picked over the more historically expected 'Gaeilg'?

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

I always thought it was because 'Gaeilge' was used in Conamara and I was always under the impression that Conamara Irish was favoured in the Caighdeán because it was seen as the bridge between Munster and Ulster Irish.

But Lon Dubh has recently said that the Caighdeán is a blend of Clare and Classical Irish, so maybe Gaeilge was used in Clare too? I am away from my atlases at the moment, if someone has them handy it would be interesting to check.

It wouldn't surprise me if Gaeilge was used in Clare since I remember Stiofán Ó hEalaoire having a very nice blend of Conamara and Munster Irish features in his Irish. Clare after all was in the middle of the dialectal continuum between Munster and Conamara.

Cian

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

True. Or, they didn't want it referred to as 'Gaelic'

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

because the caighdeán is stupid :mrgreen:

The historical nominative form was Gaoidhealg, which has disappeared from all dialects.
Ulster "Gaeilg" is the old dative.
Clare and Connachta "Gaeilge" is the genitive.
Munster "Gaelainn" is probably a variant of "Gaeilge" (ie. dative) but I've no idea where the -inn comes from.

I'd love to know how the guys who made the CO chose the forms they established as standard. Sometimes they chose forms that don't exist in any living dialect. Sometimes, forms that are the least used of all the Gaeltacht forms. Looks like they chose them at random.
To me, it would have been better if they chose one living dialect as the standard and that's all. And allow all living Gaeltacht forms in all uses except in "all-Ireland" texts, ie. stuff that would be read by people from everywhere.

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

Part of me really wants to believe they were drunk and just threw darts at a map of Ireland for each thing they picked, and then went with that. And if there wasn't a living dialect, they just made something up.

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

Perhaps they chose Gaeilge as it removes the "difficulty" of having different nominative and genitive forms?
Those chaps were very keen on "simplification".

There are a few cases of -ing > g/c in Munster Irish, e.g. fuilig, tarrac.
I'd assume Gaedhilg > Gaedhealaing/Gaedhiling is an example of the opposite change.
Another example is mentioned on page 184 of "Irish Dialects Past and Present": tairsing < tairsig (<tairsigh, dat. of tairseach).



I wonder if Conamara Gaedhilge is a case of the genitive replacing the nominative (which would be quite unusual, I think), or simply the addition of /ə/ to Gaedhilg (seen in some other words ending in -ig too, e.g. reilige, oifige) ?

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(SL)(GM)

I've seen talk about this before:
http://www.daltai.com/discus/messages/1 ... 1158391677
Adding a vowel to the end would 'protect' the consonant from wearing away, tho at the expense of the case system



That's interesting. /k'/ and /g'/ and /ng'/, as well as /k/, /g/, and /ng/ are part of the same 'chain' obviously. It is like since you can't lenite 'ng' as such, you just go down the chain. It might be seen as another form of lenition that had little traction, or 'contra eclipsis' or something



As you could say 'as Gaeilge', instead of 'i nGaeilg' (cutting out the 'Gaelic' bit and thus any Scottish connection) and 'i nGaolaing'/'i nGaelaing'

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

Then, why have they chosen the -amar endings (past 1plural) while they don't exist anymore anywhere, instead of using -(aigh...) muid, that all Connemara and Ulster speakers (ie. 90% of the native speakers) use?

And why haven't they chosen "níor chuaigh, gur chuaigh" etc since it's simpler and it's what they say in Corca Dhuibhne? Why have they retained a distinction between "de" and "do" while 99% of the native speakers don't do it (and even in Old Irish, people started to mix them up)?
etc etc

Hundreds of stupid choices like that.

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

It's a mystery to me. Whatever their motivations they made an utter hames of it.

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(SL)(GM)