I was reading about the lack of a native speaker on Duolingo and I was thinking that if a program like that is created ,and that surely it would be easy enough to adapt it into the various dialects, so people could choose which ever one they wanted.

Then I was wondering how many dialects there are that are sufficiently different to warrant their own course.
Is Óilean Chliara much different from Múscraí
Is Corca Dhuibhne much different from Uíbh Ráthach
The Aran Islands from Conamara and Conamara from the areas to the East of Galway city (are there still native speakers there?)
South Mayo from Achill and Erris

Im aware south Donegal Irish is different from North, but then does Toraigh differ much from Aran and are there any native speakers left in the small pockets of Gaeltacht on the Ros Goill and Fanad peninsulas?

_________________
Bíonn rudaí maithe mall

How sub-dialectal do you want to go? lol

Ring and west of Dingle

Broadly Connemara

Mayo (Carrowteague)

Gleann Cholm Chille then the Northwest of Donegal


Six or seven groupings I would think would not be a harm, understanding of course the variances between Árainn and Cois Fhairrge and 'general' Conamara, as well as between Tory, Gweedore and Bloodyforeland in the NW

The others like Clare Island, Achill, SW Kerry, Cork all over and Donegal Aran are dead, pretty much

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

I'm sure that you're right about all of those, Jay Bee, with the possible exception of Cúil Aodha. I was only in Cúil Aodha (County Cork) for 1 day, 7 years ago and spoke virtually no Irish at the time, but I got the impression that the Irish language was very much alive over there. I may be wrong about this, but it seemed to me like a Fíor-Ghaeltacht – I'm hoping that An Lon Dubh might chime in on this one and let us know if my impression was right.

What do you base that on? as far as I can see its simply not true at all, Ive met Native speakers from Cork, Ive heard the locals on Clare Island speak in Irish, when I was there.

I never went to Donegal Aran, but I was at the ferry terminus on the main land and heard people going to the Island speaking to each other.

I have freinds who have lived on Achill and speak Irish with the locals, there is still a Irish language community there, even if its the minority.

They were all speaking native Irish in all those places.

_________________
Bíonn rudaí maithe mall

Just on whether there are children growing up there with it or not. Once transmission stops, the dialect is dead

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

From what ive witnessed in all the places i just mentioned plus East of Dingle, children are.

And even if they were not, if people still speak it, its still not dead.

_________________
Bíonn rudaí maithe mall

It's a question of perspective. Breton is supposed to have more speakers than all the other Celtic languages combined (more than 250,000) but it's essentially dead as the native language is not being transmitted. If you were to look at a human life as travelling thru time, we'd look like a worm. There would be a lot of branches for Breton, but from the point of view of someone outside of time and space 25 years from now, all lines would have terminated.

Irish not so, and I'm glad to hear it's still viable in more places than I thought. I don't know Munster very well, so I've never been to the places you spoke about

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

That's not correct. There are way more more than 250,000 fluent Welsh speakers alone, even if you mean just native speakers, and many areas in Wales have the language in daily use, with definite use among the young. Plus, if you just mean fluent speakers, Ireland also has several hundred thousand (only a minority being native speakers), even though I agree that the census figures are inflated.

_________________
I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

I'm thinking of native speakers because there have to be complex local and regional networks working to keep any language generating large number of native speakers.

How many native speakers has Welsh?

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

I've never seen precise figures, but I'm fairly sure that it's several hundred thousand, since most Welsh speakers live in areas where a large portion of the population speaks Welsh, so they're likely to have learned it in the home, rather than as second-language learners.

_________________
I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.