http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K08vUnVpHcw

Here we see John Henry being interviewed. In the video it is mentioned that the last storytellers who could recite stories as long as the Illiad died only 40 years before the time of the prog (like 1985) so mark that during WW2.

The question then is, did any of the gobshites in the gov bother to record or take down such material?

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

Yes, there are a few books containing material by John Henry.

However much more importantly, at the beginning of that video you will hear mention of a man who knew even more material. I don't know what they were feeding people in Mayo that gave them such incredible memories, but the seanchaithe there could remember several stories longer than Homer's Iliad. That material was recorded (it can be found in Ionad Deirbhle in Each Léim), but has never been printed.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

It's a shame, especially when you consider the notion that Mayo Irish was conservative phonologically and would have represented a good Standard. Mayo was also solidly Irish-speaking at one point (19th C?) and John McHale (Seaghán Mac Éil) and his work could have represented the basis of a Standard?

That's what I was talking about. I seem to be hard for people to understand!



Thanks for that bit of info. Recorded by pen or tape?



Indeed it should have been but that would not have meant control of things by the gov. It's my fav dialect (tho I love them all the same!) for speech and it's what I used to learn to pronounce Irish correctly

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

Oh, not at all, I just phrased my post in a silly way.

Both, the written records are displayed in Ionad Deirbhle in one of the drawers at the back of the museum. The lady who runs the centre is a lovely woman as she tolerated me sitting on the floor reading the material for about an hour!

The recordings can be found in the UCD archives. I will be going back to the Mayo Gaeltacht to ask to make pdf copies of some of this stuff, as I really dislike the idea of such material sitting, lost, in a shelf somewhere. So, if you can wait until summer I might be able to send it to you!

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

It was also quite conservative grammatically: duals, dative singulars and plurals, Classical Irish style genitives are all to be found in any of the novels from the area. It would however be quite difficult dialect to learn at this point and has very few speakers left under fifty years of age.

In terms of its pronunciation, I personally find it to extremely distinctive, it has a soft nasal quality and a rolling cadence. It's the one dialect that I instantly know I'm listening to, even after two or three words.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

I'd love to get a copy of them!

I'll be back in Ireland again in July for a wedding and would love to go visit Ceathrú Thaidhg and Belmullet while I'm there.

I do wonder in all this how much stuff was recorded and when is it going to be digitized...

Any idea what the story 'longer than the Iliad' was all about?



Ah I don't know about that!

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

You can learn the phonology and the basic outline of the grammar easily enough, how genitives are formed, datives e.t.c. However there is no real account of the syntax and for any new word it would be difficult to know which declension it belonged to. For example does Casúr have genitive Casúir or Casúrach?

The real issue is that there is no account of the syntax.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

There was some talk about a Mayo grammar book
http://www.daltai.com/discus/messages/1 ... 1108202802

but it never materialized.

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

I think it was cancelled, a real pity. An Teanga Bheo: Gaeilge Mhaigh Eo, would have been a fantastic book, a proper look at an underappreciated dialect.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal