As a native, I have to say that’s an impressive guide to pronunciation. I can’t really argue with any of it except that nobody would mind if you refer to the la

As a native, I have to say that’s an impressive guide to pronunciation. I can’t really argue with any of it except that nobody would mind if you refer to the language as Gaelic. When I was in school, Irish was taught in a very academic way: the focus was on reading and writing – as opposed to listening or speaking. As a result, most people of my generation don’t actually speak it and only understand a “cúpla focail”. We only learned how to pronounce the words in order to read them correctly (it was only after I left school that I learned that both spelling and the alphabet had been simplified in the mid-twentieth century). Thankfully, in the decades since then, there’s a lot more emphasis on spoken and colloquial Irish. On Patrick’s Day, I attended a music festival where one stage was all young Irish musicians speaking and performing in Irish, with a lot of the audience understanding what they were saying. If you have a spare 13 minutes, I’d recommend watching the charming short film, “Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom” about a Chinese man who learns Irish before coming to Ireland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqYtG9BNhfM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqYtG9BNhfM