Clíodhna Campbell
HAIGH a chairde, is mise Clíodhna and I’m a primary school teacher in Gaelscoil Éanna, an Irish medium primary school on the outskirts of North Belfast. This year, I am teaching and learning much from the children in Primary 6 (10 year olds).
I have previously taught nursery, Primary 1, underachievers of all primary ages and also postmen and women on their lunchbreaks in the sorting office here in Mallusk. I have tutored individual children along the way and used Irish with the children in my care as a childminder, when my son was younger.
I am hoping to be able to help you begin to learn some Irish. In this non-contact, informal way of learning, I think our best approach would be to focus on conversational Irish.
Hopefully, we will all have a bit more than the weather to talk about soon, but for now we are going to focus on An Aimsir—The Weather. All pronunciation shared is in the Ulster dialect.
Ceacht 1—An Aimsir
When discussing the weather, you might be asked: “Cad é mar atá an aimsir inniu?” (Cah jay marr atah an aym-shir in-you?) This question simply means: “How is the weather today?”
Here are some answers that you could give:
| it is | tá sé | tah shay |
| cold | fuar | fure |
| wet | fliuch | fil-yuck |
| dry | tirim | chir-rim (ch pronounced like the beginning of ‘change’) |
| dark | dorcha | dor-a-ha |
| bright | geal | g-yal |
| It is very cold | Tá sé an-fhuar | tah shay ann-ewer |
| It is very warm | Tá sé an-te | tah shay ann-chay (as in ‘change’) |
| It is very wet | Tá sé an-fhliuch | tah shay ann-fil-yuck |
| It is very dry | Tá sé an-tirim | tah shay ann-chir-rim |
| It is very dark | Tá sé an-dorcha | tah shay ann-dor-a-ha |
| It is very bright | Tá sé an-gheal | tah shay ann-g-yal |
| It’s very cold, but it’s dry | Tá sé an-fhuar, ach tá sé tirim | tah shay ann-ewer awk tah shay chir-rim |
| It is very wet | Tá sé an-fhliuch | tah shay ann-l-yuck |
I want you to put together some answers of your own to the question: “Cad é mar atá an aimsir inniu?” using the combinations in the table.
In March, the Irish community will be celebrating Seachtain na Gaeilge (March 1-17) and, luckily enough, given the current circumstances, a lot of events and resources will be available online.
Have a browse of www.snag.ie, in association with www.peig.ie for different games and events as well as on the social media accounts of Cultúrlann MacAdam Ó Fiaich and Cumann Cultúrtha Mhic Reachtain.
Clíodhna Campbell is a teacher, language enthusiast and mother. If you would like to get in touch with her with any linguistic queries, e-mail: cliodhnamorgan@live.co.uk
PIC: JALEEL AKBASH
