Irish language
 

Hi,

I noticed in one of the write-ups for a bed and breakfast in Ireland it said "This is an Irish speaking household". Is this refering to Gaelic? Would I be able to stay there for a night if I don't speak that language?

Yes, that is the Irish version of Gaelic and it would be VERY VERY VERY unusual if they only catered to Irish speaking guest. That would severly limit their marketing range.

Bill

I'd have to agree with Bill. I can't imagine that they'd only speak Irish. More likely they've listed that to show that they do speak it, sort of as a cultural bonus to those who may stay there.

I suspect this must be located in the west? There are areas there known as Gaeltachts (my spelling may be off), which are areas where traditional Irish may be heard, but I've yet to run into anyone that didn't also speak English.

I, too, would imagine that they are bi-lingual, and perhaps catering to those who WANT to speak Irish.

I would learn a couple phrases, just to be polite ... slainte! is a toast (means 'health' or 'luck' I think).

There's lots of sites online to give you a gaelic primer, but here is one I like>
http://www.erinsweb.com/gae_index.html#lesson_board

According to my relatives that live in a Gaeltacht region in Kerry, the language known as Gaelic is spoken in Scotland. Irish is included in the class of languages known as Gaelic, but is indeed it's own language and it is called Irish. I was yelled at for referring to it as Gaelic :)

Anyways, this area my family is from, everyone speaks Irish as their first language and everyone from the youngest speaking child to the 100 year old lady speak English perfectly well. I think you will be fine at this bed and breakfast!

Certaily Irish is Gaelic (in Ireland, proounced gaylic). A quick bit of web research finds me the information that there are 400,000 Irish speakers and none of them are monoglots.

I was always taught the language was Gaelic, but maybe Siobhan would know more?

As an Irish person I would never refer to it as Gaelic - always Irish.

I referred to Gaelic once to a Scotsman... pronouncing it 'GAH-lik' as I had heard before... he said (and he had a pretty heavy Scottish brogue):

"GAH-lik? That's what we put on our pizza!!"

We laughed so hard we got tears in our eyes.... btw, this was our host on that B&B on Skye I always recommend, Tir Alainn...

Irish people refer to it as Irish But I don't think anyone is offended by calling it Gaelic. School kids go to the Gaeltacht (SP?) for a few weeks in the summer. Its like an Irish speaking summer camp to improve your language skills. Gael...obivously refers to Gaelic or so I thought. Scots speak slightly differently in gealic but I recogonise some words (I know very little).

Now as for an Irish speaking household/B&B it just states that so if you speak Irish they will converse with you in Irish. EVERYONE speaks English here. If you go to Parts of Donegal Galway etc you can find Irish Speaking Areas but they will always addrss you in English unless they think you speak Irish.

I think some of the older fols used to wear Faine pins in silver or gold and this was to show they spoke Irish. My mother tld me if you saw that then you would address them in Irish first. Nor sure if they wear the pins anymore. Gold I believe was a fluent speaker. This is just what my mother told me. Do they do that in Scotland Sheila?