A good English - Irish dictionary?

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Jonlang
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A good English - Irish dictionary?

Post by Jonlang »

Could anyone recommend a good Irish - English / English - Irish dictionary? Something which could be described as the Y Geiriadur Mawr of Irish would be grand. I did a search and there seem to be rather a lot of them around and I don't want to waste my hard earned pennies.
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Re: A good English - Irish dictionary?

Post by linguoboy »

The standard reference work for many years was de Bhaldraithe's, accessible online for free here: http://www.teanglann.ie/en/eid/. It was published in 1959, though, so it's rather out-of-date in many respect.

Foras na Gaeilge just published a new English-Irish dictionary. It's also available for online consultation at no charge: http://www.focloir.ie/en/.

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Re: A good English - Irish dictionary?

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Thanks. I like to have printed ones, just in case.
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Re: A good English - Irish dictionary?

Post by Bristel »

I have Collin's Irish Dictionary, but it's "gem" size, very small text. No IPA or pronunciation keys upon a quick glance.
[bɹ̠ˤʷɪs.təɫ]
Nōn quālibet inīquā cupiditāte illectus hoc agō
Yo te pongo en tu lugar...
Taisc mach Daró

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Re: A good English - Irish dictionary?

Post by linguoboy »

Bristel wrote:I have Collin's Irish Dictionary, but it's "gem" size, very small text. No IPA or pronunciation keys upon a quick glance.
I only know of one Irish dictionary that includes pronunciations and they're misleading since the author was aiming for a "neutral standard" which simply doesn't exist.

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Re: A good English - Irish dictionary?

Post by Bristel »

linguoboy wrote:
Bristel wrote:I have Collin's Irish Dictionary, but it's "gem" size, very small text. No IPA or pronunciation keys upon a quick glance.
I only know of one Irish dictionary that includes pronunciations and they're misleading since the author was aiming for a "neutral standard" which simply doesn't exist.
Sad. I'd love to have a dictionary with accurate pronunciations, at least in one dialect.
[bɹ̠ˤʷɪs.təɫ]
Nōn quālibet inīquā cupiditāte illectus hoc agō
Yo te pongo en tu lugar...
Taisc mach Daró

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linguoboy
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Re: A good English - Irish dictionary?

Post by linguoboy »

Bristel wrote:
linguoboy wrote:
Bristel wrote:I have Collin's Irish Dictionary, but it's "gem" size, very small text. No IPA or pronunciation keys upon a quick glance.
I only know of one Irish dictionary that includes pronunciations and they're misleading since the author was aiming for a "neutral standard" which simply doesn't exist.
Sad. I'd love to have a dictionary with accurate pronunciations, at least in one dialect.
If that dialect is West Cork then tá an t-ádh ort.

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Re: A good English - Irish dictionary?

Post by Jonlang »

linguoboy wrote:
Bristel wrote:
linguoboy wrote:
Bristel wrote:I have Collin's Irish Dictionary, but it's "gem" size, very small text. No IPA or pronunciation keys upon a quick glance.
I only know of one Irish dictionary that includes pronunciations and they're misleading since the author was aiming for a "neutral standard" which simply doesn't exist.
Sad. I'd love to have a dictionary with accurate pronunciations, at least in one dialect.
If that dialect is West Cork then tá an t-ádh ort.
That's great! Thanks!
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Re: A good English - Irish dictionary?

Post by Salmoneus »

Online, teanglann also has recordings for many words, but annoyingly not inflected forms.

I've also discovered fuaimeanna.ie, which has both recordings and two different transcriptions for them, in three dialects, which is easier than puzzling out what people are saying from the sound alone. The downside is that it's not a dictionary, it's a phonology guide, so it has only a relatively small number of words - enough to show off different sounds and processes. Still, it is searchable both by word and by phoneme. The other downside is that sometimes it's hard to connect the transcription to what is actually said...
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Re: A good English - Irish dictionary?

Post by linguoboy »

Salmoneus wrote:Online, teanglann also has recordings for many words, but annoyingly not inflected forms.

I've also discovered fuaimeanna.ie, which has both recordings and two different transcriptions for them, in three dialects, which is easier than puzzling out what people are saying from the sound alone. The downside is that it's not a dictionary, it's a phonology guide, so it has only a relatively small number of words - enough to show off different sounds and processes. Still, it is searchable both by word and by phoneme. The other downside is that sometimes it's hard to connect the transcription to what is actually said...
Another thing that's kind of annoying about both sites is the word choice. Instead of choosing, say, the most common equivalent in a dialect, they simply take the standard form and make everyone pronounce it, which produces some absurd results (particularly for Ulster).

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