I have received formal instruction in three languages: English, French and Irish Gaelic. They are, not suprisingly, my main languages.

Hiberno-English

(Irish-English) / Fluent, Native Language / 23 years

Indo-European > Germanic > West Germanic > Ango-Frisian > Anglic > English > Hiberno-English

Hiberno-English is English as spoken in Ireland. It was brought to the island by the Protestant English and Scottish Plantations in the 16th cenury, first intoduced into Dublin and the surrounding areas, before spreading across the island in the following 600 years.

Growing up in a Cork surburb in Ireland, with two parents from south county Dublin, I was raised with a pretty accent-less standard Hiberno English which could be equally understood by any Irish speaker of Hiberno-English or foreign speaker of standard English. It was certainly never like the dialects of Hiberno-English one encounters in the country-side or in the northwest of the country. It was however still Irish. In recent years however an internationalisation of my English has sadly occured.

I have travelled extensively in Western Europe since my childhood and since the age of 13 I have lived abroad in four countries: Syria, Israel, France and Estonia, for a combined period of 30 months. Like always I still communicate mostly in English but the majority of the time it is with non-native speakers and a small amount of time with native speakers of non-Irish dialects of English. This has lead to my English becoming very bland, basic and international and loosing quite a lot of its Irish characteristics. I do however notice a certain re-Irishisation of my speech when I am back in Ireland and talk with other Irish people.

At present I working towards improving my English, and reversing the negative effects of internationalisation. I am also hoping to arrive at a more pronounced Hiberno speech full of the colour and the nuanaces of the old tongue Irish.

I now teach English to grades 10 and 12 at two secondary schools in Tallinn, Estonia.

Français métropolitien

(Standard French) / CEFR B2, Language 2 / 10.5 years

Indo-European > Italic > Romance > Italo-Western > Gallo-Iberian > Gallo-Romance > Gallo-Rhaetian > Oïl > Francien (Standard French)

I started French at the age of 12 in my first year at secondary school (Grade 7). I was never very good at French in my first years of learning the language but that changed when, at the age of 17, I spent three weeks immersed in the language all day, every day at a French language summer college in Ireland run by both native speakers and French speaking Irish. That three weeks completely change my relationship with the language and gave me great confidence going forth. I did well in French in my final school exams and I went on to study French language and culture in university as part of my Honours Bachelor's in Commerce. For the academic year of 2005/6 I spent ten months living in Lille, Northern France and studying at the Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (Institute for Business Administration), part of the Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille 1 (University of Science and Techonology Lille 1). I had my final class in French in March of 2007.

I now teach French to beginners and intermediate learners in grade 10 at two secondary schools in Tallinn, Estonia. This helps me keep up my contact with the language and stops my competence in it from declining.

Gaeilge (lárchanúint) 

(Central-Irish Gaelic) / CEFR B1, Language 3 / 18.5 years

Indo-European > Celtic > Insular Celtic > Goidelic > Irish

Irish Gaelic is a Celtic language closely related to the Gaelic languages of Scottish Gaelic and Manx and less so to the Brythonic Celtic languages of Welsh, Cornish and Breton.

Like most Irish people I had my first encounter with Irish Gaelic when I started school at the age of 4 and a half. I never had any great aptitude for the language and due to the dreadful teaching of the language, both in primary school and secondary school and the general lack of opportunities to use and practise the language I failed to become fluent. I didn't have much interest in the language until I first lived abroad at the age of 13 and meet many different people from all around the world who spoke their own languages natively. I was intensively jealous of them and very much ashamed of my poor abilities in Irish and that of other Irish people. I then decided to work harder on my Irish. I had fairly passable Irish when leaving school, better than my French at the time, but sadly due to lack of use my competence in the language declined, especially in comparison to my French because I continued to study the latter in university as a core component of my undergraduate degree. I had my last formal Irish class in May 2003 but I did take Irish class for an hour a week in 2004/5 and 2006/7 in the Ionad na Gaeilge Labhartha (Centre of Spoken Irish) in University College, Cork.

I use and practise my Irish as much as possible online by reading Lá Nua, Beo and Nós*, watching TG4, listening to Raidió na Gaeltachta and Irish language music, and writing on my blog Saol gan Chiumhais. Should I be lucky to have children in the future with my Estonian girlfriend I am hoping to raise them bilingually in Irish and Estonian. I hope to live in a Gaeltacht [Irish-speaking] area to do this.

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© Colm Doyle 2008 / Last Updated: 22/03/08