After a delayed bus, another bus, and then a taxi ride I finally made it to Gleann Fhinne from Dublin. Gleann Fhinne is a rural part of Donegal, 30 minutes from Donegal Town. The only things within walking distance from the house are the school, a pub, and a mountain to climb. The scenery here is very beautiful and every time I make the walk to the school, I am in awe of my surroundings. The host family I am staying with is amazing and have really helped me with conversational Irish so far.
My stop in Donegal Town before my bus to Ballybofey
One of the things I noticed within the first class is the different phrases and pronunciations of Donegal Irish from the Irish I am used to hearing. The most prominent difference is the way of asking how are you and where are you from. Instead of Conas atá tú for how are you, Cad é mar atá tú is used. Similarly, Carb as duit is used instead of my familiar Cé as thú. This posed a problem at first as these are some of the first things people ask you and I did not know how to respond. However, after figuring out these new ways of phrasing questions, I can easily respond to them now.
The view on my way to school
One of the most prominent pronunciation differences is the –a/emh ending. I am used to pronouncing this as a v, however here it is pronounced as an ooo sound. This ending is present in two of the most used verbs, raibh (past tense of to be) and déanamh (verbal noun of to do/make). It took me a while to catch on to this change but when my teacher pointed it out in class, a lot of sentences started making more sense. Another small but prominent change is the use of the word fosta instead of freisin (also). One of the girls in my house said this the night I first got here and I didn’t recognize it. After hearing it used a lot, I finally asked what it was and felt silly for not having asked sooner when I realized that it was such a simple but commonly used word. Another major change is that the n in some words is pronounced as an r. For instance, in gnáth and cnón, the are pronounced as if they were spelled gráth and crón which is admittedly easier to say.
Since being here, I have learned to ask what words mean or about pronunciations because these simple questions improve my comprehension by a lot. It is also fascinating to hear how different the Donegal version of Irish is than what I am used to. I was told that it was different, but actually being here I finally understand what everybody meant.