Kevin Sonney

Comment Threads

• anonemouse commented on Of Blood and Honey, And Blue Skies from Pain
  I don't know if that was widely known enough at the time (pre Nicholas Cage in Windtalkers) to be an influence, but quite possibly. The key differences between the two, though, are that it was unlikely any Najavo speakers emigrated to Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan, and WWII only lasted ~6 years - there've been Irish troops in the Lebanon since 1978....
• Bellinghman commented on Of Blood and Honey, And Blue Skies from Pain
  It's interesting to note that Chaim Herzog, sixth President of Israel and an officer in the British Army and then the IDF, may have been an Irish speaker. He was the Belfast-born son of a Irish rabbi who was fluent in the language. (And indeed, that father also emigrated to Israel, it appears.)...
• scorbet commented on Of Blood and Honey, And Blue Skies from Pain
  You do still see the old marks now and again - really old street signs and the (apparently out of date now) UCD motto. I don't think I was taught about them in school either, but have no idea where I picked it up. I think part of the problem with Irish spelling is the fact that there are also the different dialects which all use the same spelling for different pronunciations. E.g. I've come across different teachers pronouncing the future tense ending spelled "-f(a)idh" as "-fee", "-fig" and "-hig", depending on what variety of Irish they learned. (This is...
• paws4thot commented on Of Blood and Honey, And Blue Skies from Pain
  Para 3 - To make matters worse, in Scots Gaelic the same spelling can be pronounced "fay"....
• Stina Leicht commented on Of Blood and Honey, And Blue Skies from Pain
  "I've come across different teachers pronouncing the future tense ending spelled "-f(a)idh" as "-fee", "-fig" and "-hig", depending on what variety of Irish they learned. (This is really confusing when you change teacher every year particularly when you are just learning to read in English.)" OMG, THIS. I think it's been one of the toughest aspects of learning the language....