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i recently started learning irish; and one thing i was introduced to is the “fada” but i love how the online course on the language i took explained the importence of the fada; they simply explain what it is then give you some minimal pairs involving it with sound files and translations; my favorites are “bas” (boss) and “bás” (death); what are your favorite pair of words that differ only because of the fada?
There is a great book I was listening to (audio version of it on Audible) called Craic Baby. It’s the same guy who wrote the Motherfoclóir book. The first 5 or 6 chapters all end with a small section called “A fada can make all the difference” and he goes through a good few examples to end those early chapters. Definitely great book for those with an interest in Irish.
There is also a Twitter account called “Our Dada” and they tweet loads of examples of these minimal pairs so take a scroll back through their posts to see some great ones.
My favourite one is Orla/Órla (vomit/golden princess).
saw the account and it is hillarious; I actually thing it is generally a great way to introduce people trying to learn a language to what is contrastive in it by giving some minimal pairs; thus demonstrating “if you don’t pay attention to this aspect of the pronunciation you might mean this … but accidentally say that …”; I suspect that once one has a very good grasp of a language; one can use minimal pairs like that for deliberate puns (say a joke about working for the grim reaper in irish)
It’s a clever approach to highlight the importance through minimal pairs with sound files and translations. As a bodhran player, I appreciate the musicality of the language.
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