Celtic Flow

I began learning the Irish language (Gaeilge) a few months ago. I fell in love with the language when I heard it spoken by a man from Galway at a local "Celtic" themed fair.

However, there is something about the manner in which people speak it that bothers me. I listen to Radió na Gaeltachta daily. I love to listen to the music, the news, and the talk shows. But it doesn't matter what type of show it is, the presenters often have a very choppy feel to their spoken Irish. It is very easy to separate the native/fluent speakers from those who are not. But even the people who I know to be native/fluent speakers give the language a choppy feel sometimes.

I know that if they were reading scripted material, this could explain the lack of "flow." But during their talk shows with live conversations, there is still an unsteady flow at times.

I am trying to understand if this is a quality of the language, perhaps some type of Gaelige cadence? Is this the result of an English speaking Ireland trying to speak the Irish language?

When I compare the cadence to that of Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) being spoken, there is a very big difference. The "choppy" feeling is not there. There is a nice flow to the language. I love to listen to the the shows on Radio nan Gaidheal. It doesn't matter if it news being read from paper, or live one-to-one chats...there is a steady flow to the spoken language.

I would post their links, but I am not certain if I can do that on this forum.

So I will recommend people compare the following two shows.

Naidheachdan from BBC Radio nan Gaidheal.

Adhmhaidin from RTE Radió na Gaeltachta.

These are two news shows in the Gàidhlig and Gaeilge. There are several men and women presenters, readings from scripts, and live conversations.

Maybe I am imagining things, but I am curious is anyone here agrees?

It could be a given speaker's dialect, or just how an individual speaks. Same as in English.

I love Gaidhlig :-)
Language of my ancestors, I have all kinds of resources for learning it but just haven't really had the focus yet.

It could be because they are native English speakers attempting to speak Irish as a second language. A similar thing happens in New Zealand with people who speak Maori. The rhythm with which they speak is very obviously influenced by their English. If you listen to a news report, the intonation, the pace and the tone of voice are all exactly the same as if it were in English. I used to think this was normal until one day I heard a report from what was instantly recognisable as a native speaker. He was speaking with a completely different rhythm and it actually sounded like a real language! Completely different to the imitation Maori spoken by the other reporters, who sounded like university students doing a presentation in a foreign language class.

I know that many of the presenters on Radió na Gaeltachta are fluent speakers from the Gaeltachts. Being natives of the region, their Irish is as "Irish" as it gets.

But when I listen to them speak, especially in live conversations, there is an artificial quality that I cannot explain. It almost doesn't seem natural to me. I listen to people speaking many languages via Mikesradioworld. And no matter what language I am listening to, they are all polished and flow easily out of the mouths of the speaker.

I cannot help but feel that the spoken Gàidhlig on Radio nan Gaidheal has a smoother feel than the Irish being spoken on Radió na Gaeltachta. It sounds like a real language being spoken naturally. I can easily imagine it being spoken buy two strangers on a street like it was nothing at all. I am not saying that it is better, I am saying that it sounds better to me.

I hope that some here will decide to check out these websites, and can tell me what they think of the two languages as they are being spoken?