Buntus Cainte: a first step in spoken Irish - part I

by Tomas O'Domhnallain

Buntus Cainte ( Basic Speaking) was a programme aimed at teaching the Irish language that was broadcast on Radio Telefis Eireann in Ireland, beginning in 1967. The show was presented by Maire O Neill and Aileen Geoghegan. The programme catered for people with little or no Irish. Phrases were spoken by the presenters in both Irish and English, and were also overlaid (in Irish) on a simple static cartoon relating to the phrase. Buntus Cainte is the most successful course in Irish ever, and is in continual demand. Now for the first time the course books and listening material are available as part of the same package. The material from the original recordings has been remastered and is now on audio CD attached to this book.

Genres: Language, Irish Literature, Nonfiction, Reference

134 pages, paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Manny]

In Dublin, Ireland, for a project meeting. For some reason, I've never been to Ireland before, and pretty much the first thing I did was to buy a book on the Irish language.

The first page of an elementary language text is always so revealing! If you're learning Japanese, you'll probably start by learning to say that I am the student, you are the sensei, and this is a cherry blossom. In Irish, the first dialogue goes like this:

NÓRA: Dia duit, a Cháit.
CÁIT: Dia's Muire duit, a Nóra.
NÓRA: Tá sé fuar.
CÁIT: Tá sé an-fhuar, ach tá sé tirim.
NÓRA: Tá sé tirim, buíchas la Dia.

In English:

NÓRA: Good day, Cáit.
CÁIT: Good day, Nóra.
NÓRA: It's cold.
CÁIT: It's very cold, but it's dry.
NÓRA: It is dry, thank God.

[tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

a cute little course. a handy refresher that helped me relearn some of the vocab i had from school and also introduced me to some new phrases. i took my time going through this and found it very rewarding as my listening comprehension noticeably improved as i went along.

one disappointment is that the current edition of the book appears to have had a budget of of zero euro. it might actually be a low res scan of the first edition that they sent of to the printers. if anyone at foras na gaeilge is reading this please commission me to do a full new set of modernised illustrations

[Ellen Evanoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book with a little grammar then a cute little conversation in Irish then with an English translation. Make learning Irish fun

[Dan Breadon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Old didactic style but a classic.

Does the job.

You need a grammar book though.

[Kaci · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book used in my Irish language class.

I'm not going to be setting this book aside for a while. 9-16-09