Alison Lilly’s Reviews > Sengoidelc: Old Irish For Beginners > Status Update

A major problem w/this book is that the author is not himself a native English speaker, leading to some really convoluted English sentences. (Nor did he have a good editor who could've helped clean up and clarify the writing.) There's a common warning that, even if you already know Modern Irish, learning Old Irish is like learning a completely new language. I didn't realize that new language would have to be German.

A major problem w/this book is that the author is not himself a native English speaker, leading to some really convoluted English sentences. (Nor did he have a good editor who could've helped clean up and clarify the language.) There's a common warning that, even if you already know Modern Irish, learning Old Irish is like learning a completely new language. I didn't realize that new language would have to be German.

I expected Old Irish to be challenging -- I was NOT anticipating the ENGLISH in this book to be vague, convoluted and sometimes downright nonsensical. I highly recommend being married to a (smart, sexy) linguist who can provide clearer explanations when you interrupt him in the middle of work to rant about piss-poor pedagogy. Barring that, de Vries' _Student's Companion to Old Irish Grammar_ is an absolute necessity.