Irish Gaelic (Part 1, The Celtic Languages)

In the early days of the Republic of Ireland, the government gave Irish official language status, and made major efforts to revive the language throughout the country (4: 2.4 & 3.1). Irish children have been required to learn Irish since the Republic’s creation. Again, although they learn it in school, Irish isn't used in the home or in any other regular interaction. So most children know the basics, but they are certainly not fluent, nor even really competent. Only a small proportion of these children go on to continue their study, and use, of Irish. The early Irish government envisioned an Ireland where Irish really was a majority language again. This certainly hasn’t happened, but clearly the effort has kept the language alive in the cities, if generally only in intellectual circles. Certainly without requisite early Irish education, the language would never be spoken outside the Gaeltacht, if even there.

How Does Irish Compare to Other Celtic Languages?

Because Irish is in the Goidelic branch, it has little in common with Welsh, Breton, or Cornish, with the exception of some similarities in grammar and some vocabulary. However, it does have much in common with languages in its own branch. Written Irish looks very much like Scottish Gaelic, where almost half the words very similar indeed. There are many more spelling differences between Irish and Manx, however. Speakers of all the Gaelic languages would not understand each other immediately, but with a little effort they could probably work out an understanding.

Sources

1. The Irish page on http://www.geocities.com/indoeurop/atree... (select Celtic and then Irish Gaelic)

2. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language....

3. http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/europe_...

4. http://www.uoc.es/euromosaic/web/documen...

5. http://www.gaelic.net/novascotia/english...

Go To Page: 1 2 3