Is the Irish language on her deathbed?

 

While writing this blog, the Chieftains/Sting “Mo Ghile Mear” is on for inspiration. I love listening to the Chieftains because many of the songs are in Irish Gaelic.

Gaelic (Gaeilge / Irish Gaelic) or as it is commonly known in the localization industry, Irish (which may or may not be a misnomer as it is the language of the Gaels), seems to be slowing dying. Irish Gaelic is one of the three Gaelic languages; the others being Manx Gaelic (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic (spoken in Scotland) derived from the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages.

To quote one linguist, “Gaelic is dying because the Gaels are allowing her to die”. I don’t agree. I think the opposite is happening.

According to my reseach, the Irish people have made a really valiant effort to keep their native language alive but in fact, any language in the world that has fewer than 100,000,000 speakers is most likely dying. Government statistics suggest that only about 3% of households speak Gaelic.

Irish is the only version of Gaelic that has been added to the UNESCO Interactive Endangered Languages List. The slow death of Irish started when the Irish people started to leave the island and move to Canada, US and Australia. However, it appears that the Irish people are slowly in the process of trying to get the Irish language off this list.

Gaelic was spoken as the first language in a part of Western Ireland known as the Gaeltach and is part of the normal school curriculum in Ireland. When the English rule overtook this area, the Irish were forced to learn and speak English when dealing with the ruling officials.

As one blogger put it, as with the Cherokee language in America, Irish is the foundation for various place names having a cultural influence on the modern land. Rivers, mountains, historical monuments, roads and towns all have Irish names. Also, like Cherokee and other Native American languages in America, Irish has been mainly phased out with the use of English dominating the main line of common communication within Ireland.

It is nice to see that the Irish people are rallying around Irish Gaelic so they can save their native language. And it’s a beautiful language at that. So, is the Irish language on her deathbed? No longer!