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Is Irish a dead language?

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12467…131

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    #92
    owenc
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,524 ✭✭✭owenc


    dlofnep wrote: »
    Based on what evidence? I mean, did you just pick an abitrary number out of thin air or do you at least have even a smidgen of evidence to backup your guesstimate?

    No it was just a rough guess nothing else.


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    #93
    dlofnep
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,759 ✭✭✭✭dlofnep


    Iwasfrozen wrote: »
    Then perhaps you could tell me why you think Irish is worth every penny and hour spent on it?

    Oh and could you keep it pragmatic? I'm a practical person you see.

    It requires state funding to ensure that it is accessible to the public. Could some of the funding be spent more wisely? Probably! But do I feel that it doesn't require funding? Absolutely not.

    I'm not sure what happy little medium you want us to come to. I'm a supporter of the language, and have run a group out of my own free time, without any state support for 3 years. You are a person who would not be moved either way if the language was extinct. I don't think there is much common ground for us to meet on - would you not agree?
    Iwasfrozen wrote: »
    So welsh is only a regional language. Not a national one.

    Wales is a nation, within a nation.


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    #94
    Wolfe Tone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭Wolfe Tone


    owenc wrote: »
    That you have to learn Welsh until the age of 15.
    No idea.


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    #95
    P. Breathnach
    Registered Users Posts: 12,089 ✭✭✭✭P. Breathnach


    owenc wrote: »
    Well i've found that hard to beleive, i've never heard anyone speaking irish and i've been to the most remote parts of donegal and haven't seen anyone speaking irish....

    I suspect that you weren't listening.

    I was in Connemara last weekend, staying in a place outside the Gaeltacht (but not very far outside). The language used in the local bar was Irish.

    I can be heard speaking Irish from time to time, with no financial incentive to do so. I know plenty of people who use Irish regularly, many having it as their first language. The ones I think of are not campaigners, or making some kind of point: they are using a language in which they are comfortable.


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    #96
    owenc
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,524 ✭✭✭owenc


    dlofnep wrote: »
    It requires state funding to ensure that it is accessible to the public. Could some of the funding be spent more wisely? Probably! But do I feel that it doesn't require funding? Absolutely not.

    I'm not sure what happy little medium you want us to come to. I'm a supporter of the language, and have run a group out of my own free time, without any state support for 3 years. You are a person who would not be moved either way if the language was extinct. I don't think there is much common ground for us to meet on - would you not agree?



    Wales is a nation, within a nation.

    Yes so its not national, just like scottish or irish in Northern Ireland.


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    #97
    dlofnep
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,759 ✭✭✭✭dlofnep


    peatcass wrote: »
    regardless of numbers, i think the basic fact is that if it was left up to choice; (either parents of young children, or peolpe deciding to take it up later in life); the language wouldn't be long dying out. maybe not this generation, but soon enough..

    So perhaps you can explain the recent explosion of the language in the north, where it has limited state support and isn't a mandatory subject? If anything, it is getting stronger there every year. More and more gaelscoileanna are opening - but these things DO require support, like anything else.


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    #98
    eamo12
    Registered Users Posts: 210 ✭✭eamo12


    Hopefully it will die out soon despite the wailings and forced indoctrination by the gaelic taliban.


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    #99
    Wolfe Tone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭Wolfe Tone


    eamo12 wrote: »
    Hopefully it will die out soon despite the wailings and forced indoctrination by the gaelic taliban.
    Care to elaborate on you ramblings?


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    #100
    owenc
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,524 ✭✭✭owenc


    P. Breathnach wrote: »
    I suspect that you weren't listening.

    I was in Connemara last weekend, staying in a place outside the Gaeltacht (but not very far outside). The language used in the local bar was Irish.

    I can be heard speaking Irish from time to time, with no financial incentive to do so. I know plenty of people who use Irish regularly, many having it as their first language. The ones I think of are not campaigners, or making some kind of point: they are using a language in which they are comfortable.

    I'm not saying that not very many people speak irish, i'm just saying that i doubt its that figure as i have yet to see anyone to speak irish and i would nearly die if i would with shock because it would be so weird to hear, i can't even imagine what it would sound like.


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    #101
    eamo12
    Registered Users Posts: 210 ✭✭eamo12


    dlofnep wrote: »
    Did Israel miss the memo?.
    Er, Yes - I do believe they did...


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    #102
    Princess Consuela Bananahammock
    Registered Users Posts: 33,017 ✭✭✭✭Princess Consuela Bananahammock


    Haven't read any of the thread but as someone who hated the langauage as a kid and has no interest in learning it, I'd say it's in a much stronger position now that it was ten/twenty years ago.

    Interestingly, I was in a queue to use an ATM here in Berlin a few days ago and listening to two defintiely Dublin girls, early 20s, talking behind me. Then suddenly, they switched to Irish for a few minutes and later back to English.

    So much for the idea of using the language for privacy when you're abroad! (OK, I didn't know what they were talking about, but I could have done!)

    Everything I don't like is either woke or fascist - possibly both - pick one.



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    #103
    owenc
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,524 ✭✭✭owenc


    dlofnep wrote: »
    So perhaps you can explain the recent explosion of the language in the north, where it has limited state support and isn't a mandatory subject? If anything, it is getting stronger there every year. More and more gaelscoileanna are opening - but these things DO require support, like anything else.

    Explosion!! I've yet to see this!!:eek: If you think there will ever be a large community of irish speakers here well your dreaming we are too far into the english language here.


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    #104
    dlofnep
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,759 ✭✭✭✭dlofnep


    owenc wrote: »
    That you have to learn Welsh until the age of 15.

    1990, I believe.


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    #105
    owenc
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,524 ✭✭✭owenc


    Ikky Poo2 wrote: »
    Haven't read any of the thread but as someone who hated the langauage as a kid and has no interest in learning it, I'd say it's in a much stronger position now that it was ten/twenty years ago.

    Interestingly, I was in a queue to use an ATM here in Berlin a few days ago and listening to two defintiely Dublin girls, early 20s, talking behind me. Then suddenly, they switched to Irish for a few minutes and later back to English.

    So much for the idea of using the language for privacy when you're abroad! (OK, I didn't know what they were talking about, but I could have done!)

    They were probably cursing.


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    #106
    eamo12
    Registered Users Posts: 210 ✭✭eamo12


    MUSSOLINI wrote: »
    Care to elaborate on you ramblings?

    Forced indoctrination - look at how this language is forced down our throats from 4 years old.

    Irish Taliban - Look at your sig.


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    #107
    owenc
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,524 ✭✭✭owenc


    dlofnep wrote: »
    1990, I believe.

    Well they were 15 before that.


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    #108
    Wolfe Tone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭Wolfe Tone


    eamo12 wrote: »
    Forced indoctrination - look at how this language is forced down our throats from 4 years old.

    Irish Taliban - Look at your sig.
    I wont rise to that. Sorry :)


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    #109
    Rick Deckard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,181 ✭✭✭Rick Deckard


    eamo12 wrote: »
    Hopefully it will die out soon despite the wailings and forced indoctrination by the gaelic taliban.

    not likely, but we can hope with a revenue shortage, surplus spending like this will be the first to go.. spending on grants/teaching an entire population a language few people learn/speak..

    not meaning to sound racist but there's more foreign nationals in the country than irish first languageers.. should i dust off my nigerian dictionary for my son?


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    #110
    Iwasfrozen
    Registered Users Posts: 16,250 ✭✭✭✭Iwasfrozen


    dlofnep wrote: »
    It requires state funding to ensure that it is accessible to the public. Could some of the funding be spent more wisely? Probably! But do I feel that it doesn't require funding? Absolutely not.

    I'm not sure what happy little medium you want us to come to. I'm a supporter of the language, and have run a group out of my own free time, without any state support for 3 years. You are a person who would not be moved either way if the language was extinct. I don't think there is much common ground for us to meet on - would you not agree?
    I suppose we aren't going to find common ground on this one.


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    #111
    dlofnep
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,759 ✭✭✭✭dlofnep


    owenc wrote: »
    Explosion!! I've yet to see this!!:eek:

    That's understandable, living in Coleraine - and when you probably don't hang around with people from a community which might support the language. Most of my friends in the north are fluent Irish speakers.

    I wish we had a centre like Culturlann in Waterford. I can only assume you've never been there. One was recently opened in Derry also. Infact, prior to partition - there was a strong Gaeltacht in Derry - which still exists to this very day.


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    #112
    Princess Consuela Bananahammock
    Registered Users Posts: 33,017 ✭✭✭✭Princess Consuela Bananahammock


    owenc wrote: »
    They were probably cursing.

    In irish? Is that possible?

    Everything I don't like is either woke or fascist - possibly both - pick one.



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    #113
    owenc
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,524 ✭✭✭owenc


    dlofnep wrote: »
    That's understandable, living in Coleraine - and when you probably don't hang around with people from a community which might support the language. Most of my friends in the north are fluent Irish speakers.

    I wish we had a centre like Culturlann in Waterford. I can only assume you've never been there. One was recently opened in Derry also. Infact, prior to partition - there was a strong Gaeltacht in Derry - which still exists to this very day.

    I goto derry every sunday and never hear anyone speaking irish. Actually my next door neighbour can say a few words in irish but he doesn't speak it, (they make them learn it in the catholic schools)


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    #114
    Wolfe Tone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭Wolfe Tone


    owenc wrote: »
    I goto derry every sunday and never hear anyone speaking irish. Actually my next door neighbour can say a few words in irish but he doesn't speak it, (they make them learn it in the catholic schools)
    Just because you don't see it doesn't mean its not there.


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    #115
    dlofnep
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,759 ✭✭✭✭dlofnep


    owenc wrote: »
    I goto derry every sunday and never hear anyone speaking irish. Actually my next door neighbour can say a few words in irish but he doesn't speak it, (they make them learn it in the catholic schools)

    http://www.ancarn.org/

    Just because you never hear anyone speak Irish, doesn't mean that they don't. Infact, the last time I was in Derry, I ate in a small Cáfe that operated through the Irish language (Cafe Fáilte I believe it was called) - They had sample phrases written on the walls. We don't have anything like that in Waterford.


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    #116
    Rick Deckard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,181 ✭✭✭Rick Deckard


    MUSSOLINI wrote: »
    Just because you don't see it doesn't mean its not there.

    what it does mean is it's not as prevalent as you'd like to think..


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    #117
    Rick Deckard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,181 ✭✭✭Rick Deckard


    dlofnep wrote: »
    http://www.ancarn.org/

    Just because you never hear anyone speak Irish, doesn't mean that they don't. Infact, the last time I was in Derry, I ate in a small Cáfe that operated through the Irish language (Cafe Fáilte I believe it was called) - They had sample phrases written on the walls. We don't have anything like that in Waterford.

    NO business would alienate 97% of the population by not speaking the first language of the country they operate in.


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    #118
    dlofnep
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,759 ✭✭✭✭dlofnep


    owenc wrote: »
    LOL weres that?

    I'm not sure what's humourous? It's in Derry, just outside Maghera.

    wait, the cafe or the gaeltacht? Which were you asking about?


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    #119
    Iwasfrozen
    Registered Users Posts: 16,250 ✭✭✭✭Iwasfrozen


    peatcass wrote: »
    NO business would alienate 97% of the population by not speaking the first language of the country they operate in.
    Actually it is a very good unique selling point. I would go to it just for that reason....

    That is if I lived in Derry...


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    #120
    Rick Deckard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,181 ✭✭✭Rick Deckard


    can see this going further and further off topic, slan a cairde


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    #121
    aDeener
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,487 ✭✭✭aDeener


    dlofnep wrote: »
    I don't answer stupid questions. This will be no different.



    I'm not interested if you think it's on life support or not. There are over 100,000 people who use the language outside of schools or work on a weekly basis. On that basis alone, it is not dead.

    Of course it is supported by the Government. It is an official language. All official languages around the world are supported by their respective Governments - many countries having more than 3 languages. You're not bringing anything new to the debate.

    the median number of speakers of all languages in the world is something like 7,500 ;)


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