The Jews can revive a dead language reserved for ceremonial purposes

feargale wrote: »

If you want to find a language today that isn't peppered with English words and expressions you will need to visit somewhere like the jungles of Brazil or Papua-New Guinea.
To give you an example of what I have encountered in my travels:
Dutch "bumper to bumper."
Maltese " life choices" and "mothers' day."

while that is true those other languages didnt have to come up with them all practically overnight.

Pugzilla

Irish was the dominant language in this country up until 19th century, even after several hundred years of British occupation, but it has seen a steady decline since then. A combination of British cultural policies and famine decimated the more rural Irish speaking areas.

I'm a fluent speaker myself, but I can't see it being turned around unfortunately. There's almost no opportunities outside several tiny gaeltacht areas to use it in real life. British and American language/culture is so ingrained here now.

Had Ireland gained independence earlier, then the language could have been saved.

briany

It's not a comparison. There was a *need* for Hebrew in Israel at the inception of its state because you had Jews coming into it from all over the world, all speaking different languages. To be a united people, they needed a common language, and Hebrew was a natural choice, given its universality throughout the Jewish world as a religious lingua franca.

If you could devise a similar need for the Irish language in Ireland, you might have something, and there was some really half-arsed incentives devised to this end at the inception of the Irish state, but they never really worked out. Since then, the idea of Irish regaining parity with English has remained basically a nice idea and little else.

What are the advantages, right now, of speaking Irish?

Impress some foreigners, maybe

Feel a general sense of cultural superiority

If you have a fellow Gaelgeoir, you can have a sort of secret code

Become an Irish teacher

Nice perks, but not really going to be a goer unless you already have a passion for it. A bit like learning the viola.

pleas advice

Oy vey!

Conservatory

You need to make it sexy.

Maybe fifty shades of grey could be made in Irish.

odyssey06

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Why?

Ireland, Usa and Israel were all established via forceful rebellion against the British Empire.

We could have our own language and still be a part of the UK. So I dont see how our use of English points to us being lazy or submissive.
Jewish people could still be nomads without a state of Israel to call home but speaking Hebrew... would that make them any more or less lazy or submissive?

RobbingBandit

Revive the hedge schools and grave side orations my eyes are gone from diabetic complications so I will lead the troops into battle but this time we fight our own oppressive leaders who themselves have grown to be like the crown and English aristocracy once was absentee landlords growing fat off our suffering and giving little to nothing in return, we need to reclaim this land of ours for ourselves and not let Ireland lose its own identity Éirinn go Brách.

JohnKyle39

LeinsterDub

JohnKyle39 wrote: »

I don't really use it because nobody around me speaks it.

Family and friends? Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter have loads of Irish content. Have you been to An Club or a Pop Up Gaelicteach?

_CreeD_

Language is a tool, nothing more, if that tool no longer fits it's intended purpose and there is a more common and useful one in place then let the old one go.
The Language itself is not part of our heritage or our pride, what it was used to express is and that can be much more widely appreciated in a common tongue.

JohnKyle39 wrote: »

1. My name isn't John.

I do beg your pardon. I was basing that on your username. What would you like to be called?

JohnKyle39 wrote: »

2. I don't use it that much as I don't live in the gaeltacht

You don't need to live in the Gaeltacht to move in Irish-speaking circles. I watch alot of TG4 and I read a bit of Irish. Occasionally I get to a Gaeltacht.. I spent a good part of my life dealing with the public and I used Irish when requested to do so.
But one thing I don't do is denigrate people who have no interest in the Irish language. Just about every Western European democracy now recognises that the language you choose to speak is your own business, just like the religion you practice (or not) is your business.
Many years ago an Irish government minister said that the way to promote Irish is to speak it, not to speak about it. Do you know that there are Iriah language threads in Boards.ie. You could start one. Be sure to make it interesting.
I usually find myself in the middle in these threads about the language. Personally I would prohibit those who don't want it from learning it. On the other hand I abhor the gratuitously insulting comments on Irish that some posters have made on previous threads.
Having said that, I have to say that thus far in this thread those who are out of sympathy with the language have made their points in a cogent and respectful manner.

Filmer Paradise

No point. Aside from a few fanatical Language Hawks, Irish language teachers/translators & people in rapidly dwindling Gaelteacht areas with the begging bowl out for grants.........No one really cares.

Why would they?

feargale wrote: »

If you want to find a language today that isn't peppered with English words and expressions you will need to visit somewhere like the jungles of Brazil or Papua-New Guinea.

Or just go to Iceland.

feargale wrote: »

Having said that, I have to say that thus far in this thread those who are out of sympathy with the language have made their points in a cogent and respectful manner.

Filmer Paradise wrote: »

No point. Aside from a few fanatical Language Hawks, Irish language teachers/translators & people in rapidly dwindling Gaelteacht areas with the begging bowl out for grants.........No one really cares.

Why would they?

Oops! Did I speak too soon?

JohnKyle39 wrote: »

There is no excuse. Dutch, Icelandic, Catalan and countless other languages were banned and their countries brought them back and revived them.

When was Icelandic banned and needed to be revived?

hognef wrote: »

Or just go to Iceland.

There too. Can you name another Indo-European one in Europe?

wexie

hognef wrote: »

When was Icelandic banned and needed to be revived?

or Dutch?

super_furry

I see Voat is leaking again.

feargale wrote: »

There too. Can you name another Indo-Europen one in Europe?

Hungarian. They deliberately eliminated nearly all of their german loanwords.

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Hungarian. They deliberately eliminated nearly all of their german loanwords.

Aha! Not Indo-European, my friend.

feargale wrote: »

There too. Can you name another Indo-European one in Europe?

Nope

feargale wrote: »

Aha! Not Indo-European, my friend.

Good point. Feck.

wexie

feargale wrote: »

There too. Can you name another Indo-European one in Europe?

hmmmm...most if not all the european languages?

definitely not finnish but not sure if there are any other exceptions? (aside from hungarian, which I believe is closely related to finnish?)

hognef wrote: »

When was Icelandic banned and needed to be revived?

Not so much banned but the Danes tried to make danish the official language at one point but the icelandics are a stubborn lot.

wexie wrote: »

hmmmm...most if not all the european languages?

definitely not finnish but not sure if there are any other exceptions? (aside from hungarian, which I believe is closely related to finnish?)

It was in reference to which languages do not have a lot of loanwords.

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Not so much banned but the Danes tried to make danish the official language at one point but the icelandics are a stubborn lot.

Stubborn enough that the (written) language is pretty much the same now as 1000 years ago.

Edit: 800 years ago is probably more correct.

wexie

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

It was in reference to which languages do not have a lot of loanwords.

Ah I missed that bit

French I'd have thought?

wexie wrote: »

Ah I missed that bit

French I'd have thought?

they are certainly not keen on them officially.

JohnKyle39 wrote: »

There is no excuse. Dutch, Icelandic, Catalan and countless other languages were banned and their countries brought them back and revived them.

Catalan, yes.

I don't know where you get Dutch, unless you are thinking outside the European box. It was banned in Japanese-occupied Indonesia during WWII. And Cape Dutch, later called Afrikaans, was discouraged in South Africa until the Afrikaners took political control.
The only banning I'm aware of in Iceland relates to first names. You can call your child Olav or Halldor, but not Sěamus or Archibald.