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The Irish Language in 100 years

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  • 01-09-2012 6:36pm
    #1
    somairle
    Closed Accounts Posts: 92 ✭✭


    Given the current trends, Gaeltachtaí shrinking, Gaeilscoileanna growing, where do you think Irish will be in 100 years?

    I can't see Irish surviving as a community language, only 17000 people now live in Gaeltacht areas where Irish is the genuine community language, and even the children in those areas are showing weaker Irish than their parents generation. I just can't see how even the strongest government policy could stop the tide of English, its too strong. But for me the hope is in urban Irish, if the Gaelscoileanna movement continues and we get (a lot) more Meanscoileanna there is a good chance in 100 years there will be a lot more fluent speakers than today, albeit it won't be Gaeltacht Irish. The purist's don't like urban Irish, but if it makes Irish more relevant and result's in people genuinely speaking the language I think it will be great.

    What do you think?


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    #2
    An gal gréine
    Registered Users Posts: 941 ✭✭✭An gal gréine


    The infrastructure is there so it wont die out any time soon. You have radio stations, a tv station, newspapers, books, poetry, Gaelscoileanna etc. With every generation that passes the vocabulary gets eroded and while this may be happening in other languages generally, it's having a bigger impact on Irish because it is such a rich language. In 100 years time? I think it'll be still alive but I know some who believe it'll be only pigeon-Irish.


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