lingvo.wikisort.org - Language

Search / Calendar

Irish (Standard Irish: Gaeilge) [ˈɡeːlʲɟə], also known as Gaelic,[8][9][10] is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family.[9][1][3][11][8] Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland[12] and was the population's first language until the 19th century, when English gradually became dominant, particularly in the last decades of the century. Irish is still spoken as a first language in a small number of areas of certain counties such as Cork, Donegal, Galway, and Kerry, as well as smaller areas of counties Mayo, Meath, and Waterford. It is also spoken by a larger group of habitual but non-traditional speakers, mostly in urban areas where the majority are second-language speakers. Daily users in Ireland outside the education system number around 73,000 (1.5%), and the total number of persons (aged 3 and over) who claimed they could speak Irish in April 2016 was 1,761,420, representing 39.8% of respondents.

Irish[1][2][3]
Standard Irish: Gaeilge
Pronunciation[ˈɡeːlʲɟə]
Native toIreland
EthnicityIrish
Native speakers
L1 speakers: 170,000 (daily usage outside education: 73,000) (2019)[5]
L2 speakers: unknown (In 2022, 1,761,420 people aged 3+ claimed they could speak Irish in ROI
In 2021, 228,600 people aged 3+ (12%) could speak Irish in NI
18,815 in the United States
Language family
Early forms
Standard forms
An Caighdeán Oifigiúil (written only)
Dialects
Writing system
Latin (Irish alphabet)
Irish Braille
Official status
Official language in
Republic of Ireland[lower-alpha 1]
European Union
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-1ga
ISO 639-2gle
ISO 639-3gle
Glottologiris1253
ELPIrish
Linguasphere50-AAA
Proportion of respondents who said they could speak Irish in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland censuses of 2011
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

For most of recorded Irish history, Irish was the dominant language of the Irish people, who took it with them to other regions, such as Scotland and the Isle of Man, where Middle Irish gave rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx. It was also, for a period, spoken widely across Canada, with an estimated 200,000–250,000 daily Canadian speakers of Irish in 1890.[13] On the island of Newfoundland, a unique dialect of Irish developed before falling out of use in the early 20th century.

With a writing system, Ogham, dating back to at least the 4th century AD, which was gradually replaced by Latin script since the 5th century AD, Irish has the oldest vernacular literature in Western Europe. On the island, the language has three major dialects: Munster, Connacht and Ulster. All three have distinctions in their speech and orthography. There is also a "standard written form" devised by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s. The traditional Irish alphabet, a variant of the Latin alphabet with 18 letters, has been succeeded by the standard Latin alphabet (albeit with 7–8 letters used primarily in loanwords).

Irish has constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland, and is also an official language of Northern Ireland and among the official languages of the European Union. The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island. Irish has no regulatory body but the standard modern written form is guided by a parliamentary service and new vocabulary by a voluntary committee with university input. The modern-day areas of Ireland where Irish is still spoken daily as a first language are collectively known as the Gaeltacht.


Names



In Irish


In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil ("The Official [Written] Standard") the name of the language is Gaeilge, from the South Connacht form, spelled Gaedhilge prior the spelling reform of 1948, which was originally the genitive of Gaedhealg, the form used in Classical Gaelic.[14] The modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent dh in Gaedhilge. Older spellings include Gaoidhealg [ˈɡeːʝəlˠɡ] in Classical Gaelic and Goídelc [ˈɡoiðelˠɡ] in Old Irish. Goidelic, used to refer to the language family, is derived from the Old Irish term.

Endonyms of the language in the various modern Irish dialects include: Gaeilge [ˈɡeːlʲɟə] in South Connacht, Gae(dh)ilic/Gaeilig [ˈɡeːlʲɪc] or Gaedhlag [ˈɡeːlˠəɡ] in North Connacht and Ulster Irish, and Gaedhealaing [ˈɡeːl̪ˠɪɲ] or Gaoluinn/Gaelainn [ˈɡeːl̪ˠɪn̠ʲ] in Munster Irish.[15][16]

Gaeilge also has a wider meaning, including the Gaelic of Scotland and the Isle of Man, as well as of Ireland. When required by the context, these are distinguished as Gaeilge na hAlban, Gaeilge Mhanann and Gaeilge na hÉireann respectively.[17]


In English


In English (including Hiberno-English) the language is usually referred to as Irish, as well as Gaelic and Irish Gaelic.[18][19] The term Irish Gaelic may be seen when English speakers discuss the relationship between the three Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx).[20] Gaelic is a collective term for the Goidelic languages,[8][21][9][11][22] and when the context is clear it may be used without qualification to refer to each language individually. When the context is specific but unclear, the term may be qualified, as Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic or Manx Gaelic. Historically the name "Erse" was also sometimes used in Scots and then in English to refer to Irish;[23] as well as Scottish Gaelic.

Goidelic is a synonym of Gaelic, used mainly in linguistic typology and historical linguistics. Goidelic and Brittonic together constitute the Insular Celtic languages.


History


Written Irish is first attested in Ogham inscriptions from the 4th century AD, a stage of the language known as Primitive Irish. These writings have been found throughout Ireland and the west coast of Great Britain. Primitive Irish underwent a change into Old Irish through the 5th century. Old Irish, dating from the 6th century, used the Latin alphabet and is attested primarily in marginalia to Latin manuscripts. During this time, the Irish language absorbed some Latin words, some via Old Welsh, including ecclesiastical terms: examples are easpag (bishop) from episcopus, and Domhnach (Sunday, from dominica).

By the 10th century, Old Irish had evolved into Middle Irish, which was spoken throughout Ireland, Isle of Man and parts of Scotland. It is the language of a large corpus of literature, including the Ulster Cycle. From the 12th century, Middle Irish began to evolve into modern Irish in Ireland, into Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, and into the Manx language in the Isle of Man.

Early Modern Irish, dating from the 13th century, was the basis of the literary language of both Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland. Modern Irish, as attested in the work of such writers as Geoffrey Keating, may be said to date from the 17th century, and was the medium of popular literature from that time on.

From the 18th century on, the language lost ground in the east of the country. The reasons behind this shift were complex but came down to a number of factors:

The distribution of the Irish language in 1871
The distribution of the Irish language in 1871

The change was characterised by diglossia (two languages being used by the same community in different social and economic situations) and transitional bilingualism (monoglot Irish-speaking grandparents with bilingual children and monoglot English-speaking grandchildren). By the mid-18th century, English was becoming a language of the Catholic middle class, the Catholic Church and public intellectuals, especially in the east of the country. Increasingly, as the value of English became apparent, the prohibition of Irish in schools had the sanction of parents.[25] Once it became apparent that emigration to the United States and Canada was likely for a large portion of the population, the importance of learning English became relevant. This allowed the new immigrants to get jobs in areas other than farming. It has been estimated that, due to the emigration to the United States because of the Great Famine, anywhere from a quarter to a third of the immigrants were Irish speakers.[26]

Irish was not marginal to Ireland's modernisation in the 19th century, as is often assumed. In the first half of the century there were still around three million people for whom Irish was the primary language, and their numbers alone made them a cultural and social force. Irish speakers often insisted on using the language in law courts (even when they knew English), and Irish was also common in commercial transactions. The language was heavily implicated in the "devotional revolution" which marked the standardisation of Catholic religious practice and was also widely used in a political context. Down to the time of the Great Famine and even afterwards, the language was in use by all classes, Irish being an urban as well as a rural language.[27]

This linguistic dynamism was reflected in the efforts of certain public intellectuals to counter the decline of the language. At the end of the 19th century, they launched the Gaelic revival in an attempt to encourage the learning and use of Irish, although few adult learners mastered the language.[28] The vehicle of the revival was the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge), and particular emphasis was placed on the folk tradition, which in Irish is particularly rich. Efforts were also made to develop journalism and a modern literature.

Although it has been noted that the Catholic Church played a role in the decline of the Irish language before the Gaelic Revival, the Protestant Church of Ireland also made only minor efforts to encourage use of Irish in a religious context. An Irish translation of the Old Testament by Leinsterman Muircheartach Ó Cíonga, commissioned by Bishop Bedell, was published after 1685 along with a translation of the New Testament. Otherwise, Anglicisation was seen as synonymous with 'civilising' the native Irish. Currently, modern day Irish speakers in the church are pushing for language revival.[29]

It has been estimated that there were around 800,000 monoglot Irish speakers in 1800, which dropped to 320,000 by the end of the famine, and under 17,000 by 1911.[30] Seán Ó hEinirí, of Cill Ghallagáin, County Mayo, who died 26 July 1998, was possibly the last monolingual Irish speaker.


Status and policy



Ireland


Irish is recognised by the Constitution of Ireland as the national and first official language of Ireland (English being the other official language). Despite this, almost all government business and debates are conducted in English.[31] In 1938, the founder of Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League), Douglas Hyde, was inaugurated as the first President of Ireland. The record of his delivering his inaugural Declaration of Office in Roscommon Irish is one of only a few recordings of that dialect.[32][33][34][35]

Bilingual sign in Grafton Street, Dublin
Bilingual sign in Grafton Street, Dublin

In the 2016 census, 10.5% of respondents stated that they spoke Irish, either daily or weekly, while over 70,000 people (4.2%) speak it as a habitual daily means of communication.[36]

From the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 (see History of the Republic of Ireland), a degree of proficiency in Irish was required of all those newly appointed to the Civil Service of the Republic of Ireland, including postal workers, tax collectors, agricultural inspectors, Garda Síochána (police), etc. By law if a Garda was stopped and addressed in Irish he had to respond in Irish as well.[37] Proficiency in just one official language for entrance to the public service was introduced in 1974, in part through the actions of protest organisations like the Language Freedom Movement.

Although the Irish requirement was also dropped for wider public service jobs, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools within the Republic which receive public money (see Education in the Republic of Ireland). Those wishing to teach in primary schools in the State must also pass a compulsory examination called Scrúdú Cáilíochta sa Ghaeilge. The need for a pass in Leaving Certificate Irish or English for entry to the Garda Síochána was introduced in September 2005, and recruits are given lessons in the language during their two years of training. The most important official documents of the Irish government must be published in both Irish and English or Irish alone (in accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003, enforced by An Coimisinéir Teanga, the Irish language ombudsman).

The National University of Ireland requires all students wishing to embark on a degree course in the NUI federal system to pass the subject of Irish in the Leaving Certificate or GCE/GCSE examinations.[38] Exemptions are made from this requirement for students born outside of the Ireland, those who were born in the Republic but completed primary education outside it, and students diagnosed with dyslexia. NUI Galway is required to appoint people who are competent in the Irish language, as long as they are also competent in all other aspects of the vacancy to which they are appointed. This requirement is laid down by the University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3).[39] The university faced controversy, however, in 2016 when it was announced that the next president of the university would not have any Irish language ability, Misneach staged a number of protests against this decision. It was announced in September 2017 that Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, a fluent Irish speaker, would be NUIG's 13th president.

Bilingual road signs in Creggs, County Galway
Bilingual road signs in Creggs, County Galway

For a number of years there has been vigorous debate in political, academic and other circles about the failure of most students in mainstream (English-medium) schools to achieve competence in the language, even after fourteen years of teaching as one of the three main subjects.[40][41][42] The concomitant decline in the number of traditional native speakers has also been a cause of great concern.[43][44][45][46] In 2007, filmmaker Manchán Magan found few speakers and some incredulity while speaking only Irish in Dublin. He was unable to accomplish some everyday tasks, as portrayed in his documentary No Béarla.[47]

There is, however, a growing body of Irish speakers in urban areas, particularly in Dublin. Many have been educated in schools in which Irish is the language of instruction: such schools are known as Gaelscoileanna at primary level. These Irish-medium schools send a much higher[clarification needed] proportion of pupils on to third-level education than do "mainstream" schools, and it seems increasingly possible that, within a generation, non-Gaeltacht habitual users of Irish will typically be members of an urban, middle class and highly educated minority.[48]

Parliamentary legislation is supposed to be available in both Irish and English but is frequently only available in English. This is notwithstanding that Article 25.4 of the Constitution of Ireland requires that an "official translation" of any law in one official language be provided immediately in the other official language, if not already passed in both official languages.[7]

In November 2016, it was reported that many people worldwide were learning Irish through the Duolingo app.[49] Irish president Michael Higgins officially honoured several volunteer translators for developing the Irish edition, and said the push for Irish language rights remains an "unfinished project".[50]


Gaeltacht

The percentage of respondents who said they spoke Irish daily outside the education system in the 2011 census in the State.
The percentage of respondents who said they spoke Irish daily outside the education system in the 2011 census in the State.

There are rural areas of Ireland where Irish is still spoken daily to some extent as a first language. These regions are known individually and collectively as the Gaeltacht (plural Gaeltachtaí). While the fluent Irish speakers of these areas, whose numbers have been estimated at 2030,000,[51] are a minority of the total number of fluent Irish speakers, they represent a higher concentration of Irish speakers than other parts of the country and it is only in Gaeltacht areas that Irish continues to be spoken as a community vernacular to some extent.

According to data compiled by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, only 1/4 of households in Gaeltacht areas are fluent in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, described the Irish language policy followed by Irish governments as a "complete and absolute disaster". The Irish Times, referring to his analysis published in the Irish language newspaper Foinse, quoted him as follows: "It is an absolute indictment of successive Irish Governments that at the foundation of the Irish State there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers living in Irish-speaking or semi Irish-speaking areas, but the number now is between 20,000 and 30,000."[51]

In the 1920s, when the Irish Free State was founded, Irish was still a vernacular in some western coastal areas.[52] In the 1930s, areas where more than 25% of the population spoke Irish were classified as Gaeltacht. Today, the strongest Gaeltacht areas, numerically and socially, are those of South Connemara, the west of the Dingle Peninsula, and northwest Donegal, where many residents still use Irish as their primary language. These areas are often referred to as the Fíor-Ghaeltacht (true Gaeltacht), a term originally officially applied to areas where over 50% of the population spoke Irish.

There are larger Gaeltacht regions in County Galway (Contae na Gaillimhe), including Connemara (Conamara), the Aran Islands (Oileáin Árann), Carraroe (An Cheathrú Rua) and Spiddal (An Spidéal), on the west coast of County Donegal (Contae Dhún na nGall), and on the Dingle (Corca Dhuibhne) and Iveragh Peninsulas (Uibh Rathach) in County Kerry (Contae Chiarraí).

Smaller ones also exist in counties Mayo (Contae Mhaigh Eo), Meath (Contae na Mí), Waterford (Gaeltacht na nDéise, Contae Phort Láirge), and Cork (Contae Chorcaí). Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair), County Donegal, is the largest Gaeltacht parish in Ireland. Irish language summer colleges in the Gaeltacht are attended by tens of thousands of teenagers annually. Students live with Gaeltacht families, attend classes, participate in sports, go to céilithe and are obliged to speak Irish. All aspects of Irish culture and tradition are encouraged.


Policy



Official Languages Act 2003

The Act was passed 14 July 2003 with the main purpose of improving the amount and quality of public services delivered in Irish by the government and other public bodies.[53] Compliance with the Act is monitored by the An Coimisinéir Teanga (Irish Language Commissioner) which was established in 2004[54] and any complaints or concerns pertaining to the Act are brought to them.[53] There are 35 sections included in the Act all detailing different aspects of the use of Irish in official documentation and communication. Included in these sections are subjects such as Irish language use in official courts, official publications, and placenames.[55] The Act was recently amended in December 2019 in order to strengthen the already preexisting legislation.[56] All changes made took into account data collected from online surveys and written submissions.[57]


Official Languages Scheme 2019-2022

The Official Languages Scheme was enacted 1 July 2019 and is an 18-page document that adheres to the guidelines of the Official Languages Act 2003.[58] The purpose of the Scheme is to provide services through the mediums of Irish and/or English. According to the Department of the Taoiseach, it is meant to "develop a sustainable economy and a successful society, to pursue Ireland's interests abroad, to implement the Government's Programme and to build a better future for Ireland and all her citizens."[59]


20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030

The Strategy was produced on 21 December 2010 and will stay in action until 2030; it aims to target language vitality and revitalization of the Irish language.[60] The 30-page document published by the Government of Ireland details the objectives it plans to work towards in an attempt to preserve and promote both the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. It is divided into four separate phases with the intention of improving 9 main areas of action including:

The general goal for this strategy is to increase the amount of speakers from 83,000 to 250,000 by the end of its run.[62]


Northern Ireland


A sign for the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in Northern Ireland, in English, Irish and Ulster Scots.
A sign for the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in Northern Ireland, in English, Irish and Ulster Scots.

Before the partition of Ireland in 1921, Irish was recognised as a school subject and as "Celtic" in some third level institutions. Between 1921 and 1972, Northern Ireland had devolved government. During those years the political party holding power in the Stormont Parliament, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), was hostile to the language. The context of this hostility was the use of the language by nationalists.[63] In broadcasting, there was an exclusion on the reporting of minority cultural issues, and Irish was excluded from radio and television for almost the first fifty years of the previous devolved government.[64] After the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the language gradually received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom,[65] and then, in 2003, by the British government's ratification in respect of the language of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In the 2006 St Andrews Agreement the British government promised to enact legislation to promote the language[66] and in 2022 it approved legislation to Irish an official language alongside English, the bill is currently awaiting Royal assent.[67]

The Irish language has often been used as a bargaining chip during government formation in Northern Ireland, prompting protests from organisations and groups such as An Dream Dearg.[68]


European Parliament


Irish became an official language of the EU on 1 January 2007, meaning that MEPs with Irish fluency can now speak the language in the European Parliament and at committees, although in the case of the latter they have to give prior notice to a simultaneous interpreter in order to ensure that what they say can be interpreted into other languages.

While an official language of the European Union, only co-decision regulations were available until 2022, due to a five-year derogation, requested by the Irish Government when negotiating the language's new official status. The Irish government had committed itself to train the necessary number of translators and interpreters and to bear the related costs.[69] This derogation ultimately came to an end on January 1, 2022, making Irish a fully recognised EU language for the first time in the state's history.[70]

Before Irish became an official language it was afforded the status of treaty language and only the highest-level documents of the EU were made available in Irish.


Outside Ireland


The Irish language was carried abroad in the modern period by a vast diaspora, chiefly to Great Britain and North America, but also to Australia, New Zealand and Argentina. The first large movements began in the 17th century, largely as a result of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, which saw many Irish sent to the West Indies. Irish emigration to the United States was well established by the 18th century, and was reinforced in the 1840s by thousands fleeing from the Famine. This flight also affected Britain. Up until that time most emigrants spoke Irish as their first language, though English was establishing itself as the primary language. Irish speakers had first arrived in Australia in the late 18th century as convicts and soldiers, and many Irish-speaking settlers followed, particularly in the 1860s. New Zealand also received some of this influx. Argentina was the only non-English-speaking country to receive large numbers of Irish emigrants, and there were few Irish speakers among them.

Relatively few of the emigrants were literate in Irish, but manuscripts in the language were brought to both Australia and the United States, and it was in the United States that the first newspaper to make significant use of Irish was established: An Gaodhal. In Australia, too, the language found its way into print. The Gaelic revival, which started in Ireland in the 1890s, found a response abroad, with branches of Conradh na Gaeilge being established in all the countries to which Irish speakers had emigrated.

The decline of Irish in Ireland and a slowing of emigration helped to ensure a decline in the language abroad, along with natural attrition in the host countries. Despite this, small groups of enthusiasts continued to learn and cultivate Irish in diaspora countries and elsewhere, a trend which strengthened in the second half of the 20th century. Today the language is taught at tertiary level in North America, Australia and Europe, and Irish speakers outside Ireland contribute to journalism and literature in the language. There are significant Irish-speaking networks in the United States and Canada;[71] figures released for the period 2006–2008 show that 22,279 Irish Americans claimed to speak Irish at home.[72]

The Irish language is also one of the languages of the Celtic League, a non-governmental organisation that promotes self-determination, Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man, known collectively as the Celtic nations.

Irish was spoken as a community language until the early 20th century on the island of Newfoundland, in a form known as Newfoundland Irish.[73] Certain Irish vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation features are still used in modern Newfoundland English.[74]


Usage


The 2016 census data shows:

The total number of people who answered 'yes' to being able to speak Irish in April 2016 was 1,761,420, a slight decrease (0.7 per cent) on the 2011 figure of 1,774,437. This represents 39.8 per cent of respondents compared with 41.4 in 2011... Of the 73,803 daily Irish speakers (outside the education system), 20,586 (27.9%) lived in Gaeltacht areas.[75]


Daily Irish speakers in Gaeltacht areas between 2011 and 2016


Gaeltacht Area 2011 2016 Change 2011/2016 Change 2011/2016 (%)
County Cork 982 872 110 11.2%
County Donegal 7,047 5,929 1,118 15.9%
Galway City 636 647 10 1.6%
County Galway 10,085 9,445 640 6.3%
County Kerry 2,501 2,049 452 18.1%
County Mayo 1,172 895 277 23.6%
County Meath 314 283 31 9.9%
County Waterford 438 467 29 6.6%
All Gaeltacht Areas 23,175 20,586 2,589 11.2%
Source:[76]

In 1996, the 3 electoral divisions in the State where Irish has the most daily speakers were An Turloch (91%+), Scainimh (89%+), Min an Chladaigh (88%+).[77]


Dialects


Irish is represented by several traditional dialects and by various varieties of "urban" Irish. The latter have acquired lives of their own and a growing number of native speakers. Differences between the dialects make themselves felt in stress, intonation, vocabulary and structural features.

Roughly speaking, the three major dialect areas which survive coincide roughly with the provinces of Munster (Cúige Mumhan), Connacht (Cúige Chonnacht) and Ulster (Cúige Uladh). Records of some dialects of Leinster (Cúige Laighean) were made by the Irish Folklore Commission and others.[78] Newfoundland, in eastern Canada, had a form of Irish derived from the Munster Irish of the later 18th century (see Newfoundland Irish).


Munster


Munster Irish is the dialect spoken in the Gaeltacht areas of the counties of Cork (Contae Chorcaí), Kerry (Contae Chiarraí), and Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge). The Gaeltacht areas of Cork can be found in Cape Clear Island (Oileán Chléire) and Muskerry (Múscraí); those of Kerry lie in Corca Dhuibhne and Iveragh Peninsula; and those of Waterford in Ring (An Rinn) and Old Parish (An Sean Phobal), both of which together form Gaeltacht na nDéise. Of the three counties, the Irish spoken in Cork and Kerry is quite similar while that of Waterford is more distinct.

Some typical features of Munster Irish are:

  1. The use of endings to show person on verbs in parallel with a pronominal subject system, thus "I must" is in Munster caithfead as well as caithfidh mé, while other dialects prefer caithfidh mé ( means "I"). "I was and you were" is Bhíos agus bhís as well as Bhí mé agus bhí tú in Munster but more commonly Bhí mé agus bhí tú in other dialects. Note that these are strong tendencies, and the personal forms bhíos etc. are used in the West and North, particularly when the words are last in the clause.
  2. Use of independent/dependent forms of verbs that are not included in the Standard. For example, "I see" in Munster is chím, which is the independent form – Ulster Irish also uses a similar form, tchím, whereas "I do not see" is ní fheicim, feicim being the dependent form, which is used after particles such as ("not"). Chím is replaced by feicim in the Standard. Similarly, the traditional form preserved in Munster bheirim I give/ní thugaim is tugaim/ní thugaim in the Standard; gheibhim I get/ní bhfaighim is faighim/ní bhfaighim.
  3. When before nn, m, rr, rd, ll and so on, in monosyllabic words and in the stressed syllable of multisyllabic words where the syllable is followed by a consonant, some short vowels are lengthened while others are diphthongised, thus ceann [caun] "head", cam [kɑum] "crooked", gearr [ɟaːr] "short", ord [oːrd] "sledgehammer", gall [ɡɑul] "foreigner, non-Gael", iontas [uːntəs] "a wonder, a marvel", compánach [kəumˈpɑːnəx] "companion, mate", etc.
  4. A copular construction involving ea "it" is frequently used. Thus "I am an Irish person" can be said is Éireannach mé and Éireannach is ea mé in Munster; there is a subtle difference in meaning, however, the first choice being a simple statement of fact, while the second brings emphasis onto the word Éireannach. In effect the construction is a type of "fronting".
  5. Both masculine and feminine words are subject to lenition after insan (sa/san) "in the", den "of the" and don "to/for the" : sa tsiopa, "in the shop", compared to the Standard sa siopa (the Standard lenites only feminine nouns in the dative in these cases).
  6. Eclipsis of f after sa: sa bhfeirm, "in the farm", instead of san fheirm.
  7. Eclipsis of t and d after preposition + singular article, with all prepositions except after insan, den and don: ar an dtigh "on the house", ag an ndoras "at the door".
  8. Stress falls in general found on the second syllable of a word when the first syllable contains a short vowel, and the second syllable contains a long vowel or diphthong, or is -(e)ach, e.g. Ciarán is pronounced [ciəˈɾˠaːn̪ˠ] opposed to [ˈciəɾˠaːn̪ˠ] in Connacht and Ulster.

Connacht


Historically, Connacht Irish represents the westernmost remnant of a dialect area which once stretched from east to west across the centre of Ireland. The strongest dialect of Connacht Irish is to be found in Connemara and the Aran Islands. Much closer to the larger Connacht Gaeltacht is the dialect spoken in the smaller region on the border between Galway (Gaillimh) and Mayo (Maigh Eo). There are a number of differences between the popular South Connemara form of Irish, the Mid-Connacht/Joyce Country form (on the border between Mayo and Galway) and the Achill and Erris forms in the north of the province.

Features in Connacht Irish differing from the official standard include a preference for verbal nouns ending in -achan, e.g. lagachan instead of lagú, "weakening". The non-standard pronunciation of the Gaeltacht Cois Fharraige area with lengthened vowels and heavily reduced endings gives it a distinct sound. Distinguishing features of Connacht and Ulster dialect include the pronunciation of word-final broad bh, mh as [w], rather than as [vˠ] in Munster. For example, sliabh ("mountain") is pronounced [ʃlʲiəw] in Connacht and Ulster as opposed to [ʃlʲiəβ] in the south. In addition Connacht and Ulster speakers tend to include the "we" pronoun rather than use the standard compound form used in Munster, e.g. bhí muid is used for "we were" instead of bhíomar.

As in Munster Irish, some short vowels are lengthened and others diphthongised before nn, m, rr, rd, ll, in monosyllabic words and in the stressed syllable of multisyllabic words where the syllable is followed by a consonant. This can be seen in ceann [cɑːn] "head", cam [kɑːm] "crooked", gearr [gʲɑːr] "short", ord [ourd] "sledgehammer", gall [gɑːl] "foreigner, non-Gael", iontas [iːntəs] "a wonder, a marvel", etc. The form (a)ibh, when occurring at the end of words like 'agaibh', tends to be pronounced as [iː].

In South Connemara, for example, there is a tendency to substitute a "b" sound at the end of words ending in "bh" [β], such as sibh, libh and dóibh, something not found in the rest of Connacht (these words would be pronounced respectively as "shiv," "liv" and "dófa" in the other areas). This placing of the B-sound is also present at the end of words ending in vowels, such as acu (pronounced as "acub") and leo (pronounced as "lyohab"). There is also a tendency to omit the [g] sound in words such as agam, agat and againn, a characteristic also of other Connacht dialects. All these pronunciations are distinctively regional.

The pronunciation prevalent in the Joyce Country (the area around Lough Corrib and Lough Mask) is quite similar to that of South Connemara, with a similar approach to the words agam, agat and againn and a similar approach to pronunciation of vowels and consonants but there are noticeable differences in vocabulary, with certain words such as doiligh (difficult) and foscailte being preferred to the more usual deacair and oscailte. Another interesting aspect of this sub-dialect is that almost all vowels at the end of words tend to be pronounced as [iː]: eile (other), cosa (feet) and déanta (done) tend to be pronounced as eilí, cosaí and déantaí respectively.

The northern Mayo dialect of Erris (Iorras) and Achill (Acaill) is in grammar and morphology essentially a Connacht dialect but shows some similarities to Ulster Irish due to large-scale immigration of dispossessed people following the Plantation of Ulster. For example, words ending -bh, mh have a much softer sound, with a tendency to terminate words such as leo and dóibh with f, giving leofa and dófa respectively. In addition to a vocabulary typical of other area of Connacht, one also finds Ulster words like amharc (meaning "to look"), nimhneach (painful or sore), druid (close), mothaigh (hear), doiligh (difficult), úr (new), and tig le (to be able to – i.e. a form similar to féidir).

Irish President Douglas Hyde was possibly one of the last speakers of the Roscommon dialect of Irish.[33]


Ulster


Ulster Irish is the dialect spoken in the Gaeltacht regions of Donegal. These regions contain all of Ulster's communities where Irish has been spoken in an unbroken line back to when the language was the dominant language of Ireland. The Irish-speaking communities in other parts of Ulster are a result of language revival – English-speaking families deciding to learn Irish. Census data shows that 4,130 people speak it at home.

Linguistically, the most important of the Ulster dialects today is that which is spoken, with slight differences, in both Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair = Inlet of Streaming Water) and The Rosses (na Rossa).

Ulster Irish sounds quite different from the other two main dialects. It shares several features with southern dialects of Scottish Gaelic and Manx, as well as having many characteristic words and shades of meanings. However, since the demise of those Irish dialects spoken natively in what is today Northern Ireland, it is probably an exaggeration to see present-day Ulster Irish as an intermediary form between Scottish Gaelic and the southern and western dialects of Irish. Northern Scottish Gaelic has many non-Ulster features in common with Munster Irish.

One noticeable trait of Ulster Irish, Scots Gaelic and Manx is the use of the negative particle cha(n) in place of the Munster and Connacht . Though southern Donegal Irish tends to use more than cha(n), cha(n) has almost ousted in northernmost dialects (e.g. Rosguill and Tory Island), though even in these areas níl "is not" is more common than chan fhuil or cha bhfuil.[79][80] Another noticeable trait is the pronunciation of the first person singular verb ending -im as -am, also common to Man and Scotland (Munster/Connacht siúlaim "I walk", Ulster siúlam).


Leinster


Down to the early 19th century and even later, Irish was spoken in all twelve counties of Leinster. The evidence furnished by placenames, literary sources and recorded speech indicates that there was no Leinster dialect as such. Instead, the main dialect used in the province was represented by a broad central belt stretching from west Connacht eastwards to the Liffey estuary and southwards to Wexford, though with many local variations. Two smaller dialects were represented by the Ulster speech of counties Meath and Louth, which extended as far south as the Boyne valley, and a Munster dialect found in Kilkenny and south Laois.

The main dialect had characteristics which survive today only in the Irish of Connacht. It typically placed the stress on the first syllable of a word, and showed a preference (found in placenames) for the pronunciation cr where the standard spelling is cn. The word cnoc (hill) would therefore be pronounced croc. Examples are the placenames Crooksling (Cnoc Slinne) in County Dublin and Crukeen (Cnoicín) in Carlow. East Leinster showed the same diphthongisation or vowel lengthening as in Munster and Connacht Irish in words like poll (hole), cill (monastery), coill (wood), ceann (head), cam (crooked) and dream (crowd). A feature of the dialect was the pronunciation of ao, which generally became [eː] in east Leinster (as in Munster), and [iː] in the west (as in Connacht).[81]

Early evidence regarding colloquial Irish in east Leinster is found in The Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge (1547), by the English physician and traveller Andrew Borde.[82] The illustrative phrases he uses include the following (with regularised Irish spelling in brackets):

How are you?Kanys stato?[Canas 'tá tú?]
I am well, thank youTam a goomah gramahagood.[Tá mé go maith, go raibh maith agat.]
Syr, can you speak Iryshe?Sor, woll galow oket?[Sir, 'bhfuil Gaeilig [Gaela'] agat?]
Wyfe, gyve me bread!Benytee, toor haran![A bhean an tí, tabhair arán!]
How far is it to Waterford?Gath haad o showh go part laarg?.[Gá fhad as [a] seo go Port Láirge?]
It is one an twenty myle.Myle hewryht.[Míle a haon ar fhichid.]
Whan shal I go to slepe, wyfe?Gah hon rah moyd holow?[Gathain a rachamaoid a chodladh?]

The Pale

The Pale – According to Statute of 1488
The Pale – According to Statute of 1488

The Pale (An Pháil) was an area around late medieval Dublin under the control of the English government. By the late 15th century it consisted of an area along the coast from Dalkey, south of Dublin, to the garrison town of Dundalk, with an inland boundary encompassing Naas and Leixlip in the Earldom of Kildare and Trim and Kells in County Meath to the north. In this area of "Englyshe tunge" English had never actually been a dominant language – and was moreover a relatively late comer; the first colonisers were Normans who spoke Norman French, and before these Norse. The Irish language had always been the language of the bulk of the population. An English official remarked of the Pale in 1515 that "all the common people of the said half counties that obeyeth the King's laws, for the most part be of Irish birth, of Irish habit and of Irish language".[83]

With the strengthening of English cultural and political control, language change began to occur but this did not become clearly evident until the 18th century. Even then, in the decennial period 1771–81, the percentage of Irish speakers in Meath was at least 41%. By 1851 this had fallen to less than 3%.[84]


General decline

English expanded strongly in Leinster in the 18th century but Irish speakers were still numerous. In the decennial period 1771–81 certain counties had estimated percentages of Irish speakers as follows (though the estimates are likely to be too low):[84]

Kilkenny 57%
Louth 57%
Longford 22%
Westmeath 17%

The language saw its most rapid initial decline in counties Dublin, Kildare, Laois, Wexford, and Wicklow. In recent years, County Wicklow has been noted as having the lowest percentage of Irish speakers of any county in Ireland, with only 0.14% of its population claiming to have passable knowledge of the language.[85] The proportion of Irish-speaking children in Leinster went down as follows: 17% in the 1700s, 11% in the 1800s, 3% in the 1830s, and virtually none in the 1860s.[86] The Irish census of 1851 showed that there were still a number of older speakers in County Dublin.[84] Sound recordings were made between 1928 and 1931 of some of the last speakers in Omeath, County Louth (now available in digital form).[87] The last known traditional native speaker in Omeath, and in Leinster as a whole, was Annie O'Hanlon (née Dobbin), who died in 1960.[25] Her dialect was, in fact, a branch of the Irish of south-east Ulster.[88]


Urban use from the middle ages to the 19th century


Irish was spoken as a community language in Irish towns and cities down to the 19th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was widespread even in Dublin and the Pale. The English administrator William Gerard (1518–1581) commented as follows: "All Englishe, and the most part with delight, even in Dublin, speak Irishe,"[89] while the Old English historian Richard Stanihurst (1547–1618) lamented that "When their posteritie became not altogither so warie in keeping, as their ancestors were valiant in conquering, the Irish language was free dennized in the English Pale: this canker tooke such deep root, as the bodie that before was whole and sound, was by little and little festered, and in manner wholly putrified".[90]

The Irish of Dublin, situated as it was between the east Ulster dialect of Meath and Louth to the north and the Leinster-Connacht dialect further south, may have reflected the characteristics of both in phonology and grammar. In County Dublin itself the general rule was to place the stress on the initial vowel of words. With time it appears that the forms of the dative case took over the other case endings in the plural (a tendency found to a lesser extent in other dialects). In a letter written in Dublin in 1691 we find such examples as the following: gnóthuimh (accusative case, the standard form being gnóthaí), tíorthuibh (accusative case, the standard form being tíortha) and leithscéalaibh (genitive case, the standard form being leithscéalta).[91]

English authorities of the Cromwellian period, aware that Irish was widely spoken in Dublin, arranged for its official use. In 1655 several local dignitaries were ordered to oversee a lecture in Irish to be given in Dublin. In March 1656 a converted Catholic priest, Séamas Corcy, was appointed to preach in Irish at Bride's parish every Sunday, and was also ordered to preach at Drogheda and Athy.[92] In 1657 the English colonists in Dublin presented a petition to the Municipal Council complaining that in Dublin itself "there is Irish commonly and usually spoken".[93]

There is contemporary evidence of the use of Irish in other urban areas at the time. In 1657 it was found necessary to have an Oath of Abjuration (rejecting the authority of the Pope) read in Irish in Cork so that people could understand it.[94]

Irish was sufficiently strong in early 18th century Dublin to be the language of a coterie of poets and scribes led by Seán and Tadhg Ó Neachtain, both poets of note.[95] Scribal activity in Irish persisted in Dublin right through the 18th century. An outstanding example was Muiris Ó Gormáin (Maurice Gorman), a prolific producer of manuscripts who advertised his services (in English) in Faulkner's Dublin Journal.[96] There were still an appreciable number of Irish speakers in County Dublin at the time of the 1851 census.[97]

In other urban centres the descendants of medieval Anglo-Norman settlers, the so-called Old English, were Irish-speaking or bilingual by the 16th century.[98] The English administrator and traveller Fynes Moryson, writing in the last years of the 16th century, said that "the English Irish and the very citizens (excepting those of Dublin where the lord deputy resides) though they could speak English as well as we, yet commonly speak Irish among themselves, and were hardly induced by our familiar conversation to speak English with us".[99] In Galway, a city dominated by Old English merchants and loyal to the Crown up to the Irish Confederate Wars (1641–1653), the use of the Irish language had already provoked the passing of an Act of Henry VIII (1536), ordaining as follows:

Item, that every inhabitant within oure said towne [Galway] endeavour themselfes to speake English, and to use themselfes after the English facon; and, speciallye, that you, and every one of you, doe put your children to scole, to lerne to speke English...[100]

The demise of native cultural institutions in the seventeenth century saw the social prestige of Irish diminish, and the gradual Anglicisation of the middle classes followed.[101] The census of 1851 showed, however, that the towns and cities of Munster still had significant Irish-speaking populations. Much earlier, in 1819, James McQuige, a veteran Methodist lay preacher in Irish, wrote: "In some of the largest southern towns, Cork, Kinsale and even the Protestant town of Bandon, provisions are sold in the markets, and cried in the streets, in Irish".[102] Irish speakers constituted over 40% of the population of Cork even in 1851.[103]


Modern urban Irish


The late 18th and 19th centuries saw a reduction in the number of Dublin's Irish speakers, in keeping with the trend elsewhere. This continued until the end of the 19th century, when the Gaelic revival saw the creation of a strong Irish–speaking network, typically united by various branches of the Conradh na Gaeilge, and accompanied by renewed literary activity.[104] By the 1930s Dublin had a lively literary life in Irish.[105]

Urban Irish has been the beneficiary, from the last decades of the 20th century, of a rapidly expanding system of Gaelscoileanna, teaching entirely through Irish. As of 2019 there are 37 such primary schools in Dublin alone.[106]

It has been suggested that Ireland's towns and cities are acquiring a critical mass of Irish speakers, reflected in the expansion of Irish language media.[107] Many are younger speakers who, after encountering Irish at school, made an effort to acquire fluency, while others have been educated through Irish and some have been raised with Irish. Those from an English-speaking background are now often described as nuachainteoirí ("new speakers") and use whatever opportunities are available (festivals, "pop-up" events) to practise or improve their Irish.[108]

It has been suggested that the comparative standard is still the Irish of the Gaeltacht,[109] but other evidence suggests that young urban speakers take pride in having their own distinctive variety of the language.[110] A comparison of traditional Irish and urban Irish shows that the distinction between broad and slender consonants, which is fundamental to Irish phonology and grammar, is not fully or consistently observed in urban Irish. This and other changes make it possible that urban Irish will become a new dialect or even, over a long period, develop into a creole (i.e. a new language) distinct from Gaeltacht Irish.[107] It has also been argued that there is a certain elitism among Irish speakers, with most respect being given to the Irish of native Gaeltacht speakers and with "Dublin" (i.e. urban) Irish being under-represented in the media.[111] This, however, is paralleled by a failure among some urban Irish speakers to acknowledge grammatical and phonological features essential to the structure of the language.[107]


Standardisation


There is no single official standard for pronouncing the Irish language. Certain dictionaries, such as Foclóir Póca, provide a single pronunciation. Online dictionaries such as Foclóir Béarla-Gaeilge[112] provide audio files in the three major dialects. The differences between dialects are considerable, and have led to recurrent difficulties in conceptualising a "standard Irish." In recent decades contacts between speakers of different dialects have become more frequent and the differences between the dialects are less noticeable.[113]

An Caighdeán Oifigiúil ("The Official Standard"), often shortened to An Caighdeán, is a standard for the spelling and grammar of written Irish, developed and used by the Irish government. Its rules are followed by most schools in Ireland, though schools in and near Irish-speaking regions also use the local dialect. It was published by the translation department of Dáil Éireann in 1953[114] and updated in 2012[115] and 2017.


Phonology


In pronunciation, Irish most closely resembles its nearest relatives, Scottish Gaelic and Manx. One notable feature is that consonants (except /h/) come in pairs, one "broad" (velarised, pronounced with the back of the tongue pulled back towards the soft palate) and one "slender" (palatalised, pronounced with the middle of the tongue pushed up towards the hard palate). While broad–slender pairs are not unique to Irish (being found, for example, in Russian), in Irish they have a grammatical function.

Consonant phonemes
Labial Coronal Dorsal Glottal
broad slender broad slender broad slender
Stop voiceless t̪ˠ kc
voiced d̪ˠ ɡɟ
Fricative/
Approximant
voiceless ʃ xç h
voiced w ɣj
Nasal n̪ˠ ŋɲ
Tap ɾˠɾʲ
Lateral l̪ˠ
Vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
short long short short long
Close ɪʊ
Mid ɛəɔ
Open aɑː

Diphthongs: iə, uə, əi, əu.


Syntax and morphology


Irish is a fusional, VSO, nominative-accusative language. Irish is neither verb nor satellite framed, and makes liberal use of deictic verbs.

Nouns decline for 3 numbers: singular, dual (only in conjunction with the number dhá "two"), plural; 2 genders: masculine, feminine; and 4 cases: nomino-accusative (ainmneach), vocative (gairmeach), genitive (ginideach), and prepositional-locative (tabharthach), with fossilised traces of the older accusative. Adjectives agree with nouns in number, gender, and case. Adjectives generally follow nouns, though some precede or prefix nouns. Demonstrative adjectives have proximal, medial, and distal forms. The prepositional-locative case is called the dative by convention, though it originates in the Proto-Celtic ablative.

Verbs conjugate for 3 tenses: past, present, future; 2 aspects: perfective, imperfective; 2 numbers: singular, plural; 4 moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative; 2 relative forms, the present and future relative; and in some verbs, independent and dependent forms. Verbs conjugate for 3 persons and an impersonal form which is actor-free; the 3rd person singular acts as a person-free personal form that can be followed or otherwise refer to any person or number.

There are two verbs for "to be", one for inherent qualities with only two forms, is "present" and ba "past" and "conditional", and one for transient qualities, with a full complement of forms except for the verbal adjective. The two verbs share the one verbal noun.

The passive voice and many other forms are periphrastic. There are a number of preverbal particles marking the negative, interrogative, subjunctive, relative clauses, etc. There is a verbal noun and verbal adjective. Verb forms are highly regular, many grammars recognise only 11 irregular verbs.

Prepositions inflect for person and number. Different prepositions govern different cases. In Old and Middle Irish, prepositions governed different cases depending on intended semantics; this has disappeared in Modern Irish except in fossilised form.

Irish has no verb to express having; instead, the word ag ("at", etc.) is used in conjunction with the transient "be" verb bheith:

Numerals have 3 forms: abstract, general and ordinal. The numbers from 2 to 10 (and these in combination with higher numbers) are rarely used for people, numeral nominals being used instead:

Irish has both decimal and vigesimal systems:

10: a deich

20: fiche

30: vigesimal – a deich is fiche; decimal – tríocha

40: v. daichead, dá fhichead; d. ceathracha

50: v. a deich is daichead; d. caoga (also: leathchéad "half-hundred")

60: v. trí fichid; d. seasca

70: v. a deich is trí fichid; d. seachtó

80: v. cheithre fichid; d. ochtó

90: v. a deich is cheithre fichid; d. nócha

100: v. cúig fichid; d. céad

A number such as 35 has various forms:

a cúigdéag is fichid "15 and 20"

a cúig is tríocha "5 and 30"

a cúigdéag ar fhichid "15 on 20"

a cúig ar thríochaid "5 on 30"

a cúigdéag fichead "15 of 20 (genitive)"

a cúig tríochad "5 of 30 (genitive)"

fiche 's a cúigdéag "20 and 15"

tríocha 's a cúig "30 and 5"

The latter is most commonly used in mathematics.


Initial mutations


In Irish, there are two classes of initial consonant mutations, which express grammatical relationship and meaning in verbs, nouns and adjectives:

Mutations are often the only way to distinguish grammatical forms. For example, the only non-contextual way to distinguish possessive pronouns "her," "his" and "their", is through initial mutations since all meanings are represented by the same word a.

Due to initial mutation, prefixes, clitics, suffixes, root inflection, ending morphology, elision, sandhi, epenthesis, and assimilation; the beginning, core, and end of words can each change radically and even simultaneously depending on context.


Orthography


The official symbol of the Irish Defence Forces, showing a Gaelic typeface with dot diacritics
The official symbol of the Irish Defence Forces, showing a Gaelic typeface with dot diacritics

Ogham was the writing system used to write Primitive Irish and Old Irish until Latin script was introduced in the 8th century CE. The main typeface used to write Irish was Gaelic type (cló Gaelach) until it was replaced by Roman type (cló Rómhánach) in the mid-20th century.

The traditional Irish alphabet (áibítir) consists of 18 letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u. It does not contain j, k, q, v, w, x, y, z, although they are used in modern loanwords. v occurs in a small number of (mainly onomatopoeic) native words and colloquialisms.

Vowels may be accented with an acute accent (á, é, í, ó, ú; Irish and Hiberno-English: (síneadh) fada "long (sign)"), but it is ignored for purposes of alphabetisation. It lengthens vowels (and changes their quality), e.g. e is /ɛ/ and é is /eː/.

The overdot was used in traditional orthography (ponc séimhithe "dot of lenition", buailte "struck", or séimhiú "lenition") to indicated lenition, currently a following h is used for this purpose, i.e. ḃ, ċ, ḋ, ḟ, ġ, ṁ, ṗ, ṡ, ṫ are equivalent to bh, ch, dh, fh, gh, mh, ph, sh, th. In Old Irish, it was only used for ḟ, ṡ, while the following h was used for ch, ph, th; lenition of other letters was not indicated. Later the two systems spread to the entire set of lenitable consonants and competed with each other. Eventually the following h was used in Roman type and the overdot was used in Gaelic type, although extending its use to Roman type would theoretically have the advantage of making Irish texts significantly shorter, e.g. gheobhaidh sibh "you (pl.) will get" would become ġeoḃaiḋ siḃ. Letters with an overdot are available in Unicode and Latin-8 character sets.[117] The use of Gaelic type and the overdot today is restricted to when a traditional style is consciously being used, e.g. the Irish Defence Forces cap badge (Óglaiġ na h-Éireann) (see above).


Spelling reform


Around the time of the Second World War, Séamas Daltún, in charge of Rannóg an Aistriúcháin [ga] (the official translations department of the Irish government), issued his own guidelines about how to standardise Irish spelling and grammar. This de facto standard was subsequently approved by the State and developed into an Caighdeán Oifigiúil, which simplified and standardised the orthography and grammar by removing inter-dialectal silent letters and simplifying vowel combinations. Where multiple versions existed in different dialects for the same word, one or more were selected, for example:

An Caighdeán does not reflect all dialects to the same degree, e.g. bia "food" (genitive bia, pronounced /bʲiːɟ/ in Munster, reflecting the pre-Caighdeán spelling because -idh, igh fortiate to -ig in Munster pronunciation).[118] For this reason, the pre-Caighdeán spellings are used by some speakers to reflect the dialectal differentiation of biadh (nomino-accusative case) "food" and bídh (genitive case) "food's". Another example would be crua "hard", pronounced /kruəɟ/ in Munster,[119] in line with the pre-Caighdeán spelling, cruaidh. In Munster, ao and aoi are pronounced /eː/ and /iː/, respectively,[120] but saoghal "life, world" (genitive saoghail) became saol (genitive saoil) in An Caighdeán, which does not reflect the Munster pronunciation /sˠeːl̪ˠ/ (genitive /sˠeːlʲ/).[121]


Example text


Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Irish:

Saolaítear gach duine den chine daonna saor agus comhionann i ndínit agus i gcearta. Tá bua an réasúin agus an choinsiasa acu agus ba cheart dóibh gníomhú i dtreo a chéile i spiorad an bhráithreachais.[122]

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.[123]

See also



Notes


  1. Irish was the first official language of the Irish state.[7] Irish is not widely used as an L2 in most of Ireland, but its use is encouraged by the government.

References



Citations


  1. O'Gallagher, J. (1877). Sermons in Irish-Gaelic. Gill.
  2. Ó Flannghaile, Tomás (1896). For the Tongue of the Gael: a Selection of Essays and Philological on Irish-Gaelic Subjects. Gill.
  3. "Our Role Supporting You". Foras na Gaeilge. Retrieved 8 January 2021. ...  between Foras na Gaeilge and Bòrd na Gàidhlig, promoting the use of Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic in Ireland and Scotland ...'
  4. Ó Flannghaile, Tomás (1896). For the Tongue of the Gael: a Selection of Essays and Philological on Irish-Gaelic Subjects. Gill.
  5. Irish[1][4][3] at Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019)
  6. Ó Flannghaile, Tomás (1896). For the Tongue of the Gael: a Selection of Essays and Philological on Irish-Gaelic Subjects. Gill.
  7. "Constitution of Ireland". Government of Ireland. 1 July 1937. Archived from the original on 17 July 2009. Retrieved 19 June 2007.
  8. "Gaelic definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary". www.collinsdictionary.com.
  9. "Gaelic: meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary". cambridge.org. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  10. "Irish language". Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2021.
  11. "Gaelic: Definition of Gaelic by Merriam-Webster". Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
  12. ""Reawakening the Irish Language through the Irish Education System: Challenges and Priorities"" (PDF). International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education.
  13. Doyle, Danny (2015). Míle Míle i gCéin: The Irish Language in Canada. Ottawa: Borealis Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-88887-631-7.
  14. Dinneen, Patrick S. (1927). Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla [Irish and English dictionary] (in Ga) (2d ed.). Dublin: Irish Texts Society. pp. 507 s.v. Gaedhealg. ISBN 1-870166-00-0.
  15. Doyle, Aidan; Gussmann, Edmund (2005). An Ghaeilge, Podręcznik Języka Irlandzkiego. pp. 423k. ISBN 83-7363-275-1.
  16. Dillon, Myles; Ó Cróinín, Donncha (1961). Teach Yourself Irish. London: English Universities Press. p. 227.
  17. Ó Dónaill, Niall, ed. (1977). Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla. p. 600 s.v. Gaeilge.
  18. "Ireland speaks up loudly for Gaelic". The New York Times. 29 March 2005. Archived from the original on 8 January 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2017. An example of the use of the word "Gaelic" to describe the language, seen throughout the text of the article.
  19. "Irish: Ethnologue". Ethnologue. Retrieved 22 December 2018. Alternate names: Erse, Gaelic Irish, Irish Gaelic
  20. Dalton, Martha (July 2019). "Nuclear Accents in Four Irish (Gaelic) Dialects". International Conference of Phonetic Science. XVI. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.486.4615.
  21. "Interinstitutional Style Guide: Section 7.2.4. Rules governing the languages of the institutions". European Union. 27 April 2016.
  22. "Gaelic". The Free Dictionary.
  23. "House of Commons, 1 August 1922: Ireland: Erse language (18)". Hansard. London, UK: Houses of Parliament. 157. 1240-1242. 1 August 1922. Sir CHARLES OMAN asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has protested against the recent attempt of the Provisional Government in Ireland to force compulsory Erse into all official correspondence, in spite of the agreement that Erse and English should be equally permissible .. MR CHURCHILL .. I do not anticipate that Irish Ministers will willingly incur the very great confusion which would inevitably result from the use of Irish for the material parts of their correspondence.
  24. De Fréine, Seán (1978). The Great Silence: The Study of a Relationship Between Language and Nationality. Irish Books & Media. ISBN 978-0-85342-516-8.
  25. Ó Gráda 2013.
  26. O'Reilly, Edward (17 March 2015). ""The unadulterated Irish language": Irish Speakers in Nineteenth Century New York". New-York Historical Society. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  27. See the discussion in Wolf, Nicholas M. (2014). An Irish-Speaking Island: State, Religion, Community, and the Linguistic Landscape in Ireland, 1770–1870. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-30274-0.
  28. McMahon 2008, pp. 130–131.
  29. "The Irish language and the Church of Ireland". Church of Ireland. Archived from the original on 10 July 2017. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  30. Watson, Iarfhlaith; Nic Ghiolla Phádraig, Máire (September 2009). "Is there an educational advantage to speaking Irish? An investigation of the relationship between education and ability to speak Irish". International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 2009 (199): 143–156. doi:10.1515/IJSL.2009.039. hdl:10197/5649. S2CID 144222872.
  31. "Ireland speaks up loudly for Gaelic". The New York Times. 29 March 2005. Archived from the original on 8 January 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  32. Murphy, Brian (25 January 2018). "Douglas Hyde's inauguration – a signal of a new Ireland". RTÉ. Archived from the original on 7 September 2018. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  33. "Douglas Hyde Opens 2RN 1 January 1926". RTÉ News. 15 February 2012. Archived from the original on 6 January 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  34. "Allocution en irlandais, par M. Douglas Hyde". Bibliothèque nationale de France. 28 January 1922. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  35. "The Doegen Records Web Project". Archived from the original on 7 September 2018.
  36. "Census of Population 2016 – Profile 10 Education, Skills and the Irish Language – CSO – Central Statistics Office". Archived from the original on 12 February 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  37. Ó Murchú, Máirtín (1993). "Aspects of the societal status of Modern Irish". In Ball, Martin J.; Fife, James (eds.). The Celtic Languages. London: Routledge. pp. 471–90. ISBN 0-415-01035-7.
  38. "NUI Entry Requirements – Ollscoil na hÉireann – National University of Ireland". Nui.ie. Archived from the original on 5 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  39. "Obligation to appoint Irish speakers". Archived from the original on 30 November 2005.
  40. "Academic claims the forced learning of Irish 'has failed'". Independent.ie. 19 January 2006.
  41. Regan, Mary (4 May 2010). "End compulsory Irish, says FG, as 14,000 drop subject". Irish Examiner.
  42. Donncha Ó hÉallaithe: "Litir oscailte chuig Enda Kenny": BEO.ie Archived 20 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  43. Siggins, Lorna (16 July 2007). "Study sees decline of Irish in Gaeltacht". The Irish Times.
  44. Nollaig Ó Gadhra, 'The Gaeltacht and the Future of Irish, Studies, Volume 90, Number 360
  45. Welsh Robert and Stewart, Bruce (1996). 'Gaeltacht,' The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature. Oxford University Press.
  46. Hindley, Reg (1991). The Death of the Irish Language: A Qualified Obituary. Taylor & Francis.
  47. Magan, Manchán (9 January 2007). "Cá Bhfuil Na Gaeilg eoirí? *". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 29 January 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  48. See the discussion and the conclusions reached in 'Language and Occupational Status: Linguistic Elitism in the Irish Labour Market,’ The Economic and Social Review, Vol. 40, No. 4, Winter, 2009, pp. 435–460: Ideas.repec.org Archived 29 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  49. "Over 2.3m people using language app to learn Irish". RTE. 25 November 2016. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  50. "Ar fheabhas! President praises volunteer Duolingo translators". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  51. Siggins, Lorna (6 January 2003). "Only 25% of Gaeltacht households fluent in Irish – survey". The Irish Times. p. 5.
  52. Hindley 1991, Map 7: Irish speakers by towns and distinct electoral divisions, census 1926.
  53. Trinity College Dublin (5 November 2020). "Official Languages Act 2003".
  54. "Official Languages Act 2003". www.gov.ie. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  55. An Coimisinéir Teanga. Official Languages Act 2003: Guidebook (PDF). pp. 1–3.
  56. "Official Languages Act 2003 (and related legislation)". www.gov.ie. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  57. "Review of Official Language Act 2003". www.gov.ie. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  58. "Irish Language Policy". www.gov.ie. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  59. Roinn an Taoisigh (2019). Official Languages Act 2003: Language Scheme 2019-2022. p. 3.
  60. "20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language". www.gov.ie. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  61. Government of Ireland (2010). 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030. p. 11.
  62. Breadun, Deaglan De. "Plan could treble number speaking Irish, says Cowen". The Irish Times. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  63. "CAIN: Issues: Language: O'Reilly, C. (1997) Nationalists and the Irish Language in Northern Ireland: Competing Perspectives". Cain.ulst.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  64. "GPPAC.net". Archived from the original on 13 May 2007.
  65. "Belfast Agreement – Full text – Section 6 (Equality) – "Economic, Social and Cultural issues"". Cain.ulst.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 22 November 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  66. "Irish language future is raised". BBC News. 13 December 2006. Archived from the original on 15 March 2007. Retrieved 19 June 2007.
  67. "Irish language and Ulster Scots bill clears final hurdle in Parliament". BBC News. 26 October 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  68. "Thousands call for Irish Language Act during Belfast rally". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 15 November 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  69. "Is í an Ghaeilge an 21ú teanga oifigiúil den Aontas Eorpach" [Irish is the 21st official language of the European Union] (in Ga). Archived from the original on 18 March 2008. Retrieved 14 June 2008.
  70. Boland, Lauren. "Irish to be fully recognised as an official EU language from New Year's Day". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  71. O Broin, Brian. "An Analysis of the Irish-Speaking Communities of North America: Who are they, what are their opinions, and what are their needs?". Academia (in Irish). Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  72. "1. Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over for the United States: 2006–2008", Language (table), Census, 2010
  73. Mannion, John (February 2003). "The Irish in Newfoundland". Heritage: Newfoundland & Labrador.
  74. Clarke, Sandra; Paddock, Harold; MacKenzie, Marguerite (1999). "Language". Heritage: Newfoundland and Labrador.
  75. "7. Irish". Report of the 2016 Census of Ireland. Dublin, Ireland: Central Statistics Office. 2017. pp. 66, 69. Of the 1.76 million who said they could speak Irish, 73,803 said they speak it daily outside the education system, a fall of 3,382 on the 2011 figure. ... (421,274) said they never spoke Irish. ... Of the 73,803 daily Irish speakers (outside the education system), 20,586 (27.9%) lived in Gaeltacht areas. The total population of all Gaeltacht areas in April 2016 was 96,090
  76. "Census 2016 Summary Results – Part 1 – CSO – Central Statistics Office". Cso.ie. Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  77. "Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media" (PDF). www.gov.ie.
  78. "The Doegen Records Web Project". Archived from the original on 8 September 2018.
  79. Hamilton, John Noel (1974). A Phonetic Study of the Irish of Tory Island, County Donegal. Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast.
  80. Lucas, Leslie W. (1979). Grammar of Ros Goill Irish, County Donegal. Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast.
  81. Williams 1994, pp. 467–478.
  82. Borde, Andrew (1870). Furnivall, F.J. (ed.). "The Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge". N. Trubner & Co. pp. 131–135.
  83. "State of Ireland & Plan for its Reformation" in State Papers Ireland, Henry VIII, ii, 8.
  84. See Fitzgerald 1984.
  85. "The Irish Language in Co. Wicklow". 27 June 2019.
  86. Cited in Ó Gráda 2013.
  87. "The Doegen Records Web Project | DHO". Dho.ie. 5 September 1928. Archived from the original on 19 March 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  88. "Cur síos ar an chainteoir ó dhúchas deireannach ón Ó Méith, Co Lú, Anna Uí AnnluainCur síos ar an chainteoir ó dhúchas deireannach ón Ó Méith, Co Lú, Anna Uí Annluain". RTÉ Archives. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  89. See "Tony Crowley, "The Politics of Language in Ireland 1366–1922: A Sourcebook" and Leerssen, Joep, Mere Irish and Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior to the Nineteenth Century, University of Notre Dame Press 1997, p. 51. ISBN 978-0268014278
  90. Ellis, Henry (ed.). The Description of Ireland, An Electronic Edition: Chapter 1 (The Names of Ireland, with the Compasse of the Same, also what Shires or Counties it Conteineth, the Diuision or Partition of the Land, and of the Language of the People)
  91. See Ó hÓgáin 2011.
  92. Berresford Ellis, Peter (1975). Hell or Connnaught! The Cromwellian Colonisation of Ireland 1652-1660, p. 156. Hamish Hamilton. SBN 241-89071-3.
  93. Berresford Ellis 1975, p. 193.
  94. Berresford Ellis 1975, p. 190.
  95. Caerwyn Williams & Uí Mhuiríosa 1979, pp. 279 and 284.
  96. Ní Mhunghaile 2010, pp. 239–276.
  97. See Fitzgerald, 1984.
  98. McCabe, p.31
  99. Quoted in Graham Kew (ed.), The Irish Sections of Fynes Moryson's unpublished itinerary (IMC, Dublin, 1998), p. 50.
  100. Quoted in Hardiman, James, The History of the Town and Country of the County of Galway. Dublin 1820: p. 80. )
  101. Ó Laoire 2007, p. 164.
  102. Quoted in de Brún 2009, pp. 11–12.
  103. Fitzgerald, Garrett, ‘Estimates for baronies of minimal level of Irish-speaking amongst successive decennial cohorts, 117-1781 to 1861–1871,’ Volume 84, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 1984
  104. Ó Conluain & Ó Céileachair 1976, pp. 148–153, 163–169, 210–215.
  105. Máirín Ní Mhuiríosa, "Cumann na Scríbhneoirí: Memoir" in Scríobh 5, pp. 168–181, Seán Ó Mórdha (ed.), An Clóchomhar Tta 1981.
  106. "Dublin : Gaelscoileanna – Irish Medium Education". Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  107. Ó Broin, Brian (16 January 2010). "Schism fears for Gaeilgeoirí". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 16 February 2018. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  108. John Walsh; Bernadette OʼRourke; Hugh Rowland, Research Report on New Speakers of Irish: https://www.forasnagaeilge.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/New-speakers-of-Irish-report.pdf
  109. Seoighe, Stiofán (22 July 2019). "Gá le doirse a oscailt do nuachainteoirí na Gaeilge: Cén chaoi gur féidir cainteoirí gníomhacha, féinmhuiníneacha a dhéanamh astu seo a fhoghlaimíonn an Ghaeilge ar scoil?" [Need to open doors for new speakers of Irish: How can active, self-confident speakers be made from those who learn Irish at school?]. The Irish Times (in Ga). Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  110. Nic Fhlannchadha, S.; Hickey, T.M. (12 January 2016). "Minority Language Ownership and Authority: Perspectives of Native Speakers and New Speakers". International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 21 (1): 38–53. doi:10.1080/13670050.2015.1127888. hdl:10197/7394. S2CID 67833553.
  111. Ní Thuathaláin, Méabh (23 July 2019). "'I'm gonna speak Irish the way that's natural for me' – craoltóir buartha faoi éilíteachas shaol na Gaeilge". Tuairisc.ie. Archived from the original on 4 September 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  112. "Leabharlann Teanga agus Foclóireachta". www.teanglann.ie. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  113. "Irish Dialects copy of Irishlanguage.net". Archived from the original on 1 July 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  114. "Beginners' Blas". BBC. June 2005. Archived from the original on 3 March 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  115. "An Caighdeán Oifigiúil" [The Official Standard] (PDF) (in Ga). January 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 April 2018. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  116. "III The morphonology of Irish". The Sound Structure of Modern Irish. De Gruyter Mouton. 11 April 2014. pp. 235–316. doi:10.1515/9783110226607.235. ISBN 978-3-11-022660-7.
  117. Unicode 5.0, "Latin Extended Additional" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 April 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2018. (163 KB). Retrieved 13 October 2007.
  118. Doyle, Aidan; Gussmann, Edmund (2005). An Ghaeilge, Podręcznik Języka Irlandzkiego. p. 412. ISBN 83-7363-275-1.
  119. Doyle, Aidan; Gussmann, Edmund (2005). An Ghaeilge, Podręcznik Języka Irlandzkiego. p. 417. ISBN 83-7363-275-1.
  120. Dillon, Myles; Ó Cróinín, Donncha (1961). Teach Yourself Irish. p. 6. ISBN 0-340-27841-2.
  121. Doyle, Aidan; Gussmann, Edmund (2005). An Ghaeilge, Podręcznik Języka Irlandzkiego. p. 432. ISBN 83-7363-275-1.
  122. "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
  123. "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". United Nations.

Bibliography





Grammar and pronunciation



Dictionaries



На других языках


[de] Irische Sprache

Die irische Sprache (irisch Gaeilge [.mw-parser-output .IPA a{text-decoration:none}ˈɡeːlʲɟə] oder im Munster-Dialekt Gaolainn [ˈɡeːləɲ], nach der bis 1948 geltenden Orthographie meist Gaedhilge), Irisch oder Irisch-Gälisch, ist eine der drei goidelischen oder gälischen Sprachen. Sie ist also eng verwandt mit dem Schottisch-Gälischen und dem Manx. Die goidelischen Sprachen zählen zum inselkeltischen Zweig der keltischen Sprachen.
- [en] Irish language

[es] Idioma irlandés

El irlandés o gaélico irlandés moderno (en irlandés: Gaeilge) es un idioma goidélico de la rama celta de la familia de lenguas indoeuropeas originario de la isla de Irlanda y hablado históricamente por los irlandeses. Se estima que el número de personas de la isla que lo hablan como lengua nativa ronda entre 20 000 y 80 000, predominantemente en las regiones rurales occidentales.[2][3][4] El irlandés era la lengua principal de la isla antes de que se produjese la conquista inglesa de Irlanda durante la Edad Media.

[fr] Irlandais

L'irlandais (autonyme : Gaeilge /ˈgeːlʲ.ɟə/), également appelé gaélique irlandais, est une langue celtique du groupe des langues gaéliques, parlée sur l'île d'Irlande depuis l'arrivée des Gaëls.

[it] Lingua irlandese

La lingua irlandese, nota anche come gaelico irlandese o più raramente gaelico[1][2] (nome nativo Gaeilge, in inglese Irish o Gaelic), è una lingua indoeuropea appartenente al ceppo delle lingue celtiche insulari, parlata in Irlanda.

[ru] Ирландский язык

Ирла́ндский язы́к (ирл. Gaeilge [ˈɡeːlʲɟə], ирландский гэльский, ирл. Gaeilge na hÉireann) — язык ирландцев, один из кельтских языков; наряду с шотландским и мэнским, принадлежит к гойдельской подгруппе.



Текст в блоке "Читать" взят с сайта "Википедия" и доступен по лицензии Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike; в отдельных случаях могут действовать дополнительные условия.

Другой контент может иметь иную лицензию. Перед использованием материалов сайта WikiSort.org внимательно изучите правила лицензирования конкретных элементов наполнения сайта.

2019-2024
WikiSort.org - проект по пересортировке и дополнению контента Википедии