Today, only a few outposts of the Celtic languages group remain, including the Irish language. However, of the six living Celtic languages, only Welsh is not classified as “endangered” by UNESCO.
Irish Language | The Celtic Empire
Two and a half thousand years ago, Celtic languages dominated Western and Central Europe. Their use stretched from the northern reaches of the British Isles to the Mediterranean and from the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula to the shores of the Caspian Sea, even including an outpost of Celtic culture in Asia Minor.
A modern version of the Irish language, perhaps the most well-known of the language family, still exists today. Unfortunately for the Celts, the domination of the Roman Empire and later incursions by Germanic, Anglo-Saxon and a hoard of other invaders all but wiped out the Celtic influence in Europe. Most Celtic languages are extinct, including Brittonic, the language of the ancient Britons who gave their name to Great Britain.
Irish Language | A Living Language
Though Irish, known as Gaeilge (“GWEL-geh”), nominally has the most speakers at nearly 1.9 million, the vast majority have limited skills and at most 80,000 are actually native speakers. It’s estimated that only 5-10% of the total Irish population actively uses it. Compare this to the 430,000 fluent speakers of Welsh (Cymraeg, “kum-RAIG”), the strongest Celtic language, who comprise 15% of the population of Wales. On the far end, however, Manx (Gaelg, “gilg”), spoken on the Isle of Man, counts barely 100 speakers. Still, there is hope for the descendants of the Celts, as revival efforts slowly grow the number of speakers, particularly in urban areas, and laws guarantee their continued use in government.
Although the majority of the population does not speak it well, Irish is, in fact, the “national and first” official language of Ireland, while English is merely a second official language. This legal classification reflects a pride in national history and culture. For many, Gaeilge represents an important part of the Irish identity and, perhaps more importantly to its survival, carries significant sentimental value. Obviously, its revival is not a matter of utility as there are a mere handful of monolingual Irish speakers, typically very old villagers in remote areas. Even so, in 2007 it was recognized as an official, working language of the European Union and Irish diplomats can orate in Irish to the assembly through an interpreter.
Irish for the English
Despite the once vast reaches of the Celtic language family, Irish has left startlingly little trace on our modern language, so thorough was the linguistic imperialism of the English invaders in Ireland. Even so, a few examples remain. Some, like shamrock, from seamróg, and hooligan, from the family name Ó hUallicaháin, are not entirely surprising. Others can be quite unexpected. From go leor, “much or many,” we have the English galore. The Irish for “bell” is clocc, which gives us clock. Uisce beathe, “water of life,” is the origin of our whiskey.
Of course, because Irish is from a completely different family than the Germanic-based and Latin-influenced English, it and other Celtic languages can be quite imposing to learn, in the same way that Russian, Arabic and Greek seem entirely unfamiliar to the English speaker. Unlike those languages, Irish uses the Latin alphabet, but this is not as helpful as one would hope because of stark differences in pronunciation. Take, for example, Sidhe, that is, the traditional fairy-folk of Ireland. One would probably guess that it reads as “seed-hee” or “sid-hey” but the word is actually pronounced “shee.” On a related note, the English banshee comes from bean sidhe, or “woman of the fairies.”
Irish Language | The Work Praises the Man
Some aspects of Irish are quite simple. To begin with, there are only 11 irregular verbs, a number sure to make any student of Spanish or Russian jealous. And despite pronunciation differences from English, spelling is consistent, so once you’ve learned the rules, there are no exceptions. Amusingly, one cannot translate “yes” or “no” into Irish; they just repeat the verb in the question. Ar ith tú do lón? (Did you eat your lunch?) D’ith! (I ate! = “Yes!”) Of course, Irish isn’t without complications. Instead of changing the endings of words in certain situations like most European languages (I run, he runs; une bateau,
les bateaux) Irish and other Celtic languages often change the beginning. This can lead to pronunciation differences, as the name Breandán (Brendan) in certain situations becomes Bhreandán (“Vrendan”) because “bh” connotes an English “v.” And even though Irish verbs conjugate regularly, one must also conjugate prepositions so that ag “at” will mutate depending on its object; i.e. agam “at me” and agat “at you.” Irish vocabulary differs significantly from English and common, “international” words often have their own versions. The French astronomie, Russian astronomiya and Danish astronomi are all perfectly intelligible to an English speaker but the Irish equivalent, réalteolaíocht, could mean anything.
Irish of Tomorrow
Though the Irish language revival has been rockier than that of Welsh, Gaelic is slowly but steadily growing stronger. The worldwide popularity of Irish culture and the success of the Irish economy from the 1990s until the 2008 crisis certainly contributed to national pride and efforts to improve the language’s status. Irish is taught as a standard subject in Ireland and some schools are Irish-only. TG4, an Irish-language TV channel and many Irish radio stations provide content for speakers and students. The decline of Irish in the traditional, Irish-speaking Gaeltacht regions in the countryside is more than offset by its growth in Dublin, called Baile Átha Cliath in Irish, and other cities. The Irish language, once relegated to poor, rural farmers, looks to a future as the language of educated urbanites.
Irish for Beginners:
|
English |
Irish |
Pronunciation |
|
Hello! |
Dia dhuit! |
Deeya GWAIT! |
|
How are you? |
Cad é mar atá tú? |
Cad EH mahr atAH too? |
|
Great! |
An-mhaith! |
An-WHAH! |
|
Welcome! |
Fáilte! |
FOILteh! |
|
Excuse me, sorry |
Gabh mo leithscéal |
Gahv mo LASHkehyahl |
|
Thank you |
Go raibh maith agat |
Go rev MAH aGUT |
|
Please |
Más é do thoil é |
MASH eh de hull EH |
|
Congratulations! |
Comhghairdeas! |
KoHAIRdehs! |
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