http://www.drakkart.com/eire2/
The most interesting entry I could find is called: Language as a national identity.
http://www.drakkart.com/eire2/2006/07/18/language-as-a-national-identity/
Since I'm very interested in language related facts and figures I was captivated by this enty.
Last time in class when we discussed the Irish identity I was wondering why only a few per cent in Irland are able to communicate in their official language, Irish (Gaeilge). Well, he has an explanation for this phenomenon.
Given the fact that Ireland faced many invasions, it was very hard to keep their own language alive. Besides, the famine and the emigration didn't help either. Only because of the symbolic meaning Irish has become the official language.
It is still told in school, but hardly anybody is really capable of speaking it. Only in the remotest areas of Irland Gaelic is spoken in every day life. I was surprised to find out at Wikipedia that Irish is an official language of the European Union. That fact seems rather strange to me as English (the second official language) is spoken throughout the country.
Krystian wrote that he wants to learn Irish but he couldn't find anybody who was able to teach him the language. Only some people he met could sing songs or could communicate in Irish. In addition to that he wrote that some of them find Irish cool and sexy, which can be helpful in attracting women or men. ??? Very strange, but obviously that's what he experienced.
I think this decline of Gaelic is also due to the difficulty to study the language. Lisa wrote down some words in Gaelic last class and nobody could pronounce it the right way. It's an exraordinary language, with a lot of letters unpronounced and therefor extremely hard to learn. It's not at all resembling English, like I thought first. (totally different grammar, structure...)
Here is the map where Gealic is spoken:
Not really widly spoken for an official language (-:
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Those are the officially designated Gaeltacht areas with a population of 85,000. The truth is there are more Irish speakers living outside the Gaeltacht than inside. 1.6 million claimed some knowledge of the language in the last census. However, only around 250,000 are competent and speak the language everyday.
Irish Gaelic is spoken all over the island, in the Republic and in Northern Ireland. You will find Irish speakers in all walks of life and in every town and city.
Irish speakers are very much the silent minority. Outisde the Gaeltacht you have to search hard to find us but we are there and the language is very much alive.
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