New View of the Irish Language

Description

The 1871 census came to the stark conclusion that 'within relatively few years' Irish would cease to exist. Yet, over a century later, Irish became the twenty-third officially recognized language of the European Union in 2007. To believe the census returns of recent years, Irish is in a state of rude health. But is this true when half a million people claim to speak Irish, but seldom actually speak it? In the traditional Gaeltacht areas, Irish is in peril - whilst it flourishes in Gaelscoileanna, in urban areas and in cyberspace. What do these dramatic shifts mean for the language's future?A New View of the Irish Language covers issues such as language and national identity; the impact of emigration and immigration; music, literature and the media; the importance of place-names; teaching and learning Irish; attitudes towards Irish; and the state of the Gaeltacht - and probes beyond the statistics and rhetoric to explore the true situation of Irish in the contemporary world.Contributors: Ruair hUiginn, Pdraig Riagin, Liam Mac Mathna, Mirn Nic Eoin, Liam Muirthile, Gearid Tuathaigh, John Harris, Breandn Delap, Conchr Giollagin & Seosamh Mac Donnacha, Caoilfhionn Nic Phidn, Pdraig Laighin, Lillis Laoire, Anna N Ghallachair, Ciarn Mac Murchaidh, Brian Conchubhair, Aidan Doyle, Aidan Punch, Suzanne Romaine, Dnall Mac Giolla Easpaig and Iarfhlaith Watson.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique
• Irish language
• Grammar

Informations

• Publié par: Cois Life
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781908057785
• Langue: English

Extrait

A NEW VIEW OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE
A New View of the Irish Language
Editors: Caoilfhionn Nic Pháidín & Seán Ó Cearnaigh
Cois Life • Dublin • 2008
© The Authors 2008
Published by Cois Life Teoranta
ISBN 978-1-901176-82-7
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Cois Life acknowledges the assistance of Bord na Leabhar Gaeilge for its Irish-language publications and the Arts Council for its literary programme.
This publication is not grant-aided.
Cover design: Alan Keogh
Printer: Betaprint
www.coislife.ie
Contents
Foreword
Contributors
The Irish Language – Ruairí Ó hUiginn
Irish in the Global Context – Suzanne Romaine
The State and the Irish Language: an Historical Perspective – Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh
Census Data on the Irish Language – Aidan Punch
Irish-language Policy 1922-2007: Balancing Maintenance and Revival – Pádraig Ó Riagáin
The Irish Language and Identity – Iarfhlaith Watson
Linguistic Change and Standardization – Liam Mac Mathúna
Corpus Planning for Irish: Dictionaries and Terminology – Caoilfhionn Nic Pháidín
The Gaeltacht Today – Conchúr Ó Giollagáin & Seosamh Mac Donnacha
Territories of Desire: Words and Music in the Irish Language – Lillis Ó Laoire
Prose Writing in Irish Today – Máirín Nic Eoin
Offshore on Land: Poetry in Irish Now – Liam Ó Muirthile
Irish and the Media – Breandán Delap
Placenames Policy and its Implementation – Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig
Irish in the Education System – John Harris
Teaching and Learning Irish Today – Anna Ní Ghallachair
Modern Irish Scholarship at Home and Abroad – Aidan Doyle
Current Attitudes to Irish – Ciarán Mac Murchaidh
The Global Diaspora and the ‘New’ Irish (Language) – Brian Ó Conchubhair
Irish and the Legislative Perspective – Pádraig Ó Laighin
Glossary of Terms
Index
Foreword
This book is the most substantive, dispassionate overview of the Irish language by practitioners and scholars, in almost forty years. Its twenty essays include contributions on the historical and present-day development of the language itself, its place in society in general and its contemporary literature. Works in English on this topic are few, and can unfortunately veer between the apocryphal and the apocalyptic.
The Irish language is of obvious relevance and specific interest to Irish people, but increasingly, it is also a point of reference for a growing international body of work which addresses language decline and survival globally. While this volume is primarily intended to inform and enlighten readers about the language and its current position at home, the Irish experience in efforts to reverse language decline is of growing relevance internationally. This is not immediately obvious to English speakers, cushioned by a superpower language, but the issue of language decline is increasingly of concern to policy-makers in many European countries.
We adopted the title of A New View in honour of the ground-breaking View of the Irish Language (1969), a series of twelve Thomas Davis Lectures edited by Brian Ó Cuív. This book became a central reference work for generations of students of both Irish and Irish studies across the globe. An update has been long overdue, and it is timely to present the story of Irish to new generations.
We were encouraged by the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response of contributors to the invitation from Cois Life to participate in this project. We are deeply appreciative of the wholehearted cooperation and dedication of the team in ensuring delivery of all the essays, and speedy resolution of editorial queries, thus enabling the volume to appear on schedule. Contributors were specifically requested to adopt a communicative style and to keep academic references to a minimum. This has been achieved throughout, wherever possible, and the essays are generally both informative and accessible.
This publication is aimed at a broad public: all those who live, have lived, or will live in Ireland, and the worldwide community who speak or learn Irish, or follow its fortunes with interest. Despite its troubled past and its near consignment to extinction over a century ago, Irish has maintained its precarious existence and is ultimately a story of survival, adaptation and hope in an inhospitable environment.
The Irish language is an inclusive expression of identity for a broad spectrum of people. It has been spoken in the Gaeltacht for millenia and by learner bilinguals for over a century. It has been cast away and reclaimed by generations of the Irish diaspora and is now learned increasingly by foreign nationals residing in Ireland and abroad who take an interest in it. It is this broadly based public support that has enabled, and sustained politically, various government initiatives on its behalf since the foundation of the Irish state. Despite the negative experience for many, of a language badly taught on occasion and unsuccessfully learned, surveys consistently show political and social support for maintaining it and developing its use. The goodwill of this largely English-speaking population is essential for its promotion, and this support must be sought and maintained primarily in English.
Official status and state support, although denigrated persistently by both supporters and detractors of the language, as either too little or too much, depending on the perspective, have provided and sustained the basis of revival policy. The vision for the future needs to be grounded in reality and articulated in a clear strategic policy. In this context, it is vitally important that the Irish state resumes the requisite programme of sociolinguistic research and development, as a vacuum has developed in recent years since the abolition of Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann / Irish Linguistics Institute.
The contributors tell the story as it is, a glass both half-empty and half-full. Some cross-cutting themes emerge in the process: the capacity of the language to adapt and re-invent itself; the immense status value of language legislation but the limitations and dangers inherent in a purely rights-based, demand-led agenda; the urgency of formulating and delivering meaningful educational objectives and relevant curricula in Irish from pre-school to fourth-level; and the challenges facing literacy in Irish and consequent implications for a sustainable literature. Irish is continually in transition and translation, rebalancing its relationships on the island, in Europe, and globally.
A redefinition of revival has so far eluded us and is not offered here. Provision of demand-led services only, is however, a limiting strategy. The place of Irish in education in future decades is crucial. This calls for mature debate and an abandonment of the traditional confrontational lines of battle. Pragmatic and creative solutions can be found which will enable future generations to continue to learn Irish in school as of right. Recruitment of new speakers is essential for its survival and this depends on teaching and learning it well in school at both primary and post-primary levels. Without this, its fate could rapidly become that of Latin, post-Vatican Council. Although this prospect is hardly an adequate reason for teaching and learning a language, it may assist us in determining why the majority of Irish people favour it being taught in school, as the debate regarding how and to whom it is taught is played out in the coming decade.
The revival project which inspired the movement for political independence has left us a legacy of unrealisable expectations. Success or failure have never been defined. Painful as it may feel, the future belongs to those who adapt and move on, a capacity which the language itself, if not its followers, has consistently demonstrated. This volume has twenty Irish contributors. All of these speak and write the language fluently and the vast majority use it daily in their professional lives. Approximately a third of the contributors are native speakers who were reared speaking Irish at home. The majority acquired the language in school as part of the general curriculum on offer, and have clearly benefited from this experience.
The future of Irish is uncertain. It requires us to look in many directions at once, but never backwards or inwards. Raising the ghetto walls, in the Gaeltacht or elsewhere, is no solution. The new compass must include points both real and virtual, from geographical communities to cyber-based networks, from the Aran Islands classroom to the google-user of focal.ie inside the Arctic Circle. Looking ‘west’, however, must remain a source of inspiration and linguistic renewal for speakers of Irish looking in, while preserving and developing a living west is an urgent necessity for maintaining Irish-speaking communities in the heartland. Catastrophic predictions of the demise of the Gaeltacht must be converted from negative energy into inspiration and action. Looking north, the language must develop across the political spectrum, and this vitality sustained in future decades against the threat of waning enthusiasm.
Looking east to the European Union brings major opportunities and responsibilities in terms of status and employment and in ensuring the commitment of the Irish government to provision of linguistic infrastructure for delivery of services. The international context is hugely significant in providing frameworks for management and progress. As English increasingly encroaches as the language of delivery in higher education right across Europe, particularly in postgraduate studies, research and publications, many other languages in the EU will soon face to varying degrees the challeng