Irish Is A Dying Language? | Fresh Perspectives 

Whats your persoective?

my father took no interest in irish in school whatsoever- irish instruction from 6 years old til 18 and to this day he has barely a word of it. he believes that learning the irish language is a waste of time and no one should bother with it. it makes me sad. my mother on the other hand told me recently that one of her biggest regrets as a parent was no using irish at home with us or making an effort to teach us irish when we were toddlers. tír gan teanga, tír gan anam!!!!

I'm a native Irish speaker from Mayo. I speak the South Mayo Irish Dialect Gaedhilg passed onto me by my grandfather and neighbours. I can also speak the North Mayo Irish dialect and Acaill Irish dialect. While Irish definitely isn't dying in places like Conamara and Gaoth Dobhair and theres good Irish speaking populations in Galway City and Belfast, in places like Mayo, Waterford, Cork, Meath and Kerry you're seeing a drop of use. Generally because of outward migration to bigger towns and cities or the tragic passings of the seanfhondúirí of the communities. Theres about 150,000 native Irish speakers across Ireland. But counties like Mayo, Meath, Waterford, Cork and Kerry need the communities ro stay alive or we'll lose hundreds of years worth of information and linguistic diversity. Is Irish dying no, but Irish dialects are struggling and will die if they are not helped

To the last statement, the gentleman in the middle says, "Irish is absolutely not dying, it is alive and well". Try and tell that to a native speaker, an older one who grew up in a fully Irish speaking stronghold (there were true Gaeltacht areas up until the early eighties), who now cannot live their life through their first language in their own home village, where once only Irish was heard. A language cannot survive as a community language, as a first language, as a native language, without a stronghold, without what sociolinguists call 'demographic density' of speakers - this is why a language of a small and isolated community can last as long as they maintain that status, but a language of thousands can be lost within one to three generations if those speakers are spread out among a larger population speaking another language. If you want to avoid hard facts, and walk around giving out CnaG certified positive statements like "Oh look at all the learners on Duolingo" "Look at the census isn't it great that so many of us learned to say conas atá tú in school" "the Irish language is thriving alive and well even though numbers of first language speakers are still dropping and the Gaeltachts are on the way out and most of the people who do learn it fluently can't pronounce it - 'man na gwaylga' for 'meáin na Gaeilge' for example, then yeah keep living in that fantasy world and living in your network of friends and allies who have learned the language, but remember that your network with whom you speak Irish isn't reflective of the bigger picture, if you want to change that then you're going to have to work on starting a real Irish speaking colony somewhere, removed, sheltered, shielded from anglophone Irish society, and that's reality, and that would be better than putting your head in the sand and pretending Irish is doing great.

Irish is a growing language.

The language has now become a Hybrid, what we have is Book Irish developed in a place like Trinity by academics...who are not native speakers. Gael Scoileanna is just way of getting more Marks in the Leaving Cert..and also a form of Streaming by Yummy Mamies and Daddies

Níor chríoch mé an físéan fós ach, beatha teanga í a labhairt. Nuair a labhríonn tú an teanga, cuireann tú spreag uirthi, is dócha go mbeidh tú in ann níos mó a dhéanamh nuair a úsáideann tú í. Ar líne, agus i bhfíor-shaol.

It's mostly _taught_ and learned with Hiberno-English pronunciation instead of Gaelic pronunciation. Ciara, mentioned in the video, is an example of this - she made a video saying that she was unaware of the slender 'r' after learning Irish for 18 years. Our taught Irish brings to mind Brad Pitt's character speaking Italian with a thick American accent in Inglourious Basterds. It's a situation that has been the norm for decades. The broad/slender consonants were not taught to me in school. They are certainly not easy to communicate as is demonstrated by the few youtube videos that attempt to do so - clear as mud in my experience as a learner, though their intentions are good. Languages do evolve. Maybe Hiberno-English-pronounced Gaeilge should be accepted by the purists as the next evolution, and the price to pay to keep some bones of the language alive in most of the country while the heart is on life support in the Gaeltacht. I don't know. Arrivederci from Brad ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-krtnt191Drg.htmlfeature=shared&t=121

well is léir go dtuigimid ár gcultúr agus ár stair. nuair a fhéachann tú air, is dócha ainmneacha agus logainmneacha agus ainmneacha na mbailte na héireann, tá ciall leo agus iad i ngaelainn agus nuair a chuireann tú béarla ar son, ní dhéanann siad ciall ar bith so is dócha sin an tábhacht a baineann leis an teanga. níor chóir dúinn dearmad a dhéanamh faoin teanga agus na daoine a throid ar son. i ndáiríre ní mór dúinn ach bealaí a aimsiú chun é a labhairt níos minicí agus i mo thuairim, níos mó gaelscoileanna bunscoile a thabhairt isteach. tá níos mó suime ag na daltaí fad is a bhíonn siad níos óga ach nuair a théann siad tríd an gcóras scoile tar éis 8 mbliana, agus nach bhfuil siad in ann an teanga a labhairt go líofa, cailleann siad an suim agus bíonn sé níos deacra orthu an teanga a phiocadh suas.

It's really nice to see other Italian people learning Irish! Other foreigners learn the language and it's so exciting to see! B'fhéidir go mbeidh mé in ann bualadh le daoine Iodálaigh a bhfuil Gaeilge acu nuair a thiocfaidh mé go hÉirinn

From 1923, irish was beaten into schoolkids. And failures were met with punishments. That killed off the language quite quickly.

is beag an spéis atá a'am i bhfiseáin dá leithead seo... bí á labhairt seachas í a phlé sa mbéarla. cur amú ama is ea an fiseán seo dar liom

Tá sí beo. Gan dabht. Gábh mo leithscéal mó Béarla ach the opinion it's dying or useless was imposed by the colonialism. Internalised hated is a thing. My mother tongue should have been Leinster dialect which is now dead. Ach tá mé beo. Tá an teanga beo.

If Irish language was that important to the Irish, they would all be fluent by now. Why hasn't this happened?

English has become an Übersprache internationally and there is a desire among monolingual Anglos that no other language would dislidge its dominance. Although Anglo in worldview due to current cultural influences, most Irish people know in their hearts that they are not true Anglos as they did not benefit from the displacement of native peoples from their lands as happened for example in Australia or in United States but that their people were the natives in Ireland who were displaced by Anglos. Rud amháin a thugann an ghaelig duit isea saoirse ó adhastar an bhéarla a osclaíonn do shúile agus do chluasa do chultúrtha eile an domhain. Labhair í sa bhaile leis na páistí agus mar a thagann beocht ar sheana-choill feicfidh tú - Ar ghrága seana-choillte tiocfaidh ath-fhás beoga beidh na daoine ag damhsa is ár gcroíthe leoga, músclóidh dúchas an phobail 'bhí le fada i suan nuair a bhéas adhmad inniu is an choill go buan!

Pitty it's all in english. Labhair í agus mairfidh sí.

My child couldn't get into a gaelscoil because it was full of immigrants.

I am Irish-American. Six of my eight great-grandparents were born in Ireland. My father’s father was born in Ireland. My mother’s mother’s parents were both Irish speakers. They did not pass the language on to their American-born children. I have studied Irish, but I don’t speak it well. In my opinion, if there are no native, monolingual speakers (over the age of 3) of a language, that language is dead, no matter how many study it. Latin is an example. Many people can read it, some can even speak it, but it is still a ‘dead’ language. It is not the everyday, unique language of any community anywhere. I believe Irish is a fascinating artifact, but it is a dead language.

Irish An English word for the language of Gaels a people who will not exist in Ireland of future where Nigerian or Arabic is a better choice if you really need to learn a second language

seafóid, nil sé marbh. Cen faoi tá sé isteach Béarla 😐

these aren't really fresh perspectives. everybody in the video had the exact same opinion and biases which ultimately makes this video meaningless , it would have been better if they had actually gotten people with varying opinions, like someone whose against trying to bring back Irish or someone whose actually neutral on the subject.

Some parts of this was cringe.