Brief Description of Irish
Irish is a member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic family of Indo-European languages. Old Irish is the earliest variant of the Celtic languages, and indeed the earliest of Northern European vernaculars for which a literature survives. The oldest known form of Irish is preserved in Ogham inscriptions which date mainly from the fourth and fifth centuries. The Ogham characters were based on combinations of slashes and lines, usually cut on stone. The inscriptions contain little more than personal names, but they reveal a form of Goidelic even older than Old Irish, the earliest well-documented variety of the language.
Old Irish was the language of Ireland's 'Golden Age', and its classical phase is generally assigned to the period AD 700-850. Despite subsequent colonisation by Vikings and Normans, Irish remained dominant into the Middle Ages and beyond. The high point of the language was perhaps the early sixteenth century. Almost all of the population of Ireland was Irish-speaking, and if we count speakers of Scots Gaelic-then even more similar to Irish than it is today-Gaelic rivalled English as principal language of the two islands.
Since that time the language has experienced gradual decline. The destruction of the Gaelic order, by such events as plantations (ethnic cleansing of the native population) and Penal Laws (laws expressly designed to discriminate against the native population) eliminated the Irish-speaking ruling classes. Henceforth the language would be associated with rural poverty. The new rulers spoke English, and thereafter this was the sole language of government and public institutions. However, Irish continued as the speech of the greater part of the rural population. This rural population experienced rapid growth in the early nineteenth century, so that by 1835 the number of native speakers of Irish was estimated at four million. This population was decimated by the Great Famine (1845 -1848) and by resultant mass emigration. By 1891, the number of Irish speakers had been reduced to 680,000.
This decline continued in the twentieth century, despite a number of policy initiatives to support the language. Today, the Gaeltacht or Irish-speaking region is confined to small pockets in the west of the country, together with even tinier areas in other parts of Ireland. Census returns show that Irish is spoken regularly by about 2.5% of the country's population.
There are three main dialects of Irish, all mutually intelligible with little difficulty. Irish is also the parent language of Scottish Gaelic, as also Manx, though the latter language no longer has any native speakers.
Sound System
Central to the consonantal system is the existence of pairs of consonants in palatal and velar versions. Thus the final consonant of botún (mistake) becomes palatalized (botúin) to form the plural. Such a distinction has more in common with Slavic languages than it does with those of Western Europe. Irish has a system of word-initial consonant mutations at the phonological level. In one of these, called Lenition, a consonant can either fricate, change, or disappear entirely. Consonants can also nasalize or voice. The vowel system is fairly simple, though there are a number of diphthongs and tripthongs.
Grammar
Irish is a VSO language (the verb comes at the beginning of the verbal phrase e.g. "D'ith an fear a bhricfeasta" #- Ate the man his breakfast . The verbal and prominal systems tend to be agglutinating. Thus "cuirim" (I put) contains both the verb and its pronoun. Prepositional-pronouns are agglutinations in which person, number, and gender are combined. Thus "dom" is for me, while "dó" is for him, "di" is for her, "dúinn" for us. There are two genders (M & F), two numbers (Sing., Pl., with some residue of dual number) and four cases (nominative, vocative, genitive and dative) though the case system is undergoing rapid simplification. There are two forms of the verb "to be", paralleling what is found in Spanish and Italian.
Lexicon
The Celtic lexical stratum remains strong, though there are considerable Latinate and English substrata. Latin borrowings are most visible in ecclesiastical vocabulary (sagart>sacerdos, easpag>episcopus, aifreann>ofrenda etc.). There are some borrowings from mediaeval French (páiste>page, garsún>garçon). Borrowing from English began in the later Middle Ages (bríste>breeches, gúna>gown) and continues today.
Current Status
Ireland's Constitution recognizes Irish as the national language and first official language. English is recognised as a second official language. The language forms an essential part of the curriculum of schools in the primary and post-primary sectors. There are two national newspapers in the language, together with radio stations and a TV channel.
Bibliography
Learning Irish
Byrne, A. Gaeilge agus Fáile, Dublin, Gael Linn/Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann, 2002
Ó Domhnalláin, T., Buntús Cainte, An Gúm 1990.
Ó Dónaill, É., and D. Ní Churraighín, Now You're Talking! Gill and Macmillan, 1995(US edition
entitled Irish on Your Own)
Ó Dónaill, É., S. Ní Mhaonaigh Abair Leat Parts I and II (). Abair Leat! Cúrsa ranga do mhúinteoirí Gaeilge: Leibhéal 1, Cuid 1. Belfast: Iontaobhas ULTACH 1996
Ó Sé, D., and J. Sheils, Teach Yourself Irish, Hodder and Stoughton, 1993.
Ó Siadhail, M. Learning Irish, Yale University Press, 1995.
Rosenstock, G., Beginners' Irish
RTÉ/Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann, Cogar, 1989. History of the Language
Ní Chartúir, D. The Irish Language: an Overview and Guide, Avena Press, New York, 2002.
Ó Murchú, M. The Irish Language, Government of Ireland, Dublin 1985.
Ó Murchú, H. An Ghaeilge a haghaidh roimpi/Irish facing the future European Bureau of
Lesser Used Languages, Dublin 1999.
Irish is a member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic family of Indo-European languages. Old Irish is the earliest variant of the Celtic languages, and indeed the earliest of Northern European vernaculars for which a literature survives. The oldest known form of Irish is preserved in Ogham inscriptions which date mainly from the fourth and fifth centuries. The Ogham characters were based on combinations of slashes and lines, usually cut on stone. The inscriptions contain little more than personal names, but they reveal a form of Goidelic even older than Old Irish, the earliest well-documented variety of the language.
Old Irish was the language of Ireland's 'Golden Age', and its classical phase is generally assigned to the period AD 700-850. Despite subsequent colonisation by Vikings and Normans, Irish remained dominant into the Middle Ages and beyond. The high point of the language was perhaps the early sixteenth century. Almost all of the population of Ireland was Irish-speaking, and if we count speakers of Scots Gaelic-then even more similar to Irish than it is today-Gaelic rivalled English as principal language of the two islands.
Since that time the language has experienced gradual decline. The destruction of the Gaelic order, by such events as plantations (ethnic cleansing of the native population) and Penal Laws (laws expressly designed to discriminate against the native population) eliminated the Irish-speaking ruling classes. Henceforth the language would be associated with rural poverty. The new rulers spoke English, and thereafter this was the sole language of government and public institutions. However, Irish continued as the speech of the greater part of the rural population. This rural population experienced rapid growth in the early nineteenth century, so that by 1835 the number of native speakers of Irish was estimated at four million. This population was decimated by the Great Famine (1845 -1848) and by resultant mass emigration. By 1891, the number of Irish speakers had been reduced to 680,000.
This decline continued in the twentieth century, despite a number of policy initiatives to support the language. Today, the Gaeltacht or Irish-speaking region is confined to small pockets in the west of the country, together with even tinier areas in other parts of Ireland. Census returns show that Irish is spoken regularly by about 2.5% of the country's population.
There are three main dialects of Irish, all mutually intelligible with little difficulty. Irish is also the parent language of Scottish Gaelic, as also Manx, though the latter language no longer has any native speakers.
Sound System
Central to the consonantal system is the existence of pairs of consonants in palatal and velar versions. Thus the final consonant of botún (mistake) becomes palatalized (botúin) to form the plural. Such a distinction has more in common with Slavic languages than it does with those of Western Europe. Irish has a system of word-initial consonant mutations at the phonological level. In one of these, called Lenition, a consonant can either fricate, change, or disappear entirely. Consonants can also nasalize or voice. The vowel system is fairly simple, though there are a number of diphthongs and tripthongs.
Grammar
Irish is a VSO language (the verb comes at the beginning of the verbal phrase e.g. "D'ith an fear a bhricfeasta" #- Ate the man his breakfast . The verbal and prominal systems tend to be agglutinating. Thus "cuirim" (I put) contains both the verb and its pronoun. Prepositional-pronouns are agglutinations in which person, number, and gender are combined. Thus "dom" is for me, while "dó" is for him, "di" is for her, "dúinn" for us. There are two genders (M & F), two numbers (Sing., Pl., with some residue of dual number) and four cases (nominative, vocative, genitive and dative) though the case system is undergoing rapid simplification. There are two forms of the verb "to be", paralleling what is found in Spanish and Italian.
Lexicon
The Celtic lexical stratum remains strong, though there are considerable Latinate and English substrata. Latin borrowings are most visible in ecclesiastical vocabulary (sagart>sacerdos, easpag>episcopus, aifreann>ofrenda etc.). There are some borrowings from mediaeval French (páiste>page, garsún>garçon). Borrowing from English began in the later Middle Ages (bríste>breeches, gúna>gown) and continues today.
Current Status
Ireland's Constitution recognizes Irish as the national language and first official language. English is recognised as a second official language. The language forms an essential part of the curriculum of schools in the primary and post-primary sectors. There are two national newspapers in the language, together with radio stations and a TV channel.
Bibliography
Learning Irish
Byrne, A. Gaeilge agus Fáile, Dublin, Gael Linn/Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann, 2002
Ó Domhnalláin, T., Buntús Cainte, An Gúm 1990.
Ó Dónaill, É., and D. Ní Churraighín, Now You're Talking! Gill and Macmillan, 1995(US edition
entitled Irish on Your Own)
Ó Dónaill, É., S. Ní Mhaonaigh Abair Leat Parts I and II (). Abair Leat! Cúrsa ranga do mhúinteoirí Gaeilge: Leibhéal 1, Cuid 1. Belfast: Iontaobhas ULTACH 1996
Ó Sé, D., and J. Sheils, Teach Yourself Irish, Hodder and Stoughton, 1993.
Ó Siadhail, M. Learning Irish, Yale University Press, 1995.
Rosenstock, G., Beginners' Irish
RTÉ/Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann, Cogar, 1989. History of the Language
Ní Chartúir, D. The Irish Language: an Overview and Guide, Avena Press, New York, 2002.
Ó Murchú, M. The Irish Language, Government of Ireland, Dublin 1985.
Ó Murchú, H. An Ghaeilge a haghaidh roimpi/Irish facing the future European Bureau of
Lesser Used Languages, Dublin 1999.