How Can The Irish Language Survived?

Though not a dominant language in Ireland, it would be false to state that “the Irish language is now dying” (Hindley 248). In fact, the Irish language is a unique example of an endangered language that has been able to survive near extinction. While it is a “miracle that Irish has survived at all as a language,” the credit for its survival can be given “to those who had the courage and the tenacity to hold on to their native tongue in such terrible circumstances” (Great Famine, par. 10). These terrible circumstances refer to the destruction to the Gaeltacht regions of Ireland, caused by the famine, and the enforcement of English by the British. According to historians, “Irish was still the ‘home’ language of the people…right up until nearly …show more content…
15). While the many revitalization efforts during the 20th century helped increase the number of speakers, there is still a low amount of daily users when compared to before the famine. Interestingly though, linguistics have pointed out that the typical reasons for a language to continue to die are not present in Irish; such as poor support, lack of official status, lack of revival efforts, or being a language that lacks in linguistic description or dictionaries. In his paper Modern Irish: A Case Study in Language Revival Failure, Andrew Carnie states that “emigration from Irish-speaking regions has and continues to be a major problem for the revival movements and the survival of the language” (Carnie 8). As the Gaeltacht regions continue experiencing emigration due to the growing appeal of urban and city life, there will need to be a change in the way the Irish Government handles revitalization …show more content…
While it does hold status as the official ‘first language’ of Ireland, efforts need to be made to incorporate the Irish language into everyday use. One location that is affected the hardest by failed revitalization attempts is the rural areas of the Gaeltachts. As “the historical strongholds of the language,” the Gaeltachts have “long been the focus of preservationists” (Cotter 301). Since the success of language revival relies on making the language relevant for use in a wide variety of contexts, the government needs to realize that the approach that they have been using for the past 100 years has been unsuccessful. Perhaps “in terms of current language attitudes, having the teanga a duchais, the native language as spoken in the Gaeltacht, is seen as highly desirable” (Cotter 301). This effort is only recently starting to take notice as Ireland’s Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht has made it a growing priority to “provide linguistic support for the Gaeltacht as an Irish-speaking community and to recognize the issues which arise in areas where Irish is the household and community language” (20-Year Strategy, 3). With the emerging contemporary linguistic situation in the Gaeltacht, the government was called to establish the