74-700: Darragh , also spelled Daragh and Dara , / ˈ d æ r ə / is a name of Irish origin. The name is derived from the Old Irish word daire (Modern Irish doire ), which means "oak". Darragh is frequently used in Ireland as a masculine forename, though sometimes occurs as a surname or feminine forename. Darragh is related to the name Dáire . The spelling varies, with variations such as Dara , Daragh etc. Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish : Gaeilge ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( / ˈ ɡ eɪ l ɪ k / GAY -lik ),
148-621: A ⟨h⟩ , i.e. ⟨ bh, ch, dh, fh, gh, mh, ph, sh, th ⟩ . Lowercase ⟨i⟩ has no tittle in Gaelic type, and road signs in the Republic of Ireland . However, as printed and electronic material like books, newspapers and web pages use Roman type almost invariably, the tittle is generally shown. Irish does not graphemically distinguish dotted i and dotless ı , i.e. they are not different letters as they are in, e.g. Turkish and Azeri . Irish punctuation
222-537: A lenited letter in Gaelic type is usually replaced by a following ⟨h⟩ in Roman type (e.g. ⟨ċ⟩ → ⟨ch⟩ ). The traditional Irish alphabet ( aibítir ) consists of 18 letters: ⟨ a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u ⟩ . It does not contain ⟨j, k, q, v, w, x, y, z⟩ , although they are used in scientific terminology and modern loanwords of foreign origin. ⟨v⟩ occurs in
296-552: A short vowel , an unwritten epenthetic /ə/ gets inserted between ⟨l, n, r⟩ + ⟨b, bh, ch, f, g, mh⟩ (as well as ⟨p⟩ , when derived from devoiced ⟨b, bh, mh⟩ ), when within a morpheme boundary, e.g. gorm /ˈɡɔɾˠəmˠ/ "blue", dearg /ˈdʲaɾˠəɡ/ "red", dorcha /ˈd̪ˠɔɾˠəxə/ "dark", ainm /ˈanʲəmʲ/ "name", deilgneach /ˈdʲɛlʲəɟnʲəx/ "prickly, thorny"’ leanbh /ˈl̠ʲanˠəw/ "child", airgead /ˈaɾʲəɟəd̪ˠ/ "silver, money". The main exception to this
370-547: A unique dialect of Irish developed before falling out of use in the early 20th century. With a writing system , Ogham , dating back to at least the 4th century AD, which was gradually replaced by Latin script since the 5th century AD, Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Western Europe . On the island, the language has three major dialects: Connacht , Munster and Ulster Irish . All three have distinctions in their speech and orthography . There
444-738: A "popular edition" of the Constitution with simplified spelling and established a committee of experts, which failed to agree on recommendations. Instead, the Oireachtas' own translation service prepared a booklet, Litriú na Gaeilge: Lámhleabhar an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil , published in 1945. Some pre-reform spellings criticised by T. F. O'Rahilly and their modern forms include: beirbhiughadh → beiriú , imthighthe → imithe , faghbháil → fáil , urradhas → urrús , filidheacht → filíocht . The booklet
518-717: A bargaining chip during government formation in Northern Ireland, prompting protests from organisations and groups such as An Dream Dearg . Irish became an official language of the EU on 1 January 2007, meaning that MEPs with Irish fluency can now speak the language in the European Parliament and at committees, although in the case of the latter they have to give prior notice to a simultaneous interpreter in order to ensure that what they say can be interpreted into other languages. While an official language of
592-575: A better future for Ireland and all her citizens." The Strategy was produced on 21 December 2010 and will stay in action until 2030; it aims to target language vitality and revitalization of the Irish language. The 30-page document published by the Government of Ireland details the objectives it plans to work towards in an attempt to preserve and promote both the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. It
666-478: A cultural and social force. Irish speakers often insisted on using the language in law courts (even when they knew English), and Irish was also common in commercial transactions. The language was heavily implicated in the "devotional revolution" which marked the standardisation of Catholic religious practice and was also widely used in a political context. Down to the time of the Great Famine and even afterwards,
740-553: A degree course in the NUI federal system to pass the subject of Irish in the Leaving Certificate or GCE / GCSE examinations. Exemptions are made from this requirement for students who were born or completed primary education outside of Ireland, and students diagnosed with dyslexia . NUI Galway is required to appoint people who are competent in the Irish language, as long as they are also competent in all other aspects of
814-460: A fully recognised EU language for the first time in the state's history. Before Irish became an official language it was afforded the status of treaty language and only the highest-level documents of the EU were made available in Irish. The Irish language was carried abroad in the modern period by a vast diaspora , chiefly to Great Britain and North America, but also to Australia , New Zealand and Argentina . The first large movements began in
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#1732798294610888-575: A high degree despite their considerable phonological variation, e.g. crann ("tree") is read /kɾˠan̪ˠ/ in Mayo and Ulster , /kɾˠaːn̪ˠ/ in Galway, or /kɾˠəun̪ˠ/ in Munster . Some words may have dialectal pronunciations not reflected by their standard spelling, and they sometimes have distinct dialectal spellings to reflect this. Latin script has been the writing system used to write Irish since
962-452: A hyphen ( see below ). Vowel sequences are common in Irish spelling due to the " caol le caol agus leathan le leathan " ("slender with slender and broad with broad") rule, i.e. that the vowels on either side of any consonant (or consonant cluster ) must be both slender ( ⟨e, é, i, í⟩ ) or both broad ( ⟨a, á, o, ó, u, ú⟩ ), to unambiguously determine if the consonant(s) are broad or slender. An apparent exception
1036-471: A n-iníon "their daughter". However, it is omitted when the vowel is capitalised, e.g. an tAlbanach "the Scotsman", Ár nAthair "Our Father". No hyphen is used when ⟨h⟩ is prefixed to a vowel-initial word, e.g. a hiníon "her daughter". A hyphen is also used in compound words under certain circumstances: An apostrophe ( uaschamóg ) is used to indicate an omitted vowel in
1110-524: A paper suggested that within a generation, non-Gaeltacht habitual users of Irish might typically be members of an urban, middle class, and highly educated minority. Parliamentary legislation is supposed to be available in both Irish and English but is frequently only available in English. This is notwithstanding that Article 25.4 of the Constitution of Ireland requires that an "official translation" of any law in one official language be provided immediately in
1184-575: A pass in Leaving Certificate Irish or English, and receive lessons in Irish during their two years of training. Official documents of the Irish government must be published in both Irish and English or Irish alone (in accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003, enforced by An Coimisinéir Teanga , the Irish language ombudsman). The National University of Ireland requires all students wishing to embark on
1258-625: A religious context. An Irish translation of the Old Testament by Leinsterman Muircheartach Ó Cíonga , commissioned by Bishop Bedell , was published after 1685 along with a translation of the New Testament. Otherwise, Anglicisation was seen as synonymous with 'civilising' the native Irish. Currently, modern day Irish speakers in the church are pushing for language revival. It has been estimated that there were around 800,000 monoglot Irish speakers in 1800, which dropped to 320,000 by
1332-492: A result of linguistic imperialism . Today, Irish is still commonly spoken as a first language in Ireland's Gaeltacht regions, in which 2% of Ireland's population lived in 2022. The total number of people (aged 3 and over) in Ireland who declared they could speak Irish in April 2022 was 1,873,997, representing 40% of respondents, but of these, 472,887 said they never spoke it and a further 551,993 said they only spoke it within
1406-400: A small number of (mainly onomatopoeic ) native words (e.g. vácarnach "to quack" and vrác "caw") and colloquialisms (e.g. víog for bíog "chirp" and vís for bís "screw"). ⟨h⟩ , when not prefixed to a word initial vowel or after a consonant to show lenition , primarily occurs word initially in loanwords, e.g. hata "hat". ⟨k⟩ is
1480-545: A wider meaning, including the Gaelic of Scotland and the Isle of Man , as well as of Ireland. When required by the context, these are distinguished as Gaeilge na hAlban , Gaeilge Mhanann and Gaeilge na hÉireann respectively. In English (including Hiberno-English ), the language is usually referred to as Irish , as well as Gaelic and Irish Gaelic . The term Irish Gaelic may be seen when English speakers discuss
1554-415: Is ⟨ae⟩ , which is followed by a broad consonant despite the ⟨e⟩ . The pronunciation of vowels in Irish is mostly predictable from the following rules: When followed by ⟨bh, dh, gh, mh⟩ , a short vowel usually forms a diphthong or lengthens. For ⟨(e)adh, (a)idh, (a)igh⟩ , see - ⟨dh, (a)igh⟩ in exceptions in verb forms . After
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#17327982946101628-1005: Is ⟨ng⟩ which is mainly used for /ŋ/ or /ɲ/ . Epenthesis does not occur after long vowels and diphthongs, e.g. téarma /tʲeːɾˠmˠə/ "term" or dualgas /ˈd̪ˠuəlˠɡəsˠ/ "duty", or across morpheme boundaries (i.e. after prefixes and in compound words), e.g. garmhac /ˈɡaɾˠwak/ "grandson" (from gar- "close, near" + mac "son"), an-chiúin /ˈan̪ˠçuːnʲ/ "very quiet" (from an- "very" + ciúin "quiet"), carrbhealach /ˈkaːɾˠvʲalˠəx/ "carriageway, roadway" (from carr "car" + bealach "way, road"). In Munster, epenthesis also occurs across morpheme boundaries, when ⟨l, n, r⟩ follow ⟨b, bh, ch, g, mh⟩ (after any vowel) or ⟨th⟩ (after short vowels), and when ⟨n⟩ follows ⟨c, g, m, r⟩ . In verb forms, some letters and letter combinations are pronounced differently from elsewhere. An Caighdeán Oifigiúil currently uses one diacritic ,
1702-603: Is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family . It is a member of the Goidelic language group of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous to the island of Ireland . It was the majority of the population's first language until the 19th century, when English gradually became dominant, particularly in the last decades of the century, in what is sometimes characterised as
1776-452: Is also An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , a standardised written form devised by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s. The traditional Irish alphabet , a variant of the Latin alphabet with 18 letters , has been succeeded by the standard Latin alphabet (albeit with 7–8 letters used primarily in loanwords ). Irish has constitutional status as the national and first official language of
1850-511: Is divided into four separate phases with the intention of improving 9 main areas of action including: The general goal for this strategy was to increase the number of daily speakers from 83,000 to 250,000 by the end of its run. By 2022, the number of such speakers had fallen to 71,968. Before the partition of Ireland in 1921, Irish was recognised as a school subject and as "Celtic" in some third level institutions. Between 1921 and 1972, Northern Ireland had devolved government. During those years
1924-587: Is only in Gaeltacht areas that Irish continues to be spoken as a community vernacular to some extent. According to data compiled by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht , Sport and Media , only 1/4 of households in Gaeltacht areas are fluent in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology , described
1998-529: Is similar to English. An apparent exception is the Tironian et ( ⟨⁊⟩ ; agus ) which abbreviates the word agus "and", like the ampersand ( ⟨&⟩ ) abbreviates "and" in English. It is generally substituted by a seven ( ⟨7⟩ ) in texts. A hyphen ( fleiscín ) is used in Irish after ⟨t, n⟩ when prefixed to a masculine vowel-initial word as an initial mutation , e.g. an t-arán "the bread",
2072-412: Is still spoken daily to some extent as a first language . These regions are known individually and collectively as the Gaeltacht (plural Gaeltachtaí ). While the fluent Irish speakers of these areas, whose numbers have been estimated at 20–30,000, are a minority of the total number of fluent Irish speakers, they represent a higher concentration of Irish speakers than other parts of the country and it
2146-536: Is the set of conventions used to write Irish . A spelling reform in the mid-20th century led to An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , the modern standard written form used by the Government of Ireland , which regulates both spelling and grammar . The reform removed inter-dialectal silent letters , simplified some letter sequences , and modernised archaic spellings to reflect modern pronunciation, but it also removed letters pronounced in some dialects but not in others. Irish spelling represents all Irish dialects to
2220-433: Is used to indicate a long vowel, as in bád /bˠaːd̪ˠ/ "boat". However, there are other conventions to indicate a long vowel, such as: The overdot ( ⟨◌̇⟩ ; ponc séimhithe "dot of lenition") was traditionally used to indicate lenition , though An Caighdeán exclusively uses a following ⟨h⟩ for this purpose. In Old Irish , the overdot was only used for ⟨ḟ, ṡ⟩ , while
2294-399: Is é sin → .i. ("that is → i.e.") and agus araile → ⁊rl./srl. (" et cetera (and so forth) → &c./etc."). Like ⟨th⟩ in English, ⟨ú⟩ follows an ordinal numeral , e.g. Is é Lá Fheile Phádraig an 17ú lá den Márta "St. Patrick's day is the 17th [day] of March". The literary Classical Irish which survived till the 17th century was archaic;
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2368-666: The Fíor-Ghaeltacht (true Gaeltacht ), a term originally officially applied to areas where over 50% of the population spoke Irish. There are Gaeltacht regions in the following counties: Gweedore ( Gaoth Dobhair ), County Donegal, is the largest Gaeltacht parish in Ireland. Irish language summer colleges in the Gaeltacht are attended by tens of thousands of teenagers annually. Students live with Gaeltacht families, attend classes, participate in sports, go to céilithe and are obliged to speak Irish. All aspects of Irish culture and tradition are encouraged. The Act
2442-631: The Republic of Ireland , and is also an official language of Northern Ireland and among the official languages of the European Union . The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island. Irish has no regulatory body but An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , the standard written form, is guided by a parliamentary service and new vocabulary by a voluntary committee with university input. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil ("The Official [Written] Standard ")
2516-634: The 17th century, largely as a result of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland , which saw many Irish sent to the West Indies . Irish emigration to the United States was well established by the 18th century, and was reinforced in the 1840s by thousands fleeing from the Famine . This flight also affected Britain. Up until that time most emigrants spoke Irish as their first language, though English
2590-789: The 1998 Good Friday Agreement , the language gradually received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, and then, in 2003, by the British government's ratification in respect of the language of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . In the 2006 St Andrews Agreement the British government promised to enact legislation to promote the language and in 2022 it approved legislation to recognise Irish as an official language alongside English. The bill received royal assent on 6 December 2022. The Irish language has often been used as
2664-401: The 5th century, when it replaced Ogham , which was used to write Primitive Irish and Old Irish . Prior to the mid-20th century, Gaelic type ( cló Gaelach ) was the main typeface used to write Irish; now, it is usually replaced by Roman type ( cló Rómhánach ). The use of Ogham and Gaelic type today is restricted to decorative or self-consciously traditional contexts. The dot above
2738-403: The 6th century, used the Latin alphabet and is attested primarily in marginalia to Latin manuscripts. During this time, the Irish language absorbed some Latin words, some via Old Welsh , including ecclesiastical terms : examples are easpag (bishop) from episcopus , and Domhnach (Sunday, from dominica ). By the 10th century, Old Irish had evolved into Middle Irish , which
2812-571: The Act all detailing different aspects of the use of Irish in official documentation and communication. Included in these sections are subjects such as Irish language use in official courts, official publications, and placenames. The Act was recently amended in December 2019 in order to strengthen the already preexisting legislation. All changes made took into account data collected from online surveys and written submissions. The Official Languages Scheme
2886-471: The European Union , only co-decision regulations were available until 2022, due to a five-year derogation, requested by the Irish Government when negotiating the language's new official status. The Irish government had committed itself to train the necessary number of translators and interpreters and to bear the related costs. This derogation ultimately came to an end on 1 January 2022, making Irish
2960-549: The Irish language policy followed by Irish governments as a "complete and absolute disaster". The Irish Times , referring to his analysis published in the Irish language newspaper Foinse , quoted him as follows: "It is an absolute indictment of successive Irish Governments that at the foundation of the Irish State there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers living in Irish-speaking or semi Irish-speaking areas, but
3034-564: The Republic of Ireland ), new appointees to the Civil Service of the Republic of Ireland , including postal workers , tax collectors , agricultural inspectors, Garda Síochána (police), etc., were required to have some proficiency in Irish. By law, a Garda who was addressed in Irish had to respond in Irish as well. In 1974, in part through the actions of protest organisations like the Language Freedom Movement ,
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3108-487: The acute accent, though traditionally a second was used, the overdot. If diacritics are unavailable, e.g. on a computer using ASCII , the overdot is replaced by a following ⟨h⟩ , e.g. Ḃí sé → Bhí sé "He/It was" and there is no standard for replacing an acute accent, though sometimes it is indicated by a following slash , e.g. fírinne → fi/rinne "truth". The acute accent ( ⟨◌́⟩ ; agúid or (síneadh) fada "long (sign)")
3182-746: The beginning of the following academic year. For a number of years there has been vigorous debate in political, academic and other circles about the failure of most students in English-medium schools to achieve competence in Irish, even after fourteen years of teaching as one of the three main subjects. The concomitant decline in the number of traditional native speakers has also been a cause of great concern. In 2007, filmmaker Manchán Magan found few Irish speakers in Dublin , and faced incredulity when trying to get by speaking only Irish in Dublin. He
3256-628: The creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, all Acts of the Oireachtas were translated into Irish, initially using Dinneen's spellings, with a list of simplifications accumulating over the years. When Éamon de Valera became President of the Executive Council after the 1932 election , policy reverted to older spellings, which were used in the enrolled text of the 1937 Constitution . In 1941, de Valera decided to publish
3330-718: The education system. Linguistic analyses of Irish speakers are therefore based primarily on the number of daily users in Ireland outside the education system, which in 2022 was 20,261 in the Gaeltacht and 51,707 outside it, totalling 71,968. In response to the 2021 census of Northern Ireland , 43,557 individuals stated they spoke Irish on a daily basis, 26,286 spoke it on a weekly basis, 47,153 spoke it less often than weekly, and 9,758 said they could speak Irish, but never spoke it. From 2006 to 2008, over 22,000 Irish Americans reported speaking Irish as their first language at home, with several times that number claiming "some knowledge" of
3404-474: The end of the famine, and under 17,000 by 1911. Irish is recognised by the Constitution of Ireland as the national and first official language of Republic of Ireland (English being the other official language). Despite this, almost all government business and legislative debate is conducted in English. In 1938, the founder of Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League), Douglas Hyde , was inaugurated as
3478-494: The first President of Ireland . The record of his delivering his inaugural Declaration of Office in Roscommon Irish is one of only a few recordings of that dialect. In the 2016 census, 10.5% of respondents stated that they spoke Irish, either daily or weekly, while over 70,000 people (4.2%) speak it as a habitual daily means of communication. From the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 (see History of
3552-467: The first attempt at simplification was not until 1639. The spelling represented a dialect continuum including distinctions lost in all surviving dialects by the Gaelic revival of the late 19th century. The idea of a spelling reform , linked to the use of Roman or Gaelic type, was controversial in the early decades of the 20th century. The Irish Texts Society 's 1904 Irish-English dictionary by Patrick S. Dinneen used traditional spellings. After
3626-518: The following ⟨h⟩ was used for ⟨ch, ph, th⟩ and the lenition of other letters was not indicated. Later the two methods were used in parallel to represent lenition of any consonant (except ⟨l, n, r⟩ ) until the standard practice became to use the overdot in Gaelic type and the following ⟨h⟩ in Roman type. Thus the dotted letters ( litreacha buailte "struck letters") ⟨ ḃ, ċ, ḋ, ḟ, ġ, ṁ, ṗ, ṡ, ṫ ⟩ are equivalent to letters followed by
3700-571: The following cases: Capitalisation rules are similar to English. However, a prefixed letter remains in lowercase when the base initial is capitalised ( an tSín "China"). For text written in all caps , the prefixed letter is kept in lowercase, or small caps ( STAIR NA H ÉIREANN "THE HISTORY OF IRELAND"). An initial capital is used for: Most Irish abbreviations are straightforward, e.g. leathanach → lch. ("page → p.") and mar shampla → m.sh. (" exempli gratia (for example) → e.g."), but two that require explanation are:
3774-612: The language family, is derived from the Old Irish term. Endonyms of the language in the various modern Irish dialects include: Gaeilge [ˈɡeːlʲɟə] in Galway, Gaeilg / Gaeilic / Gaeilig [ˈɡeːlʲəc] in Mayo and Ulster , Gaelainn / Gaoluinn [ˈɡeːl̪ˠən̠ʲ] in West/Cork, Kerry Munster , as well as Gaedhealaing in mid and East Kerry/Cork and Waterford Munster to reflect local pronunciation. Gaeilge also has
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#17327982946103848-410: The language was in use by all classes, Irish being an urban as well as a rural language. This linguistic dynamism was reflected in the efforts of certain public intellectuals to counter the decline of the language. At the end of the 19th century, they launched the Gaelic revival in an attempt to encourage the learning and use of Irish, although few adult learners mastered the language. The vehicle of
3922-476: The language. For most of recorded Irish history , Irish was the dominant language of the Irish people , who took it with them to other regions , such as Scotland and the Isle of Man , where Middle Irish gave rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx . It was also, for a period, spoken widely across Canada , with an estimated 200,000–250,000 daily Canadian speakers of Irish in 1890. On the island of Newfoundland ,
3996-582: The mid-18th century, English was becoming a language of the Catholic middle class, the Catholic Church and public intellectuals, especially in the east of the country. Increasingly, as the value of English became apparent, parents sanctioned the prohibition of Irish in schools. Increasing interest in emigrating to the United States and Canada was also a driver, as fluency in English allowed
4070-748: The name of the language is Gaeilge , from the South Connacht form, spelled Gaedhilge prior the spelling reform of 1948, which was originally the genitive of Gaedhealg , the form used in Classical Gaelic . The modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent ⟨dh⟩ in Gaedhilge . Older spellings include Gaoidhealg [ˈɡeːʝəlˠəɡ] in Classical Gaelic and Goídelc [ˈɡoiðʲelɡ] in Old Irish . Goidelic , used to refer to
4144-469: The new immigrants to get jobs in areas other than farming. An estimated one quarter to one third of US immigrants during the Great Famine were Irish speakers. Irish was not marginal to Ireland's modernisation in the 19th century, as is often assumed. In the first half of the century there were still around three million people for whom Irish was the primary language, and their numbers alone made them
4218-655: The number now is between 20,000 and 30,000." In the 1920s, when the Irish Free State was founded, Irish was still a vernacular in some western coastal areas. In the 1930s, areas where more than 25% of the population spoke Irish were classified as Gaeltacht . Today, the strongest Gaeltacht areas, numerically and socially, are those of South Connemara , the west of the Dingle Peninsula , and northwest Donegal, where many residents still use Irish as their primary language. These areas are often referred to as
4292-466: The only letter not listed by Ó Dónaill . Vowels may be accented with an acute accent ( ⟨á, é, í, ó, ú⟩ ; see below ). Accented letters are considered variants of their unaccented equivalent, and they follow their unaccented equivalents in dictionaries (i.e. a , á…abhac , ábhacht , abhaile ...). English letter names are generally used in both colloquial and formal speech but there are modern Irish letter names (based on
4366-424: The original Latin names ), similar to other languages that use a Latin script alphabet . Tree names were historically used to name the letters. Tradition taught that they all derived from the names of Ogham letters , though it is now known that only some of the earliest were named after trees. ( IPA ) In grapheme to phoneme correspondence tables on this page: See Irish phonology for an explanation of
4440-503: The other official language, if not already passed in both official languages. In November 2016, RTÉ reported that over 2.3 million people worldwide were learning Irish through the Duolingo app. Irish president Michael D. Higgins officially honoured several volunteer translators for developing the Irish edition, and said the push for Irish language rights remains an "unfinished project". There are rural areas of Ireland where Irish
4514-557: The political party holding power in the Stormont Parliament , the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), was hostile to the language. The context of this hostility was the use of the language by nationalists. In broadcasting, there was an exclusion on the reporting of minority cultural issues, and Irish was excluded from radio and television for almost the first fifty years of the previous devolved government. After
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#17327982946104588-492: The relationship between the three Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx). Gaelic is a collective term for the Goidelic languages, and when the context is clear it may be used without qualification to refer to each language individually. When the context is specific but unclear, the term may be qualified, as Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic or Manx Gaelic. Historically the name "Erse" ( / ɜːr s / URS )
4662-432: The requirement for entrance to the public service was changed to proficiency in just one official language. Nevertheless, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools in the Republic of Ireland that receive public money (see Education in the Republic of Ireland ). Teachers in primary schools must also pass a compulsory examination called Scrúdú Cáilíochta sa Ghaeilge . As of 2005, Garda Síochána recruits need
4736-647: The revival was the Gaelic League ( Conradh na Gaeilge ), and particular emphasis was placed on the folk tradition, which in Irish is particularly rich. Efforts were also made to develop journalism and a modern literature. Although it has been noted that the Catholic Church played a role in the decline of the Irish language before the Gaelic Revival, the Protestant Church of Ireland also made only minor efforts to encourage use of Irish in
4810-466: The symbols used and Irish initial mutations for an explanation of eclipsis and lenition. Consonants are generally "broad" ( velarised ) when beside ⟨a, á, o, ó, u, ú⟩ and "slender" ( palatalised ) when beside ⟨e, é, i, í⟩ . Irish orthography does not allow consonant letters or digraphs to be doubled (except in ⟨ll, nn, rr⟩ ), in compound words which would result in doubled consonants they are broken up by
4884-726: The vacancy to which they are appointed. This requirement is laid down by the University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3). In 2016, the university faced controversy when it announced the planned appointment of a president who did not speak Irish. Misneach staged protests against this decision. The following year the university announced that Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh , a fluent Irish speaker, would be its 13th president. He assumed office in January 2018; in June 2024, he announced he would be stepping down as president at
4958-594: The work of such writers as Geoffrey Keating , is said to date from the 17th century, and was the medium of popular literature from that time on. From the 18th century on, the language lost ground in the east of the country. The reasons behind this shift were complex but came down to a number of factors: The change was characterised by diglossia (two languages being used by the same community in different social and economic situations) and transitional bilingualism (monoglot Irish-speaking grandparents with bilingual children and monoglot English-speaking grandchildren). By
5032-531: Was also sometimes used in Scots and then in English to refer to Irish; as well as Scottish Gaelic. Written Irish is first attested in Ogham inscriptions from the 4th century AD, a stage of the language known as Primitive Irish . These writings have been found throughout Ireland and the west coast of Great Britain. Primitive Irish underwent a change into Old Irish through the 5th century. Old Irish, dating from
5106-668: Was enacted 1 July 2019 and is an 18-page document that adheres to the guidelines of the Official Languages Act 2003 . The purpose of the Scheme is to provide services through the mediums of Irish and/or English. According to the Department of the Taoiseach, it is meant to "develop a sustainable economy and a successful society, to pursue Ireland's interests abroad, to implement the Government's Programme and to build
5180-507: Was establishing itself as the primary language. Irish speakers had first arrived in Australia in the late 18th century as convicts and soldiers, and many Irish-speaking settlers followed, particularly in the 1860s. New Zealand also received some of this influx. Argentina was the only non-English-speaking country to receive large numbers of Irish emigrants, and there were few Irish speakers among them. Irish alphabet Irish orthography
5254-408: Was expanded in 1947, and republished as An Caighdeán Oifigiúil "The Official Standard " in 1958, combined with the standard grammar of 1953. It attracted initial criticism as unhistorical and artificial; some spellings fail to represent the pronunciation of some dialects, while others preserve letters unpronounced in any dialect. Its status was reinforced by use in the civil service and as
5328-474: Was passed 14 July 2003 with the main purpose of improving the number and quality of public services delivered in Irish by the government and other public bodies. Compliance with the Act is monitored by the An Coimisinéir Teanga (Irish Language Commissioner) which was established in 2004 and any complaints or concerns pertaining to the Act are brought to them. There are 35 sections included in
5402-693: Was spoken throughout Ireland, Isle of Man and parts of Scotland . It is the language of a large corpus of literature, including the Ulster Cycle . From the 12th century, Middle Irish began to evolve into modern Irish in Ireland, into Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, and into the Manx language in the Isle of Man . Early Modern Irish , dating from the 13th century, was the basis of the literary language of both Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland. Modern Irish, sometimes called Late Modern Irish, as attested in
5476-442: Was unable to accomplish some everyday tasks, as portrayed in his documentary No Béarla . There is, however, a growing body of Irish speakers in urban areas, particularly in Dublin. Many have been educated in schools in which Irish is the language of instruction. Such schools are known as Gaelscoileanna at primary level. These Irish-medium schools report some better outcomes for students than English-medium schools. In 2009,
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