Percentage of Irish speakers by county of the Republic; the six Northern Ireland counties have been considered as one.

Irish (Gaeilge) is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish. Irish is now spoken natively by only a small minority of the Irish population - mostly in parts of officially designated Gaeltachtaí (sing. Gaeltacht) - but still has a visible symbolic and important role in the life of the Irish state. It enjoys constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland and it is an official language of the European Union. Irish is also an officially recognised minority language in Northern Ireland. Shelta (also known as Gammen, Sheldru, Pavee, or simply the Cant) is a language spoken by parts of the Irish Traveller people that is often used to conceal the meaning from those outside the group. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Northern Ireland (Irish: , Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a constituent country of the United Kingdom lying in the northeast of the island of Ireland, covering 5,459 square miles (14,139 km², about a sixth of the islands total area). ... Gaeltacht, plural Gaeltachtaí, is an Irish word for an Irish-speaking region. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... The Celtic languages are the languages descended from Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. ... The Insular Celtic hypothesis concerns the origin of the Celtic languages. ... The Goidelic languages (also sometimes called, particularly in colloquial situations, the Gaelic languages or collectively Gaelic) have historically been part of a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland, the Isle of Man, to the north of Scotland. ... Writing systems of the world today. ... Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz redirects here. ... Irish orthography has a reputation as being very difficult to learn and bearing only a tenuous relationship to the pronunciation. ... Northern Ireland (Irish: , Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a constituent country of the United Kingdom lying in the northeast of the island of Ireland, covering 5,459 square miles (14,139 km², about a sixth of the islands total area). ... The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country in western Europe, and member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the G8, the European Union, and NATO. Usually known simply as the United Kingdom, the UK, or (inaccurately) as Great Britain or Britain, the UK has four constituent... Foras na Gaeilge is the governing body of the Irish language, set up on 2 December 1999, which is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island of Ireland. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... Image File history File links Cainteoirí_Gaeilge_-_Irish_Speakers. ... Image File history File links Cainteoirí_Gaeilge_-_Irish_Speakers. ... For much of its history, the island of Ireland was divided into 32 counties (Irish language contae or condae, pronounced IPA: ). Two historical counties, County Desmond and County Coleraine, no longer exist, while several county names have changed. ... Anthem:  The Soldiers Song Republic of Ireland() – on the European continent() – in the European Union()  —  [] Capital (and largest city) Dublin Official languages Irish, English Demonym Irish Government Republic and Parliamentary democracy  -  President Mary McAleese  -  Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, TD Independence from the United Kingdom   -  Declared 24 April 1916   -  Ratified 21... Northern Ireland (Irish: , Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a constituent country of the United Kingdom lying in the northeast of the island of Ireland, covering 5,459 square miles (14,139 km², about a sixth of the islands total area). ... The Goidelic languages (also sometimes called, particularly in colloquial situations, the Gaelic languages or collectively Gaelic) have historically been part of a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland, the Isle of Man, to the north of Scotland. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ... Gaeltacht regions in Ireland Gaeltacht (pronounced ; plural Gaeltachtaí) is an Irish word for an Irish-speaking region. ... Northern Ireland (Irish: , Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a constituent country of the United Kingdom lying in the northeast of the island of Ireland, covering 5,459 square miles (14,139 km², about a sixth of the islands total area). ...

Estimates of fully native speakers range from 20,000 to 50,000 people ^[2]. The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs estimated in 2007 that 17,000 people lived in areas where Irish was the community language, and a further 10,000 in areas where it is partly the community language^[3]. But since Irish is an obligatory subject in schools, many more are reasonably fluent second-language speakers. Furthermore, a much larger number regularly regard themselves as competent to some degree in the language: 1,656,790 (41.9% of the total population aged three years and over) regard themselves as competent Irish speakers ^[4]. Of these, 538,283 (32.5%) speak Irish on a daily basis, 97,089 (5.9%) weekly, 581,574 (35.1%) less often, 412,846 (24.9%) never, and 26,998 (1.6%) didn't state how often. Today, complete monolingualism is almost unheard of, and probably restricted to the very elderly in Gaeltacht regions and to native speakers under school age.^{[citation needed]}

The number of inhabitants of the offical-designated Gaeltacht regions of Ireland is 91,862, as of the 2006 census. Of these, 70.8% aged three and over speak Irish and approximately 60% speak Irish on a daily basis.^[4] Gaeltacht regions in Ireland Gaeltacht (pronounced ; plural Gaeltachtaí) is an Irish word for an Irish-speaking region. ...

The 2001 census in Northern Ireland showed that 167,487 (10.4%) people "had some knowledge of Irish". Combined, this means that around one in three people (~1.8 million) on the island of Ireland can understand Irish to some extent. The Irish language is a minority language in Northern Ireland, known in Irish as Tuaisceart Éireann or na sé chontae (the six counties). ... -1...

On 13 June 2005, EU foreign ministers unanimously decided to make Irish an official language of the European Union. The new arrangements came into effect on 1 January 2007, and Irish was first used at a meeting of the EU Council of Ministers, by Minister Noel Treacy, T.D., on 22 January 2007. is the 164th day of the year (165th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Chameleon, a symbol of the multilingualism of the European Union. ... is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... Noel Treacy (Irish: ; born December 18, 1951), is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. ... is the 22nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ...

[edit] Names of the language

[edit] In English

The language is usually referred to in English as Irish, sometimes as Gaelic or Irish Gaelic. Gaelic or the Gaelic is often used by the older generation and by the Irish diaspora but now rarely by Irish learners of the language themselves.^{[citation needed]} The younger generation (mostly those whose first language is English) call the language "Irish".^{[citation needed]} Use of the term Gaelic acknowledges the language's close relationship with other Goidelic languages, and it is this form that is usually preferred by native speakers.^{[citation needed]} The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Emigrants Leave Ireland, engraving by Henry Doyle (1827-1892), from Mary Frances Cusacks Illustrated History of Ireland, 1868 // The Irish diaspora (Irish: Diaspóra na nGael) consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, New Zealand...

The term Irish Gaelic is often used when English speakers discuss the relationship among the three Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx). Scottish Gaelic is often referred to in English as simply Gaelic. The archaic term Erse (from Erisch), originally a Scots form of the word Irish applied in English-speaking Scotland (by Lowlanders) to all of the Goidelic languages, is no longer used for any Goidelic language, and in most current contexts is considered derogatory.^[5][6] Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. ... This article is about the Anglic language of Scotland. ... A word or phrase is pejorative or derogatory (sometimes misspelled perjorative) if it expresses contempt or disapproval; dyslogistic (noun: dyslogism) is used synonymously (antonyms: meliorative, eulogistic, noun eulogism). ...

[edit] In Irish

In the Caighdeán Oifigiúil (the official written standard) the name of the language is Gaeilge (IPA: /ˈgeːlʲɟə/), which reflects the southern Connacht pronunciation. Connacht Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Connacht. ...

Before the spelling reform of 1948, this form was spelled Gaedhilge; originally this was the genitive of Gaedhealg, the form used in classical Modern Irish. Older spellings of this include Gaoidhealg in Middle Irish and Goídelc in Old Irish. The modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent dh in the middle of Gaedhilge. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Early Modern Irish, also called Classical Irish or Classical Gaelic, is the form of the Irish language used as a literary language in Ireland from the 13th to the 17th century and in Scotland from the 13th to the 18th century. ... Middle Irish is the name given by historical philologists to the form of the Irish language from the 10th to 16th centuries; it is therefore a contemporary of Middle English. ... Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Irish language which can be, more or less, fully reconstructed from extant sources. ...

Other forms of the name found in the various modern Irish dialects, in addition to south Connacht Gaeilge mentioned above, include Gaedhilic/Gaeilic/Gaeilig (IPA: /ˈgeːlʲəc/) or Gaedhlag (IPA: /ˈgeːɫ̪əg/) in Ulster Irish and northern Connacht Irish and Gaedhealaing/Gaoluinn/Gaelainn (IPA: /ˈgeːɫ̪əɲ/) in Munster Irish. Ulster Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Ulster. ... Munster Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Munster. ...

[edit] Official status

[edit] In Ireland

Irish is given recognition by the Constitution of Ireland as the national and first official language of Ireland (with English being a second official language). Since the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 (see also History of the Republic of Ireland), the Irish Government required a degree of proficiency in Irish for all those who became newly appointed to civil service positions (including postal workers, tax officials, agricultural inspectors, etc.).^[7] Proficiency in just one official language for entrance to the public service was introduced in 1974, in part through the actions of protest organizations like the Language Freedom Movement. The Constitution of Ireland (Irish: Bunreacht na hÉireann)[1] is the founding legal document of the state known today both as Ireland and as the Republic of Ireland. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This article is about the prior state. ... The state known today as the Republic of Ireland came into being when twenty-six of the counties of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom (UK) in 1922. ... The Government (Irish: ) [ral̪ˠt̪ˠəs̪ˠ n̪ˠə heːɼən̪ˠ] is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in the Republic of Ireland. ... The civil service (an stát-sheirbhís in Irish) of the Republic of Ireland consists of two broad components, the Civil Service of the Government and the Civil Service of the State. ... Founded in 1966, the Language Freedom Movement was an organization dedicated to the opposition of the state-sponsored Gaelic Revival of the Irish language in the Republic of Ireland. ...

While the First Official Language requirement was also dropped for wider public service jobs, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools within the Republic which receive public money (see also Education in the Republic of Ireland). Those wishing to teach in primary schools in the State must also pass a compulsory examination called "Scrúdú Cáilíochta sa Ghaeilge". The need for a pass in Leaving Certificate Irish or English for entry to the Gardaí (police) was introduced in September 2005, although applicants are given lessons in the language during the two years of training. All official documents of the Irish Government must be published in both Irish and English or Irish alone (this is according to the official languages act 2003, which is enforced by "an comisinéir teanga", the language ombudsman). The Republic of Irelands education system is quite similar to that of most other western countries. ... The Leaving Certificate (Irish: Ardteistiméireacht), commonly referred to as the Leaving Cert (Irish: Ardteist) is the final course in the Irish secondary school system and culminates with the Leaving Certificate Examination. ... Garda Síochána na hÉireann (pronounced ; Irish for Peace Guard of Ireland, often rendered[1] as The Guardians of the Peace of Ireland) is the police force of the Republic of Ireland. ...

In 1938, the founder of Conradh na Gaeilge (The Gaelic League), Douglas Hyde, was inaugurated as the first President of Ireland. The record of his delivering his auguration Declaration of Office in his native Roscommon Irish remains almost the only surviving remnant of anyone speaking in that dialect. The Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge) is an organization for the purpose of keeping the Irish language spoken in Ireland. ... The President of Ireland (Irish: ) is the head of state of Ireland. ... Statistics Province: Connacht County Town: Roscommon Code: RN Area: 2,547 km² (983 mi²) Population (2006) 58,700 County Roscommon (Irish: ) is a county located in central Ireland. ...

The National University of Ireland, Galway is required to appoint a person who is competent in the Irish language, as long as they meet all other respects of the vacancy they are appointed to. This requirement is laid down by the University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3).^[8] It is expected that the requirement may be repealed in due course.^[9] The National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI, Galway) (Irish Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh or OÉ, Gaillimh) can trace its existence to 1845 as Queens College, Galway and was known until recently as University College, Galway (UCG) (Irish: Coláiste na hOllscoile, Gaillimh or COG). ...

Even though modern parliamentary legislation is supposed to be issued in both Irish and English, in practice it is frequently only available in English. This is notwithstanding that Article 25.4 of the Constitution of Ireland requires that an "official translation" be provided of any law in one official language be translated immediately into the other official language—if not already passed in both official languages.^[10] The Constitution of Ireland (Irish: Bunreacht na hÉireann)[1] is the founding legal document of the state known today both as Ireland and as the Republic of Ireland. ...

[edit] In Northern Ireland

A sign for the Department of Culture, Leisure, and Arts in Northern Ireland, in English, Irish, and Ulster Scots.

Prior to the establishment of the Northern Ireland state in 1921, Irish Gaelic was recognised as a school subject and as "Celtic" in some third level institutions. This policy continued in spite of attempts in the 1930s to restrict it further in the curriculum. Between 1921 and 1972, Northern Ireland had a measure of devolved government. During those years the political party holding power in the Storment Parliament, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), were hostile to Gaelic. In broadcasting, was an exclusion on the reporting of minority cultural issues, the Irish language was banned from radio and television for almost the first fifty years of the Northern Ireland state.^[11] The language received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.^[12] The British government promised to create legislation encouraging the language as part of the 2006 St Andrews Agreement.^[13] Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 664 × 600 pixels Full resolution (962 × 869 pixel, file size: 465 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Ulster Scots language Languages of... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 664 × 600 pixels Full resolution (962 × 869 pixel, file size: 465 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Ulster Scots language Languages of... Ulster Scots, also known as Ullans, Hiberno-Scots, or Scots-Irish, refers to the variety of Scots (sometimes referred to as Lowland Scots) spoken in parts of the province of Ulster, which spans the six counties of Northern Ireland and three of the Republic of Ireland. ... The Irish language is a minority language in Northern Ireland, known in Irish as Tuaisceart Éireann or na sé chontae (the six counties). ... The Belfast Agreement (Irish: ), although more commonly known as the Good Friday Agreement (Irish: ), and occasionally as the Stormont Agreement was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process. ... The St Andrews Agreement is an agreement proposed by the British and Irish Governments in relation to devolution of power to the Northern Ireland Assembly. ...

[edit] In the European Union

While an official language of the European Union, only direct correspondence with the public and co-decision regulations must be produced in Irish for the moment, due to a renewable five-year derogation on what has to be translated, requested by the Irish Government when negotiating the language's new official status. Any expansion in the range of documents to be translated will depend on the results of the first five-year review and on whether the Irish authorities decide to seek an extension. Before Irish became an official language on 1st January 2007, it was afforded the status of treaty language and only the highest-level documents of the EU had been translated into Irish. Chameleon, a symbol of the multilingualism of the European Union. ... (Redirected from 1 January) January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... Chameleon, a symbol of the multilingualism of the European Union. ...

[edit] Gaeltacht

This section does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007) Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Main article: Gaeltacht

Official Gaeltacht areas

There are parts of Ireland where Irish is spoken as a traditional, native language. These regions are known collectively as the Gaeltachtaí. These are in County Galway (Contae na Gaillimhe), including Connemara (Conamara), the Aran Islands (na hOileáin Árann), Carraroe (An Cheathrú Rua) and Spiddal (An Spidéal); on the west coast of County Donegal (Contae Dhún na nGall); in the part which is known as Tyrconnell (Tír Chonaill); and Dingle Peninsula (Corca Dhuibhne) in County Kerry (Contae Chiarraí). Smaller ones also exist in Mayo (Contae Mhaigh Eo), Meath (Contae na Mí), Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge), and Cork (Contae Chorcaí). However, even within the Gaeltacht areas, the Irish-speaking populations have declined since the Gaeltacht boundaries were drawn up. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Gaeltacht regions in Ireland Gaeltacht (pronounced ; plural Gaeltachtaí) is an Irish word for an Irish-speaking region. ... Image File history File links Gaeltacht. ... Image File history File links Gaeltacht. ... Native Language Music, founded in 1996 by musicians Joe Sherbanee and Theo Bishop, is an independent adult contemporary record company based in Southern California that produces, markets, and distributes premium jazz, world, and new age music. ... Gaeltacht, plural Gaeltachtaí, is an Irish word for an Irish-speaking region. ... Statistics Province: Connacht County Town: Galway Code: G (GY proposed) Area: 6,148 km² Population (2006) 231,035 (including Galway City); 159,052 (without Galway City) Website: www. ... Connemara (Irish Conamara), which derives from Conmhaicne Mara (meaning: descendants of Con Mhac, of the sea), is a district in the west of Ireland (County Galway). ... Not to be confused with Isle of Arran. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Spiddal (Irish: Bud Asal ) is a village on the shore of Galway Bay in County Galway in the Republic of Ireland, home to the stuff of lengends Diarmaid O Connor. ... Statistics Province: Ulster Dáil Éireann: Donegal North East, Donegal South West County seat: Lifford Code: DL Area: 4,841 km² Population (2006) 146,956 Website: www. ... Tír Chonaill (anglicized as Tyrconnel) was the name of a kingdom which covered much of what is now County Donegal; indeed Tír Chonaill is still the name by which it is referred to amongst its many native Irish speakers, in addition to many other Irish people. ... Location map of the Dingle Peninsula The Dingle Peninsula (Irish: ), sometimes anglicized as Corkaguiney) is located in County Kerry and is the most westerly point of the Republic of Ireland. ... Statistics Province: Munster County Town: Tralee Code: KY Area: 4,746 km² Population (2006) 139,616 Website: www. ... Statistics Province: Connacht County Town: Castlebar Code: MO Area: 5,397 km² Population (2006) 123,648 Website: www. ... Statistics Province: Leinster County Town: Navan Code: MH Area: 2,342 km² Population (2006) 162,831 Website: www. ... County Waterford (Port Láirge in Irish) is a county in the province of Munster on the south coast of Ireland. ... Statistics Province: Munster County seat: Cork Code: C Area: 7,457 km² (2,879 sq mi) Population (2006) 480,909 (including City of Cork); 361,766 (without Cork City) Website: www. ...

To summarise the extent of the survival: (See Hindley, 'The Death of the Irish Language') Irish remains as a natural vernacular in the following areas: south Connemara, from a point west of Spiddal, covering Inverin, Carraroe, Rosmuck, and the islands; the Aran Islands, with the exception of the town of Kilronan on Inishmore; northwest Donegal in the area around Gweedore, including Rannafast, Gortahork,the surrounding townlands and Tory Island; in the townland of Rathcarn, Co. Meath.

Irish remains the normal language of the older population, but has not been transmitted as such to the younger generation in the following areas: south Connemara in the area around Spiddal; parts of the Joyce country on the border between Galway and Mayo; the parish of Carrowteigue in northwest Mayo; in Co. Kerry, the far west of the Dingle peninsula, including the areas around Dunquin, Ballyferriter and Ventry; other parts of northwest Donegal, and a halo of townlands on the further outskirts as Gweedore, up to the edge of the English-speaking town of Dungloe; a pocket in the Waterford Gaeltacht in Ring.

Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair), County Donegal is the largest Gaeltacht parish in Ireland. WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: , Irish Grid Reference B847228 Statistics Province: Ulster County: Dáil Éireann: Donegal South West Dialling Code: 074, +000 353 74 Population (2002)  - Town:  - Rural:   1,388  1,253 Website: http://www. ... Statistics Province: Ulster Dáil Éireann: Donegal North East, Donegal South West County seat: Lifford Code: DL Area: 4,841 km² Population (2006) 146,956 Website: www. ... Gaeltacht regions in Ireland Gaeltacht (pronounced ; plural Gaeltachtaí) is an Irish word for an Irish-speaking region. ...

The numerically and socially strongest Gaeltacht areas are those of South Connemara, west Dingle and northwest Donegal, in which the majority of residents (although not all in North-West Donegal) use Irish as their primary language. These areas are often referred to as the Fíor-Ghaeltacht ("true Gaeltacht") and collectively have a population just under 20,000.

"Caution Children"

Irish summer colleges are attended by tens of thousands of Irish 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. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A céilidh (pronounced ) is the traditional Gaelic social dance in Ireland, Scotland and Atlantic Canada. ...

According to data compiled by the Irish Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, only one quarter of households in Gaeltacht areas possess a fluency in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe, described the Irish language policy followed by Irish governments a "complete and absolute disaster". The Irish Times (January 6, 2002), referring to his analysis, which was initially 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 the number now is between 20,000 and 30,000." It has been suggested that Irish Times Trust be merged into this article or section. ... is the 6th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... Foinse is the biggest Irish language newspaper in Ireland. ...

[edit] Dialects

There are a number of distinct dialects of Irish. Roughly speaking, the three major dialect areas coincide with the provinces of Munster (Cúige Mumhan), Connacht (Cúige Chonnacht) and Ulster (Cúige Uladh). Newfoundland, in eastern Canada, is also seen to have a minor dialect of Irish, closely resembling the Irish spoken during the 16th to 17th centuries (See Newfoundland Irish). A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος) is a variant, or variety, of a language spoken in a certain geographical area. ... Statistics Area: 24,607. ... Statistics Area: 17,713. ... This article is about the nine-county Irish province. ... Newfoundland —   IPA: [nuw fÉ™n lænd] (French: , Irish: ) is a large island off the east coast of North America, and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. ... Newfoundland Irish (Irish: Gaeilge Talamh an Éisc) is a dialect of the Irish language specific to the island of Newfoundland and widely spoken until the mid-20th century. ...

[edit] Munster dialects

Main article: Munster Irish

Munster Irish is mainly spoken in the Gaeltacht areas of Kerry (Contae Chiarraí), Ring (An Rinn) near Dungarvan (Dún Garbháin) in County Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge) and Muskerry (Múscraí) and Cape Clear Island (Oileán Chléire) in the western part of County Cork (Contae Chorcaí). The most important subdivision in Munster is that between Decies Irish (Na Déise) (spoken in Waterford) and the rest of Munster Irish. Munster Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Munster. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 52. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: , Irish Grid Reference X259930 Statistics Province: Munster County: Elevation: 1m (3 ft) Population (2002)  - Town:  - Rural:   7,220  232 Website: www. ... County Waterford (Port Láirge in Irish) is a county in the province of Munster on the south coast of Ireland. ... Statistics Province: Munster County seat: Cork Code: C Area: 7,457 km² (2,879 sq mi) Population (2006) 480,909 (including City of Cork); 361,766 (without Cork City) Website: www. ...

Some typical features of Munster Irish are:

1. The use of personal endings instead of pronouns with verbs, thus "I must" is in Munster caithfead, while other dialects prefer caithfidh mé (mé means "I"). "I was and you were" is Bhíos agus bhís in Munster but Bhí mé agus bhí tú in other dialects.
2. In front of nasals and ll some short vowels are lengthened while others are diphthongised.
3. A copular construction involving is ea is frequently used.
4. Stress is often on the second syllable of a word, e.g. bio-RÁN ("pin"), as opposed to BIO-rán in Connacht and Ulster.

In phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds, or with two tones) is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ... For other uses, see Copula (disambiguation). ... In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. ...

[edit] Connacht dialects

Main article: Connacht Irish

The strongest dialect of Connacht Irish is to be found in Connemara and the Aran Islands. In some regards this dialect is quite different from general Connacht Irish but since most Connacht dialects have died out during the 20th century Connemara Irish is sometimes seen as Connacht Irish. Much closer to the larger Connacht Gaeltacht is the dialect spoken in the smaller region on the border between Galway (Gaillimh) and Mayo (Maigh Eo). The northern Mayo dialect of Erris (Iorras) and Achill (Acaill) is in grammar and morphology essentially a Connacht dialect; but shows an affinity in vocabulary with Ulster Irish, due to large-scale immigration of dispossessed people following the Plantation of Ulster. Connacht Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Connacht. ... Connemara (Irish Conamara), which derives from Conmhaicne Mara (meaning: descendants of Con Mhac, of the sea), is a district in the west of Ireland (County Galway). ... Not to be confused with Isle of Arran. ... Keem bay on Achill island is said to be one of the most beautiful beaches in Ireland. ... For other uses, see Morphology. ... The Plantation of Ulster was a planned process of colonisation which took place in the northern Irish province of Ulster during the early 17th century in the reign of James I of England. ...

There are features in Connemara Irish outside the official standard—notably the preference for verbal nouns ending in -achan, e.g. lagachan instead of lagú, "weakening". The non-standard pronunciation with lengthened vowels and heavily reduced endings give Connemara Irish its distinct sound. Distinguishing features of this dialect include the pronunciation of broad bh as [w], rather than as [vˠ] in Munster. For example mo bhád ("my boat") is pronounced [mˠə wɑːd̪ˠ] in Connacht and Ulster as opposed to [mˠə vˠɑːd̪ˠ] in the south. In addition Connacht and Ulster speakers tend to include the "we" pronoun rather than use the standard compound form used in Munster e.g. bhí muid is used for "we were" instead of bhíomar elsewhere.

[edit] Ulster dialects

Main article: Ulster Irish

Linguistically the most important of the Ulster dialects today is that of the Rosses (na Rossa), which has been used extensively in literature by such authors as the brothers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seosamh Mac Grianna, locally known as Jimí Fheilimí and Joe Fheilimí. This dialect is essentially the same as that in Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair = Inlet of Streaming Water), and used by native singers Enya (Eithne) and Máire Brennan and their siblings in Clannad (Clann as Dobhar = Family .from the Dobhar[a section of Gweedore]) Na Casaidigh, and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh from another local band Altan. Ulster Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Ulster. ... This article is about the nine-county Irish province. ... The Rosses is a geographical and social region in County Donegal, Ireland. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Seosamh Mac Grianna (1900 - 1990), is an Irish writer, under the pen-name Iolann Fionn. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: , Irish Grid Reference B847228 Statistics Province: Ulster County: Dáil Éireann: Donegal South West Dialling Code: 074, +000 353 74 Population (2002)  - Town:  - Rural:   1,388  1,253 Website: http://www. ... For the letter Ñ pronounced Enye, see Ñ. Enya (born Eithne Patricia Ní Bhraonáin[4] on 17 May 1961, Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal, Ireland), sometimes presented in the media as Enya Brennan, is an Irish singer and songwriter. ... Máire Ní Bhraonáin, better known as Máire Brennan (born August 4, 1952, Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland), is a Celtic folk singer, best known for her work with the band Clannad. ... This article is about the Irish musical group. ... Na Casaidigh (The Cassidys in English ) is a Irish traditional group. ... Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh is the lead vocalist for famed Irish traditional band Altan. ... Altan are an Irish folk and traditional musical group, who originated in Gweedore, County Donegal. ...

Ulster Irish sounds very different and shares several unusual features with Scottish Gaelic, as well as having lots of characteristic words and shades of meanings. However, since the demise of those Irish dialects spoken natively in what is today Northern Ireland, it is probably an exaggeration to see Ulster Irish as an intermediary form between Scottish Gaelic and the southern and western dialects of Irish. For instance, Scottish Gaelic has many non-Ulster features in common with Munster Irish. Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. ... Northern Ireland (Irish: , Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a constituent country of the United Kingdom lying in the northeast of the island of Ireland, covering 5,459 square miles (14,139 km², about a sixth of the islands total area). ...

One noticeable trait of Ulster Irish is the use of the negative particle cha(n) in place of the Munster and Connacht version ní. Even in Ulster, cha(n)—most typical of Scottish Gaelic—has largely ousted the more common ní (except in níl "is not") in northernmost dialects (e.g. Rosguill and Tory Island).^[14][15] Rosguill is a peninsula. ... Tory Island (Irish; Oileán Thoraigh or earlier Oileán Thúr Rí) is an island of the Republic of Ireland, located nine miles off the Donegal coast of Northwest Ireland. ...

[edit] An Caighdeán Oifigiúil

An Caighdeán Oifigiúil ("The Official Standard"), often shortened to An Caighdeán, is the standard language, and was introduced in the 1950s/1960s in an attempt to make Irish easier to learn, as it was composed using elements of the Munster and Ulster dialects, but strongly based on the dialect of Connacht. It is the form of Irish that is taught in most schools in Ireland. A standard language (also standard dialect or standardized dialect) is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status. ...

The dialects of Irish native to Leinster, the fourth province of Ireland, became extinct during the 20th century, but records of some of these were made by the Irish Folklore Commission among other bodies prior to this. Statistics Area: 19,774. ... The Irish Folklore Commission (Coimisiún Béaloideasa Éireann in Irish) was set up in 1935 by the Irish Government to study and collect information on the folklore and traditions of Ireland. ...

The present-day Irish of Meath (in Leinster) is a special case. It belongs mainly to the Connemara dialect. The Irish-speaking community in Meath is mostly a group of Connemara speakers who moved there in the 1930s after a land reform campaign spearheaded by Máirtín Ó Cadhain (who subsequently became one of the greatest modernist writers in the language). This article needs to be wikified. ...

What has been called "Dublin Irish" (Gaeilge Bhaile Átha Cliath) and "Gaelscoil Irish" is also spoken in the capital and amongst the students of Irish-speaking schools throughout the country. This is, arguably, simply the national standard of Irish, or An Caighdeán Oifigiúil but with strong influence from English in the form of idioms and expressions. For other uses, see Dublin (disambiguation). ... Bunscoil in Newry A gaelscoil (Plural: gaelscoileanna) is an Irish-speaking school often also co-educational usually found in Ireland, but outside the Irish speaking Gaeltacht areas. ...

[edit] Comparisons

The differences between dialects are considerable, and have led to recurrent difficulties in defining standard Irish. A good example is the greeting "How are you?". Just as this greeting varies from region to region, and between social classes, among English speakers, this greeting varies among Irish speakers:

• Ulster: Cad é mar atá tú? ("What is it as you are?" Note: caidé or goidé and sometimes dé are alternative renderings of cad é)
• Connacht: Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? ("What way [is it] that you are?")
• Munster: Conas taoi? or Conas tánn tú? ("How are you?")
• Leinster (Casual Dublin): Con's 'tá? ("How are [you]?")
• Standard Irish: Conas atá tú? ("How are you?")

In recent decades contacts between speakers of different dialects have become frequent and mixed dialects have originated. With the growth in the Irish language media—and in particular the television channel TG4—it has become much easier for speakers of different dialects to understand one another, although this is mostly seen in the younger generations. TG4 (Irish: TG Ceathair or TG a Ceathair; IPA: /tiː dÊ’iː kʲahəɾʲ/) is a television channel in Ireland, aimed at Irish-language speakers and established as a wholly owned subsidiary by Radio Telefís Éireann on 31 October 1996. ...

[edit] Linguistic structure

The features most unfamiliar to English speakers of the language are the orthography, the initial consonant mutations, the Verb Subject Object word order, the use of two different forms for "to be", and noun genders. However, initial mutations are found in other Celtic languages as well as in some Italian and Sardinian dialects, as an independent development. They are also found in some West African languages. Irish orthography has a reputation as being very difficult to learn and bearing only a tenuous relationship to the pronunciation. ... Initial consonant mutation is the phenomenon in which the first consonant of a word is changed according to a certain grammatical environment. ... Verb Subject Object—commonly used in its abbreviated form VSO—is a term in linguistic typology. ... A feature common to all Indo-European languages is the presence of a verb corresponding to the English verb to be. ... In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... The Celtic languages are the languages descended from Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. ... Map showing the distribution of African language families and some major African languages. ...

[edit] Syntax

Main article: Irish syntax

Word order in Irish is of the form VSO (Verb-Subject-Object) so that, for example, "He hit me" is Bhuail [hit-past tense] sé [he] mé [me]. Irish syntax is rather different from that of most Indo-European languages, notably because of its VSO word order. ... Verb Subject Object—commonly used in its abbreviated form VSO—is a term in linguistic typology. ...

One aspect of Irish syntax that is unfamiliar to speakers of other languages is the use of the copula (known in Irish as an chopail). The copula is used to describe what or who someone is, as opposed to how and where. It is used to say that a noun is another noun, rather than an adjective. This has been likened to the difference between the verbs ser and estar in Spanish and Portuguese (see Romance copula), although this is only a rough approximation. For other uses, see Copula (disambiguation). ... The copula or copulae (the verb or verbs meaning to be) in all Romance languages derive from the Latin verbs SVM and STO. The former was the copular verb to be (ultimately from the Indo-European copula *h1es-), and the latter mainly meant to stand (ultimately from the Indo-European...

[edit] Morphology

Main articles: Irish morphology, Irish nominals, and Irish verbs

Another feature of Irish grammar that is shared with other Celtic languages is the use of prepositional pronouns (forainmneacha réamhfhoclacha), which are essentially conjugated prepositions. For example, the word for "at" is ag, which in the first person singular becomes agam "at me". When used with the verb bí ("to be") ag indicates possession; this is the equivalent of the English verb "to have". The morphology of Irish is in some respects typical of an Indo-European language. ... The nominals of Irish include the nouns, the definite article, and the adjectives. ... Irish verb forms are constructed either synthetically or analytically. ...

[edit] Orthography and pronunciation

"Gaelach" in the Gaelic script.

Main articles: Irish orthography and Irish phonology

The written language looks rather daunting to those unfamiliar with it. Once understood, the orthography is relatively straightforward. The acute accent, or síneadh fada (´), serves to lengthen the sound of the vowels and in some cases also changes their quality. For example, in Munster Irish (Kerry), a is /a/ or /ɑ/ and á is /ɑː/ in "law" but in Ulster Irish (Donegal), á tends to be /æː/. Image File history File links Gaelic-font-Gaelach. ... Image File history File links Gaelic-font-Gaelach. ... The word Corcaigh in the Gaelic-script font of same name. ... Irish orthography has a reputation as being very difficult to learn and bearing only a tenuous relationship to the pronunciation. ... The phonology of Irish varies from dialect to dialect; there is no standard pronunciation of the language. ... The acute accent (   ) is a diacritic mark used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin and Greek scripts. ...

Around the time of World War II, Séamas Daltún, in charge of Rannóg an Aistriúcháin (the official translations department of the Irish government), issued his own guidelines about how to standardise Irish spelling and grammar. This de facto standard was subsequently approved of by the State and called the Official Standard or Caighdeán Oifigiúil. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

It simplified and standardised the orthography. Many words had silent letters removed and vowel combination brought closer to the spoken language. Where multiple versions existed in different dialects for the same word, one or more were selected.

Examples:

• Gaedhealg / Gaedhilg(e) / Gaedhealaing / Gaeilic / Gaelainn / Gaoidhealg / Gaolainn → Gaeilge, "Irish language" (Gaoluinn or Gaolainn is still used in books written in dialect by Munster authors, or as a facetious name for the Munster dialect)
• Lughbhaidh → Lú, "Louth"
• biadh → bia, "food" (The spelling biadh is still used by the speakers of those dialects that show a meaningful and audible difference between biadh (nominative case) and bídh (genitive case) "of food, food's". For example, in Munster Irish the latter ends in an audible -g sound, because final -idh, -igh regularly delenites to -ig in Munster pronunciation.)

Modern Irish has only one diacritic sign, the acute (á é í ó ú), known in Irish as the síneadh fada "long mark", plural sínte fada. In English, this is frequently referred to as simply the fada, where the adjective is used as a noun. The dot-above diacritic, called a ponc séimhithe or sí buailte (often shortened to buailte), derives from the punctum delens used in medieval manuscripts to indicate deletion, similar to crossing out unwanted words in handwriting today. From this usage it was used to indicate the lenition of s (from /s/ to /h/) and f (from /f/ to zero) in Old Irish texts. Statistics Province: Leinster County Town: Dundalk Code: LH Area: 820 km² Population (2006) 110,894 Website: www. ... Example of a letter with a diacritic A diacritic or diacritical mark, also called an accent, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. ... When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot is usually reserved for the Interpunct ( · ), or to the glyphs combining dot above ( ) and combining dot below ( ) which may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets in use in Central European languages and Vietnamese. ... Lenition is a kind of consonant mutation that appears in many languages. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a null morpheme is a morpheme that is realized by a phonologically null affix (an empty string of phonological segments). ... Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Irish language, or, rather, the Goidelic languages, for which extensive written texts are possessed. ...

Lenition of c, p, and t was indicated by placing the letter h after the affected consonant; lenition of other sounds was left unmarked. Later both methods were extended to be indicators of lenition of any sound except l and n, and two competing systems were used: lenition could be marked by a buailte or by a postposed h. Eventually, use of the buailte predominated when texts were writing using Gaelic letters, while the h predominated when writing using Roman letters.

Today the Gaelic script and the buailte are rarely used except where a "traditional" style is required, e.g. the motto on the University College Dublin coat of arms or the symbol of the Irish Defence Forces, The Irish Defence Forces cap badge (Óglaiġ na h-Éireann). Letters with the buailte are available in Unicode and Latin-8 character sets (see Latin Extended Additional chart).^[16] The word Corcaigh in the Gaelic-script font of same name. ... University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin - more commonly University College Dublin (UCD) - is Irelands largest university, with over 20,000 students. ... A modern coat of arms is derived from the medi val practice of painting designs onto the shield and outer clothing of knights to enable them to be identified in battle, and later in tournaments. ... Commissioned Officer and Senior NCO Bronze Cap Badge. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... ISO 8859-14, also known as Latin-8 or Celtic, is an 8-bit character encoding, part of the ISO 8859 standard. ... A character encoding is a code that pairs a set of characters (such as an alphabet or syllabary) with a set of something else, such as numbers or electrical pulses. ...

[edit] Mutations

Main article: Irish initial mutations

In Irish, there are two classes of initial consonant mutations: Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterized by its initial consonant mutations. ... Consonant mutation is the phenomenon in which a consonant in a word is changed according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment. ...

• Lenition (in Irish, séimhiú "softening") describes the change of stops into fricatives. Indicated in old orthography by a buailte written above the changed consonant, this is now shown in writing by adding an -h:
  • caith! "throw!" — chaith mé "I threw" (this is an example of the lenition as a past-tense marker, which is caused by the use of do, although it is now usually omitted)
  • margadh "market", "market-place", "bargain" — Tadhg an mhargaidh "the man of the street" (word for word "Timothy of the market-place"; here we see the lenition marking the genitive case of a masculine noun)
  • Seán "Seán, John" — a Sheáin! "O John!" (here we see lenition as part of what is called the vocative case — in fact, the vocative lenition is triggered by the a or vocative marker before Sheáin)

• Nasalisation (in Irish, urú "eclipsis") covers the voicing of voiceless stops, as well as the true nasalisation of voiced stops.
  • athair "father" — ár nAthair "our Father"
  • tús "start", ar dtús "at the start"
  • Gaillimh "Galway" — i nGaillimh "in Galway"

Lenition is a kind of consonant mutation that appears in many languages. ... In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that air escapes partially or wholly through the nose during the production of the sound. ...

[edit] History