Conference tallis::celt

160.0. "The Irish Language" by FNYFS::AUNGIER (Rene El Irlandais que no tiene tiempo para los Ingles) Fri Mar 20 1987 06:54

    I feel that the Irish language is an important part of our lives,
    for me, it is very important. My daughter of 3 who was born in Dublin
    but who speaks more Spanish than English has started.
    
    She will say "Conas ta tu" and "Ta me go maith" when I come in at
    lunchtime. She can count to ten in Irish.
    
    My wife gets annoyed with me speaking Irish as she says "Don't be
    confusing the child with all the languages". She often says it's
    a dead language anyway. But I will continue my efforts.
    
    When I lived in Greece I bumped into 2 Irish lads, one from Dublin
    and the other from the Aran Islands. We never knew one another until
    we arrived in Greece. We found we had one thing in common, besides
    being Irish, we all spoke the Irish language and we had 4 of the
    most wonderful days in Athens speaking only in Irish.
    
    People stopped and stared and wondered what language we were speaking.
    In a bar one day some Austrians asked us what language we were speaking
    and when they heard we were speaking Irish, they didn't know Ireland
    had it own language, it made us proud to be able to converse in
    the langauge of our fore-fathers and to educate a few people.
    
    Here in France, we are 10 minutes from Geneva and I know a lad from
    the Irish mission to the U.N. and we speak Irish. Strange I have
    spoken more Irish abroad than at home almost.
    
    It is not too difficult to learn, and it sort of grows on you. It
    will never die although it was in decline. I think that young people
    now are more aware of the importance of speaking the language and
    having a linguistic identity as well as everything else. 
    
    Learn it, speak it, and never be afraid of anything people say and
    most of all be proud of it.
    
    
    Slan agus beannacht, go dti uair eigeann eile.
    Gael agus Gaelach.
    
    Rene

Travelling in Wales and the Lake District last summer, we got exposed to
both sides of the Welsh language issue.  On the one hand, we met many
people who were strongly pushing for the re-ascendency of Welsh language
and culture in Wales.  (You tend to meet a lot of such people when you 
go to a national Eisteddfod - we were there for 6 days of it - great fun!)
"Cymu Cymraig" - the Welsh Wales - does seem to be making some progress
against Anglicized Wales, although they have a long way to go.  (Apologies
for not mutating "Cymraig", as I think I should have done - I tried to
learn some Welsh for my trip, but ...)

On the other hand, we never met a single Englishman who thought it was
anything but silly for the Welsh to speak Welsh instead of English.
All the arguments were rational - no other country speaks Welsh, you
can't use it in business anywhere but Wales (and few places even there),
and English is an especially useful language, because you can find people 
who speak it anywhere you go.  

But all such arguments miss the point.  Welsh culture and poetry has a
long and rich history - are the Welsh supposed to abandon it all in
the name of practicality?  Why should Wales become an undifferentiated
part of the British Isles - why should any place seek to become identical
to any other place?  It would be a terrible tragedy for the Celtic countries 
to lose their languages and identities.  

I hope I'm preaching to the choir...

	Enjoy,
	Larry