Conference tallis::celt

    Hi Rene (with a wee fada over the e),
    	I have started a campaign to have Irish as the official language
    	of the European Community, so far I have one girl in the office
    	saying "slan" every time she sees me and a lot of engineers salute
    	me with "Guinness?", to which I invariably reply "Go raibh maith
        agat, ta tu go ann-mhaith".
    	Its only a start, but if ever I sober up they may take me seriously
    	and who knows where it may lead.
    
    					Go De tu slan.
    							oggs, Mairtin
    

    I don't know what Irish has got over the other minority languages in
    Europe.  If I recall correctly there are over 30 minority languages
    in the EC, of which 5 come from the British Isles.
    
    By minority, I mean it's not the national language, ie. Spanish, French
    etc. But, it's also indiginous to the EC, i.e. not like Hindi, Urdu, 
    Punjabi etc.
    
    My vote obviously would go for Welsh, as it's one of the more
    widespread langauges. But then of course I'm biased! :-)
    
    Huw.

    
    Its a sad fact that there is more Welsh spoken today than Irish.
    I once had a neighbour, an Anglican priest, and he enjoyed getting
    a rise out of me by telling me that in Wales a student could go
    all the way to his/ her Ph.D. in any subject through the medium 
    of Welsh at the University of Aberystwith (sp?). I had to admit
    that the same thing could not be done in Ireland except in a 
    limited range of subjects. There is a TV channel in Welsh, and
    we don't have a corresponding one in Irish.
    
    The Irish language is in a state of terminal decay. What is to
    be done? My daughter constantly tells me "Daddy, I HATE Irish"
    - she is 11 years old. There must be something wrong in the way
    we teach Irish, and in fact the whole national attitude to the
    language is probably rotten to the core. I myself left Irish
    behind at secondary school, never to return, though at this
    stage I regret not been able to carry out anything more than
    a basic conversation.
    
    The flaws in language restoration in Ireland were:
    
    	(1) It was undermined by economics. For over a century
    	    Irish rural families raised most of their (large)
    	    families for emigration. It became common to 
    	    disparage the utility of Irish in comparison to
    	    English.
    
    	(2) It got hijacked by politics, not even by practical
    	    politics but by the worst type of "aspiration"
            politics we suffer from in Ireland. Language restoration
    	    was one of the three great "national aims", along with 
            Re-unification and I bloody well forget the other one but 
    	    they should be renamed the "Great National Wish List"
    	    because that is all they were. As long we voted the 
    	    right way, we knew we were on course for the great
    	    Nirvana when the National Wish List would be fulfilled.
    	    Politicians trotted out "Restoration of the Language" at 
    	    every election like a witch-doctors brandishing a magic 
    	    totem, but in between it got quitely returned its its
            shelf. The judgement criterion was how loud and vocal
    	    the aspiration got expressed, not how practical were the
            steps taken or how effective were the results.
    
    In practice, neither the spirit or the flesh were particularly 
    willing. The fact is now that the language will NEVER by restored
    as the first language so that we must set about ensuring its
    survival as a second language, and a minority language within
    Europe. 
    
    Toby

>                    <<< Note 1132.2 by EBYGUM::WILLIAMSH >>>
>                             -< a small fish...! >-

>    I don't know what Irish has got over the other minority languages in
>    Europe.  If I recall correctly there are over 30 minority languages
>    in the EC, of which 5 come from the British Isles.

Irish, is at some level an official language of the EC because it is an
official language of Ireland. The Irish could have pressed to make it
a "full" official language, like Spanish or Italian but they didn't.

However, Irish does get some recognition, which means that it can be
supported under the EC lingua scheme. GAELIC-L had a half page article
which I wrote the English for, printed in L� on 7-Sep. In it we mention
that GAELIC-L (which supports the Gaelics of Scotland and Man too) can
receive EC funding because Irish is recognised as an official EC language.
There is a letter in today's L� disputing this, however.

Craig

    Toby,
    
    Realistically, I must also concede that the Welsh language is
    declining, but at least the rate of decline has been slowed recently.
    
    With all schools now teaching Welsh, and many people taking an
    interest and learning the language, the number of Welsh speakers may
    actually increase. However, the status of Welsh is still rapidly
    becoming a second language.  The use of Welsh as the language of the
    home is decreasing. 
    
    Politics, and all of it's associated laws, policies, fundings and
    initiatives can only protect the language's existence, and not it's
    use.  The only way to protect it as a living language is to protect
    existing communities, and that means economics.
    
    There are two villages a couple of miles from where I was brought up,
    both picturesque. One is very Welsh, and the other is predominantly
    inhabited by Enlish couples, mostly retired.  The difference? The
    former has a large factory employing around 300 local people
    manufacturing agricultural trailers.
    
    Agriculture is also a backbone industry for Welsh communities, and I
    fear very much the consequences of EC subsidy reform as a result of
    GATT initiatives.
    
    Huw.    

    The  necessity for national  symbols was forcibly brought home to me on
    a trip to Puerto Rico last month.
    
    There , in the lobby of the international airport of it's capital, San
    Juan is a large map of the world.
    On the North East side of the map where Ireland is supposed to be,
    Britain stands alone in splendid isolation!
    
    Ireland is nowhere to be seen.
    
    Because we spoke English, the assumption was always made that we were
    British. Because of past experiences on the European mainland I made my
    best effort to communicate with the people in Spanish, until I was told
    that they all wanted to learn English and didn't care for Spanish.
    It appears that economic considerations, a command of spoken English is
    essential for jobs in Tourism on the island  and also or emigration to
    the U.S mainland, has converted the island to the cause of learning
    English.
    
    Patrick Pearse once coined the  phrase " N�r t�r gan teanga ",(No
    country without the language.) and it looks as if he was right.