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> Maybe I don't get it b/c I don't speak a language that needs active energy to protect. I do think you're at least partially correct here, with all due respec

by ploika 6y ago

> Maybe I don't get it b/c I don't speak a language that needs active energy to protect. I do think you're at least partially correct here, with all due respect. I learned Irish (Gaelic) in school and still use the language a fair bit, though I don't live anywhere near a majority Irish-speaking area and I don't need it at work. The Irish language is not in the greatest of health, and the need for community-driven content and interaction is very real. Top-down stuff like TV, radio, books etc are all well and good. They help. But at the same time it's things like face-to-face casual conversation, amateurish podcasts and accessible blogs and memes that make it feel more like a reviving, living language and less like homework. By necessity that means that you need to include and encourage people who don't have a perfect grasp of the language. And sometimes that means that very incorrect stuff is put out there by people who can't do any better, but that's part of the challenge of trying to save a language from extinction.

umanwizard 6y ago
Out of curiosity, what do you use Irish for? Given that (AFAIK) virtually all Irish speakers also speak English natively, what is it useful for? (I'm not belittling Irish, btw - I think the effort to keep it alive is super cool and worthwhile).
- ploika 6y ago
  You probably already suspect as much, but it's not about being useful as such, in much the same way that most art and culture isn't particularly useful in the practical sense. In 1800 more people spoke Irish than spoke Dutch, Swedish, Danish or Finnish. It adds perspective what the value is if you consider what would be lost if another of those languages died back as comprehensively as Irish did, to be replaced by something like English or German. A whole world of poetry, insults and turns of phrase are opened up to me. I can understand the meanings of place names around the country (Baltimore means "the town of the [Downton Abbey-esque] big house"). It's a rebuttal to the notion that the Irish are really just West English, despite their exceptionalism. As for how I use the language; I struggle through novels, I listen to Irish language radio and podcasts (I don't watch much TV, though there is an Irish-language station), I talk to my partner in Irish when we want to discuss something private while in public, I talk to other people in Irish when the opportunity arises.

by ploika 6y ago

umanwizard 6y ago

Out of curiosity, what do you use Irish for? Given that (AFAIK) virtually all Irish speakers also speak English natively, what is it useful for? (I'm not belittling Irish, btw - I think the effort to keep it alive is super cool and worthwhile).

ploika 6y ago
You probably already suspect as much, but it's not about being useful as such, in much the same way that most art and culture isn't particularly useful in the practical sense. In 1800 more people spoke Irish than spoke Dutch, Swedish, Danish or Finnish. It adds perspective what the value is if you consider what would be lost if another of those languages died back as comprehensively as Irish did, to be replaced by something like English or German. A whole world of poetry, insults and turns of phrase are opened up to me. I can understand the meanings of place names around the country (Baltimore means "the town of the [Downton Abbey-esque] big house"). It's a rebuttal to the notion that the Irish are really just West English, despite their exceptionalism. As for how I use the language; I struggle through novels, I listen to Irish language radio and podcasts (I don't watch much TV, though there is an Irish-language station), I talk to my partner in Irish when we want to discuss something private while in public, I talk to other people in Irish when the opportunity arises.