Irish Language Endangerment

REPORT OF IRISH LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT

•Abstract

UNESCO classified Irish as a definitely endangered language even though the government of Ireland

has made numerous efforts to revive the language. This report demonstrates the causes of the Irish

language endangerment and offers proper recommendations to Irish Preservation Organization,

IPO. First of all, Irish language is still endangered because the base of Irish language weakened in

Gaeltacht. Secondly it is due to inherent problems of education system. Thirdly, more globalized

environment lower the Irish language status. Therefore, appropriate measures to vitalize Irish

language are essential. They include Irish language events, engaging experts to monitor education

system, and technological approaches.

•Introduction

Languages are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. If nothing is done, it is expected that half of

the existing 6,000 or more languages worldwide would perish by end of this century. Irish, or Irish

Gaelic, which is the first official language of the Ireland, is no exception to this irresistible trend.

There are 6 levels to categorize language endangerment - safe, vulnerable, definitely endangered,

severely endangered, critically endangered, and extinct. (UNESCO 2010) Irish is classified as

‘definitely endangered’, which defined as ‘children no longer learn that language as a mother tongue

at home’. (ibid.) Actually there are over 1.77 million people who can speak Irish, but only about

30,000 to 40,000 people throughout the whole Ireland could speak Irish fluently. Even though Ireland

government has implemented numerous policies for many years through the ‘Official Languages Act

2003’ and the ‘20-year-strategy for the Irish language 2010-2030’, Irish language is still vulnerable.

The purpose of this report is to identify causes of the Irish language endangerment and suggest

some recommendations to IPO (Irish...