How do you feel about the government's effforts to save the Native language? Is it a worthwhile program, or should they just get with the times? I'm
a nostalgic kinda guy, so I think it's great.
In Ireland, few safe havens for an ancient tongue
By Ron DePasquale, Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor Thu Jun 30, 4:00 AM ET
INIS ME?IN ISLAND, IRELAND - On this tiny, wind-swept island at Europe's western edge, a shopkeeper makes a proud gesture toward the radio, which
blares the midday news in an ancient, dying language.
Irish Gaelic is still the native tongue of some 55,000 people who live mostly along the west coast. But it is under siege. Even Inis Me?in, one of
three Aran Islands off the coast of County Galway famed for old-fashioned ways, is no longer a safe haven.
"Irish is in trouble," says Cuomh?n ? F?tharta, Inis Me?in's sole shopkeeper. "When I was young, you had to learn English in school because there was
no TV. I couldn't really speak English until I was 12, but now the kids are all picking it up young."
As Ireland's mother tongue struggles to survive, the government has stepped up its contentious efforts to save the language, known here simply as
Irish.
The European Union (EU) gave Irish a symbolic boost when it recognized it as an official language on June 13, three decades after Ireland joined the
union. Road signs in the scattered Irish-speaking towns and islands - known collectively as the Gaeltacht - have posted place names exclusively in
Irish since April. And new Gaeltacht housing developments must reserve homes for Irish speakers.
Critics call these tactics costly shenanigans that only engender resentment against a language that schoolchildren must study for 13 years. The
minority who become fluent have little chance to speak Irish outside the Gaeltacht.
"For the majority of students, the Irish language now exists for the sake of perpetuating its own death grip on the school system," columnist Louise
Holden wrote recently in The Irish Times.
Yet on Inis Me?in, Mr. ? F?tharta says the road sign kerfuffle won't last. Tourists will adapt, he says, and such forceful government action is
essential to sustain the language. He points to the success of state-supported Irish-language radio and TV, which have grown in popularity, and the
invasion of students who come to County Galway to study Irish every summer.
"People want to learn the language," he says. "That's why they keep coming."
In mostly English-speaking Galway City, pubs serve as a place for people to speak Irish. At Taffees, where traditional Irish bands play every night,
an encouraging sign at the bar says, "Irish spoken here." Yet many native Irish speakers feel uncomfortable speaking their language outside their
hometowns, a self- consciousness that experts say prevents the spread of Irish as a spoken language.
Irish has been declining for centuries, since families hoping to better their prospects made children speak English instead of Irish. Hoping to
reverse that trend, the nation's founders made Irish the primary language and a core school subject after independence from Britain in 1921.
Yet today, just 43 percent of Irish citizens say they can speak the language, and only 1.4 percent are native speakers.
Michael Faherty, who rents bicycles to tourists on Inis Me?in, says he is realistic about the language's hold on the young. "They're turning to
English now," he says as he fixes a bicycle to a background of traditional Irish music. "It's more fashionable."
Irish language activists want a bilingual nation. Some blame a curriculum that focuses on grammar and rote memorization, rather than teaching
conversational Irish. Others say that the complex language must be modernized, following Israel's success in reviving Hebrew.
The growth of Irish-language schools, or gaelscoileanna, has lifted hopes for the language's survival. Outside Gaeltacht areas, 52 Irish-language
elementary schools have been created since 1993, bringing the number to 120. And more books are being translated into Irish; students can now read
Harry Potter in the old language.
The lucrative field of official Irish translation is also booming, thanks to a law passed two years ago that requires all government documents and
services to be provided in Irish. The new EU designation created a need for dozens more well-paid Irish speakers to translate EU documents and
interpret at parliamentary and ministerial meetings. Yet the government says it can't find enough to keep up with the work.
An elderly woman on Inis Me?in, wearing a traditional long dark skirt and shawl, spoke wistfully about her native language.
"I don't know who will speak the Irish after the old people are gone," says the 80-year-old woman, who did not give her name. "The youngsters are all
learning English, too much English."BDx13 - 6-30-2005 at 11:32 AM
Reminds me of this article about this crazy whistle language
Nearly extinct whistling language revived
Tuesday, November 18, 2003 Posted: 11:34 AM EST (1634 GMT)
SAN SEBASTIAN, Canary Islands (AP) -- Juan Cabello takes pride in not using a cell phone or the Internet to communicate. Instead, he puckers up and
whistles.
Cabello is a "silbador," until recently a dying breed on tiny, mountainous La Gomera, one of Spain's Canary Islands off West Africa. Like his father
and grandfather before him, Cabello, 50, knows "Silbo Gomero," a language that's whistled, not spoken, and can be heard more than two miles away.
This chirpy brand of chatter is thought to have come over with early African settlers 2,500 years ago. Now, educators are working hard to save it from
extinction by making schoolchildren study it up to age 14.
Silbo -- the word comes from Spanish verb silbar, meaning to whistle -- features four "vowels" and four "consonants" that can be strung together to
form more than 4,000 words. It sounds just like bird conversation and Cabello says it has plenty of uses.
"I use it for everything: to call to my wife, to tell my kids something, to find a friend if we get lost in a crowd," Cabello said.
In fact, he makes a living off Silbo, performing daily exhibitions at a restaurant on this island of 147 square miles and 19,000 people.
Silbo was once used throughout the hilly terrain of La Gomera as an ingenious way of communicating over long distances. A strong whistle saved
peasants from trekking over hill and dale to send messages or news to neighbors.
Then came the phone, and it's hard to know how many people use Silbo these days.
"A lot of people think they do, but there is a very small group who can truly communicate through Silbo and understand Silbo," said Manuel Carreiras,
a psychology professor from the island of Tenerife. He specializes in how the brain processes language and has studied Silbo.
Since 1999, Silbo has been a required language in La Gomera's elementary schools. Some 3,000 students are studying it 25 minutes a week -- enough to
teach the basics, said Eugenio Darias, a Silbo teacher and director of the island's Silbo program.
"There are few really good silbadores so far, but lots of students are learning to use it and understand it," he said. "We've been very pleased."
But almost as important as speaking -- sorry, whistling -- Silbo is studying where it came from, and little is known.
"Silbo is the most important pre-Hispanic cultural heritage we have," said Moises Plasencia, the director of the Canary government's historical
heritage department.
It might seem appropriate for a language that sounds like birdsong to exist in the Canary Islands, but scholarly theories as to how the archipelago
got its name make no mention of whistling.
Little is known about Silbo's origins, but an important step toward recovering the language was the First International Congress of Whistled
Languages, held in April in La Gomera. The congress, which will be repeated in 2005, brought together experts on various whistled languages.
Silbo-like whistling has been found in pockets of Greece, Turkey, China and Mexico, but none is as developed as Silbo Gomero, Plasencia said.
One study is looking for vestiges of Silbo in Venezuela, Cuba and Texas, all places to which Gomerans have historically emigrated during hard economic
times.
Now, Plasencia is heading an effort to have UNESCO declare it an "intangible cultural heritage" and support efforts to save it. "Silbo is so unique
and has many values: historical, linguistic, anthropological and aesthetic. It fits perfectly with UNESCO's requirements," he said.
Besides, says Cabello, it's good for just about anything except for romance: "Everyone on the island would hear what you're saying!"rubeboy - 6-30-2005 at 11:57 AM
I've made some half-assed attempts to teach myself how to speak Scottish Gaelic, but it's not an easy language to learn. I think it sucks that Irish
and Scotish culture are dying, but I'm sure young kids could care less.Discipline - 6-30-2005 at 01:25 PM
It needs to stay alive.sinister - 6-30-2005 at 05:36 PM
They have Gaelic stuff on TV here and I don't understand a fuckin' word of it. If folk want to teach it to their kids that's fine, but English is the
common language and a lot of kids even struggle with that.
I hate all the tartan crap as well, bullshit for tourists... i've never (and will never) wear a kilt, that shit has fuck all to do with me or my life.BDx13 - 6-30-2005 at 06:30 PM
i don't think we have anybody on this board from ireland, so i was hoping we would hear from sinister on this one. but wait, where are you on the
delicious, delicious scotch?newbreedbrian - 6-30-2005 at 06:38 PM
irish is a beautiful language, unfortunately i think it'll die with the older generation. a real shame too, another thing to thank the english for.sinister - 6-30-2005 at 07:22 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by BIG DUANE
where are you on the delicious, delicious scotch?
Haven't drank alcohol in 5 years (since I turned 30) and no drugs in about 11 years. Used to drink Scotch + Vodka (not usually in the same glass!)
like they were water though. Haha. BDx13 - 6-30-2005 at 11:28 PM
