Do you think the Irish language has improved in recent years?

[Gori the Grey]

Imagine knowing a language and its history well enough to be able to answer such a question!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Do you think, we should just abolish the Irish language instead of preserving it and just using English everywhere? I'm seen enough. It's badly taught and the language is still in decline due to the suppression of England. So yep, I think it should be abolished. What do you think of that idea? Try to change my mind if you can

You're asking this on a forum where most of us are unfamiliar with the language, and we don't know you well enough to tell exactly what parts of your posts are rhetoric and which parts are merely sarcastic. I'm honestly not sure if this is even a serious thread, but am willing to go along with it for now.

Preservation of a language is never a bad thing. The solution to it being badly taught is not to ban it, but to find another way to teach it that's better.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Irish and Welsh, and I'm guessing Basque, survived centuries of attempts to abolish them.
What did for them was education and mass media being in the colonising language.
Education has been restored and young people are learning the languages again but the culture they live in is dominated by English and/or Spanish.
Welsh language culture is supported here to some degree and its use outside Welsh-speaking areas is a lot more common than it was 40 years ago.

 

[sophie]

there is no such thing as objective language difficulty or complexity/simplicity. All natural languages are equally complex. “Difficulty” only exists in acquisition, defined by the similarity or cross-applicability between mother language and target language.

 

[Lexicus]

Oh really?

I also have no idea what it would even mean for a language to "improve" or "decline"

 

[QarQing]

Irish and Welsh, and I'm guessing Basque, survived centuries of attempts to abolish them.
What did for them was education and mass media being in the colonising language.
Education has been restored and young people are learning the languages again but the culture they live in is dominated by English and/or Spanish.
Welsh language culture is supported here to some degree and its use outside Welsh-speaking areas is a lot more common than it was 40 years ago.

The question that makes sense to ask is if that's the case, why are Irish and Welsh on duolingo but not Basque? What does this tell us?

 

[sophie]

The question that makes sense to ask is if that's the case, why are Irish and Welsh on duolingo but not Basque? What does this tell us?

That it’s an English-based app whose offered languages rely almost entirely on volunteer support. Healthy living languages like Pashto and Farsi are also not available on Duolingo. What are we supposed to infer from that?

 

[Ajidica]

I support the banning of Irish, much like I support the banning of everything associated with Britain.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I support the banning of Irish, much like I support the banning of everything associated with Britain.

That would mean the banning of the US since its founders were born British.

 

[Ajidica]

That would mean the banning of the US since its founders were born British.

I see nothing wrong with that.

 

[Lexicus]

That would mean the banning of the US since its founders were born British.

Oh, good; we wouldn't want to be left out.

 

[Kyriakos]

Is welsh/irish language learning mandatory in those areas?

 

[AmazonQueen]

Is welsh/irish language learning mandatory in those areas?

It is in Welsh schools. Quite a few schools use Welsh as the medium of instruction.

 

[Kyriakos]

It is in Welsh schools. Quite a few schools use Welsh as the medium of instruction.

Got a (rough or not) percentage?
Don't know about the status of irish, but in rural Wales most of the population spoke welsh, around 100 years ago (going by quotes, eg Arthur Machen's, who was welsh).

 

[AmazonQueen]

Got a (rough or not) percentage?
Don't know about the status of irish, but in rural Wales most of the population spoke welsh, around 100 years ago (going by quotes, eg Arthur Machen's, who was welsh).

23% of Welsh children were being taught in Welsh in 2021. The rest would be learning Welsh but taught in English.

 

[Josu]

The question that makes sense to ask is if that's the case, why are Irish and Welsh on duolingo but not Basque? What does this tell us?

This tells us that Basque Government is more interested in dubbing films in Spanish to Basque than investing this money in being in duolingo while every single person under the Basque Government who speaks basque, also understands Spanish.
Also The Rings of Power, in Amazon, is dubbed to Galician and Catalan, but not to Basque, because their local governments have invested money on it.
And remember, we have had a nationalist party rulling the last 40 years with a 4 years split.

 

[QarQing]

I support the banning of Irish, much like I support the banning of everything associated with Britain.

That sounds racist