Re: Gaelic thing

Hey there --

> From: Abrigon Gusiq [mailto:abrigon@YAHOO.COM]
>
> > Sadly by forcing Irish Gaelic on people, they likely seperate
> > themselves other places that speak a related lingo, but who
> > would not care to join with the Erse Gaelic speakers..
What do you mean by that, Mike?

> > Places that are currently rejoing the Celtic lingo world,
> > like Cornwall, or places like Brittany, Nova Scotia (speaking
> > a mixture of Erse and Scot Gaelic),
The Gaelic spoken in Nova Scotia (Cape Breton Island, to be precise) is
pure Scottish Gaelic -- no Irish. Sadly, there are well under 1,000
Gaelic speakers left in Cape Breton.

> Um, maybe it's just a local thing here, but Erse *is* Scot's Gaelic.
> Irish, on the other hand, it Irish Gaelic.
True. "Erse" was a term (no longer current in Scotland, and regarded as
derogatory by Gaels) used by Anglophone and Scottophone (? Scots
speakers) Scots to refer to Gaelic; the word of course means "Irish", as
they recognised the obviously similarity of Scottish and Irish Gaelic,
regarding them both as variants of one language. I wouldn't use the term
"Erse", though. Irish people call Gaelic "Irish", and Scottish people
call Gaelic "Gaelic" (in Scotland pronounced "gallick", not "gay-lick"
BTW). Calling either variety "Erse" will definitely not win you any
brownie points! :)

> > Mann (who used to speak a local version of Gaelic)
What do you mean by "a local version of Gaelic"? They speak Manx Gaelic,
which is closer to Scottish Gaelic than to Irish Gaelic in structure,
but which is a distinct variety of Gaelic. And there are people in Man
(properly spelled, according to my Manx sources, with only one "n") who
speak the language fluently, having learned the language from the last
native speakers, and who teach others. There are even a few families who
are raising their children bilingually with English and Manx. The 1991
Census returned 637 (I think that was the figure) people on the island
(out of a total population of around 70,000, admittedly) who said they
knew Manx. I don't believe the 2001 census figures have been published
yet.

> > Better to join as one and be something new (like a natural occuring
> > Conlang), or sink in old pride.
I don't get what you mean by that. Do you mean by that that Irish Gaels
should stop speaking the various dialects of Irish Gaelic and Scottish
Gaels should stop speaking the various dialects of Scottish Gaelic, and
that some artificial "inter-Gaelic" should be created and they should
all use that?

> Irish is caught in an odd sort of feedback loop. It's forced on you in
> national school and you hate it. Later on when you've left school and
> college, you start to regret not learning the language back when you
> had a chance.
That's exactly what I heard from just about every Irish person I met at
university.

> TG4 is an improvement in things though.
Dè tha sin / cad é atá sin / c'red ta shen?

Thomas