The Irish Language

1
The Irish Language

• Gan Teanga, Gan Tir!
• (No Language, No Country!)

2
Basic Language Info

• Gaelic Language
• Spoken in Ireland
• Official Language of Republic of Ireland
• 1.6 million speakers, out of those 70,000 use
  Irish as their principle, day to day language

3
Historical Info

• Language was once the main form of communication
  in Ireland until the Anglo Norman Invasion of
  1169
• Been in a struggle with English ever since
• Final blow to Irish as a prominent and revered
  language was Battle of Kinsale in 1601, Irish
  lost speakers of nobility and political importance

4
Historical Info (cont.)

• Potato Famine (1845-1849)- Mass exodus of lower
  class citizens (the majority of the languages
  speakers) to other countries
• Revolts for the next 75 years were headed by The
  Gaelic League, led by Douglas Hyde

5
Historical Info (cont.)

• Successful revolts against English led to the
  partition of 1921 and the formation of the Irish
  Free state in 1922
• Irish became national
• language of the
• Republic of Ireland

6
Language Policy (Republic of Ireland)

• (1922-1940)- politicians planned to increase use
  of Irish in schools and in government, looked to
  standardize language
• Unfortunately, the point in time, between the two
  World Wars, was not advantageous for a new
  language, most of the European dialogue was in
  English, French and German

7
Language Policy (cont.)/ Modern Day info

• Policy was efficient in beginning, with 225 fully
  to partially immersed schools in 1940
• This statistic fell to a dismal 24 in 1970
• But we have seen somewhat of a resurgence, 80
  schools as of 1994

8
Ukraine

• 1998 Statistics
• Population 52 Million
• 37.4 Ethnic Ukrainians
• 11.4 Ethnic Russians

9
Ukrainian Language History of
SuppressionPre-Communist Russia

• Thrived in 16th and early 17th centuries during
  the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
• Ukrainian official language in Ukrainian regions
  of the Crown of Polish Kingdom, schools were even
  created
• Civil war in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ?
  threatened status of Ukrainian
• Polinization and Russification of the Ukrainian
  nobility

10
Ukrainian Language and History of Suppression
Pre-Communist Russia

• 1720 Peter I limited publications in Ukrainian to
  those of religious content
• Status fluctuated between co-equal status with
  Russian and lower status than Russian
• During the tsarist regime
• 1) Ukrainian treated as a dialect
• 2) Tsar Alexander II banned all education and
  dramatic performances in Ukrainian
• Beginning of the 20th century, elites spoke
  Russian and peasants were embarrassed with their
  Ukrainian

11
Communist Russia Influence

• 1917 Breakup of the Russian Empire
• Stalin implemented Nativization here but soon
  switched to Russification
• 1938 Mandate stating that the study of Russian be
  obligatory
• During the Khrushchev era, language policy became
  more lenient
• ?however, there are fewer opportunities for a
  monolingual Ukrainian, so many ethnic Ukrainian
  parents chose Russian
• During the Brezhnev era, the Ukrainian leader
  Shcherbytsky reinstituted Russification and
  continued to do so even when Gorbachev came to
  power

12
Post Communist Influence

• 1989 Law of Languages
• Official End to Russification
• 1991 10 Year Plan for the Shift from Russian to
  Ukrainian
• the government was to switch over within 5 years
  and by the end of the 10 years the language of
  instruction must change to Ukrainian
• 1992 Law on National Minorities
• ensures right to education in mother tongue
• the number of students in schools where Russian
  is language of instruction of ethnic Russians
  (prevents involuntary Russification)

13
Modern Day Irish

• 1.6 million people speak Irish but only 70,000
  use it everyday (2002 census)
• Irish mostly used in small communities on the
  west coast of Ireland, called Gaeltachts
• The Gaeltacht areas are rural and usually poorer
  than the rest of the country
• Only ¼ of people in Gaelthacht areas are fluent
  in Irish

14
Government Action

• Irish will become an official working language of
  the European Union starting January 1, 2007
• The Official Languages Act of 2003 gave people
  the right to use Irish when interacting with
  state officials
• Most government documents are published in both
  Irish and English
• Irish is a required subject in schools

15
Media

• 75 of Irish households have a television that
  receives all major British networks
• In 1996 the first all Irish television station
  premiered
• Other publications are coming out in Irish and
  one major Irish newspaper, The Irish Times,
  offers a weekly column in Irish
• This is important as the Mickey Mouse Factor is
  very influential in the younger generations

16
Modern Day Ukrainian

• 41 million people around the world speak
  Ukrainian
• In the 2001 census, 67.5 of people named
  Ukrainian as their native language
• Native does not necessarily mean primary language
  though
• 52 reported they speak mostly Russian
• 14 reported they speak mostly Ukrainian

17
Ukrainianization efforts to rebuild after the
Soviet era

• In the 1970s and 1980s parents were allowed to
  choose the language of education for their
  children
• They usually picked Russian because of the belief
  that it would lead to more successful careers
• Currently, Ukrainian has an increasing role in
  media and commerce, but Russian is still the
  dominant media language

18
The Future

• Irish despite efforts, many people believe Irish
  is in danger of becoming extinct within two
  generations maybe even one.
• Ukrainian all a decline in the language, it is
  slowly rebuilding because of Ukrainianization

19
Resources

• Corcoran, Farrel. The Globalisation of Irish
  Television. Intellect Books. Bristol, UK. 2004
• De Freine, Sean. The Great Silence. The Mercier
  Press. Dublin, Ireland. 1965
• Grenoble, Lenore A. Language Policy in the Soviet
  Union. Netherlands Kluwer Academic Publishers,
  2003.
• Kreindler, Isabelle. Multilingualism in the
  Successor States of the Soviet Union. Annual
  Review of Applied Linguistics 17 (1997) 91-112.
• Mac Murchaidh, Ciaran. Who Needs Irish?
  Reflections on the importance of the Irish
  language today. Veritas Publications. Dublin,
  Ireland. 2004.
• Marshall, Camelot Ann. Post-Soviet Language
  Policy and the Language Utilization Patterns of
  Kyivan Youth. Language Policy 1 (2002) 237-260.
• O'Reilly, Camille C. Language, Ethinicity And The
  State Minority Languages In The European Union.
  Palgrave, New York, New York. 2001.
• Smith, Graham, Vivien Law, Andrew Wilson, Annette
  Bohr, and Edward Allworth. Nation-building in
  the Post-Soviet Borderlands The Politics of
  National Identities. United Kingdom Cambridge
  University Press, 1998.
• Ukrainian Language. Wikipedia.
  http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_language.
  1 Nov. 2005