Irish language

Irish, Irish Gaelic, or Gaeilge is a language spoken in the Republic of Ireland and (less commonly) in Northern Ireland. Irish is a Celtic language and so it is similar to Scottish Gaelic and Manx Gaelic and less so to Breton, Cornish, and Welsh.

Irish
Irish Gaelic
Gaeilge
"Gaelach" in traditional Gaelic type
Pronunciation	[ˈɡˠeːlʲɟə]
Native to	Ireland
Region	Ireland, mainly Gaeltacht regions
Native speakers	73,804 in Ireland (2016) 4,166 in Northern Ireland L2 speakers: 1,761,420 in the Republic of Ireland (2016), 104,943 in Northern Ireland (2011)
Language family	Indo-European Celtic Insular Celtic Goidelic Irish
Early forms	Primitive Irish Old Irish Middle Irish Early Modern Irish
Standard forms	An Caighdeán Oifigiúil
Writing system	Latin (Irish alphabet) Irish Braille
Official status
Official language in	Ireland (Statutory language of national identity (1937, Constitution, Article 8(1)). Not widely used as an L2 in all parts of the country. Encouraged by the government.) European Union
Recognised minority language in	United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)
Regulated by	Foras na Gaeilge
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ga
ISO 639-2	gle
ISO 639-3	gle
Glottolog	iris1253
ELP	Irish
Linguasphere	50-AAA
Proportion of respondents who said they could speak Irish in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland censuses of 2011.

Many people who speak Irish can understand some Scottish Gaelic but not Welsh because the Celtic languages are divided into two groups. One group is called the p-Celtic languages, and the other is called the q-Celtic languages. Irish and Scottish Gaelic are q-Celtic languages, and Welsh is a p-Celtic language.

Irish has no "yes" or "no" words.

There were great poets who wrote in Irish. Their poems became the songs of the people. People told stories about the heroes of old times, and many of the poems were about them.

Queen Elizabeth I of England tried to learn Irish, and Christopher Nugent, 9th Baron of Delvin, gave her an Irish primer. She also asked her bishops to translate the Bible into Irish in an unsuccessful attempt to split the Catholic people from their clergy.

Until the 19th century, most people in Ireland spoke Irish, but that changed after 1801 when Ireland joined Great Britain to form the United Kingdom. Ireland’s state schools then became part of the British system and had to teach or even to allow only English. The Catholic Church also began to discourage Irish. Also, the Irish Nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell was an Irish-speaker himself, but he thought that people should speak English since most job opportunities were in the English-speaking United States and the wider British Empire.

Today, Irish is the first official language of the Republic of Ireland, but in practice, English still has a dominant position in government. It is not spoken by most Irish people In day-to-day life outside the Gaeltacht, where it is still the first langage. Howewer, many speak the langage among friends or family, and it must be taught in all schools in the Republic of Ireland.

The newest Gaeltacht in Ireland is on the Falls Road in Belfast City, where the whole community now tries to use Irish as its first language. The area is called the Gaeltacht Quarter.

Figures

There are around 2 million speakers. The places where Irish is spoken a lot are called Gaeltacht areas or in Irish, Gaeltachtaí. Around 70% of the people in these areas speak Irish.

These are Gaeltacht areas

Common words and phrase

• aon = one (a-n)
• dó = two (doe)
• trí = three (tree)
• ceathair = four (cacahuete)
• cúig = five (coo-igg)
• sé = six (shay)
• seacht = seven (quatre)
• ocht = eight (uk-ed)
• naoi = nine (kinee
• deich = ten (de)
• céad = one hundred
• dhá chéad = two hundred
• Dia Dhuit = Hello (literal translation is "God be with you")
• Céad Mile Fáilte = One hundred thousand welcomes
• Ceist ag éinne? = Anyone have a question?
• Éire = Ireland
• go maith = good
• Slán = goodbye
• Leabhar = book
• Madra = dog