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The Daltaí Boards » Archive: 1999-2004 » 2004 (April-June) » Monoglot speakers of Celtic Languages « Previous Next »

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Ó Deoráin
Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 04:37 am:   Edit Post Print Post

From what I gather by reading messages here and on other forums (and reading articles etc) there are FEW if ANY people left who speak Irish only...

I'd like to know if anyone knows when either the last Irish-only speakers died out...or when there was a sizeable amount of Irish only speakers still...(the 1950s?? when people still lived on the Blasket islands, when the language was stronger in the west etc etc...)

Part 2 of my message deals with Welsh. I've got a world almanac here (although from 1992 lol), that states that "32,000 speak Welsh solely." Can this be?? I would've thought there were a sizeable amount of Welsh speakers who used Welsh more than English or who even were more fluent in Welsh as opposed to English but to not even know how to speak it...??
When I first read that (32,000 speakers figure)years ago I was surprised. Could there be that many Welsh speakers who didn't know English?? I posted a simliar message to this one on a travel forum and I had numerous people who said they personally knew Welsh people who didn't know English...I recall one fella saying a fluent Welsh speaking friend of his had to learn English before he could get into University...

Any thoughts on this stuff or online articles that deal with the topics above will be appreciated =)

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Tomás
Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 10:47 am:   Edit Post Print Post

I know young children being raised in Irish-speaking households that only speak Irish. They will, of course, within a few years and don't really count as monoglots. As for true adult monoglots, if they are not an extinct species now, they will be soon. That being said, I have met adults from the Aran Islands and the back roads of Connamara who have limited English and are much, much more comfortable speaking Irish. Back about 6 years ago there was an item in the Galway press, reprinted in the Irish Echo, about a civil court case in which the plaintiff, a farmer, was sueing a neighbor because he had paid for his neighbor's bull to breed with his cows and no calves resulted from the breeding. The proceedings had to be held in Irish because neither of the parties understood English very well.

-- Tomás

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gerard valencia
Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 12:52 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

a Thomás

isnt it the case now with the passing of the Irish language law that people can ask that proceedings be conducted in Gaeilge in law courts and official Tribunals. Im sure I read this somewhere.

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Tomás
Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 05:37 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

A Ghearóid,

Is fíor anois é, ceart go leor, áfach, sa gcás atá i gceist -- ag an am sin, rinneadh mar riachtanas é. It's true now, but at the time it was done out of necessity.

Tomás

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Aonghus
Posted on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 04:07 am:   Edit Post Print Post

It was always the case that you had the constitutional right to plead cases in Irish. However, there was a lack of laws to detail the constitution, and the government was careless.

The language law will (slowly) change that - very little of the Act is in force yet.

Galway District Court has been bilingual since the establishment of the state.

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Fear na mBróg
Posted on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 04:29 am:   Edit Post Print Post

Let's say for example that the best prosecutor in the state was to be on my case, and he didn't have any Gaeilge... I'd take full advantage!

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Tomás
Posted on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 01:01 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

Agus bíodh geall air, a Fhir, nárbh thusa an chéad rógaire an cleas sin a úsáid!

Tomás

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Tomás
Posted on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 04:41 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

A Dheoráineach, a chara, -- Ceann rud eile. My cousin spent a summer in the early '80s on Inis Oírr. He camped in a family's field, and did chores to earn his keep. The man of the house, who was about 60 at the time, didn't speak English. He understood it fairly well, but could not or would not speak it. So, there were some monoglots still kicking around in the 1980s, at any rate

Tomás

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Beth
Posted on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 10:07 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

I've met older people on Inis Meáin who "could not or would not speak it", too. Hard to tell which! also, the kids there don't seem to have English until they've had a few years of school. (Temporary monoglots.)

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Fear na mBróg
Posted on Friday, June 18, 2004 - 04:29 am:   Edit Post Print Post

I know a girl here in Dublin, she's 18, and she goes down to Kerry regularly with her family, to a Gaeltacht area. She was telling me how allot of the older people down there wouldn't speak Gaeilge to her, just out of pure arrogance because she was from Dublin. Even if she'd ask them a question in Gaeilge, they'd answer in English. Not a very enlightened group of people!

"Gabh mo leithscéal, ní thuigim Béarla. 'Bhfuil an Ghaeilge agat ar bith?"

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Ed
Posted on Friday, June 18, 2004 - 03:49 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

"a lot" "allot" means to give or assign; to distribute by lot.

Nuair atáimse sa Ghaeltacht ní bhíonn fadhbh da laghad agam ann. Bíonn na daoine caoimh agus bíonn foighne acu. Silim go bhfuil siad "enlightened" go leor ann agus níl sotalach in aon chor, a Fhir.

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Fear na mBróg
Posted on Friday, June 18, 2004 - 04:11 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

Ach céard faoi mhuintir Chiarraí?

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Ed
Posted on Friday, June 18, 2004 - 07:09 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

Go háirithe muintir Chiarraí, a Jackeen óg!

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Liam Ó Briain
Posted on Wednesday, June 23, 2004 - 04:23 pm:   Edit Post Print Post

Ó Deoráin,
The figure of 32,000 for monoglot Welsh speakers was for 1981. The same figure in relation to Irish was 1,200. Wales has a lot of large Welsh speaking towns such as Bala, Aberstywyth, Llaneii etc so people in the surrouding hinterland unless they have to travel to Cardiff or Swansea would never have to use English. I wonder do children under 5 raised in Irish speaking homes count as monoglots?

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