iguanamon wrote:
... What I find exciting about the current online renaissance is that it's bringing native-speaking people to a wider exposure than was ever the case before. The "Enkontros en Alhad" (Sunday Meetings/Gatherings) have brought life to those native-speakers and their stories. The internet made this possible. ...
It seems to me (I may be wrong) Irish is in a similar, though rather different situation to Ladino. I don't know if there is any hope to revive it as a true, functioning authentic language or if its fate is to follow Ladino into preservation.
The major difference I see with Irish is that most the Irish on the internet comes from
non-natives, who often have a poor grasp of grammar and phonetics. The two biggest YouTube learning channels, for instance, Gaeilge i mo Chroí and Learn Irish (with Dayne), are both horrible. Their pronunciation is thoroughly anglicised, as is their idiom. The former is better, though, as she does try to get native speakers on there, but it just serves to highlight the difference. The same is true with Raidió Rí-Rá mentioned in the article above, and Twitter. I can actually only think of one really active Twitter user who is a native of traditional Irish.
So, while it does get it exposure, it's not getting the exposure to native speakers simply because learners vastly outnumber them due to the way education Ireland works. In fact, there's many learners who'd claim they're fluent, and are raising kids in 'Irish', who can't understand native speakers from the Gaeltacht. And if you mention that, you get called 'elitist' or a 'gatekeeper' (I had both thrown at me just a few weekends ago!) That's the big issue with Irish, and it's actually a big issue for most the Celtic languages (except for Welsh, where the problem is only incipient but quickly growing), as I'm sure cainntear can attest to with Gaelic (See the Scottish Affairs journal recently). So while there's more Irish on digital media, it's not, in my opinion, 'Irish' but something closer to a coded English or creole type language.
That's part of why I'm trying to correct with my blog, dedicated to preserving some old stories that showcase the dialect and rich traditional Irish. It's just a shame it'll likely never take off in the grand scheme of things because most people don't care about Irish as language and more as a way to show they're
not English, even if their Irish is essentially English.
As for hopes of reviving it, I'm pessimistic. I think there are ways it could be done, but I'm not sure if it'd be legal under EU law (in particular, it would require language-based housing discrimination and employment discrimination in certain areas) even if there was political will to do something about it. And given the myriad other problems in Ireland right now, I don't think anything'll happen. They'll throw another €500k at Irish in Dublin and call it good.
All my pessimism aside, the internet is great for Irish
if you seek out good Irish. Raidió na Gaeltachta is streaming, and have podcasts up, so you can easily get more exposure to native Irish than you ever would have in the past. It does make it easier for people like me who live in Dublin to get access to it, as well as those abroad. It's just drowned out most places by learners' Irish.