Don't Let a Quarantine Go To Waste - Brush Up on Your Gaelic

The website Irish Tech News has an idea that will fill your days of isolation and "Breathe New Life Into Gaelic":

Irish – Gaelic or Gaeilge — belongs to the Celtic language family. It originated in Ireland and was historically spoken by Irish people throughout Ireland. It is still spoken as a first language in some counties — Galway, Kerry, Cork and Donegal chief among them. In 2016, native speakers were counted as 73,000 in Ireland and 4,000 in northern Island. It has also been adopted by non-traditional speaker in Irish cities for cultural or nationalistic reasons, albeit as a second language.

Gaelic also has what is considered the richest literary heritage in all of Europe. And Gaelic has influenced variation of the language in Scotland and the Isle of Man, in the dialect called Manx. Irish is constitutionally recognized, as the Republic’s national and official language and as a minority language in Northern Ireland. It’s an official European Language and it’s promoted by the public body Foras na Gaeilge.During the Coronavirus crisis, as we wait out the pandemic, it may seem trivial to discuss a subject as esoteric as the resurrection of Gaelic. But as we retreat from pubs, clubs and football pitches, we find ourselves with more time on our hands to learn something new. We are asked to distance ourselves even from classes and social gathering. So it may well be an ideal moment to bring to life a tongue long left by many for dead. How to do it? From language tools available, for free, on our phones and computers.

Till now, the venerable language of the Emerald Isle has been preserved by government edicts, educational requirements, dwindling native speakers and diehard Irish nationalists.  But for most of Ireland’s population, Gaelic is a nostalgic linguistic throwback of scant use in daily life and a sop to patriots who refuse to let it die a natural death. However, machine translation and translation services have the potential to revive and reactivate a language heading to extinction.  Can Gaelic hope to gain a new following? Could this be a good thing for Ireland? And how would a campaign to revive the Irish national language be conducted?

Which online language tools and machine translation help learn Irish? Digital linguistic education – specifically language learning tools and machine translation tools – can change all that. You can learn Irish, online, for free. There are award-winning free apps like DuoLingo. With a mere 34 hours on the app you can equal the learning of a university semester’s worth of classes. Irish happens to be one of the post popular languages to learn, with more than 600,000 registered since August 2018 when the course debuted. The discuss forums are active as well.

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