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Language Information By Source

The dialects of Irish: Study of a changing landscape
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Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

20,000-40,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

Virtually all speak English

More about speakers

"Whether all the 64,265 individuals registered by the 2006 census are native speakers of Irish is uncertain.... If for argument’s sake one subtracts about a third, because the officially specified sizes of the Gaeltacht areas are exaggerations and because not everyone, even in the core of these areas, has grown up speaking Irish as a first language, then one reaches a figure of somewhat over 40,000 for the native speakers of all Gaeltacht areas....In fact this figure may in itself be too optimistic. If one considers the number of persons in the Gaeltacht who use Irish on a daily basis outside education – 17,687 – and compares it to the population of the entire state – 3,990,863 – then one reaches a percentage figure of 0.44%. Given that the number of active native speakers is probably not higher than that of those in the Gaeltacht who use Irish on a daily basis outside education, then the percentage of active native speakers in present-day Ireland would be between around 0.5%, i.e. 20,000 or perhaps a little above that."

Year of info

2011

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

Official language in Republic of Ireland, official language of the European Union as of 2007

Institutional support

Compulsory school subject in Ireland, Irish-medium school in Belfast, Irish-language radio and television

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

Latin

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

English

Domains of other languages

Government, business, in the city, social gatherings

More on context

No data

Vulnerable

Native Speakers Worldwide

44,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2010

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

53.7876,-9.1845

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Vulnerable

Native Speakers Worldwide

106,210

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

"72,000 in Ireland (2006 census). Less than 20,000 L1 speakers (Salminen 2007). Population total all countries: 106,210."

Year of info

2013

Location and Context

Countries

Western isles northwest and southwest coasts; Galway, part of Mayo, Kerry, Donegal, Meath, Cork, and Waterford. Also in Canada, United Kingdom, United States.

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

Taught as an official language in schools and encouraged by the government.

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

Latin Script; Ogham Script (no longer in use)

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Vulnerable

Native Speakers Worldwide

<20,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2007

Location and Context

Countries

Republic of Ireland

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

Irish is being used widely as a second language in all parts of the Republic of Ireland as well as in Northern Ireland.

Vulnerable

Native Speakers Worldwide

77,185

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

Aged 3-18: 19,582

Young adult speakers

Aged 25-64: 41,209

Older adult speakers

Aged 65 and above: 16,367

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

These figures represent the Republic of Ireland and do not include the speakers in Northern Ireland. These figures represent the number of respondents to the Irish census who reported speaking Irish on a daily basis outside of the educational system. In nearly all age groups, more women reported speaking Irish than men.

Year of info

2011

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

No data

Native Speakers Worldwide

No data

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2005

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

52.5,-9.0

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Media Resources

No resources

Filter By

No programs

  1. Irish
    Doyle, Aidan. 2001. "Irish." 201: Lincom Europa.
  2. The dialects of Irish: Study of a changing landscape
  3. Irish-Speaking society and the state
  4. Learner's English-Irish, Irish-English Dictionary
    Siochfhradha, Michael. 1958. "Learner's English-Irish, Irish-English Dictionary." Comhlacht Oideachais Na Héireann, Tta..
  5. A concise comparative Celtic grammar
    Lewis, Henry and Holger Pedersen. 1961. "A Concise Comparative Celtic Grammar." Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
  6. Grammar of Ros Goill Irish Co. Donegal
    Lucas, Leslie W. 1979. "Grammar of Ros Goill Irish Co. Donegal." 5: Queen's University of Belfast-Institute of Irish Studies-Dept. of Celtic.
  7. no title
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  8. Irish
    Maceoin Gearóid. 1993. "Irish." In The Celtic Languages, edited by Martin J. Ball and James Fife. 101-144. Routledge.
  9. Irish
    Mccloskey, James. 2001. "Irish." In Facts About the World's Languages, An Encyclopedia of the World's Languages: Past and Present, edited by Jane Garry and Carl Rubino. 336-340. HW Wilson.
  10. Studies in Irish Syntax
    Stenson, Nancy. 1981. "Studies in Irish Syntax." Gunter Narr Verlag.
  11. Transformational Syntax and Model Theoretic Semantics
    Mccloskey, James. 1979. "Transformational Syntax and Model Theoretic Semantics." Reidel.
  12. Teach Yourself Irish
    Dillon, Myles and Ó Cróinin Donncha. 1961. "Teach Yourself Irish." The English Universities Press Ltd..
  13. A Handbook of Irish. Volume 1: Essentials of Modern Irish
    Bammesberger, Alfred. 1982. "A Handbook of Irish. Volume 1: Essentials of Modern Irish." Carl Winter Universitätsverlag.
  14. Irish
    Dillon, Myles. 1961. "Irish." Hodder &.
  15. A Handbook of Irish. Volume 2: An outline of Modern Irish Grammar
    Bammesberger, Alfred. 1983. "A Handbook of Irish. Volume 2: An Outline of Modern Irish Grammar." Carl Winter Universitatsverlag.
  16. Modern Irish: grammatical structure and dialectal variation
    Ó Siadhail Mıcheál. 1989. "Modern Irish: Grammatical Structure and Dialectal Variation." Cambridge University Press.
  17. Endangered Languages Catalogue Project. Compiled by research teams at University of Hawai'i Mānoa and Institute for Language Information and Technology (LINGUIST List) at Eastern Michigan University
    2012. "Endangered Languages Catalogue Project. Compiled By Research Teams At University of Hawai'i Mānoa and Institute For Language Information and Technology (LINGUIST List) At Eastern Michigan University."
  18. The Irish Language
    Ó Dochartaigh C. 1992. "The Irish Language." In The Celtic languages, edited by D. Macaulay. 11-99. Cambridge University Press.
  19. Irish
    Nı? Chasaide Ailbh. 1999. "Irish." In Handbook of the International Phonetic Organisation, 111-116. Cambridge University Press.
  20. Early Irish
    Stifter, David. 2010. "Early Irish." In The Celtic languages, edited by Martin J. Ball and Nicole Müller. 55-116. London & New York: Routledge.
  21. Learning Irish: an introductory self-tutor
    Siadhail, Mícheál Ó. 1995. "Learning Irish: An Introductory Self-tutor." Yale University Press.
  22. A Grammar of the Irish Language
    O'Donovan, J. 1845. "A Grammar of the Irish Language." Dublin: Hodges and Smith.
  23. A Grammar of Old Irish
    O'connell, Frederick William. 1912. "A Grammar of Old Irish." Belfast: Mayne, Boyd & Son, Ltd.
  24. A Grammar of Old Irish
    O'Connell, F. W. 1912. "A Grammar of Old Irish." Belfast: Mayne, Boyd & Son.
  25. The morphology and syntax of Ulster Scots
    Montgomery, Michael. 2006. "The Morphology and Syntax of Ulster Scots." In English World-Wide, 27 , no. 3: 295-329.
  26. The Ogham Inscriptions of Scotland: An Edited Corpus
    Forsyth, Katherine Stuart. The Ogham Inscriptions of Scotland: An Edited Corpus. PhD thesis, Harvard University, 1996.
  27. A Grammar of Old Irish
    Thurneysen, Rudolf. 1975 [1909]. "A Grammar of Old Irish." Dublin Institute for Advances Studies: School of Celtic Studies.
  28. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 17th Edition (2013)
    Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.), 2013. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 17th edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com.
    http://www.ethnologue.com Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 17th Edition (2013)
  29. The World Atlas of Language Structures
    2005. "The World Atlas of Language Structures." edited by Bernard Comrie et al. Oxford University Press.
  30. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)
    Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16 edn. http://www.ethnologue.com/home.asp. (15 February, 2011.)
    http://www.ethnologue.com/
  31. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
    Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas. (03 June, 2011.)
    http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas
  32. World Oral Literature Project
    "World Oral Literature Project." Online: http://www.oralliterature.org.
    http://www.oralliterature.org