Ireland is a very small state, which, however, gave the whole world St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, a huge number of words that most consider English. The Irish language belongs to the family of Celtic languages of Indo-European origin. Other languages from the same group are Scottish Gaelic, Breton.
Who speaks Irish?
According to statistics, about 1.6 million people speak Irish. These are residents of the Republic of Ireland, as well as Northern Ireland. In the United States, there are also residents who use this language in everyday speech. Irish is one of the officially recognized languages of the European Union. In total, about 42% of the inhabitants of Ireland communicate on it. The vast majority of Irish people, around 94%, are also fluent in English.
Irish words of interest and other features
One of the most interesting things about Irish speakers is their use of the unusual vigesimal number system. This means that for them the number 60 means three times 20. Another characteristic feature is that in Irish there is nothe pronoun "you", just as in English there is no pronoun "you". If a tourist visits Ireland for the first time, he should not be surprised if an Irishman, after the first acquaintance, begins to address him as “you”.
Irish mentality
More unusually, this language lacks the concepts of "yes" and "no". For example, to the question: “Were you at home today?” - the Irishman will not answer in the affirmative or in the negative. He will say: "I was at home today." Negation is conveyed using special forms of the verb. The order of words in a sentence is another feature that distinguishes this language. Irish is interesting because it uses reverse word order. In other words, the phrase "I went home" will sound like "I went home."
Most peoples consider the concept of time linearly, that is, they say: "The house was built three hundred years ago." The Irish see the axis of time a little differently. For them, it flows as if from the bottom up. They will say the same phrase as follows: “The house was built three hundred years down.”
History of language
The initial stage of the emergence of Irish refers to the period from the 7th to the 10th centuries. At this time, the Old Irish language was born. It composes the epic works of the people of the Emerald Isle. Old Irish is one of the oldest languages in all of Europe, second only to Ancient Greek and Latin.
Then follows the period of the Middle Irish language - from the 10th to the 13th centuries. Then the Old Irish language, being literary, is also used in everyday speech. XIII to XVIIcenturies formed the classical form of Irish. For two centuries, the Irish authorities pursued a policy of destroying the Irish language. It was banned not only in official use, but also in everyday communication. In 1798, a popular uprising is suppressed, after which the indigenous people emigrate en masse to other countries.
Attempts to exterminate the language
The paradox was that at the beginning of the 19th century there were a huge number of Irish people using their native language. Irish was the language of communication of peasants, workers - only about 5 million speakers. Although the language, like local Catholicism, was banned, almost all the common people used it in everyday communication.
1831 was a fatal year for Irish: that year, Britain ordered that a single school system be established throughout Ireland. If earlier the Irish language was transmitted through illegal schools, now every child was required to attend an English school.
But the economic crisis that hit in 1845 turned out to be an even greater catastrophe, resulting in a terrible famine. About 1.5 million people died from it.
Irish for beginners: why and how to learn?
Many, inspired by reading the Irish epic, want to learn at least the basics of Irish. There are many myths and prejudices about this mysterious and unusual language. Some consider it to be a dying language. Irish, however, is not included in this group: itis a small language, but not a dying one.
Then, for those who want to learn Irish, another question arises: “What practical use can there be from it, besides personal interest?” The fact is that this language is a whole collection of unusual grammatical and lexical phenomena. Therefore, anyone who is interested in linguistics and would like to expand their horizons can try to master the Irish language. A self-instruction manual in Russian, like dictionaries, is a fairly rare publication. However, you can find English-Irish and Irish-English dictionaries, as well as self-study books in English.
More reasons to learn Irish
Irish grammar is a real challenge for language lovers. For example, the word "woman" will be used in various forms. The use of one or another option depends on the context and the pronoun standing next to it - mine, yours or his woman is meant. When learning a foreign language, difficulties usually arise with a change in the ending of a word. But in Irish, not only the end of the word changes, but also its beginning.
Motivation for learning Irish can also be its belonging to the western branch of the Indo-European language family. Russian belongs to the group of Slavic languages, English belongs to the group of Germanic. Slavic and Germanic languages belong to the northern branch. Therefore, it can be judged that even Russian is closer to English than Irish.
Knowledge of the Irish language also makes it possible to get acquainted with the richIrish folk art. Much of Irish folklore has never been translated into Russian. For many, modern Irish prose will also be of interest.
