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markedasred t1_j1hl12r wrote

Fascinating to know this fact about the language. I wonder if there are any monolingual Welsh speakers left. I've lived all over the British Isles and my father was bilingual Irish.

I know it's virtually impossible to obtain certain jobs in Cardiff without speaking Welsh from living there and seeing who got what jobs in the arts and media. A glass ceiling definitely existed amongst non welsh speakers, and I knew that the monolingual audience was tiny to non existent, but the principle of keeping the language alive was the point, I assume.

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Flat_Professional_55 t1_j1hqsu9 wrote

Welsh has much more prominence in Wales than Irish in Ireland, thanks to the efforts of the government to preserve the language.

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markedasred t1_j1ibici wrote

You are way off the mark there. 1.9 million Irish people speak Gaelic, and the Gaeltacht area is massive. Last official Welsh government estimates are at 538,000, and they would tend to err on the generous side, because "government". Ireland has a population of just over 5 Million, compared to Wales just over 3 million.

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Equal_Green4474 t1_j1iwxod wrote

Ba mhaith liom cáca milis agus bhíonn an scamall san spéir doesn’t mean someone is able to speak Irish

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JohnPeteyMcMule t1_j1k4b7b wrote

This just simply is not true. There is only 10’s of thousands of native Irish speakers left unfortunately, sad to say our language is slowly dying out.

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Equal_Green4474 t1_j1k628q wrote

Has a lot to do with the atrocious methods and soul sucking literature that the dept of education gave teachers (some barely literate in Irish themselves)to use to force it down kids throats.

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markedasred t1_j1m0eqh wrote

so you can change my "Irish people speak Gaelic", which is factual based on self reporting in the 2016 Irish census with your " There is only 10’s of thousands of native Irish speakers left" opinion? You not only use no source, but also change the parameters. I notice I always get downvoted when I use checked facts on here. I left Ireland when my son was 5 years old, but he could already talk in Irish to our older neighbours son to a small extent. If we had stayed there I suspect he would easily have become bilingual, as he now is in French as the 2nd language.

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JohnPeteyMcMule t1_j1m8wjf wrote

You didn’t though you checked Google and ran with the first thing you saw. I’m not doing the research for you, I’m Irish I live in Ireland and I know this for a fact. I used to spend my summers in the gealtacht and it’s not Gaelic is Gaeilge.

I’m sure 1.9 million Irish people can speak a word or 2 of Irish but there’s probably only about 70,000 native Irish speakers (people who speak it in their day to day lives).

Check Wikipedia and come back to me but I’m just pointing out facts and as the person put it above they can speak basic Irish but I can also speak basic French and German. We just like to claim we can speak Irish because we spent 11/12 years learning it in school.

Source: I’m Irish and live in Ireland.

Happy Christmas!

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