Back Аирланд бызшәа Abkhazian Iers-Gaelies Afrikaans Irische Sprache ALS አየርላንድኛ Amharic Idioma irlandés AN Īrisc sprǣc ANG आयरिश भाषा ANP اللغة الأيرلندية Arabic ايرلاندى ARZ Idioma irlandés AST

Irish language

For other uses, see Irish language (disambiguation).
"Gaoidhealg" redirects here. For the shared literary form that was in use from the 13th to the 16th–18th century, see Classical Gaelic.
For the Niger–Congo language called "Ga", see Ga language.

Irish
  • Irish Gaelic
  • Gaelic
Standard Irish: Gaeilge
PronunciationConnacht Irish: [ˈɡeːlʲɟə]
Munster Irish: [ˈɡeːl̪ˠən̠ʲ]
Ulster Irish: [ˈɡeːlʲəc]
Native toIreland, UK
RegionIreland
EthnicityIrish people
Native speakers
L1: unknown
People aged 3+ stating they could speak Irish "very well":
(ROI, 2022) 195,029
Daily users outside education system:
(ROI, 2022) 71,968
(NI, 2021) 43,557
L2: unknown
People aged 3+ stating they could speak Irish:
(ROI, 2022) 1,873,997
(NI, 2021) 228,600
Early forms
Standard forms
An Caighdeán Oifigiúil (written only)
Dialects
Latin (Irish alphabet)
Ogham (historically)
Irish Braille
Official status
Official language in
Ireland[a]
Northern Ireland[2]
European Union
Language codes
ISO 639-1ga
ISO 639-2gle
ISO 639-3gle
Glottologiris1253
ELPIrish
Linguasphere50-AAA
Proportion of respondents who said they could speak Irish in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland censuses of 2011
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Spoken Irish
The first chapter of Mo Sgéal Féin, read by native Irish speaker Mairéad Uí Lionáird in the Muskerry Gaeltacht(Gaeltacht Mhúscraí)
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Irish (Standard Irish: Gaeilge), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic (/ˈɡeɪlɪk/ GAY-lik),[3][4][5] is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family.[4][6][7][8][3] It is a member of the Goidelic language group of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous to the island of Ireland.[9] It was the majority of the population's first language until the 19th century, when English gradually became dominant, particularly in the last decades of the century, in what is sometimes characterised as a result of linguistic imperialism.

Today, Irish is still commonly spoken as a first language in Ireland's Gaeltacht regions, in which 2% of Ireland's population lived in 2022.[10]

The total number of people (aged 3 and over) in Ireland who declared they could speak Irish in April 2022 was 1,873,997, representing 40% of respondents, but of these, 472,887 said they never spoke it and a further 551,993 said they only spoke it within the education system.[10] Linguistic analyses of Irish speakers are therefore based primarily on the number of daily users in Ireland outside the education system, which in 2022 was 20,261 in the Gaeltacht and 51,707 outside it, totalling 71,968.[10] In response to the 2021 census of Northern Ireland, 43,557 individuals stated they spoke Irish on a daily basis, 26,286 spoke it on a weekly basis, 47,153 spoke it less often than weekly, and 9,758 said they could speak Irish, but never spoke it.[11] From 2006 to 2008, over 22,000 Irish Americans reported speaking Irish as their first language at home, with several times that number claiming "some knowledge" of the language.[12]

For most of recorded Irish history, Irish was the dominant language of the Irish people, who took it with them to other regions, such as Scotland and the Isle of Man, where Middle Irish gave rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx. It was also, for a period, spoken widely across Canada, with an estimated 200,000–250,000 daily Canadian speakers of Irish in 1890.[13] On the island of Newfoundland, a unique dialect of Irish developed before falling out of use in the early 20th century.

With a writing system, Ogham, dating back to at least the 4th century AD, which was gradually replaced by Latin script since the 5th century AD, Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Western Europe. On the island, the language has three major dialects: Connacht, Munster and Ulster Irish. All three have distinctions in their speech and orthography. There is also An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, a standardised written form devised by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s. The traditional Irish alphabet, a variant of the Latin alphabet with 18 letters, has been succeeded by the standard Latin alphabet (albeit with 7–8 letters used primarily in loanwords).

Irish has constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland, and is also an official language of Northern Ireland and among the official languages of the European Union. The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island. Irish has no regulatory body but An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, the standard written form, is guided by a parliamentary service and new vocabulary by a voluntary committee with university input.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference constitution was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Ainsworth, Paul (6 December 2022). "'Historic milestone' passed as Irish language legislation becomes law". The Irish News. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Gaelic definition and meaning". Collins English Dictionary.
  4. ^ a b "Gaelic". Cambridge English Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  5. ^ "Irish Language at UW-Milwaukee | Center for Celtic Studies". Retrieved 18 October 2024.
  6. ^ O'Gallagher, J. (1877). Sermons in Irish-Gaelic. Gill.
  7. ^ "Our Role Supporting You". Foras na Gaeilge. Retrieved 8 January 2021. ...  between Foras na Gaeilge and Bòrd na Gàidhlig, promoting the use of Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic in Ireland and Scotland ...'
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ ""Reawakening the Irish Language through the Irish Education System: Challenges and Priorities"" (PDF). International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education.
  10. ^ a b c "Irish Language and the Gaeltacht – CSO – Central Statistics Office". www.cso.ie. 19 December 2023. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  11. ^ "Frequency of Speaking Irish". nisra.gov.uk. 21 March 2023.
  12. ^ "1. Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over for the United States: 2006–2008", Language (table), Census, 2010
  13. ^ Doyle, Danny (2015). Míle Míle i gCéin: The Irish Language in Canada. Ottawa: Borealis Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-88887-631-7.


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