Practical Manx

…de EurekAlert:

A researcher at the University of Liverpool has produced the first modern, comprehensive handbook on Manx Gaelic – a language thought to have died out in the mid 19th Century.

As records detailing the grammatical construction of the language are rare, expert Jennifer Kewley Draskau, at the University's Centre for Manx Studies, used texts dating back to the 15th Century as well as unstructured, informal conversations between fluent native speakers on the Isle on Man. She also studied the 18th Century Manx Bible and modern poetry to produce the handbook, called Practical Manx, a guide to the grammar and morphology of the language.

Manx Gaelic – an off-shoot of Old Irish – virtually died out as community speech when English became the language of trade in the 19th Century. Manx is experiencing a revival and more than 600 people now claim to speak the language. The new study is the first attempt to record and describe the language, and the first time in more than a century that a grammar of Manx has been produced....

Alun Ffred Jones

...de la BBC:

Mae pobl sy'n symud i mewn i Gymru neu'n gadael eu cymunedau yn tanseilio rhai o gadarnleoedd yr iaith Gymraeg, yn ôl Gweinidog Treftadaeth Cymru.

Roedd Alun Ffred Jones yn ymateb i alwad am ddadl ar y pwnc gan Fwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg pan wnaeth y sylwadau i raglen Dragon's Eye BBC Cymru.

Dywedodd Mr Jones pan fo Cymry Cymraeg yn symud allan ac eraill yn symud i mewn "mae'r effaith yn uniongyrchol ac yn tanseilio'r Gymraeg fel iaith fyw yn y cymunedau hynny".

Endanĝerigataj Lingvoj

...de la National Post:

Rather different fates have befallen the four members of the Celtic language family native to the island of Great Britain and the Isle of Man:

Cornish went extinct as a community language in the late 18th century, while Ned Maddrell, the last speaker of Manx, died in 1974.

Scots Gaelic has fewer than 60,000 speakers and is in decline.

Welsh, meanwhile, has a healthy community of at least 500,000 speakers...

...Nationalist efforts to restore Irish (also known as Gaelic) to use in daily life, similar to those in Israel, have failed to extend it beyond a community of perhaps 20,000 native speakers. However, generations of Irish students have learned the language at school, and the government intends to make the country a "bilingual society" by 2026.

Lingvo kaj Sendependeco

....de New Wales:

Welsh speakers are more likely to support political independence than non-Welsh speakers, according to new research from Cardiff University School of Psychology.

The research was conducted by the Social Identity and Social Action in Wales research group based in the School, and was outlined at a seminar at the National Assembly this week.

Examining how Welsh identity is defined, it also investigated how this orients people to different political projects concerned with Welsh development, including assimilation with England, devolution and independence.

OBAMA ABÚ!

“You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.” ~ Prezidento Barack Obama.

…de la New York Daily News:

“A number of Irish-American New Yorkers, including Rep. Joe Crowley, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and attorney Brian O'Dwyer, will be attending a Council for American Ireland Relations brunch next week in Washington to celebration Barack Obama's inauguration.

O'Dwyer, who was a big Hillary Clinton supporter during the Democratic presidential primary and was close to former President Bill Clinton, is on the host committee for the CAIR Obama event and said it's being referred to as "Obama Abu" - a riff on the well-known Irish song "O'Donnell Abu!" which dates back to the 1590s.”

[Dankon al la Ceithearna Coille en Nov-Jorko por la unua bildo kaj al Breandán Ó Faith por la dua bildo.]

“Scéal Speisialta”

…de la Belfast Telegraph:

Belfast's Irish language radio station has landed a major scéal speisialta — scoop — in an interview with former First Minister Ian Paisley.

In it, the DUP leader talks of his long interest in St Patrick and his admiration for the sacrifices and dedication of great Irish figures like St Colomba.

The famous ‘no’ man of Ulster politics said ‘yes’ to the interview when approached at an exhibition he was opening with former Belfast Lord Mayor and Ulster Unionist Party MLA Ian Adamson.

But the ex-Free Presbyterian Moderator speaks only in English during the five-to-six minute question and answer session which Raidió Fáilte 107.1FM is to broadcast later this week.

Station manager Fergus Ó hÍr said the piece was part of its mission to endeavour to prove that Irish is a common cultural heritage which belongs to everyone...

Feidhmchlair

….de la Times:

Bhi tu poked. Facebook is being translated into the Irish language, with all of the site’s key phrases already as Gaeilge.

The website’s operator created an application allowing users to translate Facebook into their own dialects. The Irish-language version is under way and should be completed in a few months.

Some 278 Irish language enthusiasts have already translated at least one phrase, while a similar number are using Irish as their default setting on the social networking site. More than 8,500 phrases, including all of Facebook’s core terms, have been translated, even terms such as “poke”, “tag” and “profile”.

Facebook, or Feidhmchlair as it is known in Irish, has been transcribed into 40 languages including Catalan, Polish and French. More than 60 languages are being converted, including Esperanto, Welsh and Afrikaans.

Gaela en Belgio

…de la Strornoway Gazette:

Moves are afoot to give Gaelic a high profile in Belgium.

With this in mind, Gaelic-speaking residents in Brussels – or those passing through – are being invited to attend the Irish English bilingual Claddagh Toastmasters Club which meets on the first and third Thursday of every month.

Claddagh Club mentor Denis Buckley is keen that Scottish Gaels become involved in the club.

He hopes there will be a lot more toasts and after dinner speeches in Scots Gaelic 'over a good glass of Scotch'. ...

Gregory Campbell

…de la Derry Journal:

The DUP's Gregory Campbell has called for a picture of him wearing a Nazi uniform to be removed immediately from a Sinn Fein website.

The article appears on the website of the Sinn Fein youth organisation, Ogra Shinn Fein, and shows a photograph altered to depict the head of the DUP man super-imposed on the body of Joseph Goebbels - one of history's most reviled figures….

…Sinn Fein MLA Barry McElduff said his party would be discussing the issue later today (Wednesday).
"If he has sensitivities, if he has taken issue with something, out of respect I will convey that to other Sinn Féin people when I meet them today," he said.

"Gregory has shown a lack of respect, and even intolerance, towards the Irish language and Irish culture, which is regrettable on the part of the Minister of Culture."...

Irlandalingvo kaj Civilaj Rajtoj

...de la Irish Echo:

An influential group of Irish American lawyers is being urged to put the British government in the dock over a ban on the use of the Irish language in Northern Ireland's courts.

Belfast attorney Michael Flanigan, who is championing a high-profile test case to overturn a 1737 British law which forbade the speaking of Irish in courts in Ireland and is effective to this day in Northern Ireland, says the Brehon Law Society could play a key role in highlighting what he called this "civil rights travesty."…

…Michael Flanigan told the Irish Echo that the legislation was "a cultural Penal law."

"The position of the Crown was all the more surprising considering that we are supposed to be enjoying the fruits of the parity of esteem promised in the Good Friday agreement. The reality is that at the point of contact with the state, on virtually any issue, the only language which can be used by those who consider themselves Irish in Northern Ireland is English," Flanigan said.

"I would encourage Irish American attorneys and the Brehon Law Society to bring their considerable influence to bear on this issue."

Flanigan said that if the case was rejected by the courts in Northern Ireland, he would appeal as far as the European Court on Human Rights, where, ironically, he would be allowed represent his client in Irish as it is a full recognized official and working language of the European Union.

Rob Dunne, newly-elected president of the Brehon Law Society in New York, and an attorney with the law firm of O'Dwyer and Bernstien has pledged to respond to the plea for help on the issue.

"The Irish language ban in Northern Ireland's courts is exactly the type of injustice that Paul O'Dwyer and Frank Durkan founded the Brehon Law Society to fight against," Dunne told the Irish Echo.

"As part of our continuing campaign for equality and justice in Northern Ireland, the Brehons are eager to be engaged in the Irish language issue until it is resolved. The British government has to be challenged for defending a law which is nothing more than a flagrant abuse of civil rights," he said.

Lerneja Unuiĝo

…de la BBC:

Plans to reorganise secondary schools in a part of Carmarthenshire may limit access to Welsh medium education, it has been claimed.

Plaid Cymru has concerns over merging Pantycelyn in Llandovery with Tre-Gib in Llandeilo and Ysgol y Gwendraeth in Drefach with nearby Maes yr Yrfa.

The county's executive board has backed a report calling for the restructuring of comprehensives in the Dinefwr area.

It says it would increase the choice of courses offered to 14 to 19 year olds.

The report was drawn up after discussions between Carmarthenshire County Council and assembly government officials, local head teachers, Carmarthenshire College and the voluntary sector….

…Plaid Cymru group leader Peter Hughes Griffiths said he was "disappointed" by some aspects of the report.

He said pupils in the Tywi and Amman Valleys would miss out on the chance of a full Welsh medium education.

He added: "The option is definitely missing - they should be able to offer Welsh language education there because the Welsh language is so strong."

mygaelic.com

…de Deadlines Scotland:

A Glaswegian who can’t speak a word of Gaelic dreamt up Scotland’s new Celtic social networking site.

Hot on the heels of Facebook and Myspace, Scotland’s 60,000 Gaelic speakers now have their own version - mygaelic.com

And English-speaking web surfers will be able to translate the site from the native tongue into English at the click of a mouse.

Gillian Thompson, 31, pitched her idea of a Gaelic facebook-type website to the Bord an Gaidhlig who were looking for ways to reach out to Scots and encourage them to learn the traditional language....

The O.C.

…de la Yale Globalist:

In Episode 17 of the first season of The O.C., Marissa breaks up with Ryan because he is jealous of her friendship with Oliver, a new transfer student. But to teenagers watching the show in Dublin, she breaks the news to him in Irish.

The stars of this American TV show, which is dubbed for Irish TV, are some of only a few voices speaking Irish today. There were once an estimated two million or more Irish speakers in Ireland. Today, only 20 to 70,000 people are considered fluent…

…“When I was growing up, Irish was considered a rural thing, a backward thing,” explained Breandán Ó Caollaí, deputy consul general of Ireland. For much of the 20th century, the language was dismissed as a symbol of the poor Ireland that so many had left behind. Ireland’s economy has experienced a dramatic revival, but the language has yet to capture the new generation. That is where Marissa and Ryan come in...

Kimralingva en la Bordo Lazura

...de la Riviera Reporter:

As anyone who travels widely soon realises, the Irish and the Scots have emigrated to every part of the world. But not the Welsh. The historic exception, as Penelope Fillon reminded me, was the move of a sizeable group from Wales to Patagonia in southern Argentina in the latter half of the nineteenth century. They quit their homeland – as their descendants’ website says – “to escape the attempt of the English to impose their culture”. Visitors today find “Welsh chapels and tea houses”, male voice choirs and still some speaking of the language...

...Nigel McLaren, born in London, went to university in Wales and then worked there for twenty years. “I’m certainly an adoptive Welshman – very much under the influence with a wife and four daughters who speak the language.

Cnoc Mhuire kaj la Irlandalingvo

...de la Times of London:

On August 21, 1879, in a poor and remote village in Mayo, about a dozen people saw a bright light outside the gable of the local Catholic church and within it figures of the Virgin Mary, St Joseph and St John. The apparition persisted for several hours, though the life-size figures neither spoke nor moved.

A subsequent investigation by a panel of priests concluded that testimony given by local people about the apparition was acceptable, and nowadays Knock is one of the leading Marian shrines in the world, drawing about 1.5m visitors a year...

...The local priests, Frs Cavanagh and Bourke, successfully monopolised presentation of the apparition in the wider media. Practically all the early news reporters relied on the co-operation of these priests and interviewed people they selected. What was left out of the press reports — and what reporters were incapable of discovering due to their ignorance of the Irish language — was the traditional idiom of Virgin appearances as commentary on the role of priests.

.

["Li montris forton per Sia brako, Li dispelis fierulojn en la penso de ilia koro. Li malaltigis potenculojn de iliaj tronoj, Kaj Li altigis humilulojn. Malsatulojn Li plenigis per bonajxo, Kaj ricxulojn Li forsendis malplenaj." ~ Luko 1: 51-53.]

Tekstmesaĝi

…de la Wall Street Journal:

Can a language stay relevant if it isn't used to send text messages on a cellphone?

Language advocates worry that the answer is no, and they are pushing to make more written languages available on cellphones…

…Native-language boosters in Ireland and Britain have successfully pushed for development of Gaelic and Welsh languages on cellphones for texting so they remain relevant for young people.

Breandan Mac Craith, marketing director for Dublin-based Foras na Gaeilge, which promotes Gaelic, says, "It's extremely important that language isn't something that's only in books." In 2006, Foras began working to develop texting software for the Irish language with market leader Tegic. He says "texting way surpasses voice calls," but "trying to find the accent marks that we put on some of our vowels is very time consuming. So texts got written in English."

Once the software was available, Foras started pushing carriers and handset makers to install it on their phones. Last year, Samsung Corp., trying to steal a march on market leader Nokia Corp., added an Irish-language handset to its line. "They're fabulous tools for us," says Mr. Mac Craith. "It facilitates the Irish language as a communications tool for every day -- not just in the classroom."

Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh

…de la Belfast Telegraph:

Belfast's Irish language community is as strong as it has been in a hundred years, Gerry Adams said today.

The Sinn Fein President and Irish language enthusiast said the city enjoyed a growing gaelic language scene that was among the most vibrant in Ireland.

He said the tongue had become a living language in the city again and repeated calls for DUP Culture Minister Gregory Campbell to deliver legislation to protect it.

Mr Adams made his comments in the Culturlann - a converted church in the heart of west Belfast housing the city's best known Irish language centre, complete with bilingual restaurant and book shop…