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.

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["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…

Cumann an Fhéineachais

...de la blogo, From the Balcony, de Máirtín Ó Muilleoir:

A powerful group of Irish American lawyers are 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 forbids the speaking of Irish in courts in Northern Ireland, says the Brehon Law Society could play a key role in highlighting this "civil rights travesty"...

.

...Rob Dunne, newly-elected President of the Brehon Law Society in New York and an attorney with the New York law firm of O'Dwyer and Bernstien has pledged to respond to the Belfast SOS.

.

“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," he told the Irish Echo...

La Lingvoj de Bretonio

…de Région Bretagne:

Après avoir été fragilisées depuis le milieu du XIXe siècle, les langues bretonnes (le breton et le gallo) considérées par l’UNESCO « en danger sérieux d’extinction », retrouvent peu à peu leurs places dans la société bretonne.

Aujourd’hui, 8,5 % de la population bretonne parle breton. Collectivités locales, monde associatif, médias et nombreux bénévoles œuvrent pour promouvoir ces langues régionales et préserver la richesse représentée par ce patrimoine…

Apollo Santana

…de la Evening Leader:

A major campaign has been launched to create a new Welsh language centre in memory of a former mayor of Denbigh.

Among the campaigners is a Chilean human rights champion who lives in North Wales and is learning Welsh.

Apollo Santana and his fellow campaigners are dedicating their crusade to the memory of ex-Denbigh mayor David Jones, who devoted his life to promoting links between Wales and Latin America.

Mr Santana is a member of the Flintshire-based Friends of Popeth Cymraeg (Welsh Unlimited).

Klaskerien ha Treizherien Soñjoú

...de Accordages:

L’opération "Quêteurs et Passeurs de mémoire" est une initiative du Conseil général du Finistère.

Elle propose une mise en relation des jeunes scolarisés en breton, les Quêteurs, et des bretonnants de naissance, les Passeurs.

L’objectif visé est à la fois culturel et social : sauvegarder et transmettre le breton populaire, sa richesse et sa diversité et favoriser les liens entre les générations.

Litriocht.com

…de it@cork:

Litriocht.com, the world’s largest online Irish Language bookshop, won the Eircom- sponsored Golden Spiders award as the best e-business in Ireland for 2008.

The award was presented to Litriocht owner, Tom Fitzgerald in a Gala ceremony in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin on Friday 20 November. Litriocht.com, is based in Cill Chúile in Corca Dhuibhne, Co. Kerry, and is part of the Bard na nGleann group, based in Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh, Co. Cork.

Irlandalingva Ĵurnalo Fermiĝas

…de la Belfast Telegraph:

Northern Ireland's only Irish language daily newspaper is to close with the loss of eight jobs, it was announced today.

West Belfast-based La Nua (New Day) will shut at the end of the year after more than two decades in production because official funding has been withdrawn, its managing director said.

Mairtin O Muilleoir added that a proposal to provide a service online at reduced cost had been rejected by all-Ireland sponsoring body Foras na Gaeilge.

Foras said there were not enough readers and sales figures were not high enough.

Mr O Muilleoir said: "At a time when a Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) Quarter is taking shape in west Belfast, the decision to stop publishing a daily newspaper is counterintuitive and unwise."

La Corrigan Fratoj kaj la Irlandalingvo

...de la Limerick Post:

The Corrigan Brothers came together four years ago as Hardy Drew and the Nancy boys and came to prominence with a rap in the Irish language called “Cupla Focal” (a few words).

They followed this with a song about a tragic yet hilarious relationship that found them appearing on the RTE comedy show Podge and Rodge in a series called Ballydung Idol.

They lead the Ballydung Idol competition for eight weeks eventually coming second.

[* Bildo de la blogo, Nascent Narratives.]