My friends will confirm it to you by rolling their eyes: I regularly go to the net to defend minority languages. And from time to time, my interlocutor tries a passing-shot along the line which holds in one word: “Ireland”. This is understandable: I indeed maintain that a regional language cannot develop without having a significant place in schools, administrations or the media, and here is a country where Gaelic has been an official language since its independence in 1921. , and whose rate of speakers remains apparently marginal (1). It is logical that I am opposed to the argument…
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So I asked good connoisseurs of Ireland about this apparent paradox. And here is what they explained to me.
– Independence came too late. Irish, also called Gaelic, is a Celtic language that was used exclusively on the island for a long time. It is especially from the appointment of Henry VIII of England as king, in the 16th century, that the English language began to set foot there, as the other said (I love these rickety metaphors). From the outset, the invaders clearly express their desire to eradicate the native language, but English will however take several steps before becoming the majority. In 1801, during the treaty of “union” between Great Britain and Ireland, 3.5 million of the 5 million inhabitants still practice Irish. Before the Great Famine of 1845-1849 (an attack of potato blight) led to the death or emigration of some three million inhabitants. Result: “In 1911, only 550,000 Irish people still spoke the language of their ancestors, i.e. 12% of the population”, as Jean Sellier points out in A history of languages (Discovery). “The population, moreover, was very poor, adds historian Rozenn Milin. His priority was not to save Gaelic, but to eat his fill, even if it meant using English..”
A language that has been despised for too long. For centuries, the island was treated like a colony. From the 19th century onwards, a large number of English schools were set up, where children were formally forbidden to speak Irish,” recalls Henriette Walter (Languages from here and elsewhere, Books). And for the rule to be respected, children are forced to wear a “counting stick” around their necks. “Each time they were caught speaking Gaelic, a notch was engraved on the stick, and at the end of the day, the punishment followed: as many blows with the stick as notches! explains Rozenn Milin. This perverse system is even continued at home: parents were also required to hit their children when they used “bad language”, the only one, however, they knew themselves. they could be kicked off their land by the landowner – usually an Englishman – if their children spoke Irish too much.” The language has therefore been associated with notions of “fault” and “punishment” while English has become the language of power and success.
The “betrayal” of the middle classes… As often, the “elites” were the first to understand that their social promotion passed through the language of the dominant. From the 18th century, the wealthiest Catholic families – followed by those who aspired to enrich themselves – adopted English. From then on, Irish was no longer spoken except by peasants and workers, who were often poor and illiterate. A distribution that has reinforced the negative image of Gaelic, which has become synonymous with lack of culture, rurality, social misery, etc.
The Catholic Church preferred English
…and the Church. The Catholic Church never used Irish, but English. A major difference with Wales – another Celtic land within the United Kingdom – where the Bible was translated from the 16th century, which allowed Welsh to become the language of writing and the sacred there. Assets which the Irish did not benefit from.
Independence before language. English being imposed in the public domain, Irish nationalists have always adopted it as the usual language, considering it above all as an emblem. From the 1960s, moreover, “the State opted for a policy aimed at creating a bilingual society and renounced making Irish the language of all the inhabitants of the Republic”, as underlined by James Costa and Devin Petit Cahill in the article “Linguistic revitalization” of the very interesting special issue Language and Society 2021. This is still the case today. In fact, the majority of the inhabitants delegate the preservation of Gaelic to a small Irish-speaking minority living in coastal areas (south, west and north-west). They consider it as a cultural heritage without trying to speak it – a bit like the French want Notre-Dame-de-Paris to be restored without having the intention of going to mass. “Unlike Wales, Ireland prioritized independence, not language,” said Rozenn Milin.
Does this mean that having an official status for a weakened language is useless? No. In the case of Gaelic, it simply came too late and lacked real political will among the island’s rulers. However, it was not useless because, without it, the Irish would perhaps have already disappeared. “The official status does not solve everything, but in its absence, the place of Gaelic would be much weaker in education, signage and the media”, underlines Eamon Ó Ciosáin, teacher of French and Breton at Maynooth, the National University of Ireland And to quote this example: “When parents who want to open a course in a school come up against resistance from the administration, they use this status to win their case”. , in France, lovers of Alsatian, Catalan, Creoles and all minority languages.
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(1) The 2016 census reports nearly 74,000 people speaking Irish daily and more than 111,000 speaking it every week, outside the school system for a total population of around 5 million.
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The Currency of the Worldby Philippe Ménard, Editions Droz.
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Meeting ID: 851 1485 7749
Passcode: 692448
Cancellation of the literary competition in Gascon for the Bayonne Festival
The Gascon Academy of Bayonne Adour had launched a literary competition in the Gascon language during the Bayonne celebrations to complete the offer of the association “le Basque et la plume” which offered the same type of competition in French and Basque. It has just canceled it for the sake of appeasement, its initiative having been perceived as competitive. Candidates who have prepared can nevertheless send their works to the association. Aci Gasconha d’Anglet as part of its 31st “Calam” competition.
Erratum
Contrary to what I wrote last week, the Hurons are not Iroquois since they are two different peoples. I apologize to readers for this error.
Conference on April 14 in Narbonne: Save regional languages!
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TO WATCH
Molac law: its advances and its obstacles
This is the theme of the intervention that the sociolinguist Philippe Blanchet gave within the framework of the OPLO dimars (OPLO Tuesdays) on March 14. It is now possible to see it again on the Youtube channel of the Office Public de la Langue Occitane.