A friend of mine just sent me a link to a Mental Floss article entitled "8 Endangered Languages That Could Soon Disappear." http://mentalfloss.com/article/50468/8- ... -disappear

Irish was first on the list, which also included languages with one speaker, 200 speakers, 3,000ish speakers. It's presence in the piece surprised me. I'm wondering whether people here have a reaction to the article.

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Brand new Irish learner inclined to ask questions. Writer, Words & Worlds of New York, a website about language-learning. http://www.ellenjovin.com

I think Mental Floss needs to do a bit more research!

The order of the languages in that list has been done at random. And the choice of these languages too...

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Yes, I did realize the order was random. But the position at the top/beginning was a conspicuous one. I found it odd.

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Brand new Irish learner inclined to ask questions. Writer, Words & Worlds of New York, a website about language-learning. http://www.ellenjovin.com

One thing I've found, since I began studying Irish, is that some "friends" and family members seem to delight in making it sound like I'm wasting my time by referring to it as a "dead" language, saying things like "when we were in Ireland, we didn't see or hear a single word of Irish!" (to which I replied "you mean you didn't see a single road sign the entire time you were there?"), or sending me articles such as that one. Infuriating!

Redwolf

I don't understand why "friends" or family members could want to bother you with such rubbish. Or maybe is it because I'm lucky to have nice friends and a nice family? I wouldn't even think of saying things that may make my friends and family sad or angry...

Btw, people don't know what a dead language is. It's obvious enough though... a dead language is a language that isn't alive. Irish has speakers, so it's alive. And if one doesn't know that, one just needs to google "Irish language" to find plenty of information about it. Even in paper dictionaries and encyclopedies. So wtf?

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Why are you studying it anyway?

I'm not being a smart aleck. I actually want to know!

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Brand new Irish learner inclined to ask questions. Writer, Words & Worlds of New York, a website about language-learning. http://www.ellenjovin.com

Lughaidh...I don't know if it's an American thing or if it's just a "my family" thing, but there seems to be a perception that spending the time to learn a language that you don't "need" to speak and that gives you no economic advantage is a waste of time. I've had people ask, for example, why I haven't spent all this time learning Spanish (which is economically useful in California) or a language that might come in handy while traveling, such as French, Italian, or German.

Ellen...fair question! Short form: Because I've been passionately in love with Irish traditional music since I was about 13 and, being an "all-or-nothing" sort of person, that passion expanded to include Irish culture, history, folklore, and language. I actually wrote a blog post about it a while back, which you can find here: http://www.bitesizeirishgaelic.com/blog ... ve-affair/

Redwolf

Loved the entry/explanation, Redwolf. Thank you for the link. I for one am not practical when it comes to language-learning. I totally understand.

And yes, this is indeed an excellent and instructive example: Bhuail an fear an asal inné.

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Brand new Irish learner inclined to ask questions. Writer, Words & Worlds of New York, a website about language-learning. http://www.ellenjovin.com

Redwolf, it's not just an American thing since most of the people who regard it as useless are the Irish-born, They think we're nuts since they can find no use for Gaeilge and assume we'd find less