gliaire wrote:
When the caighdeán is abolished and replaced with authentic Irish it will be the biggest step in last few decades in saving the Irish language.
No, a Standard language is necessary.
But its arificiality and its essence as a reasonable compromise must be highlighted to students and learners of Irish.
And it should content - as much as possible - all used, even rarely used, idioms and grammar forms, e.g. relative forms, synthetic verb forms, genitive and even dative forms - not as a prescription (as little as possible should be prescribed) but as a sign of acceptability - and no attempts of "simplification" or over-regulation should be made.
And - last but not least - the supremacy of native Irish, all dialects, over the Standard should be emphasised.
If possible, dead local dialect forms should be examined in Galltacht schools. So that people really know what kind of Irish their anccestors probably spoke.
In the Gaeltacht people should of course be encouraged to speak the local dialect.