English amongst Irish speakers

ant.lei

Sorry for the string of strange topics I started. I have been watching TG4 on the inter web, reading subtitle of course. But I found that (especially on ros na rún) people use some English expressions even when they are speaking Irish. I was just wondering how common this phenomenon is. Do modern Irish speakers tend to insert English sentences in their Irish conversation a lot? Are there things simply can't be said in Irish?

Cheers.

Paulj

i don't really speak much irish myself but i'd imagine most things can be said in irish except for certain modern nouns and technical type things. There's no point reinventing the wheel in these cases i'd imagine.

Gael

ant.lei wrote:

Sorry for the string of strange topics I started. I have been watching TG4 on the inter web, reading subtitle of course. But I found that (especially on ros na rún) people use some English expressions even when they are speaking Irish. I was just wondering how common this phenomenon is. Do modern Irish speakers tend to insert English sentences in their Irish conversation a lot? Are there things simply can't be said in Irish?

Cheers.

It's just an indication of how much pressure Irish is under from English a sa spoken medium. It's just a regrettable symthom of being so under pressure from English. Though you'll find that they will still keep fundamentally Irish syntax even when they pepper their Irish with English words and phrases.

i.e. Níl sé le trust - He's not to be trusted

Although the English word 'trust' has been added to the sentence, the syntax and verbal/word structure still remains strongly Irish. But in the long-term, it is probably not a good trend for the health of the language as a distinct medium. But it is not an indication of a lack of expression in the pure Irish language. Just that it's is in a weak state as a minority language.

ant.lei

My reply went missing because of the system restore. Anyway, just wanted to say thank you for the replies.

I was just asking what is the pressure from English? I understand the majority of the country speak English as their first language. Is it the reason? And what is the impact of those new Irish-medium schools? Is it helping the language to revive?

Cheers.

aonfocaleile

In areas where Irish is spoken, the language comes under particular pressure - tourists passing through and non-Irish speakers moving into the area are just two examples of how.

trevorku

Its because irish is an old language and hasnt been updated. Also english words are adopted because as you can imagine there is no updated work for COOL or something like that. Its not commonly spoken so if people on Ros Na Run start using new irish words it would confuse people,It will always be like this as its not a practiced language by our culture. However it does sound perculiar when they use english words on that show RNR

greenteaicedtea

in a broader sense, languages are borrowing from others all the time. "Rendezvous" is used in English though it's French, and it has a different sense in English than the English word "meeting". Though Irish is I suppose being overshadowed by English any way you want to look at it.

Rockerette

I just found this thread now, and its a bit of a Catch 22 i suppose, in terms on English coming into the language. If it has to be "appealing" at the moment, it needs to contain all these "modern" words, and yeah, tehy dont sound the best if theyre just English slipped in, but its better than sticking to older, common Irish words I think.. We dont want it to be the language of bland vocab..




Personally, I slip in more English words than most, but thats just cos im nowhere near fluent and just dont know the vocab..!
But i love speaking it (well, trying ) so i would much prefer to have a flowing conversation with English words thrown in for things I dont know, than a broken conversation of.. "sorry, whats the word for..?" (or more correctly, tá brón orm ach cad é an focal gaeilge do... )


Someday maybe the English words will vanish...