Imagine if we all spoke Irish

karlog

In my opinion it would be a disaster.

English being the most widely spoken language in the world it's lucky we have it as our first language agree?:D

phasers

póg mo thóin

brummytom

I'm sure there was a thread with a similar pondering very recently?


If you all spoke Irish, all I'd have left on the internet would be youtube and porn

Random

In a way I think it would be cool .. we'd have something very distinctive and cool about us and we'd all know how to speak a foreign language (English) because we'd learn it in school proper (or else we wouldn't function in the world).

In a way though .. I wonder how backwards this country might be? How would the ROI / NI divide work? Would English just force it's way in as the primary language eventually anyway?

So many questions .. so little coffee ...

IIMII

:rolleyes:

Hagar

brummytom wrote: »

If you all spoke Irish, all I'd have left on the internet would be youtube and porn

There's something else?

Plug

Our country would have always been fcuked if we still spoke KUUU Chhhhulin language.

My name is URL

If we all spoke Irish it'd still be 1970

Latchy

Eamon dev'elera would 'Whoop' in his grave at the joy of it all

Aidric

Ta tu ceart.

4zn76tysfajdxp

karlog wrote: »

English being the most widely spoken language in the world

No it isn't...

it's lucky we have it as our first language agree?:D

Not all of us do.

brummytom

Latchy wrote: »

Eamon dev'elera would 'Whoop' in his grave at the joy of it all

He was the fella who looked like Alan Rickman right?

He was born George, hardly the most Irish of names

dsmythy

We've only had this thread recently. We'd learn English as a second language like every other country.

gaeilgegrinds

English is my second language, having Irish as my first has only helped better my understanding of the English language in my opinion.

DancingQueen:)

If we all spoke Irish we'd probably be writing a thread about how weird it would be if we spoke english :rolleyes:
but i think it would be pretty cool and it would be easier to learn in schools which i would be happy about !!

Armin_Tamzarian

karlog wrote: »

In my opinion it would be a disaster.

English being the most widely spoken language in the world it's lucky we have it as our first language agree?:D

I'm not sure if it would.
I mean, the Dutch speak Dutch, the Polish speak Polish, the Americans talk shlte, etc, etc.
Even in Wales alot of the sheep-shaggers locals speak Welsh as their first language and I don't think disaster has struck yet.

Also, I think Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world, not English.

jill_valentine

I think it would be infinitely harder to chat somebody up.

Irish is not the language of love.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Eammon De Valera would whoop at a lot of the **** that goes in the country these days...

Latchy

brummytom wrote: »

He was the fella who looked like Alan Rickman right?

He was born George, hardly the most Irish of names

Yep , he was born in new york of italian/Irish parents .His vision was for an all ireland Irish speaking state .But he didn't vision the late 20th , 21rst century changes in Ireland on the Horizon

markopantelic

Latchy wrote: »

Yep , he was born in new york of italian/Irish parents .His vision was for an all ireland Irish speaking state .But he didn't vision the late 20th , 21rst century changes in Ireland on the Horizon

Nope, a Cuban of Spanish descent, his real name second name was De Valero.

Latchy

markopantelic wrote: »

Nope, a Cuban of Spanish descent, his real name second name was De Valero.

Oh right , new he was of some Latin descent

HalloweenJack

Would the Celtic Tiger have happened?

I mean one of the reason why US companies invested in Ireland over other European countries was because we spoke English naturally.

LimeFruitGum

I reckon if we were all brought up as Irish-speakers, we'd be like the Dutch and Scandies with excellent English skills.

enniscorthy

karlog wrote: »

In my opinion it would be a disaster.

English being the most widely spoken language in the world it's lucky we have it as our first language agree?:D

deifeo mo chara héhéhéháháháháhóhóhóhó-eachta

markopantelic

We already have excellent English skills, the advantage for them is that their bi-lingual or in the Dutch case sometimes multi-lingual.

hardcore

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Would the Celtic Tiger have happened?

Probably would have been better, no money-no celtic tiger- no recession.

mikemac

karlog wrote: »

English being the most widely spoken language in the world it's lucky we have it as our first language agree?:D

I'm pretty sure it's isn't.

Surely Chineese and Spanish are more widely spoken.
And whatever language they have in India & Pakistan would be up there

Abi

karlog wrote: »

In my opinion it would be a disaster.

English being the most widely spoken language in the world it's lucky we have it as our first language agree?:D

It is impossible to speak Irish without sounding like a cabbage muncher, so yes.

brummytom

Abigayle wrote: »

It is impossible to speak Irish without sounding like a cabbage muncher, so yes.

Is that some kind of euphamism for Lesbians?

sofia11

I think the large population in China mean more people speak Mandarin Chinese. Spanish seems to be spoken in more countries ie South America and North America as well as Spain and then English spoken in many countries around the world including India where Dell has some call centres It must have helped encourage American companies to come here. I think English is the third most widely spoken language, we've made it our own with our Irish accent! Useful to have English if you were lucky enough now at present to get a job in another English speaking country. I'm sure Irish speakers make sure their children can speak English all the same.

karlog

No there are more speakers of chinese and spanish than english but english is the most widely spoken language across the globe.

conchubhar1

karlog wrote: »

In my opinion it would be a disaster.

English being the most widely spoken language in the world it's lucky we have it as our first language agree?:D

Because we can only possibly use one language?

ah the ignorance is bliss:rolleyes:

karlog

No clearly we can speak more than one language but having english as are primary would be better than having irish no? you dont see any other countries that would consider having irish as a secondary language do you?

conchubhar1

karlog wrote: »

No clearly we can speak more than one language but having english as are primary would be better than having irish no?

our! not are

im not one to comment on peoples english - but your point is we have fluent english and you dont by the looks of it

anyway - no but you dont see the vast majority of the worlds languages being used in other countries (as a second or third language)

irish is spoken in other countries by the way

Abi

brummytom wrote: »

Is that some kind of euphamism for Lesbians?

No, you are thinking of the carpet / rug variety.

Abi wrote:

It is impossible to speak Irish without sounding like a bogger

Try again

karlog

conchubhar1 wrote: »

irish is spoken in other countries by the way

name them

Latchy

Im kinda fond of the little bit I learned at school and stil remember .......the little bit .

Wazdakka

brummytom wrote: »

If you all spoke Irish, all I'd have left on the internet would be youtube and porn

:eek: there's more??

mikemac

I'm pretty sure the Israelies sent military staff and agents to Ireland to study the language.
And then used Irish for codewords for military operations.

Pretty interesting story I reckon
This was back in the 1950's & 60's

conchubhar1

america - canada (gaeltacht there) - belgium (publication in brussels - not the parliment alone) - australia - the UK (along with scotland and isle of man, and their similar languages)

there is only a few - but the main

we have a dutch journalist who speaks and writes in irish
panu, who does a huge blog in irish, is finnish!

brummytom

Wazdakka wrote: »

:eek: there's more??

I'm afraid so... they're just distractions from the porn and youtube though.

DubMedic

karlog wrote: »

In my opinion it would be a disaster.

English being the most widely spoken language in the world it's lucky we have it as our first language agree?:D

Irish is the first official language of the Republic Of Ireland.

Our first language would therefore be Irish, if you are an Irish Citizen , born in the ROI.

.

Latchy

mikemac wrote: »

I'm pretty sure the Israelies sent military staff and agents to Ireland to study the language.
And then used Irish for codewords for military operations.

Pretty interesting story I reckon
This was back in the 1950's & 60's

The irish army has being using the language as codespeak for years ,specialy out on UN duties .Perhaps why the Israelies had to learn it to

karlog

DubMedic wrote: »

Irish is the first official language of the Republic Of Ireland.

Our first language would therefore be Irish, if you are an Irish Citizen , born in the ROI.

.

Our first language is irish and hardly anyone speaks it:rolleyes:

karlog

conchubhar1 wrote: »

america - canada (gaeltacht there) - belgium (publication in brussels - not the parliment alone) - australia - the UK (along with scotland and isle of man, and their similar languages)

there is only a few - but the main

we have a dutch journalist who speaks and writes in irish
panu, who does a huge blog in irish, is finnish!

Yet over 115 countries use english do the math:P

conchubhar1

karlog wrote: »

Our first language is irish and hardly anyone speaks it:rolleyes:

if you count all of ireland - roughly 5 million say without the, roughly 900,000, unionist voters who on the whole do not speak irish - then we would have 250,000 who would use irish weekly.

that is 5% of the population - no one, ah ye you are right!

Somnus

I think it would be great if Irish was our primary language, we don't really have many distinctive traits to our country in my opinion, I mean in terms of heritage etc.

It'd be great if we could all speak our native language. We'd learn English as a second in school and, as most poeple have said, the majority of the country would then be fluent in that too.

I really got into Irish in 5th and 6th year in secondary school. Bit disappointed I'm forgetting it a bit now. I'll attempt to speak it more as a result of this thread though

Takk

karlog wrote: »

In my opinion it would be a disaster.

English being the most widely spoken language in the world it's lucky we have it as our first language agree?:D

FEALL

conchubhar1

karlog wrote: »

Yet over 115 countries use english do the math:P

61 million population in relation to irelands 4 million

15 times more population, do the math!

---

we have our sports, music and literature

still language is the strongest (despite its relatively weak support/usage)

plus we all can speak irish - most of the population choose not to though!

karlog

conchubhar1 wrote: »

if you count all of ireland - roughly 5 million say without the, roughly 900,000, unionist voters who on the whole do not speak irish - then we would have 250,000 who would use irish weekly.

that is 5% of the population - no one, ah ye you are right!

Well comparing 5% of people to the rest of ireland is hardly anyone;)

karlog

conchubhar1 wrote: »

61 million population in relation to irelands 4 million

15 times more population, do the math!

What the F*** does that even mean you trying to make a point?