Why is the Gaelic language dying out?
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Irish or Scottish Gaelic?
In Ireland [number of fluent urban speakers is rising (largely because of the growth of urban Irish-medium education)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_the_Irish_language#Trends_in_usage).
The same thing is happening in Scotland, [with the number of younger people who speak Gaelic rising](https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-gaelic-language-plan-2016-2021/pages/4/#:~:text=Of%20these%2058%2C000%20people%20(1.1,an%2011%25%20drop%20in%20speakers.)
In the past, Gaelic wasn’t valued and was seen as inferior to English. However, recently there have been movements by governments to preserve the language and to make sure that schools which teach in Gaelic are available, in the same way that Welsh has been supported and encouraged in Wales.
All Gaelic users speak English as well as Gaelic, apart from preschool children who have Gaelic as their first language. However, younger people tend to favour speaking English
Gaelic (let’s say Scottish Gaelic) has been marginalized to the point that life would be very difficult for someone who spoke exclusively Gaelic. Most of the people you meet will speak to you in English. Most media is in English. Most signs and official documents are in English. As a result, essentially everyone who speaks Gaelic also speaks English.
This makes the language less likely to spread to future generations. Parents may choose to speak English in the home, especially if one of the parents is not fluent in Gaelic. This means children grow up learning only English during their primary language acquisition years. In the next generation you now have even more locals who don’t speak Gaelic so even more families that speak English in the home. Rinse and repeat until nobody speaks Gaelic in the home and possibly anywhere.
This path can be avoided, but it takes a conscious effort on the part of both parents and schools to maintain the language. In some places that effort is being made, and it’s unlikely that Gaelic will ever fully “die out” in the sense of having no fluent speakers. However, even famously “dead” languages like Latin clear this bar. They only places where Gaelic could currently be said to be “alive” in the sense of being the primary language of a community is in very remote parts of the Hebrides, and that is unlikely to last forever.
The Irish language was the main language here until the normals invaded. In overtime english settlers wiped out the language and culture, killing all those who opposed their rules. They banned Catholicism, as well as schools at one point. The famine of 1845-1849 wiped out almost 3/4 of the population finishing off the language. The Gaelic revival in the early 19th century managed to rediscover the language and culture but not to the same extent as before. The main language of the country slowly became English, and even town names changed to occupier translations. While most areas lost the language as people died due to famine, poor living conditions or death at crown hands some Gaeltacht areas in the west and south retained the language. In 1922 the Irish free state reinstalled the language and culture in national education
That’s easy. Cause English is the norm. Garlic is a very isolated launguage. I’ve never heard anyone speak it in person and I lived in the highlands for years and even now still have a place up there. You just dnt hear it. Some off the very old ppl can talk it but they dnt in every day living.
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