A Chara, - On June 25th, you endorsed the Minister for Education's initiative to remove the requirement on secondary teachers to pass an Irish language test, even as you applauded the success of Gaelscoileanna and adult learners. Such a paradoxical posture was bound to generate controversy, and so it has, with some venting a decades-old resentment at being taught (in) Irish against their will, but others in a new generation feeling that their linguistic birthright is being sold off.
The fact is that no-one yet understands very much about the forces which diminish or revitalise a language. In Ireland over the last century, Irish has been seen as something like the lifeblood of an Irish state; official roles were assigned to it, but its actual use declined despite them. Bizarrely, it is only in the age of Celtic tiger, when Ireland has begun to see itself as a secular European power no longer in the shadow of its bigger neighbour or in thrall to its confessional traditions, that individuals outside the traditional Gaeltachtai have begun to succeed in recreating a life with Irish.
On the other side of the world, Maori and Hawaiian are making a come-back, as symbols of greater respect for indigenous peoples who had been taking a back-seat to Anglos in their own countries. Why should this symbolism work for them, if it hasn't worked for Irish? Closer to home, Breton Diwan schools are battling for parity of financial support with Catholic Church schools (and secular French schools), something the Gaelscoileanna can now rely on - yet in France this is bound up with a constitutional stand-off between President and Prime Minister. Ireland at least seems to have its language policy both very much in public consciousness, and susceptible to political action without constitutional tremors, as the action of the Minister for Education shows.
The survival of smaller languages is fraught all over the world, but different issues seem to surface everywhere: in China, imposition of rigid writing systems can hide the existence of whole languages, thus suppressing any chance of their achieving literate awareness; in Guatemala, deliberate political suppression and communal violence have acted to repress use and development of the many Mayan languages. Banned languages can flourish under-cover, as Kurdish seems to be doing in most of the states where it is spoken, or simply get forgotten, as has happened to so many American Indian languages in North America.
Our charity, which focuses on ways and means to give greater vitality to smaller languages, believes that a lot more needs to be done to understand what is crucial here. We are hosting a conference in Maynooth, from September 17th to 19th, which will look particularly at the effects of education policy on language all over the world. As you will have gathered, we see Ireland as a particularly rich theatre in which to view the effects of a language policy.
Whatever emerges from our discussions, one thing is already clear. It is far too early to take a complacent stance, like your easy endorsement of the Minister for Education's new policy. When the future of a language may be at stake, there is a need for anxious concern, not back-slapping. - Is mise
Nicholas Ostler, Foundation for Endangered Languages, Batheaston Villa, 172 Bailbrook Lane Bath, England