A chara, – Sean Hayes’s letter on writers of Irish infuriated me but I am very, very, thankful to him for writing it (September 7th).
It highlights a particular linguistic trap or deficit: the absence of a culture of reading works in their original Gaeilge. As a fluent and daily user of an Ghaeilge in its spoken, read, and written form, I am very aware, without prejudice, of the grip English has, as a language, on just about everything including the bourgeoning cyberspace.
The consequence of that is that people, if they admit to it, will sooner read an English version of a document rather than its Irish (translated) counterpart.
Ninety-nine per cent of translations today stem from translations from English into Irish and not vice versa. The outcome is that Irish books, newspapers, magazines, and Irish versions of documents in the main are not read and become redundant, because it is so much easier and efficient to read material in English and to get your information from that language source.
Frequently in The Irish Times we have seen references to the cost in time and money to providing translations to Irish of materials that very few will take on themselves to read. For a language such as an Ghaeilge to survive it has to have status and function. Translations to Irish in the main render the language functionless as its English counterpart is utilised first, purely out of convenience. There is no gain here at all for an Ghaeilge.
Here is the nub: a daily user of Irish is presumably bilingual with English also, so why are we not challenged to read material as Gaeilge only? If more and more material was produced in Irish (The Irish Times take note!) we would be engendering a culture of reading in Irish and be challenged to do so (without the help or crutch of a translation) and over time Mr Hayes’s difficulty with writers of Irish would be addressed.
If I write exclusively in Irish (without translation) “Beidh mé ag tabhairt amach nótaí caoga euro ar Dhroichead Uí Chonaill ag meánlae amárach” I am in no doubt that an orderly queue will have formed by 11.45 to avail of the opportunity!
So, go raibh maith agat, Mr Hayes, you have done an Ghaeilge a major favour, by drawing attention to this issue, and probably saving the State a lot of cost into the future. – Is mise,
VINCENT HOLMES,
Seacrest,
Cnoc na Cathrach,
Galway.