Irish: The language isn’t dead, it’s just misunderstood

It’s the oldest language in Western Europe, but it’s not taught in many schools outside its native country. It’s misunderstood and often called by the wrong name.

It’s Irish, and for the first time it’s being taught at the University of Washington.

This course is not on how to speak English with an Irish accent. This is how to speak Irish, which is the official language of Ireland. Gaelic is not the language of Ireland. Gaelic isn’t even a language at all – it’s a combination of languages.

Professor Paul Murphy, who just returned from 14 years in Ireland, said some might consider it trivial to call a language by its proper name and teach it correctly, but he thinks it’s important. “If I can compare it to saying to somebody from Sweden ‘you speak Scandanavian,’ they would say ‘do you mean Danish, Norwegian or Swedish,'” he said. “It’s more specific to say ‘Irish.'”

Irish, not Gaelic, has always been taught in Ireland, but the rest of the world always referred to it as Gaelic. The European Union finally recognized Irish as an official language in 2007.

So why did Ireland let the world call its native language by the wrong name for so long?

“Part of it probably is the Irish themselves are so polite,” Murphy said. “They don’t like to correct you. If you think it’s Gaelic, that’s okay. We’ll just leave it there.”

Murphy’s eight week course in Irish begins next month at the University of Washington’s Experimental College. He only has room for about 20 students.

Murphy also just published his “Grammar of Modern Irish,” and if you want to check his credentials, he’s the first American to get a Masters in Irish in Ireland.