Brian Ó Broin: Dictionaries and EU Irish

[Elizabeth J. Pyatt]

Subject: Dictionaries and EU Irish
From: "Obroin, Brian" <ObroinB at wpunj.edu>
To: "The Celtic Linguistics List...snip...CELTLING at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>


I'm partially in agreement with George Dillon on 
the decision to make Irish an official EU 
language; I've developed a strong cynicism 
towards anything the Irish government does on the 
language. On the other hand, it is a positive 
step and (here's a thought, now) much of that EU 
funding for translation will actually go towards 
*developing* dictionaries, thus further 
internationalizing Irish. I know a number of 
well-educated people who are fluent in Irish and 
other European languages, and who would be happy 
to work as translators and word-list compilers.

Regarding dictionaries, I'm aware very of good 
ones that are French/Irish (de Hae), 
Spanish/Irish (David Barnwell), and German/Irish 
(Caldas and Schleicher). That's not bad at all.

There are also a few other smaller dictionaries, 
like Panu Höglund's Finnish/Irish dictionary.

I'd also draw the readers' attention to the EU's 
TIS (terminology bank) 
(<http://tis.consilium.eu.int/utfwebtis/frames/introfsEN.htm>http://tis.consilium.eu.int/utfwebtis/frames/introfsEN.htm).

In balance, this is a very important decision for 
Irish, taking the language out of the simple 
Irish/English situation that pertains in Ireland 
and placing it in the truly multilingual world of 
the EU.

This decision will make our lives as 
Irish-speaking EU citizens a lot easier. More 
rights are always a good thing.

And credit where credit is due. In the last 9 
years we've got TG4, the Bille Teangan, and the 
Coimisinéir Teangan. And the British government 
is moving, if glacially. Fair play to the Irish 
government, who really didn't have to do any of 
this, and to the selfless activists in Ireland 
who made it all happen (Daithí Mac Cárthaigh 
springs to mind). Éamon Ó Cuív, by the way, must 
also be singled out - he's the best thing that 
happened to Irish since arán slisthe.

=====
Brian Ó Broin, Ph.D.
Dept. of English, William Paterson University, New Jersey, USA

Linguistics - Medieval Studies - Irish Studies
Teangeolaíocht-Léann na Meánaoise-Léann na hÉireann
--
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

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