Restore Irish Language Lettering
Many Irish people, even those with an ongoing interest in their language, are unaware of what some have called the “Irish alphabet”, the Cló Gaelach. This was used to write the Irish language in various forms from before the early medieval period right up until the 1950s.
Although at first glance it may look like a unique alphabet, in fact it’s only a typeface or a font, like any one of dozens of different fonts we see every day. It uses fewer letters than the Latin alphabet and adds a few accents and dots over existing letters, but is otherwise a Latin type. It can be Googled as normal and typed on a modern keyboard, and is fairly legible even to people who have never studied it.
In and around the 1960s the Irish government, pressured by business, financial and foreign interests, started to phase out Cló Gaelach font types and replaced them with the Cló Rómhánach, which you’re reading right now.
This maneuver along with the “spelling reforms” introduced at the same time made it very difficult for parents and family to help young children learn Irish in school, since they were now being taught an unfamiliar language, introducing an intergenerational cultural rift which caused immense damage to the continuity of centuries of Irish language publications.
Thankfully we have an opportunity to heal that rift and return the use of the Cló Gaelach to Irish schools and universities, since modern technology has made it easy to use whatever font we prefer.
But what benefits would it bring?
There are many – the Irish language employs sounds which aren’t normally present in the English language, so spelling Irish words through English forces together strange letter combinations, mh, bfh, and so on. These sounds simply don’t have Latin letters to represent them, and letters which are used are often not pronounced at all.
There are more than sixty phonemes in the Irish language, it is phonetically one of the richest languages in Europe. Despite which, to accommodate this splendid variety of sound, the Irish traditionally employ an alphabet of only seventeen letters. The vowel sounds of the language are, for the most part, pure, and little of this can be properly represented with a Latin alphabet except through extensive linguistic mangling.
Reading and learning Irish through the Latin alphabet is simply much more difficult and non-intuitive. It’s far from simple a stylistic preference. For example Dubhthach can be far more easily written and read as Duḃṫaċ, or Lughbhaidh as Luġḃaiḋ.
Gaelchló fonts can be found here: https://www.gaelchlo.com/
We call on the Irish government to reinstate the teaching of the Cló Gaelach to Irish schools and universities as a matter of urgency, and to normalise its use throughout Irish society and culture.
38 have already signed!
Comments
Tabhair ar ais éAs a linguistics student at a school specialized in indigenous languages, and as the Grandson of a native Gaeilgóir who grew up knowing more Spanish than Gaeilge, I'm fully in support of this initiative. Just as the diacritics of Czech make it easier to learn and to read than Polish spelling, so too will the usage of Cló Gaelach and in particular the replacing of the h with the superscript dot to represent lenition / séimhiúTá mé ag baint usáid as an bunchló le fada agus is an éasca é.Save our heritageYou have to know your language to understand the culture that arose from it- the (Irish) words are its heartbeat .... anything that can be promoted to make it easily accessible and understandable must be employed.Ps police in Ireland are called the Garda not police because the foreigners don't understand our culture or language.Bring it backAs someone who has been trying to learn Irish, I find the Cló Gaelach far easier to understand. The modernisation helps no one really. It does not make the language any clearer - it does the exact opposite. The false visual similarity to standard English is more difficult to parse. The old alphabet is not only better suited to expressing the phonology of Irish, but it is less frustrating for the learner. I have learned both the Cyrillic and Georgian alphabets, yet nothing has been more challenging than the modernised Irish language. Learning a different alphabet is not hard; it is no barrier. It is didactically helpful, and if people learnt his way they will have access to the centuries of literature written with the old alphabet.Im living abroad and it pains me that I don't speak my native language. I adore my country, culture and language. Please do what's necessary to revive our language. Eireann go brach!It would be beautiful to have it used again!This should never be allowed to be lost.AthbeochanWe call on the Irish government to reinstate the teaching of the Cló Gaelach to Irish schools and universities as a matter of urgency, and to normalise its use throughout Irish society and culture.I believe that it is of great importance and necessity for Gaeilge to be taught in Irish schools so that Ireland can become the greatest it can be.Maith sibhI'd love this to be brought back to schools.A very noble endeavor.Her mag irèa EireHodinner inn myat sinkh mire mire.
Maggie
Reinstate Gaelic to Irish schools and UniversitiesAlthough I'm a mere veteran beginner at Itish, I feel I would have found it much easier using the traditional type face.Aontaim libh leis an obair seo a chairde mhór.Im trying to learn Gaelic and the culture. Any information and suggestions are welcomed.No commentI agree.I love the efforts and I thank you for the education.The beautiful artistic alphabet was still taught when I was in primary school. I loved it. Irish children have been denied so much since the sixties.
Save our Irish cultureAmerican born. Preserve the language and it’s historyI am a 73 year old Dubliner and learned Gaeilge in Primary School with the old alphabet and accents. I can still write it today as well as I can write English.I have always hated the changes of adding the H and ommitting the all important fada and búlta.
English or the Anglosphere should no longer determine how a country like Ireland uses or spells its native language. This alphabet and spelling makes learning the language very difficult for beginners, particularly when the fada over vowels is ommitted by English newspapers. Many other languages have unique accents and alphabets which modern computer keyboards can easily manage.
If the Irish Government was brazen enough to make this horrific change to ITS OWN ancient language in the 1960's it should feel duty bound to return the language to its proper form - now that we have the technology to do it.
The script is unique and beautiful and is found all over the place on road signs and old writings.
.A beautiful script that should be reinvigorated and not cast aside for any semblence of ease or conformity as it has in the past.This is very important!I say with my mother at the dinner table doing my homework, it was at this time she taught me Irish and Irish writing( she left Ireland before the spelling change.For me Gaeilge should retain its original form. And reinstate its use along with form including the punc.
I think we wish we proud of our language The people struggled so hard to keep it alive I'm thinking is corrupt been doing more overlast hundred years two bring on near language backThis is very importantIreland needs to be Irish againThe project will follow in their footsteps along the path laid down by Hyde, O'Conaire, MacNeill, Cusack and many others through sharing news, ideas, articles of Irish cultural interest and more, as well as helping to support Irish language and cultural initiatives. You can find out more about An Claíomh Solais by clicking on the buttons below, or join our team as we begin the great Gaelic restoration!
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