Two language-related links

[yendi]

Ireland discovers that their country's worst driver was actually the result of a linguistic goof.

And (in less amusing news) the latest Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger is available. It's fascinating, easy to use, and depressing.

Comments

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

1. To be filed under "Only in Ireland", I think...

2. Ouch! Although odd-interesting: Irish is listed, but Scottish Gaelic isn't even though I would think that Scottish Gaelic isn't as widely spoken as Irish (but possibly more prevalent in the areas it *is* still spoken. Dunno.) Same with the German dialects...I'd love to know why Bavarian is more in danger than, say, Swabian or Plaat. And those are just the languages I'm familiar with! Must find a linguist to shed some light on the matter....

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Scottish Gaelic AND Irish are both listed:

Name of the language Scottish Gaelic (en); гэльский (ru)
Vitality definitely endangered
Number of speakers 58,552 (2001 census)
Location(s) the Western Isles and parts of the Highlands, Scotland; émigré communities in Nova Scotia, Canada
Country or area United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Coordinates lat = 58.1011; long = -6.7675
References Corresponding ISO 639-3 code(s): gla
Record number: 00574

By Plaat, do you mean Low German/Low Saxon? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_German)
Name of the language Low Saxon (en); нижнесаксонский (ru)
Vitality unsafe
Number of speakers 4,800,000 (combined figure of rough estimates based on various sources: 3,000,000 in Germany and 1,800,000 speakers in the Netherlands)
Location(s) northern Germany, the north-eastern part of the Netherlands, border regions of Denmark and Poland; émigré communities in the Russian Federation and elsewhere
Country or area Germany - Denmark - Netherlands - Poland - Russian Federation
Coordinates lat = 53.4029; long = 10.3601
References Corresponding ISO 639-3 code(s): act; drt; frs; gos; nds; sdz; stl; twd; vel; wep
Record number: 00545
Based on the following links:
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=nds
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=swg
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=bar

I agree that Bavarian is less endangered than Low German, and probably less than Swabian ... though why Swabian isn't listed on the UNESCO map, and the other two are, is beyond me.

[jerel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you can find more places in Scotland where people use Scots Gaelic every day than places in Ireland where people use Irish every day. Irish immersion schools have only become more popular in the last thirty years or so.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's depressing.
It's also partially a result of better communications.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

I loved the Irish story and will pass it along to folks. Thanks!