A timely follow up to our earlier discussion. I’m sure Scott won’t like this news. “Cornish is dead, stone dead” and Irish “will be dead in thirty years.” Thankfully there are people who will continue to fight for their survival. We can only hope that it is not in vain, because most of us won’t live long enough to see what happens one way or another. I can relate to his observation of that “almost every story they (“The Economist”) do on language is goofy.” I’ve done very few newspaper and magazine interviews on any subject, from Hawaiian language to…
Can you really acquire perfect pitch?
David Lucas Burge claims that you can. I’ve seen his ads in music magazines for years. He tells a story from his youth where, frustrated by a classmate’s seemingly God-given ability to discern pitches, he figured out on his own how to identify pitches without using a reference pitch (known as “relative pitch”). I never bought his course, though always lamented what I believed were my sub-par listening skills. I have not played much over the twelve or so years since I last gigged, and struggled mightily in transcribing the music for my MA thesis. Once I figured out a…
Scott Waters gently reminds me that Irish is not the only Celtic language still being used.
Of course not, it’s just the one I’m most interested in. Scott points to this site dedicated to Cornish, or Kernewek. The language received some good publicity some time back on the cartoon “The Simpsons” when Lisa Simpson shouted ‘rydhsys rag Kernow lemmyn’ (Freedom for Cornwall now). There is a page dedicated to this episode on the Warlinenn site. So Scott, I’ll learn Irish, you learn Kernewek, and we’ll meet over a few and determine between us if there is mutual intelligibility
Modernise Irish?
An Teanga Nua, The Millennium Gaelic Society, is a pressure group for “the modernisation, standardisation and regalicisation of the Irish language.” Is “grammar” spelled “grammer” in Ireland? They seem to have some HTML problems as well.
Language Log reports Dr. James McCloskey’s reaction to the rebounding of Irish.
His observation of Irish gaining strength among second language learners (such as myself) but shrinking in the Gaeltacht is similar to our situation with Hawaiian, through we have only one “Gaeltacht” – the Ni’ihau community. I read and enjoyed Dr. McCloskey‘s book “Voices Silenced – Has Irish a Future?” An extract from his book is available online. I can add my own observations after spending three weeks in Glenn Colm Cille, Co. Donagal. My wife and I did not observe any younger people using Irish few women in their early 20s who worked at Oideas Gael, either for the school…
In Ireland, an Irish language comeback.
A TG4 executive asserts that interest in the language is due to trendiness, calling it a ‘yuppification’ of the language. I certainly hope that there is more to it than that. Nice to see the numbers growing, however.
Battered dollar hits another low.
If GW doesn’t the the trade deficit and other factors under control soon my European Ph.d. plans are going to end up costing me a lot more than I care to think about. When we visited Ireland in summer of 2002, the exchange rate was about $.94 per Euro; it’s now $1.35. [ via Curry.com ] P.S. Yes, I know the British still use pounds and not the Euro, but the picture is just as ugly there, over $1.90 to the British pound. Ouch.
Hawaiian Music Giant Keali’i Reichel Allows Use Of His Music In Podcast.
Former Apple marketing wiz and current Maui Macintosh evangelist Scott Waters has included Keali’i Reichel‘s breakout recording Kawaipunahele in his most recent podcast, and has received emails from other Hawai’i artists who are willing to allow the inclusion of their music in future podcasts. Reichel has been one of the best selling recording artists and concert draws for the past decade, and is one of the finalists for the inaugural Hawaiian Grammy, which will be awarded this February. Clarification I want to make sure that it is clear that Keali’i has allowed Scott to use his music in his MacHelpMaui…
Bringing Back A Lost Language
[ From the San Jose Mercury, registration required ] With help from linguists, the decendants of the last speaker of Chochenyo are trying to revive the language, and our looking toward our efforts to revitalize Hawaiian for inspiration.
Irish Only Placename Signs In Gaeltacht.
Beginning next March, placename signs in the Gaeltacht (designated Irish-speaking areas) of Ireland will be in Irish only. Some interesting discussion going on as to how this will affect visitors to the area.