To the Point
Disappearing Languages
As the world prepares for another St. Patrick's Day, the traditional Irish language is appearing on green T-shirts and being mangled in pubs. But Irish, or Gaelic, is one of thousands of endangered languages worldwide. When Ireland was founded in 1922, 250,000 spoke it fluently, but that's down to 30,000.
By Warren Olney • • 1 min readAs the world prepares for another St. Patrick's Day, the traditional Irish language is appearing on green T-shirts and being mangled in pubs. But Irish, or Gaelic, is one of thousands of endangered languages worldwide. When Ireland was founded in 1922, 250,000 spoke it fluently, but that's down to 30,000. Greg Anderson is Director of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.
