An Caighdeán Oifigiúil Explained

Irish: An Caighdeán Oifigiúil (pronounced as /ga/, "The Official Standard"), often shortened to Irish: An Caighdeán, is the variety of the Irish language that is used as the standard or state norm for the spelling and the grammar of the language. It is used in official publications, and is and taught in most schools in the Republic of Ireland. The standard is based on the three Gaeltacht dialects: Connacht Irish, Munster Irish and Ulster Irish. In Northern Ireland and County Donegal, the Ulster dialect, (Gaedhilg Uladh) is used extensively alongside the standard form in primary and secondary schools.

The Caighdeán Oifigiúil was first published in 1958 by combining spelling reforms--which were promulgated in 1945 to 1947--with grammar standards, which were published in 1953.[1] [2] Revised editions were published in 2012 and 2017. Since 2013, the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, through the translation department, has been responsible for periodic updates to the standard, with reviews at least once every seven years.[3]

History

From the creation of the Irish Free State in December 1922, successive governments were committed to promoting the Irish language, with separate teaching materials in each of the three living vernacular dialects. Official publications were often issued with Irish translations, including the texts of all acts of the Oireachtas (parliament). The Oireachtas established Rannóg an Aistriúcháin (Translation Branch) for this work, which developed ad hoc conventions to reconcile the different dialect forms and to avoid favouring a single dialect in its output. When Taoiseach Éamon de Valera instigated a new constitution, which was adopted in 1937, he established a committee to propose spelling reforms for the "popular edition" of the Irish-language text.

The committee was unable to agree, but one member, T. F. O'Rahilly, sent his notes to de Valera, who forwarded them to Rannóg an Aistriúcháin, which developed a system circulated within the civil service in 1945 and revised in 1947.[4] [5] [6]

The first edition was reprinted regularly between 1960 and 2004;[1] there were minor revisions in 1960 and 1979.[7] A revised edition was published in 2012 both online and in hardcopy.[8] Among the changes to be found in the revised version are, for example, various attempts to bring the recommendations of the Irish: Caighdeán closer to the spoken dialect of Gaeltacht speakers,[9] including allowing further use of the nominative case in which the genitive would historically have been found.[10]

The context influencing the differences between dialects has changed over time. On one hand, the shrinking of the Irish-speaking areas over the past two centuries means that although there was once a continuum of dialects from one end of the country to the other, the dialects are now each geographically isolated. On the other hand, national TV and radio stations have increased certain types of mixing between the dialects in recent decades, reducing the differences.[11]

Characteristics

Its development had three purposes. One was to create a standard written form that would be mutually intelligible between speakers of the various dialects.[5] Another was to simplify Irish spelling by removing many silent letters that had existed in Classical Irish. The last was to create a uniform and less complicated grammar, which should provide less of a hindrance to learners and thus combat the decline of the language.

The building blocks of the Irish: Caighdeán come from the three main dialects, namely Ulster Irish, Munster Irish, and Connacht Irish. The standard is described by Mícheál Ó Siadhail as being "to an extent based on a 'common core' of all Irish dialects, or the most frequent forms, and partly on random choice".[12]

A side effect of simplifying the spelling was that the language's similarity to Scottish Gaelic was reduced. For example, while pre-Irish: Caighdeán Irish had separate spellings for the three words "bay" (Irish: bádh), "sympathy" (Irish: báidh), and "drowning" (Irish: bádhadh), the Caighdeán replaced all three with Irish: bá. The older forms resembled the Scottish Gaelic words Irish: bàgh, Irish: bàidh, and Irish: bàthadh.[13]

Pronunciation and silent letters

The Irish: Caighdeán is a grammar and spelling guide, and makes no recommendations regarding pronunciation. However, the standardised orthography does aim to represent current pronunciation, and letters have been removed when they are no longer pronounced in any dialect. For example, Irish: beiriú replaced Irish: beirbhiughadh, and urú replaced urdhubhadh.

Though the standardising committee sought to eliminate silent letters, they also had a principle of retaining old forms if their spellings were reflected in any of the extant dialects. For example, if is silent in Ulster and Connacht, but pronounced in Munster, the ought to be kept. There are many examples of this principle being neglected. The standardised spelling of words such as "trá", "bá, or "pá", for example, might seem natural to a Connacht speaker; whereas the old spellings–tráigh, "báigh, "páigh"–better reflect the Ulster and Munster pronunciations.[14]

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: An Caighdeán Oifigiúil. 2012. Oireachtas. 8 March 2016.
  2. Web site: Ciorclán 18/1958:- Gramadach na Gaeilge agus Litriu na Gaeilge.. 12 September 1958. Circulars. Government of Ireland. Irish. 8 March 2016.
  3. Web site: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (Amendment) Act 2013, Section 3. Irish Statute Book. 30 March 2016.
  4. Web site: Circular 27/1947:- Irish Spelling. 30 September 1947. Circulars. Government of Ireland. 8 March 2016.
  5. Web site: Beginners' Blas. 18 March 2011. June 2005. BBC.
  6. Ó Siadhail 1981, p.75 fn.1
  7. Nic Pháidín (2008) p.102
  8. News: Caighdeán Athbhreithnithe don Ghaeilge. 2012-08-02. Gaelport.com. 2012-08-02. Niamh Ní Shúilleabháin. Irish. 2012-08-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20120802164633/http://www.gaelport.com/nuacht/Caighdean-athbhreithnithe-don-Ghaeilge/. dead.
  9. Uíbh Eachach (2012) p.7: Irish: "Rinneadh iarracht ar leith san athbhreithniú seo foirmeacha agus leaganacha atá ar fáil go tréan sa chaint sna mórchanúintí a áireamh sa Chaighdeán Oifigiúil Athbhreithnithe sa tslí is go mbraithfeadh an gnáthchainteoir mórchanúna go bhfuil na príomhghnéithe den chanúint sin aitheanta sa Chaighdeán Oifigiúil agus, mar sin, gur gaire don ghnáthchaint an Caighdeán Oifigiúil anois ná mar a bhíodh."
  10. Uíbh Eachach (2012) p.7: Irish: "Triaileadh, mar shampla, aitheantas a thabhairt don leathnú atá ag teacht ar úsáid fhoirm an ainmnigh in ionad an ghinidigh sa chaint."
  11. Web site: irishlanguage.net Dialects of Irish. https://web.archive.org/web/20160701154842/http://www.irishlanguage.net/irish/dialects.asp. dead. 2016-07-01. In recent times, however, contacts between speakers of different dialects have become more common, and mixed dialects have originated.. 2021-09-22.
  12. Book: Ó Siadhail, Mícheál . 1980 . Learning Irish . Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies . 221 . 0-300-12177-6 . Mícheál Ó Siadhail . This standard is to an extent based on a 'common core' of all Irish dialects, or the most frequent forms, and partly on random choice. .
  13. Web site: Machine translation for closely related language pairs . Kevin P. . Scannell . The single greatest disaster in terms of mutual understanding between the languages was the introduction of the Irish: Caighdeán Oifigiúil (Official Standard) on the Irish side in the 1940s (Irish: Rannóg an Aistriúcháin, 1962). For example, the Scottish Gaelic words Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: bàgh (bay), Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: bàidh (sympathy), and Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: bàthadh (drowning) are immediately recognisable and distinguishable in pre-standard Irish (Dinneen, 1927) as Irish: bádh, Irish: báidh, and Irish: bádhadh, respectively, but the Irish: Caighdeán tragically conflates all three into the indescript "Irish: bá" (Ó Dónaill, 1977). Similar examples abound. . 2017-11-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160404155204/http://borel.slu.edu/pub/ga2gd.pdf . 2016-04-04 . dead .
  14. Web site: [www.teanglann.ie www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/trá ]. live . www.teanglann.ie.

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