Did you know that from the 18th century forward that the Irish Gaelic language went into a very steep decline? During this time period, Irish Gaelic began to steadily lose ground to the English language, due mostly to the fact that British rule placed numerous restrictions on using the Irish Gaelic language. These types of language trend shifts are referred to by linguists simply as language shifts, or language drift. Once the 18th century had passed, the 19th century brought probably the most stark era of Irish Gaelic decline in history, as economic turmoil struck the Emerald Isle hard. Many native Irish language speakers died during this time, in what was known as the Great Famine of 1845 through 1849. Many scholars and historians have now concluded that the famine was largely manufactured and induced by the British, with a varying multitude of factors motivating it. We hope you learned something new with this Irish Gaelic fact.
