Did you know that Queen Elizabeth I was a proficient linguist, and encouraged the use of Irish Gaelic in the portion of Ireland that was still ruled by the British Crown? This portion of Ireland was known as the Pale. She was so interested in and intrigued by Irish Gaelic, that the ninth baron of Delvin, Sir Christopher Nugent, prepared an Irish Gaelic primer for the Queen to study. It is not known how proficient she became in the language, but it's fairly safe to assume that she had at least a basic understanding of it towards the end of her life. Despite this Queen's affection towards Irish Gaelic, many of her predecessors enacted outright bans on the language, and as such bear much of the responsibility for it's decline. Throughout history, many other languages have declined or become extinct as a result of being dominated or gradually eroded by larger language groups, such is the nature of things unfortunately.
