Irish language
A Celtic language indigenous to Ireland with ancient literary tradition.
Irish (called *Gaeilge* in the standard written form) is a Celtic language in the Indo-European family, belonging to the Irish people and originating on the island of Ireland. It is also referred to as Irish Gaelic or, especially outside Ireland, simply Gaelic. Up until the 1800s, most of the population spoke it as their first language, but English took over gradually, especially in the later decades of that century.
Nowadays, Irish remains a common first language in the Gaeltacht regions of Ireland, where 2% of the country’s population lived as of 2022. In April 2022, 1,873,997 people aged three and over in Ireland said they could speak Irish—40% of respondents—but 472,887 of them reported never speaking it, and another 551,993 said they only used it in school. Because of this, linguistic studies focus on daily speakers outside the education system: in 2022, there were 20,261 daily speakers in the Gaeltacht and 51,707 elsewhere, for a total of 71,968. In Northern Ireland’s 2021 census, 43,557 people said they spoke Irish daily, 26,286 weekly, 47,153 less often than weekly, and 9,758 said they could speak it but never did. Between 2006 and 2008, over 22,000 Irish Americans reported Irish as their first language at home, with several times that number claiming some knowledge of it.
For most of its recorded history, Irish was the dominant language of the Irish people, who carried it to places like Scotland and the Isle of Man, where Middle Irish developed into Scottish Gaelic and Manx. It was also widely spoken in Canada, with an estimated 200,000–250,000 daily speakers there in 1890. On Newfoundland, a distinct Irish dialect emerged but died out by the early 1900s.
Irish has a writing system, Ogham, that dates back to at least the 4th century AD, and it was gradually replaced by the Latin script from the 5th century onward. This gives Irish one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Western Europe. On the island, there are three main dialects: Connacht, Munster, and Ulster Irish, each with differences in speech and spelling. A standardized written form, *An Caighdeán Oifigiúil*, was created by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s. The traditional Irish alphabet—an 18-letter variant of the Latin alphabet—has been replaced by the standard Latin alphabet, though 7–8 letters are mostly used in loanwords.
Irish holds constitutional status as the national a
- Language family
- Celtic, Indo-European
- Native to
- Ireland (island of Ireland)
- First attested
- 4th century AD (Ogham inscriptions)
- Official status
- National and first official language of the Republic of Ireland; official language of Northern Ireland and the European Union
- Daily speakers (Ireland, 2022)
- 71,968 (outside education system)
- Daily speakers (Northern Ireland, 2021)
- 43,557
- Dialects
- Connacht, Munster, Ulster
Lore & Background
Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Western Europe, with a writing system, Ogham, dating back to at least the 4th century AD, gradually replaced by Latin script from the 5th century. The language evolved through stages: Primitive Irish (4th century), Old Irish (6th century), Middle Irish (10th century), Early Modern Irish (13th century), and Modern Irish (17th century). Middle Irish gave rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx. By the late 18th century, Irish lost ground in the east of the country due to discouragement by the Anglo-Irish administration, the Catholic Church's support of English, and the spread of bilingualism from the 1750s onwards. The decline involved diglossia and transitional bilingualism, with monoglot Irish-speaking grandparents, bilingual children, and monoglot English-speaking grandchildren.
Reader's Guide
Irish has constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland, and is also an official language of Northern Ireland and among the official languages of the European Union. The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island. The language has three major dialects: Connacht, Munster, and Ulster Irish, all with distinctions in speech and orthography. An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, a standardised written form devised by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s, serves as the standard. The traditional Irish alphabet, a variant of the Latin alphabet with 18 letters, has been succeeded by the standard Latin alphabet. In 2022, 1,873,997 people in Ireland (aged 3 and over) declared they could speak Irish, representing 40% of respondents, though only 71,968 used it daily outside the education system. In Northern Ireland's 2021 census, 43,557 spoke Irish daily. Historically, Irish was spoken widely across Canada, with an estimated 200,000–250,000 daily Canadian speakers in 1890, and a unique dialect developed in Newfoundland before falling out of use in the early 20th century.
Did You Know?
- Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Western Europe, with Ogham inscriptions from at least the 4th century AD.
- The language has three major dialects: Connacht, Munster, and Ulster Irish.
- In 2022, 71,968 people in Ireland used Irish daily outside the education system.
- An estimated 200,000–250,000 daily Canadian speakers of Irish existed in 1890.
More in Specific Languages 1-24
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record