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09/16/2004: "Irish Language Rant"
I was searching for the spelling of an Irish word and came across this Irish dictionary. They have an excellent new section on verbs but unfortunatly not all verbs are available to Joe Anonymous, you have to be Joe Registered* to have access** to all 760 verbs. Even the dictionary search is limited.
[rant]
Irish language revival appears to come with a price tag. It may not be a fair or accurate comparison but just look at the Open Source community and the amount of time, effort and resources which go into providing free software to Joe Public. The Irish language has made serious strides in recent years particularly in the virtual world but everything costs and it seems like everyone wants to make a profit. We need more 'open source minded' people with Irish skills.
To be fair there are a number of people online who provide great resources such as guides, lessons or other resources which are fully free.
Take the folks over at Beo, now i'm not sure who funds them or pays their salaries but for Joe Anonymous each month brings a new edition full of articles with no restrictions. And of course there's Rannóg na bhFoghlaimeoirí, an excellent resource for learners.
People like Panu have also made great contributions to the language.
My issue is with the amount of people who, it appears to me, are riding the wave of Irish language revival looking for profit opportunities.
The Irish language needs to be free, free minded like the open source community with less people protecting their interests and trying to make a profit, [digress]free from political baggage, free from the snobbery of those who were born with the skills we are trying to develop.[/digress] Enough damage has been done to the language over the years, we can't continue to blame the English, it's been in our hands now for more than a few years.
[/rant]
*or should that be Seosamh Cláraithe.
** Eur 8 per year is very little granted, until you add up all the registrations from various sites which require it ...
