Early Modern Irish
| Classical Irish | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Ireland, Scotland |
| Era | 13th to 18th century |
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Indo-European
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Early forms
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Primitive Irish
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| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | hibe1235 |
The history of the Irish language begins with the period from the arrival of speakers of Celtic languages in Ireland to Ireland's earliest known form of Irish, Archaic Irish, which is found in Ogham inscriptions dating from the 3rd or 4th century. After the conversion to Christianity in the 5th century, Old Irish begins to appear as glosses and other marginalia in Latin manuscripts, beginning in the 6th century. It evolved in the 10th century to Middle Irish. Early Modern Irish, otherwise known as Classical Irish, was a literary language that represented a transition between Middle and Modern Irish. It was used by writers in both Ireland and Scotland until the 17th century, in the course of which slowly but surely writers began writing in the vernacular dialects, Ulster Irish, Connacht Irish, Munster Irish and Scottish Irish. As the number of hereditary poets and scribes dwindled under British rule in the early 19th century, Irish became a mostly spoken tongue with little written literature appearing in the language until the Irish Revival of the late 19th century. The number of speakers was also declining in this period with monoglot and bilingual speakers of Irish increasing adopting only English: while Irish never died out, by the time of the Revival it was largely confined to the less Anglicised regions of the island, which were often also the more rural and remote areas. In the 20th and 21st centuries, Irish has continued to survive in Gaeltacht regions and among a minority in other regions. It has once again come to be considered an important part of the island's culture and heritage, with efforts being made to preserve and promote it.
The history of the Irish language begins with the arrival of an ancestral Celtic language in Ireland. It is highly unlikely that the Mesolithic language of the first settlers (hunters and gatherers) or the Neolithic language of the first farmers was related to Irish. Given that there is no archaeological evidence for a "Celtic invasion," it would initially have been an introduced language of prestige, belonging to important social domains associated with hillforts, a warrior elite and Iron Age ritual centres. There is also evidence for Celtic tribal names in Ireland in this period. From these domains the language spread, just as English was to do later.
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