愛爾蘭的語言復振是相當值得深入探討的個案。政府通常是語言規劃的主要機關,面臨語言流失,政府最常用的政策手段就是依靠由上而下的政策力量,實施母語教育、提升母語地位或擴展公領域的母語使用。愛爾蘭語是少數享有官方語言及國語地位的弱勢語言,各種公領域的母語復振方法,愛爾蘭大概都嘗試過了,但是愛爾蘭語還是持續流失。本文檢討愛爾蘭政府的兩項語言復振規劃:(1)學校的愛爾蘭語教育以及;(2)在嘉爾它克特(愛爾蘭語區)的語言復振。愛爾蘭語言復振的經驗顯示語言復振相當複雜,無法單單依賴政府的政策得到解決。除了評估這兩項計劃的成效之外,本文還探討愛爾蘭語言復振經驗對台灣的啓示。
Ireland's language revitalization planning is a case worthy of further exploration. Faced with the decline of the Irish language, the government is most likely to use a top-down approach to implement mother tongue education to raise its status as an official language or to extend its use in public domains. Ireland is a rare case of a minority language that enjoys national and official status. Various language revival efforts in public domains have been tried; however, Irish is still declining. This paper discusses two language revitalization efforts of the Irish government: (1) Irish language education in school, and (2) the Gaeltacht language revival program. The Irish experience has shown that language revitalization is too complex to be solved by states actions only. Implications for Taiwan's language revitalization are also provided.