Gaelic is a Celtic language. It is the language used by the inhabitants of Britain before the Roman (54BCE) and Norman (1066CE) invasions. Driven westwards by successive waves of invasion, it is a minority language concentrated in Scotland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, Wales and Brittany in France. It is part of the Indo-European family of languages but is a minority language, secondary to the use of English in the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic and the use of French in Brittany. Despite its status as a minority language, Celtic culture has a considerable influence in establishing a traditional Breton (Brittany), Celtic Irish, Celtic Scottish and Celtic British (Wales and the west of England) culture through music, writing and through the Druidic

of the theoretical background to the case of Irish Gaelic, and the discussion in section 5 examines perceptions and strategies that can be used to revive or strengthen endangered languages. Section 6 investigates how a language endangerment crisis may be addressed through the use of language documentation and revitalisation strategies. Finally, the paper ends with a conclusion of the main findings.

world of its speakers. Section 4 applies the lessons of the theoretical background to the case of Irish Gaelic, and the discussion in section 5 examines perceptions and strategies that can be used to revive or strengthen endangered languages.
Section 6 investigates how a language endangerment crisis may be addressed through the use of language documentation and revitalisation strategies. Finally, the paper ends with a conclusion of the main findings.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This paper focuses on Irish Gaelic, an EU official language and the official language of Ireland, used in signage, in official announcements and in broadcasting. It is also taught in schools.
Nevertheless, Irish Gaelic is losing ground to English and fewer and fewer Irish citizens are using it. This paper analyses the different uses of Irish Gaelic, how intensively they are used and what influence they have on Irish working, social and cultural life.

What is Gaelic and where is it used?
Gaelic is a Celtic language. It is the language used by the inhabitants of Britain before the Roman

Causes and symptoms of language endangerment
To classify a language as dead is easy enough.
When there is only one speaker left, one can say that the language is dead. This single speaker cannot talk to anyone in that particular language if no one is interested in learning it (Crystal, 2000, p. 11). However, it is impossible to say how many speakers are necessary to guarantee the life of a language. The presence of several people speaking that language may not be sufficient. It is necessary However, it is also true that the number of speakers can be an indicator of the endangered status of a language (Crystal, 2000, p. 14). In the case of Irish Gaelic, the note published by Houses of the Oireachtas Service (2016) states that even though the number of Irish-Gaelic speakers -using the language at home -has increased, it still only represents less than 5% of the overall population.  (Crystal, 2000, p. 19). In the case of Irish, Houses of the Oireachtas Service (2016) records that there is a very low number of families who raise children speaking Irish-Gaelic. Moreover, Gibbs (2002) notes that a re-occurring factor when a language is endangered is that the community shows collective doubts about the usefulness of the language. Similarly, speakers may consider that their own language is inferior to the majority language. If this is the case, speakers tend to stop using the minority language on all occasions. This attitude gets passed on to younger generations. Gibbs argues that this attitude explains why Irish Gaelic is only rarely used daily at home (Gibbs, 2002, p. 85).
Furthermore, the fact that the language is official does not entail that the language is not endangered. For instance, Irish Gaelic is the first official language of the Republic of Ireland, but this status was only designated in order to revitalise the declining language (Brittain & MacKenzie, 2015, p. 437). For these reasons, researchers such as Elmendorf (1981) have highlighted the issue of endangered languages to draw attention to its scale and call for an organised response. Brittain and MacKenzie (2015) note that linguists should care when they notice cases of language shift. The reason is that language shift, where one language is replaced by another, means more than just a change of language, as the culture may also disappear. Other authors also argue that any reduction in the world's linguistic diversity translates into an impoverishment of our heritage as a species (see Crystal, 2000;Mithun, 1998;Nettle & Romaine, 2000). For instance, Mithun (1998) argues that the loss of language diversity entails a loss of the full creative capabilities of the human mind.

Typologies of language endangerment
Grenoble and Whaley (1998) argue that endangered language situations need some type of typology, including factors such as literacy. This typology must also allow for ranking certain variables above others and it must be able to differentiate between various macro-variables. For this purpose, the authors argue for the framework suggested by Edwards (1992). In order to ascertain the vitality of a language, one must take into account the following factors: demography, sociology, linguistics, psychology, history, politics, geography, education, religion, economics and technology (Grenoble & Whaley, 1998, p. 25).

Linguistic relativism and linguistic determinism
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that language shapes the way people think. Each language names the world in its own way. Similarly, different language structures determine how one sees and interprets the world (Kay & Kempton, 1984, p. 67). This hypothesis comes from Whorf's principle of relativity and linguistic determinism. Whorf (1940) asserts that every speaker is bound to describe the world constrained by the modes of interpretation of a particular language and argues that languages with a common origin tend to be more similar than those languages that are not related.
Different family languages will allow for a divergent analysis of the world. This means that different languages may bring about different observations and views of the world. Linguistic determinism is an extreme form of relativism, in which language determines how speakers see the world. As a consequence, speakers are not capable of seeing the world in a different way. This would impose a strong constraint on speakers, not allowing them to be perfect bilinguals (Lucy, 1996, p. 104).

Language, multilingualism and cultural diversity
The difference in views associated with each language is what makes them all so valuable.
Consequently, authors such as Lo Bianco (2010) address the importance that multilingualism has on cultural diversity. This author states that it is critical to develop language policies that support the intergenerational retention of minority languages. Globalisation is a great challenge for language diversity, but efforts to appreciate and promote human differences need awareness of the importance of multilingualism. As researchers highlight, the adoption of a majority language such as English entails that speakers are becoming more uniform culturally (Mufwene, 2007, p. 383

Reversing language shift in Irish Gaelic
Irish Gaelic is a good example of a country trying to reverse the process of language shift through making it official. Even though the language has never been used as the language of parliament, the government attempted a shift from English to Irish through the National School system (Bradley, 2014, p. 539 (Bradley, 2014, p. 540). According to Grenoble & Whaley (1998), the importance of literacy impacts the macro-variables. In many cases, such as Irish Gaelic, literacy is implemented at a macro-level but it still may fail because of other factors.
In any case, considering all factors is necessary.

The intersection of language, culture and identity in Irish Gaelic
Many authors, such as Hinton (1994) argue that community identity can be maintained and asserted through language. In the case of Irish Gaelic, the concern over the loss of the language, and consequently the cultural identity, was not noted until the late 19th century. At that point, the Gaelic League turned language revival into a 'Irish Gaelic is a good example of a country trying to reverse the process of language shift through making it official' political issue by emphasising that Ireland's unique cultural identity should be restored. This rationale continues to this day (Bradley, 2014, p. 539 The 2011 census notes that people who are able to speak Irish are 1,774,437 in a population of over four and a half million. However, this figure does not distinguish between native speakers and second language learners (Bradley, 2014, p. 539).
The fact that the figure relies on self-reporting may mean that a strong emotional attachment to Irish may lead some respondents to exaggerate their proficiency.
Similarly, the feeling that the language is inextricably linked to national identity gave hope to those government officials promoting Irish education. These people believed that patriotism would ensure the survival of Irish. However, this national identity and patriotism are not sufficient, considering that there are other markers of Irishness, such as residence in the Irish State and belonging to the Catholic Church (Bradley, 2014, p. 540). In fact, the Irish government acknowledged in the 1966 White Paper that it would not be realistic to expect English to be displaced as the majority language because of the geography of Ireland and its economic and social relations with the UK. As Edwards (2007) (Edwards, 2007, p. 242). In parallel, others assert that in order for children, the future generation, to be comfortable using the minority language, they should believe that it is the language to be used at home -that is, that they identify the language as the language of the family (Fishman, 1991, p. 356). Otherwise, education by itself is not sufficient as it does not have an effect on intimacy and identity. In the Irish context, it would appear that unless the cycle of learning the language as a second language is broken, students will have forgotten the Irish they learned at school by the time they come to have their own children.

Strategies for language revitalisation
Crystal (2000) argues that there are various factors that help the progress of endangered languages. doi: 10.29366/2018tlc.2.4.2 rudn.tlcjournal.org Apart from the data collection and documentation carried out by linguists, an endangered language can revive if the speakers of that language do the following, in no particular order. First, the language should be recognised as an official regional language. Second, the language should be standardised in both written and spoken form, Finally, speakers should increase the prestige of the language within the dominant community so the language may be spoken and written in the public domain (Crystal, 2000, p. 155-156).
In the case of Irish Gaelic, it is the official regional language of the Republic of Ireland, and one of the languages of the European Union. Its official status is incontestable. As Dorian (1993)    identity and culture internationally as an element in its soft power strategy.

Gaelic in schools
The Irish government must allocate the resources required to implement an effective, dynamic and comprehensive policy which includes the following five elements.
1. Ensure that the Irish education system facilitates native speakers, a Gaeltacht education policy must be drawn up. Historically, school teachers posted to these areas were not fluent in Irish, so they should not be sent there.
2. Increase the funding available to the Gaeltacht to enable native speakers to remain there.
3. Increase substantially the support for Gaeltacht groups to empower their members to use their native language and develop their communities. It has been suggested that children's play groups and child-minding facilities should be set up, with an increase also in the number of social events to take place in Irish. Some of these have already been implemented in Connamara and Donegal.

Draft policy proposals for educational provision
in Gaeltacht areas to ensure that the Irish language is given significant constitutional and legislative protection by the state. 5. For the government to support parents raising their children through Irish in the Gaeltacht, being aware of the dynamics of language change and the pressure minority languages face as a result of the ever-increasing dominance of English.

CONCLUSION
This paper has reviewed the theories of the factors influencing language endangerment and revival and focused on the importance of understanding macro-and micro-variables leading to language 'ill-health', the influence of culture and identity on language survival and the applicability of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of language relativism and language determinism to the world view of language speakers, particularly in the light of the globalisation encouraging the dominance of a few 'global' languages, such as English. On the basis of these principles the paper highlighted the situation of Irish Gaelic as an endangered language. The fact that Irish Gaelic is endangered may be explained by numerous factors, in particular the dominance of English taking over as the majority language. The result has been that despite efforts by the Irish government to re-inforce the use of Irish Gaelic through official channels there are not many Irish Gaelic speakers, or more importantly, Irish Gaelic speakers do not use this language on a daily basis. There is a strong link between language and cultural identity, and as this paper has noted, this strong cultural identity may at times work against the revival of Irish Gaelic. To sum up, the efforts to revive Irish Gaelic have not proven successful to date and the prospects for the long-term survival of the language are still unclear. What is obviously required is a new strategy to confront the challenges facing Irish and the inadequacies of the present one. This is a common situation globally with minority languages. The existing strategies to increase the number of Irish speakers are failing, so a new imaginative and creative approach is needed.