The recent suggestion by a French politician that Washington should return the Statue of Liberty – presented to the US by France in 1876 to commemorate a century of American independence – was met with derision.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was typically blunt. “Absolutely not,” she said, adding that the “low-level” politician should remember “it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now, so they should be very grateful to our great country”.
It was almost as if soldiers from Britain, the Soviet Union, Canada, Australia, Poland, India, France and Ireland had nothing to do with it.
In 1795, according to the story, were it not for the vote of just one politician in the US Congress, German might have become the official language of the US.
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Americans of German descent, including US president Donald Trump, are among the largest ethnic group in the US – larger even than the Irish.
On this island, we have had similar insults thrown in our direction. During the Brexit debate, some `leavers’ in Britain - angered at Ireland’s remaining in the EU and (yet again!) our neutrality in the second World War, claimed: “You would all be speaking German if it weren’t for us.”
In that instance, the best response was: “If it wasn’t for you, we would all be speaking Irish!”
Irish is one of Europe’s oldest languages, dating back further than German and English. The origins of English can be traced to the fifth century while German dates back to the sixth century. Mere children compared to Irish in the language stakes.
The earliest speakers of Irish are believed to have arrived on this island from mainland Europe over 2,500 years ago. Their Ogham script is evidence of an early written tradition of Irish, with some inscriptions dating from the fifth century.
This evolution of Irish into a written language meant that by the seventh century, it had a rich body of literature. It is recognised as one of the oldest languages in Western Europe.
Gaeilge was spoken and written long before either German or English were even wet behind the ears.
Language, from Latin lingua, for “tongue”.
