The Comparative Revitalisation of Irish Gaelic and te reo Maori

This study compares and contrasts the language maintenance and planning strategies used to revitalise Irish Gaelic, indigenous to  Ireland, and te reo Māori (the Māori language) indigenous to New Zealand. The contrast in geographical and cultural origins of these languages allows exploration of these differences in a variety of anthropological factors that hold sway over how language maintenance can be carried out, including but not limited to population size, linguistic and colonial history, and current legislation. The study explores both grassroots and governmental examples of approaches to language revitalisation of Irish Gaelic and te reo Māori within their respective countries of origin, and evaluates the effectiveness of language revitalisation of both these languages. The findings show that te reo Māori relied on intergenerational transmission to a larger extent than Irish Gaelic, and analysing the differences in and outcomes of language planning for Irish Gaelic and te reo Māori creates a scope for these two frameworks to be applied to future efforts in language planning, with adaptation as appropriate where there have been shortcomings.