Irish

FACT FILE:

Official language in: Ireland, European Union

Minority language in: United Kingdom

Spoken by: 170,000 people (native)

Language family: Goidelic – Insular Celtic – Celtic – Indo-European

Writing system: Latin (Irish alphabet)

Fun Fact: The word for numbers changes depending on what you are talking about. In addition to one set of numbers for doing arithmetic or referring to dates and times, Irish has a second set for counting humans and a third set for counting non-humans. Five children is “cúigear páiste,” but five horses is “cúig chapall.”