48: #48 | Mèredictionnaire

Motherfoclóir

_The Irish word for a rat, francach, can also mean a French person (when capitalised)._ In their most recent media campaign, Vodafone have paid tribute to a long-standing tradition in Irish advertising; the French crush. Prior to this Ireland has had a history of taking cues from our Gallic pals - most famously the tricolour. French is the most-widely taught foreign language in Ireland and comparisons between it and Irish are inevitable. But how apt and how valuable are such comparisons? French exists as a successful minority language in Canada but France is one of the most most hostile jurisdictions to minority languages in the EU. How will Ireland, as the defender of Gaeilge and the custodian of EU English, get on with France after Brexit with regard to our two languages? In this week's episode, Clodagh McGinley (who recently graduated from Trinity with a degree in Irish and French) chats to Darach about the two languages, loanwords, faux amis and the joys French Twitter. --- Contact the show at https://twitter.com/motherfocloir or email us at [e-mail].

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