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MATTHEW ARNOLD , in his "On the Study of Celtic Literature," explained to his English-speaking audience that the Irish language indeed belonged to the Indo-European family of languages because "the Irish word tráith , the sea, ... supplies the vocable" for such words as "Triton" and "Amphitrite." Arnold then condescendingly commented, though, on "how delightfully that brings Ireland into the Indo-European concert" (69). The works of nineteenth-century linguists, who had earlier explored the commonalities of different languages, informed Arnold's discussion as he showed the Irish language's continued place in the world's languages, despite the rapidly decreasing number of speakers. Arnold encouraged his English audience to understand and appreciate the culture of their relatives, but simultaneously insisted that the Celtic languages, if not directly killed, should be allowed to die as soon as possible. The early Irish legends in Lébor Gabála Érenn celebrated the origin of the Irish language as the best of the languages formed at the Tower of Babel, but by the nineteenth century, the language entered a rapid state of decline. Arnold supported studying Irish literature, but not the modern literature written in the spoken language of the nineteenth century, which he considered the language of peasants. Instead, Arnold celebrated the ancient literature of Ireland. While these early tales of Ireland's glorious past inspired many writers, such as William Butler Yeats, John Millington Synge, Lady Gregory, and Samuel Ferguson, for the most part the writers of the Irish Renaissance ignored the living language.
During the nineteenth century, the once vibrant Irish language had ceased being used by families in the space of one generation. While the writers of the Gaelic Revival advocated, sometimes militantly, the use of Irish for modern literature, the writers of the Irish Literary Revival or Irish Renaissance, looked to the mythical past for their English language works. Some English language writers, however, regarded the Irish language as the source of Irish culture. Arnold presented early Irish literature as a type of museum, but some writers of the Irish Renaissance regarded the mythical past continuing in the living language and worked to learn Irish, finding inspiration in the Irish stories they heard. Witnessing the decline of the Irish language firsthand, they sought to preserve the wealth of tales, myths,...