Irish tongue, endangered species
Irish, often called Gaelic, is one of thousands of “endangered languages” worldwide. Though it is Ireland’s official tongue, there are only about 30,000 fluent speakers left, down from 250,000 when the country was founded in 1922.

Irish schools teach the language as a core subject, but outside a few enclaves in western Ireland, it is rare for families to speak it at home.

“There’s the gap between being able to speak Irish and actually speaking it on a daily basis,” said Brian

O’Conchubhair, an assistant professor of Irish studies at the University of Notre Dame who grew up learning Irish in school. “It’s very hard to find it in the cities; it’s like a hidden culture.”

Irish is expected to survive at least through this century, but half of the world’s almost 7,000 remaining languages may disappear by 2100, experts say. Last month, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched an online atlas of endangered languages, labelling more than 2,400 at risk of extinction.

The Venetian masters
Frederick Ilchman, a curator at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, believes it was the Venetian artist Titian and a couple of rival painters, Tintoretto and Veronese, who—about 450 years ago—really invented modern painting. That is, Ilchman says, if your definition is his: “oil on canvas, not done for any specific site, and with the artist, not the patron, choosing the subject matter”. Ilchman offers proof in the 56 paintings that make up one of the most breathtaking old-master exhibitions you’ll ever see, “Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice,” which is up in Boston through August 16 before it travels to the Louvre.

A melodramatic Veronese “Temptation of St. Anthony” (1553) is adjacent to one by Tintoretto (1577), and there is a row of “The Supper at Emmaus” paintings by all three artists. That famous Titian in the Prado in Madrid where the organist turns around to ogle a reclining nude Venus? It’s here too.
NYT, LATWP, Newsweek