Madam, - While Donal Flynn's (December 9th) description of some of the Irish on TG4 as "pidgin-Irish" is not inaccurate, the term "patois" refers to a creole or non-standard speech; that is, the special jargon of a particular group.
Creolisation is a process through which a simplified contact language becomes a fully developed native language - ie a pidgin language becomes a creole language. Thus, the terms "patois" and "pidgin" are closely related.
Regarding Mr Flynn's claim that the translation of state documents has no linguistic impact or is in no way connected to the language spoken by the people, perhaps he would be so kind as to point out as much to the four trawler owners recently accused of offences against EU and Irish fishing laws.
All four have requested that their case be heard by an Irish-speaking judge and that all relevant documents be made available in Irish.
When will the public at large in this country finally understand that the Official Languages Act poses a threat to no one and does nothing more than provide basic civil, constitutional rights to Irish speakers, native or otherwise? - Is mise,
CAOIMHÍN Ó hICÍ, Baile na nGabhar, Baile Átha Cliath 14.