Irish English Dialect Analysis
Hao Vu/ Matthew Cunningham
ENG 3320 Moosally
An Analysis of the Irish English Dialect
The official language of Ireland is known as Gaelic to the world and Eire, or Irish, to the people who live there. Nevertheless it is a language that isn’t spoken in the everyday lives of most Irish citizens and is on the state sanctioned life-support of school curriculum and official decree. Our discussion is on the Irish English dialect commonly spoken by the roughly five million inhabitants of the Republic of Ireland. Its reach and influence is far greater than it borders would suggest in part because of massive immigration through much of its history to places throughout the British Empire as well as many of England’s former colonial holdings. It also has a greater influence than its size would suggest due to the oversize influence of its many famous writers and poets. The Irish migrated very broadly worldwide but they immigrated in droves to America, Australia, parts of Canada, and the Caribbean. Many common features of the dialects in these places appear due to a shared Irish influence. English first came to Ireland in the late 12th century with the introduction of Norman settlers with Welsh and English followers. They took root in towns on the East coast of Ireland and spread Middle Irish English through the 13th century after which it declined. Current day Irish English dialect is descended from the influx of British and Scottish settlers who dominated militarily and culturally several centuries later. At that time English speaking Ireland emerged again in the 17th century with to become what it is today.
Gaelic wasn’t entirely lost though and several aspects of its usage had influence on the Irish English dialect. In the prosody of SIE this includes, notably and strikingly to other English speakers, an atypical and flexible placement of word stresses often times further into the word structure. The variability of the stresses is a very Irish feature of the dialect
ENG 3320 Moosally
An Analysis of the Irish English Dialect
The official language of Ireland is known as Gaelic to the world and Eire, or Irish, to the people who live there. Nevertheless it is a language that isn’t spoken in the everyday lives of most Irish citizens and is on the state sanctioned life-support of school curriculum and official decree. Our discussion is on the Irish English dialect commonly spoken by the roughly five million inhabitants of the Republic of Ireland. Its reach and influence is far greater than it borders would suggest in part because of massive immigration through much of its history to places throughout the British Empire as well as many of England’s former colonial holdings. It also has a greater influence than its size would suggest due to the oversize influence of its many famous writers and poets. The Irish migrated very broadly worldwide but they immigrated in droves to America, Australia, parts of Canada, and the Caribbean. Many common features of the dialects in these places appear due to a shared Irish influence. English first came to Ireland in the late 12th century with the introduction of Norman settlers with Welsh and English followers. They took root in towns on the East coast of Ireland and spread Middle Irish English through the 13th century after which it declined. Current day Irish English dialect is descended from the influx of British and Scottish settlers who dominated militarily and culturally several centuries later. At that time English speaking Ireland emerged again in the 17th century with to become what it is today.
Gaelic wasn’t entirely lost though and several aspects of its usage had influence on the Irish English dialect. In the prosody of SIE this includes, notably and strikingly to other English speakers, an atypical and flexible placement of word stresses often times further into the word structure. The variability of the stresses is a very Irish feature of the dialect