The Oxford Handbook of Irish English

Author: Raymond Hickey Series: Oxford Handbooks

This volume offers a comprehensive overview of the range of varieties of English spoken on the island of Ireland. It explores the historical background and structural features of Irish English, alongside sociolinguistic considerations, and will be of interest to readers in fields of varieties of English, Irish studies, and sociolinguistics.

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Summary

Description

This volume offers a comprehensive overview of the range of varieties of English spoken on the island of Ireland, featuring information on their historical background, structural features, and sociolinguistic considerations. The first part of the volume explores English and Irish in their historical framework as well as current issues of contact and bilingualism. Chapters in Part II and Part III investigate the structures and use of Irish English today, frompronunciation and grammar to discourse-pragmatic markers and politeness strategies, alongside studies of specific varieties such as Urban English in Northern Ireland and the Irish English spoken in Dublin,Galway, and Cork. Part IV focuses on the Irish diaspora, with chapters covering topics including Newfoundland Irish English and Irish influence on Australian English, while the final part looks at the wider context, such as the language of Irish Travellers and Irish Sign Language. The handbook also features a detailed glossary of key terms, and will be of interest to a wide range of readers interested in varieties of English, Irish studies, sociolinguistics, and social and cultural history.

Critic Reviews

These failings are regrettable. Nevertheless, the book does offer readers a rather comprehensive and readable account of Irish English, its history and its present-day situation. Geoffrey Sampson, LINGUIST

About the Author

Raymond Hickey is Adjunct Professor at the University of Limerick and former Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Duisburg-Essen. His research centres around varieties of English, especially Irish English, eighteenth-century English, and issues of standardization of English, language contact, and areal linguistics, as well as sociolinguistic variation and change. Among his recent book publications are The Cambridge Handbook of ArealLinguistics (CUP, 2017), English in Multilingual South Africa (CUP, 2020), and The Handbook of Language Contact (Wiley-Blackwell, 2020).