A History of the Irish Language

Description

This book traces the history of the Irish language from the time of the Norman invasion to independence. Aidan Doyle addresses both the shifting position of Irish in society and the important internal linguistic changes that have taken place, and combines political, cultural, and linguistic history.

• Sets the history of the Irish language in its political and cultural context.
• Makes available for the first time material that has previously been inaccessible to non-Irish speakers.
• Assumes no background in linguistics and provides definitions of terms used.

About the Author(s)

Aidan Doyle, Lecturer, University College Cork

Aidan Doyle is a lecturer in the Department of Irish at University College Cork. His main research interests include the syntax and morphology of contemporary Irish, and the history of the Irish language. He has contributed to edited volumes published by Mouton de Gruyter, John Benjamins, and Peter Lang, and has published articles in Yearbook of Morphology, Ériu, and Folia Linguistica Historica.

Table of Contents

1:Introduction
2:The Anglo-Normans and their heritage (1200-1500)
3:The Tudors (1500-1600)
4:The Stuarts (1600-1700)
5:Two Irelands, two languages (1700-1800)
6:A new language for a new nation (1800-1870)
7:Revival (1870-1922)
8:The modernization of Irish (1870-1922)
9:Conclusion
Glossary
References
Index

Reviews

"the historiography of the Irish language is vibrant at the moment, and Aidan Doyle has made a very constructive contribution to it." - Niall Ó Ciosáin, Historical Sociolinguistics