Ireland
Ireland
Iceland and Ireland on the same scale
103,000 km²
317.000
3 /km
84,412 km²
N.I. 1.8 m
R.I. 4.5 m
73 /km
Ireland
• North and South.
– Northern Ireland, still a part of the UK
– The Republic of Ireland, Eire, independent
since 1921
Provinces and
Counties
http://www.spirited-ireland.net/map/_counties/
http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/geography/settlement.html
Ireland
• North and South.
– “Northern Ireland” or Ulster, still a part of the
UK
– Ireland or Eire, independent since 1921
• Two different origins of English in the North
and the South,both dating from the 17th
century.
– South: Anglo-Irish (mostly from Western
England)
– North: displaced Scots
Ireland
• For the early period, 17th-18th cent the
English of the North and South were cut
off by a band of Irish across the middle of
the country.
• Both fully rhotic:
– alveolar or retroflex approx (not the Scottish
roll )
– General lack of dark l (unlike Scottish)
Northern Ireland
• Consonants:
– þ and ð occur (not
as in South)
– So no t-þ and d-ð merging
– Fully rhotic, not rolled
– Lack of dark l
Northern Ireland
• Vowels
– Vowel system closer to Scottish English.
– GOOSE and FOOT merged
– TRAP and PALM merged (no TRAP-BATH
split)
– LOT and THOUGHT merged
Northern Ireland
• Vowels
– Loss of phonemic vowel-length distinction:
Aitken's Law rather than Lax/Tense and clipping
– Recap Aitken's Law :
except
- always short
Northern Ireland
• Vowels
– Aitken's Law in N.Ireland is slightly different:
except
- always short
Northern Ireland
• Vowels
Northern Ireland
• Vowels
Northern Ireland
• Vowels
Northern Ireland
• Vowels
Southern Ireland – the Irish
Republic
• Norse spoken in and around medieval Dublin
• English spoken in Ireland (The Pale) since
around 1200 – settlers from Bristol
• Present-day English is from the ‘planters’ of
the 17th century – predominantly from SW
England
• Very conservative: very few traces of later
British innovations
Southern Ireland – the Irish
Republic
• The 'brogue'
• (barróg 'accent, speech impediment, or bróg =shoe
(from Norse brók)
• Very conservative: very few traces of later British
innovations
– No FLEECE Merging
– No BATH Broadening
– No H Dropping
– No Glide Cluster Reduction
– No Move towards R Dropping (unlike England)
Southern Ireland – the Irish
Republic
• Irish substratum:
– vowel system basically Irish (Wells 410)
– some substratum effects in the consonants
too, but English consonants such as and z,
which do not occur in Irish, have been added
– Syntactic substratum:
Sure I’m after tellin you
It’s thinking I am you’ll be hungry
Southern Ireland – the Irish
Republic
Vowels
• Unrounding of
• LOOK-STRUT Split, uncertain in places, but not
with the same lexical incidents
is a back unrounded centralised
TRAP is [a]
any, many with TRAP, = Annie, manny.
No Long Mid Diphthonging:
FACE, GOAT fe:s go:t
KIT-Schwa MErger (Lenin-Lennon)
Southern Ireland – the Irish
Republic
Consonants
• Þ and ð become dental stops t and d
(this is heard by other British speakers as t and d, but
outside Dublin there is a distinction between thin and
tin, breathe and breed.
• Lenition of medial (=between vowels) and final
consonants, esp /t/, to [t ] or even[h]
nah01tAl 1sah0rde
(graphic follows)
Southern Ireland – the Irish
Republic
•
•
•
•
Southern Ireland – the Irish
Republic
Rhotic: r is dark, even retroflex
l is light in all environments
No H Dropping
Scwa epenthesis: Dublin, petrol, Cathleen, film, form,
tavern.
• Broad and narrow consonants
Southern Ireland – the Irish
Republic