The aim of this seminar is to acquaint students with the culture of Ireland and look closely at its language and literature. All these three aspects of Irish life are intertwined and will be dealt with in an interrelated manner. There will first be a focus on the historical background to Ireland, mentioning the peoples on the island, the languages they spoke and the cultural artefacts which they have left behind. The relationship to England looms large in the history of Ireland and will be centre-stage. The present-day linguistic situation will be outlined and current developments in language in Ireland will be examined.
Appropriate literature for the different aspects of this seminar will be provided to the students at the beginning of the seminar. See also the material on the websites mentioned below.
There are two main websites with information on language in Ireland which students should consult. The first is dedicated to the English language in Ireland while the second deals with the Irish language.
The Irish English Resource Centre
Discover Irish
Recommended literature
Hickey, Raymond 2007. Irish English. History and Present-day Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hickey, Raymond (ed.) 2011. Irish English in Today's World. Special issue of English Today, Vol. 106, June 2011. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hickey, Raymond (ed.) 2016. Sociolinguistics in Ireland. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hickey, Raymond and Elaine Vaughan (eds) 2017. Irish English. Special issue of World Englishes 36.2. Malden, MA: Wiley. |
