English in the Republic of Ireland

CONTENTS

List of Maps

List of Tables

1 Introduction
1.1 Terminology
1.2 The area under investigation

2 The historical background
2.1 The history of Ireland
2.1.1 Early Irish history
2.1.2 The beginning of Anglo-Irish relations
2.1.3. The establishment of Irish independence
2.2. The story of the Irish and English language in Ireland
2.2.1 The heyday of the Irish language
2.2.2 The emergence of the English language
2.2.3 The rise of English
2.2.4 The Gaelic Revival

3 The study of Irish English features
3.1 Research Design
3.2. Features of Irish English
3.2.1 The ‘after’-perfect
3.2.2 The ‘medial object’ -perfect
3.2.3 The ‘indefinite anterior’ -perfect
3.2.4 The ‘be’-perfect
3.2.5 The ‘extended now’-perfect
3.2.6 Embedded inversion
3.2.7 Subordinating ‘and’
3.2.8 The ‘dative of disadvantage’
3.2.9 The ‘negative imperative’
3.3 Discussion of the overall results

4 Conclusion

5 Bibliography

Appendix 1 Questionnaire

Appendix 2 Internet Sources

List of Maps

Map 1: County Mayo

Map 2: The Penal Laws

Map 3: Irish speaking areas

List of Tables

Table 1: Percentage of Irish speakers since 1861

Table 2: People speaking Irish on a daily basis

Table 3: Gender

Table 4: Age

Table 5: Residence

Table 6: Education

Table 7: Irish

Table 8: Acceptance of Q a)

Table 8.1: Acceptance of Q a) matched with proficiency in Irish

Table 8.2: Acceptance of Q a) matched with main residence

Table 8.3: Acceptance of Q a) matched with gender

Table 9: Acceptance of Q b)

Table 9.1: Acceptance of Q b) matched with proficiency in Irish

Table 9.2: Acceptance of Q b) in age group 2

Table 10: Acceptance of Q c)

Table 10.1: Acceptance of Q c) matched with proficiency in Irish

Table 10.2. Acceptance of Q c) matched with main residence

Table 10.3: Acceptance of Q c) matched with age groups

Table 11: Acceptance of Q d)

Table 11.1: Acceptance of Q d) matched with gender

Table 11.2: Acceptance of Q d) matched with proficiency in Irish

Table 12: Acceptance of Q e)

Table 12.1: Acceptance of e) with proficiency in Irish

Table 13: Acceptance of Q f)

Table 13.2: Acceptance of Q f) in age group 2

Table 14: Acceptance of Q g)

Table 14.1: Acceptance of Q g) matched with proficiency in Irish

Table 14.2: Acceptance of Q g) matched with main residence

Table 14.3: Acceptance of Q g) matched with age groups

Table 14.4: Acceptance of Q g) matched with gender

Table 15: Acceptance of Q h)

Table 16: Acceptance of Q i)

Table 16.1: Acceptance of Q i) matched with main residence

Table 16.2: Acceptance of Q i) matched with proficiency in Irish

Table 16.3: Acceptance for Q i) matched with age groups

Table 17: Implicational scale of all sample sentences.

Table 18: Cronbach’s alpha

Table 19: Comparison with Hickey’s Survey of Irish English Usage (2004)

“While we may deplore the misfortunes that almost cost us our own ancestral tongue, it is some light consolation that we have contributed to the enrichment of our neighbours’, and that we have succeeded in moulding and shaping a distinctive Irish speech […]”

Diarmaid Ó Muirithe

1 Introduction

When I worked as an assistant teacher in Castlebar in the West of Ireland, there were many things that crossed my paths which I considered to be peculiar compared to Germany. Apart from the hospitality, the landscape, the Irish way of planning and organizing things, it was the sense of history and ‘Irishness’, which people appeared to have, that struck me as something special. The fact that a nation that has had such a long history of negative encounters with England and Great Britain would turn to adopt the tongue of their neighbours also felt to be extraordinary. Moreover, I noticed that the English spoken in Ireland differed from Standard English not only with respect to phonological features but also in morphosyntactic matters. Given the special language situation in Ireland, with an official language that is hardly used at all in everyday life and the struggle to keep it alive on the one hand, and the use of the English language in all domains of life on the other , studying Irish English (henceforth: IrE) and how it came into being seemed interesting. Many of the studies that had been carried out on IrE claimed that a great deal of the characteristics had their origins in the Irish language (Lunny 1981; Ó hÚrdail 1997; Henry 1977; Odlin 1997b). Apart from that, archaic forms of English have survived in IrE and phenomena caused by imperfect defective second language acquisition during the times of the language shift are still found (Filppula 1999: 12-4). With the decline of the Irish language and the language shift more than a century ago, the question was whether these features that distinguished IrE from other varieties of English are still accepted among the speakers of IrE or have vanished.

Thus, the aim of this study is to establish the acceptance of certain features of IrE and to find possible variables which might influence the acceptance of IrE among its speakers. The study is not designed to give explanations for the origins of the features examined; nevertheless, the different accounts advocated in other studies will be presented.^[1] The structure of the present paper is as follows. Chapter 2 outlines the history of Ireland and its relationship with England and also gives a description of the development of both the Irish and English language, which led to the emergence of Irish English. Chapter 3 includes the description of the methods used to analyse IrE features as well as the presentation and explanation of the results obtained. Chapter 4 seeks to bring together the individual results and draw a conclusion with regard to the questions raised during this study.

1.1 Terminology

The scholars that have studied IrE so far have introduced a number of different terms to describe IrE. There is the term ‘Anglo-Irish’, which has been used by

P.L. Henry to describe the mixture of Irish and English in the rural setting of the 19th century (Henry 1977: 20). The term ‘Hiberno-English’ can have the connotation of being the more urban, more standard variety, but is used by many linguists as a general term for the Irish dialects of English (Filppula 1999; Ó hÚrdail 1997; Odlin 1997a). In order to avoid evoking any connotation with both of these terms, ‘Irish English’ will be used to refer to the variety of English spoken in Ireland.

1.2 The area under investigation

As already mentioned above, many accounts are given for where the input of IrE came from. Among other factors, the transfer from the Irish language was given as a possibility for input into IrE; therefore it seemed reasonable to choose an area for this study where the Irish language has survived. In Connaught (Counties Mayo, Galway, Roscommon, Leitrim and Sligo) in the West of Ireland, many people still speak Irish and some even live in the Irish-speaking areas of the so- called Gaeltachtí. The English language spoken in this region is what Odlin (1991: 597) calls “classic Hiberno-English”. In the West of Ireland, the language shift from Irish to English only took place in the second half of the 18th century, which, according to Odlin (1997b: 29), may have contributed to the preservation of structures influenced by Irish. In contrast, Irish had ceased to be spoken in the East of Ireland nearly two centuries ago. Thus, apart from my personal connections, these facts seemed to be good reasons to choose approximately the region of County Mayo as the geographical area for the present study.

Map 1: County Mayo

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Source: Hickey 2004, DVD.

2 The historical background

2.1 The history of Ireland

In order to understand how Irish English came into being, it is substantial to first have a look at the history of the relationship between England and Ireland, which not only brought the English language to Ireland but also helped to shape the attitudes towards both the English and the Irish language.

2.1.1 Early Irish history

Irish history has not always been influenced by England. Ireland had developed its own culture before contact with England began to shape Irish history. The Celts were arriving in Ireland since the eighth century BC and called themselves Gaels and their land ‘eerie’. Ireland had never been influenced by either Romans or Germans and was very early partitioned into the five regions of Ulster, Leinster, Munster, Connaught and Meath. Within these regions nearly two hundred small kingdoms emerged, fighting each other. At around four hundred AD, the Christianisation of Ireland began with the missionary work of

Palladius and St. Patrick (who came from Roman Britain) and soon Ireland established itself as the ‘island of saints and scholars’ and started to missions all over the European mainland. Although Ireland was christianized, the political system still was that of the small-sized kingdoms (called tuatha) reigned by a King (rí), which dated back to the Gaels. These kings were subordinate to a great king (ruirí), himself subordinate to the High King (árdrí). Vikings arrived from 900 AD on and through their influence a transition from tribal to dynastic kingship took place, creating dynasties such as the Uí Néill in Ulster, the Ó Conchobhair in Connaught, the Ua Briain in Munster. These kings fought each other for the overlordship over Ireland and over the Vikings. Although the country was politically fragmented with regard to culture and language, it formed a unit (Witz 1993: 181-7). In conclusion, Celtic Ireland had its own political and administrative system, was known for its educated scholars and, above all, its Irish language.

2.1.2 The beginning of Anglo-Irish relations

In 1171, Henry II, king of England, went to Ireland, a few kings submitted to him and the synod of Cashel acknowledged him as sovereign in Ireland but there were still kings left who did not acknowledge his reign. Since he had to leave Ireland, Henry appointed his son, John, lord of Ireland. Thus the English influence on Ireland increased, and by 1250, the Irish had lost control of two thirds of the island. The English were especially present in the east, but since the English feudal lords did only rarely visit their territory and a Gaelicization of the Anglo-Irish settlers took place, the Irish kings were able to regain their strength and weaken the English in Ireland (Martin 1994: 123-137).

Until 1541, a patchwork of competing feudal lordship existed in Ireland, which had no interest in a long-term unification of the island but rather in their short-term survival. In 1541 then, the Tudors established themselves as kings of Ireland, starting revolutionary changes: English common law was introduced, as well as a centralized royal administration, new English colonists - now Protestant, after the Reformation had taken place in England - arrived in Ireland, convinced of the superiority of English civilization. In 1594, a rebellion movement under the leadership of Hugh O'Neill was formed, and the Nine Years War against England started. The Irish rebels could win a number of fights but with the defeat at the battle of Kinsale in 1601 the fate of the Irish-Gaelic feudal leadership was sealed, and a period of an English sovereignty started (Lennon/Gillespie 22000: 50-60).

During the first decades of the 17th century, exports went up but resulted in the loss of Ireland's natural resources. England, i.e. the place where most of Ireland's exported goods went during that time, profited by it. During the reign of Charles I, in 1641, Ireland dared an insurrection which ended in another English invasion. After the death of King Charles I in 1649, Oliver Cromwell arrived in Ireland with his army and the massacring of a large amount of people in Drogheda and Wexford, led to the submission of the revolting Irish. In 1689, James II tried to regain the English crown and started the Williamite War with the siege of Derry. James's Catholic army fought William's army including German, Danish and French Huguenot troops and lost the final battle of the Boyne on July 12th, 1690. The following Treaty of Limerick granted the Irish relatively convenient conditions; however, when the English parliament ratified the treaty years later, in 1697, it was immensely changed, now including the so- called ‘Penal Laws’ (Simms 1994: 204-16; Wall 1994:217-21).

The 18th century in Ireland can be described as the century of these laws. They were supposed to control and repress the Catholic population in Ireland. It was impossible to get a Catholic education for one's children, Catholics were not allowed to buy land and if a Catholic died, his land fell to his sons in equal parts. Consequently, the land of Catholics diminished and became scattered.

Map 2: The Penal Laws

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Source: Duffy 22000: 77.

The upper Protestant class became wealthier and more powerful, whereas the Catholic majority's material and educational standard decreased. Another fact enforced this process: the absenteeism of the landlords. They stayed in England, while agents administered their land. Capital flowed out of the country, not being reinvested in Ireland. If the Irish tenant made an effort, invested in order to yield a large crop, the rents were increased, leaving the tenant with bare subsistence.

Apart from this, the rapid growth of the population led to a long-lasting economic underdevelopment and poverty in Ireland.

After another failed rebellion in 1798, Ireland was united with Great Britain by the Act of Union which came into effect in 1801 and provided that the Irish parliament in Dublin was dissolved and Irish interests were represented by representatives in Westminster, the Church of England and the Church of Ireland were united and the laws in both countries were brought into line. In 1823, Catholic emancipation started with the founding of the Catholic Association by Daniel O'Connell. The Association's main aim was the repeal of the Union and its Penal Laws. O'Donnell won a seat in the elections with a two-third-majority and the Penal Laws were relieved, at first sight. More than 100,000 people attended O'Donnell's speeches regularly. The situation was alarming for the English but nature took their fears away (Breuer 2003:65-6; Cronin 2001: 125- 35).

Between 1845 and 1848, the Great Famine struck Ireland and in the following years decimated its population from 8.5 million to 4.5 million , leaving the West of Ireland depopulated either by starvation or emigration. Agriculture was a monoculture. The Irish exported high-quality grain to England, and the Irish themselves depended on potatoes solely. The majority of the land was owned by Protestants and the Catholics were left with land too small to utilize economically. During that time, the philosophy of laissez-faire and Social Darwinism^[2] were popular, also with the English government, which thought that such a famine was merely a sign for the fact that the agriculture of the island could not feed so many people. About one million people died and during the years of the famine unbelievable agony and desperation dominated Irish life (Breuer 2003: 84-87).

2.1.3. The establishment of Irish independence

A period of rising nationalism and political movements followed. The formation of the Irish Tenant League, the Land League, the Home Rule League and the Irish Republican Brotherhood made clear the two issues which dominated the time between 1850 and 1890: the distribution of land and Home Rule, i.e. the termination of the Union and a republican Ireland with its own state (Breuer 2003: 106-9).

The land question was solved by 1909 with 270,000 land acquisitions of the Irish but the Home Rule question did not go much further. In the Protestant north of the Island, Home Rule was strongly refused, whereas in the south, more and more militant groups, such as the Irish Volunteers or the Irish Citizen Army, emerged, demanding Ireland's independence. These movements were very determined and helped to form an Irish identity by formulating their vision of a future Ireland as being independent, Catholic and Gaelic. This vision was formed not only by the different political movements at that time but also by an Irish literary revival and the founding of the Gaelic Athletic Association, each movement contributing different things to a vision of an Irish Ireland (Doherty 22000: 106-7).

In the end, the English contributed to the formation of the Irish nation. After the failed Easter Rising in 1916, which had been poorly planned, the English military shot the rebels and made them martyrs for the Irish cause. This led to such great support for the party supporting a whole independent Ireland, Sinn Féin, that they won the 1918 elections. Instead of taking their seats in Westminster, the Sinn Féin MPs formed their own parliament, the Dáil Éireann, in Dublin in 1919, and confirmed the declaration of independence proclaimed in the rising in 1916 (Cronin 2001: 195-8).

Thereafter, the Anglo-Irish war followed between 1919 and 1921. It was rather a series of individual guerrilla-like attacks since the British forces, namely the Royal Irish Constabulary, and the Black-and-Tans, outnumbered the Irish Republican Army and the Irish Republican Brotherhood by far - the ‘Bloody Sunday’ on November 21st, 1920, claimed twelve lives^[3] Since the British Prime Minister could no longer take responsibility for such violence, a compromise was offered in 1921, which suggested the partition of Ireland in Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, to achieve truce. The British government felt they had to protect those supporting the union with Britain, the protestant Unionists in the

Northern part of the island, since they were well organised and equipped, i.e. ready to start fighting if the whole of Ireland was to gain independence from Britain. A treaty based on this compromise was signed in 1922, which led to the creation of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann); thus Ireland was independent for the first time since 1171 (Ó Mahoney/Delanty 1998: 60-92).

Unfortunately, the treaty was fought against by those who had fought for a whole independent Ireland and did not accept Ireland’s dominant status within the Commonwealth, the most popular one being the republic’s president, Éamon de Valera. Although the pro-treaty position was confirmed in the following elections in June of 1922, a civil war, which lasted until May 1923, broke out and ended in the defeat of those opposing the treaty.^[4]

In 1926, de Valera founded a new party, Fianna Fáil, which won the elections in 1932 and made de Valera become the new head of the Irish government. In the following years, the government disposed of objectionable elements in the 1921 Treaty, such as the Oath of Allegiance or the Office of Governor-General. Finally, in 1937, a new constitution (Bunreacht na hÉireann) was introduced, which included no ties to the British Crown at all, thus turning the Irish Free State into the independent ‘Ireland’ or ‘Éire’. The new system of government included the typical offices of a republic: a president with mainly representative functions, a prime minister (Taoiseach) as head of government, a, comparably powerless, senate, and of course the parliament (Dáil). During the Emergency, as World War Two was called in Ireland, the new republic remained neutral, in spite of the pressures from both sides. Already in 1930, its independence was also acknowledged by the election to the council of the League of Nations. After 16 years in power, an inter-party government consisting of its opponents followed the Fianna Fáil government. Since until then the 1921 Treaty did not play any role in Irish politics, the new Dáil passed the Republic of Ireland Bill, which was regarded as Ireland’s retreat from the Commonwealth by Britain. Thus since 1949, the denomination of the state is ‘Republic of Ireland’ and Ireland fully independent (Lynch 1994: 324-331; Breuer 2003: 154-6).

The historical events leading up to Irish independence may give the reader an idea why the persistent animosity between the Irish and the English exists. It is still nowadays widely exploited for comical reasons, e.g. by the Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan. His opinion about what it means to be Irish is reflected in the following statement:

“I’m Irish….wohooo!….what does it mean?...aaargh….. at least, I’m not fuckin’ English, that’s what it means!”

(Tommy Tiernan live, DVD, 2002)

2.2. The story of the Irish and English language in Ireland

2.2.1 The heyday of the Irish language

The official language of the Republic of Ireland is Irish or Gaeilge. In the 2002 census (CSO, Ireland), still only 41.4% of the Irish population stated to speak Irish. The language used most commonly in Ireland nowadays has been English for a considerable amount of time. The question is how this language situation came into being and how English and Irish developed in Ireland over time.

Around 300 BC, the Celtic Language that is now known as Irish was brought to Ireland. However, it was not until the fifth century that there emerged something one could describe as Irish literacy. The monasteries introduced written education in Ireland and many scholars from different European countries went to Ireland because of its reputation as the island of saints and scholars. The earliest manuscript written completely in Irish is Lebor na hUidre; it was composed in Clonmacnoise in about 1100^[5].

The following period can be described as the booming years of the Irish language. Irish even expanded to Scotland, introducing itself to the Picts, northern Britain and the Isle of Man. Nowadays Scottish Gaelic is still spoken, whose roots lie in the expansion of Irish. From the 9th century onwards, Viking raids and settlements took place in Ireland which had an influence on the Irish language, namely, introducing new words dealing with commerce and navigation, but did not have a major impact on Irish culture and language (BBC Homepage, 14 March 2009). The Vikings founded ports such as Dublin, Galway and Cork, but assimilated to the Irish culture after some time, probably because of a lack of female settlers.

2.2.2 The emergence of the English language

In 1171, the Anglo-Norman conquest began and English was introduced to Ireland for the first time, albeit without much impact. In the following centuries, English gained some ground in the areas of law and administration, but Irish was maintained as the spoken language because the new landowners intermarried with natives and became Irish speakers themselves (Kallen 1994: 151). This degeneracy of the English settlers posed such a threat to the English that in 1366 the Statutes of Kilkenny, which prohibited the use of the Irish language, marrying Irish partners or dressing in traditional Irish clothing, were issued (Bottigheimer 1982: 67). They were felt to be necessary because Irish still asserted itself despite these laws. Only the area called the English Pale(Co. Dublin with parts of Meath, Louth, Kildare and Wicklow) had a mainly English- speaking population. At that time, the region influenced least by English was Ulster because it had a strong link to the Scottish Gaels, which was a great advantage for the survival of the Gaelic language in that area (Hindley 1990: 4). The ineffectiveness of the prohibition of the Irish language becomes more vivid if one takes into account that since 1366, the Irish language had spread so widely among the Anglo-Irish that already in 1394, the Earl of Ormond was able to interpret for Richard II in his dealings with the Irish (Cosgrove 1994: 167-170). To use Cronin’s words (2003: 10), there was a time in Ireland when nearly “everyone spoke Gaelic in splendid isolation.”.

When Henry VIII ruled over Ireland, he tried to conquer Ireland for good and enforce reformation in order to not only be king of Ireland but also fulfil the position as head of the Church of Ireland. However, the reformation did not succeed; in contrast, it had the effect that the native Irish and the ‘Old English’ were united in their Catholic faith and the Irish language became the symbol of the Catholic religion. Protestantism and the English language became a symbol for the English rule and suppression, and the Protestant faith only became the religion of the ruling class, thus creating a religious gap between the English and the Irish on top of the already existing military and political rivalries (Hayes- McCoy 1994: 178-181). Considering the incidents mentioned above, the question arises: how did Irish lose its status as the common language?

2.2.3 The rise of English

One of the most important reasons for the decline of the Irish language in Ireland is the settlement of English Protestants in Ireland in the 16th and 17th century, which led to an establishment of a new ruling class in Ireland that spoke English. Especially the plantations and transportations under Oliver Cromwell, who took more than two thirds of the lands from the Irish and reserved it for English settlers, are widely remembered in Irish folk memory and resulted in the final breakdown of the Gaelic society. In all provinces, except for Connaught, the landowners were suddenly English-speaking Protestants (Cronin 2001: 74-5). As a result, English-speaking as well as Irish- speaking areas emerged in the whole of Ireland. Looking at the towns as places of linguistic diffusion, a typical pattern with inner areas being predominantly English-speaking and surrounding areas being mainly Irish-speaking can be found in the 17th century (Kallen 1994: 157- 8).

From 1695 onwards, a series of Penal Laws was passed that excluded Catholics from public life. Aimed primarily at the Irish Catholic population, these laws also accelerated the decline of the Irish language since Irish was the language of the natives. English became the language of law and political institutions; for this reason, access to power was restricted to English-speakers, or, to put it differently, English occupied the H-level domains whereas Irish was rather associated with the L domains (Kallen 2000: 34). This was one of the main reasons for the decline of the Irish language since English had to be spoken in order to take part in public life. Of course this condition mainly applied to more urban areas, but still the rural regions had to catch up, changing slowly from a monolingual society of either English or Irish speakers to a rather bilingual society.

In the late 18th century, even the new emerging Catholic middle class spoke mainly English since it provided access to progress and civility. Irish was at that point considered "the language of the poor and the past" (Ó Tuathaigh 2005: 42) and was only used to talk to lower class members. Even Daniel O'Connell, the leader of the Catholic Emancipation in the late 18th century did not address the people in Irish but in English - despite being a native Irish speaker himself (Ó Tuathaigh 2005: 44). Thus, the years between 1600 and 1800 were characterized by the development of bilingualism and language shift towards English (Kallen 1994: 159).

Apart from that, one has to bear in mind that the Great Famine (an Gorta Mór) in the 1840s reduced the number of Irish speakers immensely with about 1.5 million deaths and about one million emigrants. The low census figures of only 24.5% Irish speakers in 1861 are the logical consequence (CSO, Census 2006). At the same time, bilingualism was spreading, i.e. more and more people were learning and using the English language – first as a second language, later as their preferred language (Filppula 1999: 8).

However, if one takes into account the following decades, the numbers of Irish-speakers increased again:

Table 1: Percentage of Irish speakers since 1861

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Year

Irish speakers

Source: Central Statistics Office, Ireland

How did such a change take place? What happened in Ireland?

2.2.4 The Gaelic Revival

During the last two decades of the nineteenth century different political movements, which fought for Irish independency (here called ‘Home Rule’), emerged, and with them a renewal of the Celtic legacy of Ireland, including its language. The most important of these movements with regard to language was the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge), founded by Douglas Hyde and Eoin MacNéill in 1893. Although there had been other Celtic revival initiatives mainly initiated by Protestants who had an interest in Irish culture, Hyde probably started the promotion of language restoration in Ireland with his address.

[...]

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^[1] For an extensive discussion of the origins of IrE features see Filppula (1999).

^[2] The theory of Socail Darwinism, “[…] was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Social Darwinists held that the life of humans in society was a struggle for existence ruled by “survival of the fittest,” a phrase proposed by the British philosopher and scientist Herbert Spencer. […]The poor were the “unfit” and should not be aided; in the struggle for existence, wealth was a sign of success.” (Encyclopedia Britannica online, 23 March 2009).

^[3] After the IRA had killed eleven members of British intelligence stationed in Dublin, a truckload of Black-and-Tans went to Croke Park, where more than 10,000 were watching a Gaelic football game, shooting randomly into the crowd and at the players, killing twelve people.

^[4] What is not so well-known as ‘Bloody Sunday’ is the fact that in this civil war the Free State government had executed 77 members of the anti-treaty forces, interned more than 10,000 opponents without trail and caused more destruction to Ireland than the violence between 1916 and 1921 all together (Cronin 2001: 204-205).

^[5] Ireland has the oldest vernacular literature in Western Europe with inscriptions and interlinear glosses in Latin texts long before 1100 (Duffy 22000: 20).