Ronan Marion Patricia

Ronan, Patricia, ed. Ireland and its Contacts / L'Irlande et ses contacts. Cahiers du CLSL 38. Lausanne: Centre de linguistique et des sciences du langage, 2013.

This volume traces various foreign influences on the languages and culture of Ireland during the centuries of its documented history.
The legacy of the Celts on the continent is described and the linguistic implications of the term Celtic, as well as of its relatives, are discussed in relation to the people to whom they have been applied in the remote and more recent past.
Further, the linguistic and societal outcomes of cultural contacts on the island of Ireland are traced. The influence of Latin and Greek learning on early Ireland is shown and the rise of the English language in Ireland is described in its socio-cultural context. Linguistic and cultural contacts in the modern area are also considered in the discussions of how the Irish and Irish variety of English are perceived in American popular culture, and how multilinguality made use of in James Joyce's work. Finally, the question is asked how similar or dissimilar Irish English in fact is compared to other international varieties of English.
These studies show that the cultural and linguistic influences are not only unidirectional, they form a network of influences which are largely determined by issues of prestige of the languages concerned.

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