Irish English Language Analysis

In this chapter a brief historical overview of the English language in Ireland is presented. The development of the English language as well as its establishment as a dominant language in Ireland was a long and a discontinuous process lasting for centuries.

Irish, also called Irish Gaelic, belongs to the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family and is estimated to have been brought to Ireland by the arrival of the Celts between 500 and 300 BC. By the end of the 11th century AD, the primary language of Ireland and Scotland was Irish (Ó Laoire, 2007: 164). Ubaciti par recenica barem latin and christianity The English language was introduced into Ireland as a result of the Anglo-Norman invasion in the year 1169 when the Anglo-Normans

The English did not want the Anglo-Normans to become completely Irish, which would hinder their conquest of the whole country. Therefore, they introduced the Statutes of Kilkenny, a defined set of laws from the year 1366, by which the people had to live. The Statutes enforced English traditions, whereas it forbade Irish habits. With this intention, the aim of the legislations was to cut off any communication between the Anglo-Normans and the Irish, and to make the settlers English again. The Statutes of Kilkenny are an example of the various attempts of the English to ‘curb the rapid geaelicisation of the Anglo-Norman settlers, and proscribing the Irish language and Irish customs’ (Hickey, 2007: 419). But these efforts had no effect, since during the Anglo-Norman invasions and colonizations of the 12th and 13th centuries, some shift to French and English occurred but in the end a predominantly Irish-speaking Ireland arose (Ó Laoire, 2007: 164). It seemed that the invaders adopted the language of the country. However, this does not mean that English did not influence Irish in following the Anglo-Norman invasion. On the contrary, it made its presence strongly felt in translation. Large amounts of material were translated from English to Irish in this period. On the spoken level, interpreting in trade was going on. All this translation meant that there was

At that time, the population of Ireland was still almost universally Irish speaking. Irish was spoken by all classes in the countryside, while in the towns and cities some knowledge of English was required in administrative and legal occupations (Antonini 2). This situation did not immediately change.

The events of the late 16th and 17th century had a major impact on the history of the English language in Ireland. These events include the Tudor conquests and plantations, the Cromwellian Settlement, as well as the Penal Laws. The Tudor conquests and plantations are connected with forced settlements in the early 16th century. Thousands of English and Scottish settlers arrived in Ireland and were sent to the plantations in order to anglicize the Irish (Harris, 1991: 37). Finally, in these areas English was spoken almost exclusively. These forced settlements begun with the Tudors and were reinforced by Cromwell in the 17th century. The Cromwellian Settlement (1652-1653) under the rule of Oliver Cromwell is connected with the confiscation of lands of the Irish Catholics and their resettlement. The Catholics of Ireland lost political power and high positions and this also reinforced the continuing development of the English language (Hickey, 2002: