Origin and development of Irish English dialectal varieties

Abstract

I intend to study the characteristics of two regional dialects and examine their differences and similitudes from a morphosyntactic point of view. For that purpose, I will analyse the works of two playwrights who attempt to represent the speech of early twenty-century inhabitants. One of them is Sean O’Casey Juno and the Paycock, which is set in Dublin and the other is John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World, set on the west coast of County Mayo. The reason of this selection is that drama texts usually contain more evidences of colloquial features than other literary works. It was not until the 17th century that the influence of British English (BE) reached a crucial moment in Ireland. At that time, the Cromwelliam Settlement gave solid impulse to the dispersion of BE. Dublin had always been the area where the influence of BE never ceased, whereas in the rural Ireland BE had no presence until the modern period. The late 18th and early 19th centuries, were more decisive from the point of view of the formation of the Irish English grammar. After the Great Famine, English became the language of social advancement, whereas Irish was increasingly associated with poverty. Irish speakers shifted to English, and this fact caused the emergence of different dialectal varieties. The grammar of the western rural dialects was the most influenced by Irish, and the eastern dialects, especially the urban, were the closest to standard British English. In the present day four varieties of Irish English can be distinguished: Ulster English, West and South-West Irish English, Dublin English and the Supraregional Southern Irish English. My aim is to cover the dialectal varieties of Ireland, focusing my work on two of them: West and South West Irish English and Dublin English. Thus, I will provide a socio-historical background of the linguistic situation in Ireland and the causes that led Irish English to its current state. Furthermore, I will analyse the two fictional works previously mentioned by establishing a comparison based on the information gathered beforehand