English in the Republic of Ireland - A fieldwork-based case study

Examensarbeit aus dem Jahr 2009 im Fachbereich Anglistik - Kultur und Landeskunde, Note: 1,5, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: 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. 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. 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.