Brian Ó Broin
Brian Ó Broin is a professor of linguistics, medieval literature, and Irish studies at William Paterson University, New Jersey. He publishes widely in both academic and popular journals. His language and literature classes draw a wide variety of students from incoming freshmen to graduate students, and he supervises both undergraduate-level independent studies and graduate-level dissertations. He occasionally offers not-for-credit classes in Irish (Gaelic), both in New Jersey and around the United States. Professor Ó Broin presents academic papers in all three of his academic disciplines at conferences around the world.
Phone: 973 720 2641
Address: Dept of English,
300 Pompton Road,
Wayne, NJ 07470
USA
Phone: 973 720 2641
Address: Dept of English,
300 Pompton Road,
Wayne, NJ 07470
USA
less
Related Authors
InterestsView All (37)
Uploads
Books by Brian Ó Broin
Besides the several thousand families in the official Gaeltacht raising children in Irish, there are at least 650 families (and probably more) raising children in Irish outside the Gaeltacht on both sides of the border and even in other countries.
Such families still face difficulties, from the mundane problems of finding other families with whom the children can interact to finding appropriate schools for their Irish-speaking children. Social services for Irish speakers are still non-existent, and officials at all levels, even after the passing of a Language Equality Act, barely tolerate Irish speakers.
This book is a sign of hope, however. Considerably more parents are choosing to raise their children in Irish than were doing so several decades ago, and while the Irish spoken by their children is a new urban hybrid that is often derided by language purists, it is nevertheless being spoken by native speakers in all of Ireland’s towns and cities. As the language becomes an urban phenomenon, this book is a much-needed first step towards the recognition and analysis of Irish as a national (and international) idiom with both rural and urban varieties.
Brian Ó Broin, the book’s editor, is an Associate Professor of linguistics and medieval literature at William Paterson University, New Jersey. He and his wife Jo Schuster are raising their children Ána and Fiona in Irish and German.
Contributors to the book include Brian Ó Broin, Máire Nic Ghiolla Phádraig, Iarfhlaith Watson, Pádraig Ó Duibhir, Denise O’Leary, Muiris Ó Laoire, PeadarMac Fhlannchadha, Muireann Ní Mhóráin, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Concubhar Ó Liatháin, Siobhain Grogan, Mick Moriarty, Carmel Ní Chathláin, Breandán Ó Caollaí, Niall Ó Murchú, Aonghus Ó hAlmhain, Róisín Healy
More information and resources can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/thogamar/
Papers by Brian Ó Broin
This paper is forthcoming (as of autumn 2018).
In households in which one parent speaks Irish to the children, what connection is there between parental input and child language output? And since this is the typical make-up of the Irish-speaking household, what are the implications for the Irish language?
Gunnlaugs Saga Ormstungu recounts the love-travails of an Icelandic poet, and his journeys through Scandinavia and the British Isles in search of fame. He meets two kings while travelling, Aethrelred of England (Æþelred the Unready) and Sigtryggr Silkiskegg of Dublin.
The Irish view of Sigtryggr and his family is no more flattering than the Norse one. In the Irish tradition, Sigtryggr did not even participate in the battle of Clontarf, preferring instead to watch the action from the walls of Dublin. Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh presents him arguing with his Irish wife as he watches the battle from the walls of Dublin.
Sigtryggr was a rich king, but not overpowerful, and unsuccessful in war. His proximity to both the Norse and the Irish made him an easy butt for poets and storytellers in later years. An important ally because of his mercenaries, he became the ally of none in posterity.
Comprehensive knowledge of pre-nineteenth century Ireland without Irish is about as realistic as comprehensive knowledge of Germany without German. Even today comprehensive knowledge of Modern Ireland without Irish is as realistic as one of Modern Canada without French. Because Irish is known by so many Irish people today, even if only passively, it represents a unique living aspect of Irish culture that must surely inform any scholar working in the field of modern Irish studies. Choosing not to know Irish, a primary marker of Irishness, particularly when it is known by all Irish people who have attended primary and secondary school, cuts one off from an important facet of modern Irish culture.
For many years, the Irish language has been a national footnote. Now, with a critical mass of speakers around the world, in Irish cities, and in the Gaeltacht, and with full legal status in Ireland and in the European Union, it is becoming a major growth area in Irish culture and scholarship. While monolinguals may continue to resist the language's growth, in truth it is becoming unavoidable for most scholars. Hopefully this article will point New Jersey Irish scholars in the direction of resources that will be of use to them.
There has been a rise in competent L2 speakers of Irish, mostly because of Gaelscoileanna, and this community is having a huge influence on the language and issues surrounding it.
Ongoing government recognition of Irish-speaking areas ("An Ghaeltacht") has damaged Irish as a national language, as people living outside the Gaeltacht then consider themselves to be living in English-speaking areas. Furthermore, popular perceptions of the Gaeltacht follow an erroneous post-colonial script that portrays the Gaeltacht as noble, Celtic, rural, old-fashioned, and inevitably moribund, and the rest of Ireland as practical, urban, modern, and English-speaking.
Government action in recent years has greatly raised the status of the Irish language at national and European levels, most obviously in the establishment of a Language Commissioner and in giving Irish working-language status in the European Union. There has also been a significant improvement in Irish-language media services.
Achoimre: Tá lochtanna sa bhille nua Gaeltachta, go háirithe mar a dhéileáileann sé le Údarás na Gaeltachta, ach tá gealladh faoin bhille sa chaoi ina dtugann sé le fios go dtabharfar aitheantas quasi-Gaeltachta do cheantair agus gréasáin áirithe nach bhfuil sa Ghaeltacht go hoifigiúil faoi láthair. Ach an bhfuil áit nó gréasán ar bith a bhfuil an stádas seo tuillte aige/aici? Taobh amuigh d'Iarthar Bhéal Feirste (b'fhéidir), níl, dar leis an údar seo.
Such a decision cannot be made haphazardly or without planning, as the default language for almost all activity in Ireland (even in the Gaeltacht) is now English. Intending Irish-language parents should be discussing the linguistic structure of their homes before their children’s birth, and perhaps even before pregnancy.
Planning ahead is key, as parents must be considering things such as community, family structure, education, and access to media long before these become issues.
Parents whose native language is not Irish are faced with the added difficulty of trying to raise children in a language not their own, often with poor resources for such a task. The best option is to start using the language immediately, regardless of current ability, as those who put off ‘improving’ their Irish never actually get around to it.
Children are learning Irish from the moment of their first breath (and probably before!), so the earlier their access to the language, the better. They must be hearing the language from a parent as often as possible. Most Irish-speaking households outside the Gaeltacht are bilingual, and the recommended language structure is OPOL (‘One parent – one language’).
Children should never be punished for speaking English, but by the same token, they must be highly encouraged to use Irish, even to the point of pretending not to understand them unless they speak Irish. Otherwise they will develop the habit of speaking English to the parent and the linguistic structure of the family will collapse.
Young children will often, perhaps even usually, speak English together if they live in bilingual communities, but there are possible strategies (although a little artificial) that may get them to speak Irish together.
Parents worry a lot about their children developing an English/Irish pidgin (particularly from their interactions with non-native speakers at Gaelscoileanna), but that fear is unfounded. Most Irish-speaking children develop fluency, even if their Irish, lacking the usual native-speaker’s phonetics, does not sound like that of the Gaeltacht.
Parents observe what they think is ‘bad’ Irish from young children, but the structure of Irish means that children develop perfect grammar only gradually (as opposed to English, which has an extremely simple morphology and ‘sounds’ more correct from an earlier age). There is, in fact, little cause to worry about Irish-speaking children, particularly given the number of children now being raised in the language.
"
Such families were first represented by Na Teaghlaigh Gaelacha, a Conradh na Gaeilge-sponsored organisation, and then by Comhluadar, a government-sponsored Dublin-based organisation.
An increasing number of Irish-speaking households include parents who were themselves raised speaking English, and this raises important linguistic questions about the standard of Irish spoken in such homes and the influence of Ireland's education system on children who then go on to become Irish-speaking parents themselves.
A major challenge for such households is found in Gaelscoileanna. Since only about 3% of Gaelscoil children speak Irish at home, they are in great danger of being subsumed by the English-speaking majority who attend these schools on an immersion basis. There is some evidence that the Irish spoken by such children becomes an interlingual pidgin (although the children do seem to develop fluency in it).
The phenomenon of Urban Irish is partially causing a split among speakers. Household users of the language tend to speak an ad-hoc English-coloured variety often disdained as Gaeilge lofa líofa ("Rotten fluent Irish"), while hobbyists and purists continue to pedestalise a standardised written variety which is increasingly at variance with both urban and Gaeltacht spoken Irish.
There is no doubt that modern Irish is increasingly being influenced by English, and therefore changing rapidly, but there is little evidence as yet that the language is dying out as a result of this. In fact, while there is some evidence that Irish-speaking parents are afraid to speak Irish with those they consider "good" speakers, the very persistence of Gaeilge lofa líofa suggests that this new urban dialect may be garnering support.
Since most new native speakers of Irish will be coming from households in which the parents are not themselves natives, it is necessary for current speakers to adjust to this new variety of Irish.
Since Irish remains a minority language, however, and English is the undisputed default language of Ireland, Irish-speaking parents must be watchful activists and advocates for their children's linguistic welfare, particularly in a world where English-language media are available globally, for free, and around the clock.
Besides the several thousand families in the official Gaeltacht raising children in Irish, there are at least 650 families (and probably more) raising children in Irish outside the Gaeltacht on both sides of the border and even in other countries.
Such families still face difficulties, from the mundane problems of finding other families with whom the children can interact to finding appropriate schools for their Irish-speaking children. Social services for Irish speakers are still non-existent, and officials at all levels, even after the passing of a Language Equality Act, barely tolerate Irish speakers.
This book is a sign of hope, however. Considerably more parents are choosing to raise their children in Irish than were doing so several decades ago, and while the Irish spoken by their children is a new urban hybrid that is often derided by language purists, it is nevertheless being spoken by native speakers in all of Ireland’s towns and cities. As the language becomes an urban phenomenon, this book is a much-needed first step towards the recognition and analysis of Irish as a national (and international) idiom with both rural and urban varieties.
Brian Ó Broin, the book’s editor, is an Associate Professor of linguistics and medieval literature at William Paterson University, New Jersey. He and his wife Jo Schuster are raising their children Ána and Fiona in Irish and German.
Contributors to the book include Brian Ó Broin, Máire Nic Ghiolla Phádraig, Iarfhlaith Watson, Pádraig Ó Duibhir, Denise O’Leary, Muiris Ó Laoire, PeadarMac Fhlannchadha, Muireann Ní Mhóráin, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Concubhar Ó Liatháin, Siobhain Grogan, Mick Moriarty, Carmel Ní Chathláin, Breandán Ó Caollaí, Niall Ó Murchú, Aonghus Ó hAlmhain, Róisín Healy
More information and resources can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/thogamar/
This paper is forthcoming (as of autumn 2018).
In households in which one parent speaks Irish to the children, what connection is there between parental input and child language output? And since this is the typical make-up of the Irish-speaking household, what are the implications for the Irish language?
Gunnlaugs Saga Ormstungu recounts the love-travails of an Icelandic poet, and his journeys through Scandinavia and the British Isles in search of fame. He meets two kings while travelling, Aethrelred of England (Æþelred the Unready) and Sigtryggr Silkiskegg of Dublin.
The Irish view of Sigtryggr and his family is no more flattering than the Norse one. In the Irish tradition, Sigtryggr did not even participate in the battle of Clontarf, preferring instead to watch the action from the walls of Dublin. Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh presents him arguing with his Irish wife as he watches the battle from the walls of Dublin.
Sigtryggr was a rich king, but not overpowerful, and unsuccessful in war. His proximity to both the Norse and the Irish made him an easy butt for poets and storytellers in later years. An important ally because of his mercenaries, he became the ally of none in posterity.
Comprehensive knowledge of pre-nineteenth century Ireland without Irish is about as realistic as comprehensive knowledge of Germany without German. Even today comprehensive knowledge of Modern Ireland without Irish is as realistic as one of Modern Canada without French. Because Irish is known by so many Irish people today, even if only passively, it represents a unique living aspect of Irish culture that must surely inform any scholar working in the field of modern Irish studies. Choosing not to know Irish, a primary marker of Irishness, particularly when it is known by all Irish people who have attended primary and secondary school, cuts one off from an important facet of modern Irish culture.
For many years, the Irish language has been a national footnote. Now, with a critical mass of speakers around the world, in Irish cities, and in the Gaeltacht, and with full legal status in Ireland and in the European Union, it is becoming a major growth area in Irish culture and scholarship. While monolinguals may continue to resist the language's growth, in truth it is becoming unavoidable for most scholars. Hopefully this article will point New Jersey Irish scholars in the direction of resources that will be of use to them.
There has been a rise in competent L2 speakers of Irish, mostly because of Gaelscoileanna, and this community is having a huge influence on the language and issues surrounding it.
Ongoing government recognition of Irish-speaking areas ("An Ghaeltacht") has damaged Irish as a national language, as people living outside the Gaeltacht then consider themselves to be living in English-speaking areas. Furthermore, popular perceptions of the Gaeltacht follow an erroneous post-colonial script that portrays the Gaeltacht as noble, Celtic, rural, old-fashioned, and inevitably moribund, and the rest of Ireland as practical, urban, modern, and English-speaking.
Government action in recent years has greatly raised the status of the Irish language at national and European levels, most obviously in the establishment of a Language Commissioner and in giving Irish working-language status in the European Union. There has also been a significant improvement in Irish-language media services.
Achoimre: Tá lochtanna sa bhille nua Gaeltachta, go háirithe mar a dhéileáileann sé le Údarás na Gaeltachta, ach tá gealladh faoin bhille sa chaoi ina dtugann sé le fios go dtabharfar aitheantas quasi-Gaeltachta do cheantair agus gréasáin áirithe nach bhfuil sa Ghaeltacht go hoifigiúil faoi láthair. Ach an bhfuil áit nó gréasán ar bith a bhfuil an stádas seo tuillte aige/aici? Taobh amuigh d'Iarthar Bhéal Feirste (b'fhéidir), níl, dar leis an údar seo.
Such a decision cannot be made haphazardly or without planning, as the default language for almost all activity in Ireland (even in the Gaeltacht) is now English. Intending Irish-language parents should be discussing the linguistic structure of their homes before their children’s birth, and perhaps even before pregnancy.
Planning ahead is key, as parents must be considering things such as community, family structure, education, and access to media long before these become issues.
Parents whose native language is not Irish are faced with the added difficulty of trying to raise children in a language not their own, often with poor resources for such a task. The best option is to start using the language immediately, regardless of current ability, as those who put off ‘improving’ their Irish never actually get around to it.
Children are learning Irish from the moment of their first breath (and probably before!), so the earlier their access to the language, the better. They must be hearing the language from a parent as often as possible. Most Irish-speaking households outside the Gaeltacht are bilingual, and the recommended language structure is OPOL (‘One parent – one language’).
Children should never be punished for speaking English, but by the same token, they must be highly encouraged to use Irish, even to the point of pretending not to understand them unless they speak Irish. Otherwise they will develop the habit of speaking English to the parent and the linguistic structure of the family will collapse.
Young children will often, perhaps even usually, speak English together if they live in bilingual communities, but there are possible strategies (although a little artificial) that may get them to speak Irish together.
Parents worry a lot about their children developing an English/Irish pidgin (particularly from their interactions with non-native speakers at Gaelscoileanna), but that fear is unfounded. Most Irish-speaking children develop fluency, even if their Irish, lacking the usual native-speaker’s phonetics, does not sound like that of the Gaeltacht.
Parents observe what they think is ‘bad’ Irish from young children, but the structure of Irish means that children develop perfect grammar only gradually (as opposed to English, which has an extremely simple morphology and ‘sounds’ more correct from an earlier age). There is, in fact, little cause to worry about Irish-speaking children, particularly given the number of children now being raised in the language.
"
Such families were first represented by Na Teaghlaigh Gaelacha, a Conradh na Gaeilge-sponsored organisation, and then by Comhluadar, a government-sponsored Dublin-based organisation.
An increasing number of Irish-speaking households include parents who were themselves raised speaking English, and this raises important linguistic questions about the standard of Irish spoken in such homes and the influence of Ireland's education system on children who then go on to become Irish-speaking parents themselves.
A major challenge for such households is found in Gaelscoileanna. Since only about 3% of Gaelscoil children speak Irish at home, they are in great danger of being subsumed by the English-speaking majority who attend these schools on an immersion basis. There is some evidence that the Irish spoken by such children becomes an interlingual pidgin (although the children do seem to develop fluency in it).
The phenomenon of Urban Irish is partially causing a split among speakers. Household users of the language tend to speak an ad-hoc English-coloured variety often disdained as Gaeilge lofa líofa ("Rotten fluent Irish"), while hobbyists and purists continue to pedestalise a standardised written variety which is increasingly at variance with both urban and Gaeltacht spoken Irish.
There is no doubt that modern Irish is increasingly being influenced by English, and therefore changing rapidly, but there is little evidence as yet that the language is dying out as a result of this. In fact, while there is some evidence that Irish-speaking parents are afraid to speak Irish with those they consider "good" speakers, the very persistence of Gaeilge lofa líofa suggests that this new urban dialect may be garnering support.
Since most new native speakers of Irish will be coming from households in which the parents are not themselves natives, it is necessary for current speakers to adjust to this new variety of Irish.
Since Irish remains a minority language, however, and English is the undisputed default language of Ireland, Irish-speaking parents must be watchful activists and advocates for their children's linguistic welfare, particularly in a world where English-language media are available globally, for free, and around the clock.
Needless to say, the research tends towards the medieval and particularly the Anglo-Saxon. But it's nevertheless a fairly comprehensive bibliography.
Anti-Gaelic sentiment spread through the highly post-colonial nation in the sixties and seventies, leading to an almost complete disestablishment of the Irish language, and the language has only gradually crept back as a medium of instruction since then. Close to 10% of Irish schools now cater to native speakers or provide an immersion system for English-speaking families.
The curriculum has not kept pace, however. Although the country's new Primary School Curriculum (Grades K-6) recognizes the need for curricula that cater to both English speakers (for whom Irish will be a target language) and Irish speakers (for whom it will be a language of instruction), and provides said curricula, the Secondary School Curriculum is a complete failure. The curriculum, and its two closely-connected state examinations, the Junior Certificate and the Leaving Certificate, cater only to learners of the English language, meaning that native speakers and immersion students are treated like simpletons, being awarded high marks for simply being able to form basic sentences.
A separate curriculum and examinations system is required for these schools, but this raises difficulty. Will native speakers actually choose such a curriculum, given that more work will be required of them, particularly when university entrance is highly competitive and depends greatly on points gathered through the examination system? Or will they continue to take exams that do not challenge them in any way, knowing that they will pick up easy points for college entrance? A possible solution is to make a native-speaker curriculum more valuable for college entrance, but English speakers will likely respond to this by declaring that such a proposal discriminates against them.
Brian Ó Broin
William Paterson University, NJ
International Congress of Medieval Studies (ICMS), Kalamazoo, MI, 2013
As one reads the early lives, it can seem that there was a distinct monastic hierarchy amongst monasteries. There were the giant foundations, like Clonmacnoise, Kildare, and Iona, and there were medium-sized satellite monasteries which seem to have been founded out of these centers, like Birr and Durrow. Lower on the pecking order (perhaps) were specialized monasteries such as that of Mag Luinge (frequently mentioned in the Life of Colm Cille), which served as places of penitence and perhaps functioned according to severe rules. Could Sceilg Mhichíl have been something like this? Finally, there were places founded by ascetics who had left the organized life of the larger, more comfortable monasteries. These might be as small as a single cell in some forest scrub several kilometers from a monastery, or big enough to house five or six determined anchorites who had sailed or walked away as far as they could.
This paper particularly provides a description of early medieval Iona and the suggestion that we can categorise early medieval Irish monasteries in possibly four groups: big houses with clout, such as those of Iona and Kildare; smaller satellite houses with specific purposes, like the penitents' institution on Tiree; inland hermitages, such as the Dísirt we find all over Ireland, and just a mile from the Iona house, and remote island or peninsular hermitages, perhaps also known as Dísirt, such as Oileán Lócháin (Illaunloughan), which would have housed no more than several souls, founded by intrepid wanderers who had deliberately set off, usually in a group, from bigger houses with the goal of finding complete solitude.
A stylistic analysis of Máirtín Ó Cadhain's Cré na Cille, paying particular attention to the two characters Nórá Sheáinín and Stoc na Cille. The paper spends time with syntax, morphology, lexicon, and subject, to see exactly how these two characters develop the styles that they do. Nóra Sheáinín is particularly interesting because she can change her style according to the person she is talking to.
The number of Irish speakers in the cities has risen since the 1970s, but the numbers are especially pronounced among second-language speakers. This is a fluid community, with many members who speak the language in certain situations but not in others, and whose membership changes over the years. First-language speakers seem to remain members of their community for longer, and obviously pass the language intergenerationally in a way that second-language speakers do not. It is not clear that the two communities overlap in Dublin, but there is significant overlap in Belfast."
Déanann an páipéar seo cúram speisialta de na scéalta "Filleadh" agus "Seáinín Sheáin" sa chnuasach Bean Aonair le Pádraig Breathnach. Tá scéalta Phádraic Breathnaigh breac le daoine aonair. Fir iad den chuid is mó, agus mar gheall ar a dtaithí ar an saol, tá siad imithe ar leithligh uaidh. Cadhnacha aonraic iad uilig, agus ní fheadar an cur síos iad na scéalta seo ar shaol an fhir sa saol i gcoitinne. Go cinnte, is iadsan is mó lena bhfuil Breathnach compordach, agus déarfainn gur fearr a éiríonn lena scéalta nuair
1) Is fear óg é an príomhcharachtar a bhfuil an taithí céanna aige ar an saol is atá ag Breathnach é féin (rud nárbh fhíor le Séainín Sheáin) agus
2) Nuair a fhanann an reacaire in aice an phríomhcharachtair seo, ag cur síos ar a ghníomhanna seisean agus gníomhanna na ndaoine timpeall air, ach ar a aigne seisean amháin.
"
Déanann an páipéar seo scagadh reacaireolaíochta ar ghearrscéalta Phádraig Bhreathnaigh sa chnuasach Bean Aonair, go háirithe sna scéalta "Filleadh", "Léamh Filíochta", agus "A Shean Athair". Dar leis an bpáipéar, tá fir Phádraig Bhreathnaigh uilig glasta isteach i bpríosún oscailte. Siúlann siad an domhan sa phríosún seo gan a bheith in ann a dtuairimí a chur in iúl do dhuine ar bith eile. Daoine ar leithligh iad, fir na hÉireann, nach féidir iad féin a chur in iúl ach tríd an bhfocal scríofa. Agus is trí shúile an reacaire a fhoghlaimíonn muid gur duine ar leithligh, duine ann féin, gach fear agus buachaill i ngearrscéalta Phádraic Bhreathnaigh.
Is beag seans go mbeifear in ann an Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn i Meiriceá Thuaidh mar chéadteanga. Níl go leor daoine ann chuige, agus níl baill de phobal na Gaeilge toilteanach cinneadh dá leithéid a dhéanamh. Bímis réalaíoch faoi seo, agus cuirimis an Ghaeilge chun cinn mar dhara teanga.
Ach níl an Ghaeilge á cur chun cinn go maith mar dhara teanga. Tá dhá spriocphobal againn i ndáiríre: inimircigh as Éirinn (a bhfuil Gaeilge acu de shaghas éigin cheana féin) agus a sliocht, agus nílimid ag breith orthu in aon chor. Tá na réamhchlaonta a bhíodh ag daoine in aghaidh na Gaeilge imithe, ach ina n-áit tá fadhbanna an tsaoil - níl an Ghaeilge tábhachtach go leor, ná feiceálach go leor, dóibh. Is deacair a shamhlú cé mar a d'athrófái sin, ó is daoine fásta iad seo le tuairimí dochta. Mar bharr ar sin, is beag ama atá acu le caitheamh ar an nGaeilge, go háirithe agus caithimh aimsire dá gcuid féin acu cheana féin.
Táimid ag déanamh go huafásach ó thaobh Gaeilmheiriceánach de. Agus iad comhshamhlaithe go mór cheana féin, níl gníomhairí na teanga ag déanamh iarrachtaí ar bith breith orthu in aois scoile nó ollscoile. Is deas ann na ranganna Gaeilge atá ar fáil in áiteanna mar Ollscoil Notre Dame agus Ollscoil Toronto, ach ní fiú tráithnín iad gan cumainn Gaelacha ar na campais sin. Molaim go n-úsáidfí múnla na nGiúdach agus cumainn Gaelacha a bhunú sna hollscoileanna agus sna coláistí tríú leibhéal eile a chuirfeadh an cultúr Gaelach chun cinn ar shlí tarraingteach, éadrom, agus go mbeadh an Ghaeilge mar chuid lárnach de na cumainn seo.
Maidir le cainteoirí dúchais agus cainteoirí lán-líofa, tá comharthaí maithe ann gur féidir na cainteoirí seo a mhealladh agus pobal de shaghas éigin a dhéanamh díobh. Cuimhnímis, ámh, nach gramadach ná foclaíocht atá ag teastáil uathu, ach siamsaíocht, díreach mar a bheifí ag súil leis ó chainteoirí lanlíofa teanga ar bith. Ba cheart cinntiú go bhfuil imeachtaí mar chlubanna leabhar, dramaí, turais lae, agus eile, á n-eagrú dóibh.
[English]This paper attempts a survey of the Irish-speaking population of North America, identifying and quantifying eight groups and target groups, paying particular attention to the number of third-level students studying Irish. The number of Irish language students at third-level colleges in North America is needlessly low, and continues to fall. To reverse this trend, we need to acknowledge the figures and address them with aggressive policies. A useful first step would be to examine successful immigrant communities in North America. Jewish studies is a case in hand, with five hundred North American universities offering Hebrew. This author thinks it no coincidence that there are at least five hundred branches of Hillel (the Jewish campus organization) in North America, and suggests that founding Gaelic (not "Irish") societies on campus would lead to increased demand for Irish language classes on campuses, and the development of a Gaelic Irish identity among students, rather than the existing dominant Anglo-Irish identity."
Sigtryggr, despite his name, seemed to begin his reign with only a tentative grasp on the throne of Dublin, and his kingship may only have been acceptable because of his Hiberno-Norse background. Alas, this made him little more than a bastard to poets and scribes on either side. The Norse saw him as the pawn of a dangerous Irishwoman willing to risk everything for vengeance, and a coward to boot, while the Irish saw him as the cowardly representative of foreigners in Ireland. Even Gunnlaugr sees Sigtryggr as so ignorant that he has to be told what a praise-poem is.
Sigtryggr himself is so rich that the presentation of two trading ships to Gunnlaugr is not seen as any unusual gift or loss. Sigtryggr has also never heard a poem in his praise before.
Sigtryggr, then, was a rich king, but not overpowerful, and unsuccessful in war. His proximity to both the Norse and the Irish made him an easy butt for poets and storytellers in later years. An important ally because of his mercenaries, he became the ally of none in posterity.
"
This paper examines the shifting meaning of the word ailithre from Old Irish right through to the modern Irish oilithre, questioning the conventional translation of the word as "journey to a foreign land" and examining the Latin index peregrinatio as it shadows the word right through to the modern day.
Breathnaíonn an páipéar seo ar bheirt chainteoir dúchais Gaeilge idir 2 bhliain agus 5 bliana d'aois agus iad ag teacht i dtír ar dheilbhíocht agus comhréir na Gaeilge. Cad iad na gnéanna is túisce a phioctar suas agus cad iad na cinn is déanaí? Cad iad na cinn nach bhfuil pioctha suas acu in aon chor faoi aois a cúig, agus cén comparáid is féidir a dhéanamh leis na teangacha eile atá á sealbhú ag na páistí seo? Cén uair is féidir linn a rá go bhfuil gné áirithe "sealbhuithe" ag páiste?
Sa chás áirithe seo, teaghlach ina labhraíonn tuismitheoir amháin Gaeilge leis na páistí, cén bhaint atá ag ionchur na Gaeilge leis an aschur ó na páistí iad féin, agus ós é seo gnáth-mhúnla an teaghlaigh Ghaelaigh sa lá atá inniu ann, go háirithe sna cathracha, cad iad na himpleachtaí don Ghaeilge amach anseo?
"The Acquisition of Irish in Multilingual Native Speakers of Irish: An Analysis of their Syntax and Morphology"
Brian Ó Broin
William Paterson University, New Jersey
It is rare that even native speakers use eclipsis or lenition all the time. In fact, depending on where the native speaker was raised, certain morphological processes can be deleted between 6% and 66%. Native speakers from the Gaeltacht are those who most closely approach 6%, but it is noteworthy that not even they produce all eclipses and lenitions that might be expected.
This paper analyzes two native speakers of Irish between the ages of 2 and 5 as they learn the morphology and syntax of Irish. What do they pick up first, and what do they pick up last? What are the ones not yet picked up by age 5, and what comparison can be made with the other languages that these children are acquiring? When can one say that a particular feature has been "acquired"?
In this particular case, a household in which one parent speaks Irish to the children, what connection is there between parental input and child-language output? And since this is the typical make-up of the average Irish-speaking household at the moment, what are the implications for the Irish language?
le
Brian Ó Broin
Ní aon rud nua an metaficsean sa Bhéarla, ach tá claontacht ina aghaidh i litríocht na Gaeilge. Fadhb é seo a bhaineann leis an teanga, a léitheoirí, agus go fiú a scríbhneoirí. Ós iad foghlaimeoirí an chuid is mó de léitheoirí na Gaeilge, is beag ama atá acu do chleasaíocht bhreise ón údar. Tá fírinne sa scéal, nó níl.
Sin an fáth go raibh fáilte dhoicheallach roimh Cré na Cille, le Máirtín Ó Cadhain, nuair a foilsíodh é i 1949. Ní hamháin go raibh an Ghaeilge doléite do mhórchuid na léitheoirí, ach ní raibh an léitheoir in ann muinín ar bith a bheith aige sna scéalaithe ach oiread.
Ní bréagadóirí ná geilt iad na scéalaithe in Fontenoy, ámh. Uaireanta is deacair a dhéanamh amach an ann do scéalaí in aon chor. An é rud é nach bhfuil sa leabhar ach píosa grinn - scigmhagadh faoi chriticeoirí agus lucht léinn?
Cuirtear teicníc an cheamara i leith an Chadhnaigh i gcuid mhaith dá scéalta, agus ní féidir sin a shéanadh. Tá tionchar ag an cinéma ar Fontenoy, freisin, ach sa chás seo, ní an ceamara atá i gceist, ach an scéalaí. Is léir go bhfuil tionchar nach beag ag script-scríbhneoirí mar Charlie Kaufman, a bhfuil osréalachas agus ról an scríbhneora ina obair féin le braistint go mór.
A detailed systematic analysis, comparing newsreaders and presenters on the Gaeltacht station Raidió na Gaeltachta and the urban stations Raidió na Life and Raidió Fáilte strongly suggests that a new dialect, perhaps more accurately described as a Pidgin, is growing among the urban Irish-language population. This dialect, using simplified phonetics and morphology, remains unstable, probably because most urban speakers do not speak Irish at home (and therefore have no native environment in which to speak the language), but also because they have little allegiance to the Gaeltacht, where Irish is still partially spoken as a community language. Because their native language is mostly English, the Irish that they speak, mostly learned at school and from friends, is prone to instability and is likely to remain so until a significant number of urban speakers choose to raise their children in the language, thus creating native speakers and a stable dialect or Creole. Notably, the urban dialect differs from many pidgins in having a comparatively sophisticated lexicon and syntax.
It's a hopeful sign that there is a new Irish dialect being spoken in Irish cities. This dialect is examined.
There are noticeable differences between Gaeltacht Irish and City Irish. I use phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicography to analyze the differences.
The 20-year Strategy is discussed, and I conclude that there is little new in the document. Native speakers are ignored, particularly outside the Gaeltacht and in cities.