The changing Irish language demographic
The changing Irish language demographic
Brian Ó Broin, William Paterson University
MultiLingual #135, April/May 2013
Summary of Article
While Irish is obviously losing ground in its
traditional rural territories on the coast of Western Ireland, there is some
evidence that reverse language shift is occurring in the towns and cities. The
schoolroom Pidgin spoken by second-language speakers of Irish is gradually
coming into community and family use as an urban Creole, and this may develop
into a new dialect of Irish.
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.
Labels: gaeilge, Gaeltacht, Ireland, irish, Irish language, irish studies, L1, L2, language, linguistics, sociolinguistics, Éire
Sigma Tau Delta and History Honors Society Organize Session at WPUNJ Research and Scholarship Day
Jacqueline deSanto (
Sigma Tau Delta - English Honor Society) and Richard Siegler (Phi Alpha Theta) presented papers at an Undergraduate Session organized as part of the
William Paterson University Research and Scholarship Day. Brian Ó Broin presided; Beth Ann Bates moderated.
More details about their papers
here.
[thanks to Professor John Parras for the photographs]
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| Jacqueline, Richard, Beth Ann, Brian |
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| Jacqueline, Richard, Beth Ann, Brian |
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Labels: English Honor Society, Research and Scholarship Day, Sigma Tau Delta, WPUNJ
WPUNJ Sigma Tau Delta in Portland
Our chapter president Jacqueline De Santo chairing a session at the Sigma Tau Delta annual convention in Portland, OR.
Congratulations, Jackie!
Labels: Convention, English Honor Society, Jacqueline DeSanto, Portland, Sigma Tau Delta, William Paterson University, WPUNJ
Irish-Language Quangos and Peter McGuire
Regarding
Peter McGuire's comment ("So Many Quangos, So Little Irish", 19th
March, 2013) that major International companies are hiring staff from
Continental countries rather than from Ireland "due to the lack of
qualified European-language graduates from within Ireland", I'd like to
remind him that Irish is actually a modern European language. Furthermore,
almost exactly as many students take Continental languages in the Leaving Cert
as take Irish.
Furthermore,
Ireland hits well above its weight when it comes to employment in technology
and international business (for which English is the unquestioned lingua franca anyway). If Google is
employing Germans ahead of Irish people, it's only in cases where they need
native German speakers. Nothing in our education system will change that.
Regarding Quangos (a much-abused word) I'm
amused to see McGuire characterize Comhluadar, the wonderful and hard-working
Irish-language parenting organization, as "significant and powerful".
They employ three people and operate out of a single third-floor office in
Harcourt Street.Labels: AE, Aontas Eorpach, Brian Ó Broin, Comhluadar, EU, gaeilge, German, irish, Irish Times, Language Pedagogy, Languages, Peter McGuire, Quangos, Teangacha, Éire
Gorm i Meiriceá / Black in America
Pléann m'alt in Beo na míosa seo stair an Chine Ghoirm i Meiriceá agus na fadhbanna soisialta a bhaineann le cine sa lá atá inniu ann.
http://www.beo.ie/alt-gorm-i-meiricea.aspx
My article in this month's Beo deals with the history of African-Americans in the United States and the ongoing problems with race and racism in that country.
http://www.beo.ie/alt-gorm-i-meiricea.aspxLabels: America, Black, Brian Ó Broin, Bán, Cine, Ciníochas, Dubh, Geal, Gorm, Meiriceá, Race, Racism, Sclábhaíocht, Slavery, stáit aontaithe, United States, White
Sigma Tau Delta outreach to Manchester Regional High School, Haledon NJ
In the fall semester of 2012, Sigma Tau Delta members Jacqueline de Santo and Lori Hoffman gave a presentation to students at Manchester Regional High School, Haledon, NJ on how to write a successful college-entrance essay. Faculty advisor Brian Ó Broin was also present, as well as teachers from the school district.
Labels: Jacqueline DeSanto, Lori Hoffman, Manchester Regional High School, Sigma Tau Delta, William Paterson University, WPUNJ
WPUNJ Sigma Tau Delta read William Carlos Williams at Paterson Free Public Library
To mark the 50th anniversary of his death, the WPUNJ chapter of Sigma Tau Delta (the International English Honors Society), and several members of the library staff read from William Carlos Williams' "Paterson" at Paterson Free Public Library.
Monday 4th March, 2013
Sigma Tau Delta: Brian Ó Broin (faculty advisor); Jacqueline DeSanto (chapter president).
Paterson Public Library: Cynthia Czesak, Andrew Luck, Michelle Petrasek, Chelsea Woods.
Thanks to the librarian and language arts teachers of Eastside High School, and their enthusiastic students.
Labels: Brian Ó Broin, Jacqueline DeSanto, NJ, Paterson Eastside High School, Paterson Free Public Library, Sigma Tau Delta, william carlos williams, William Paterson University, WPUNJ
Reading William Carlos Williams in Paterson Monday March 4th 2013
The Paterson Free Public Library
and Sigma Tau Delta at
William Paterson University celebrate
William Carlos Williams
On the 50th anniversary of his death.
There will be a live reading of William Carlos Williams’
poem “Paterson”
starting at 1pm on Monday - March 4th. Please join us for
this special event.
Main Library - Assembly Room
250 Broadway, Paterson, NJ
Onsite parking.
Free admission!
Labels: Brian Ó Broin, Paterson Public Library, Sigma Tau Delta, william carlos williams, William Paterson University
Suspicious Academic Conferences and Journals
Updated March 2013
Over the past ten years or so I've
noticed an ever-increasing number of "Calls for Papers" from
organizations I've never heard of, holding conferences in high-demand tourist
destinations like Las Vegas, Hawai'i, Barcelona, and Athens. While some of
these conferences may be kosher, many are clearly being organized for nothing
more than profit. The goal is to entice scholars to travel to these conferences
on their university's budget. The conference organizers make money from
accommodation and conference registration fees.
A similar phenomenon is occurring with journals. Several are popping up that
ask scholars to submit papers, but then charge the scholars "revision
fees" for unnecessary changes to the papers. The scholars then pass these
fees on to their institutions. These journals make their profit from such
revision fees and from library subscriptions to their journals. Again, several
journals may be genuine, but many have clearly been founded simply to bilk
academic institutions out of money.
The modus operandi seems to be eerily similar, suggesting that many of these
"conferences" are being organized by the same people. A blanket email,
opening with a CFP ("Call for
Papers"), goes out to thousands of academic email addresses. This call is
followed by a description of the city in which the conference is to be held,
extolling its attractions and climate. The next paragraph suggests that you can
give your paper "virtually" (i.e. not deliver it in person) or/and
submit your paper to the conference organizer's journal, which is "fully
refereed" (or some similar formula). The next paragraph lists several
scholars, usually with well-known academic affiliations, who will be delivering
papers at the conference. A "professor of [something]" signs the
letter, giving his address as "The University of X".
Some cursory digging often finds that the sender of the email is, in fact, not
at "The University of X" at all, or is merely a student there.
Sometimes he is dead or retired. The scholars from the prominent institutions
turn out to be graduate students, or non-existent.
The invitation usually originates in a commercial email address, and the
conference websites are also usually commercial (.com). Several .org sites are
now involved.
The worst CFPs often contain
grammatical or spelling errors.
Many of these
"conferences" are held outside the United States, probably to avoid
legal problems.
Although a small number of these
conferences are actually held at universities, it often transpires that the universities
have simply rented out the conference space and have no other connection with
these events.
Suspicious Conferences
- The World Universities Forum -
Rhodes, Greece: http://www.UniversitiesForum.com
- NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE
HUMANITIES - Montréal, Canada: http://thehumanities.com
- CONFERENCE ON INTERDISCIPLINARY
SOCIAL SCIENCES - Barcelona, Spain:
http://www.SocialSciencesConference.com
- International Global combine
Conference on Global Economy and Human Welfare
- International Cardiology Congress
- www.internationalcardiologycongress.com
- ANNA WORLD '11 - The 2011 World Congress
& Expo
- CITE 2008
- VIDEA
- Institute of Advanced
Scientific Researches
- World Congress on Electronics
and Electrical Engineering (WCEEENG)
- EEEIC Conference
(http://eeeic.eu)
- Anything organized by BIT Life
Sciences (www.bitlifesciences.com/)
- [Xth] Global Studies Conference
(2012 in Moscow)
- The Conference on Books and
Publishing (http://booksandpublishing.com/the-conference)
-
Conferences
of Marginal or No Value
- Hawaii International Conference
on Arts and Humanities (hichumanities.org)
- Hawaii International Conference
on Social Sciences (hicsocial.org)
- Hawaii International Conference
on Education (hiceducation.org)
- Hawaii International Conference
on Business (hicbusiness.org)
- [note that the foregoing
conferences are organized by persons styling themselves variously
"Joelle Lee", "Joelle Vega" or "Sara Jane
Arellano"; all three conferences are associated with the company
"Hawaii International Conferences", which may be owned or operated by a
"Eugene Villaluz" and/or by a "Darren Garvey"
- Annual International Conference
on Literature, Languages and Linguistics, Athens, Greece
[I deem these conferences to be of
little value because they are neither organised nor hosted by any recognized
scholarly body; nor do their organizers have any physical address.]
Suspicious
Journals
- The
Proceedings of any of the above-mentioned "Hawaii Conferences on . .
." (which are simply unedited online cut-and-pastes converted to pdf)
- Anything
involving the "Center for Promoting Ideas USA" (CPI)
- Anything
involving "Scientific Research
Publishing" (SCIRP; scirp.org). Unfortunately, this outfit now publishes
over a hundred journals. Most or all of these journals first began
publication in 2011.
- Global
Studies Journal
- Institute
of Advanced Scientific Researches
- International
Journal of the Humanities
- International
Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences
- International
Journal of Business and Social Research (IJBSR). - http://www.ijbsr.org
- International
Journal of Business and Social Science (IJBSS) - jbssnet.com
- International
Journal of Business, Humanities and Technology -ijbhtnet.com
- Journal
of Arts and Humanities (JAH)
- Journal
of Computer Science and Engineering
- Anything
involving the Maryland Institute of Research (MIR; MIREDU) www.miredu.org
- Proceedings
of the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities
- Publications
from ATINER (Athens Institute for Education and Research)
- Advances
in Literary Study
- Anything
published or associated with scirp.org
This is only a list of publications that
have crossed my radar. A much more comprehensive (and up to date) list can be found
here: http://scholarlyoa.com/
Labels: academic conferences, academic journals, academy, athens, bogus, business, education, fraudulent, hawaii, humanities, publishing, social sciences
