Thógamar le Gaeilge Iad on BBC Ulster
I'm to be heard on BBC Ulster this week, talking about my new book Thógamar le Gaeilge Iad, which we launched last week in Dublin (and the previous week in New Orléans!). Minute 9 of the broadcast:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dxssq#synopsisLabels: BBC, Brian Ó Broin, gaeilge, Irish language, Lucinda Glynn, Parenting, Thógamar le Gaeilge Iad, tuismitheoirí
The Urban Irish Language Community
The video of this lecture is available
here
Professor Brian Ó Broin of William Paterson University (WPUNJ) gave a paper on the Urban Irish-language community to the Irish studies program at the University of Connecticut, Storrs on March 27th, 2012. Professor Ó Broin claims that the urban Irish-speaking community has grown noticeably in recent decades, but that several problems have arisen:
1) Second-language speakers are part-time speakers, often speaking a sophisticated pidgin. Their language activity often reflects a split cultural identity, whereby they readily take on a Gaelic identity for Irish-language events, but revert to English culture for day-to-day living.
2) A significant number of people are choosing to raise their children in Irish but, not being native speakers themselves, feel that they are facing significant parenting problems, having no experience of Irish as a home language themselves. Members of this community (and their children) are less likely to identify themselves as language enthusiasts, since the language is a normal vehicle of daily communication for them, but they are more likely to express worry about their linguistic standards, probably because they are more likely to find themselves in challenging linguistic situations (like discussing emotions, for example) than second-language speakers.
3) Urban Irish has a very different phonetic system than Gaeltacht Irish, being based on English. This has had the knock-on effect of causing a noticeable simplification of morphology. Syntactic findings remain provisional, but urban speakers *seem* to form non-standard subclauses more than Gaeltacht speakers. Urban speakers retain a sophisticated lexicon.
Thanks to Mary Burke, Brendan Kane, Fred Biggs, and Cuán Ó Flatharta.
Labels: Dublin, gaeilge, Gaelic, Gaeltacht, Irish language, lexicon, morphology, phonetics, syntax, University of Connecticut, Urban Dialect, Urban Irish
Thógamar le Gaeilge Iad (Gaeilge)
Ceanglaítear an Ghaeilge mar theanga teaghlaigh leis an nGaeltacht amháin in intinní formhór Éireannach, ach fairis na mílte teaghlach sa Ghaeltacht, cónaíonn na céadta teaghlach Gaelach eile taobh amuigh den Ghaeltacht sna bailte, sna cathracha, agus thar lear.
Anailís agus cur síos atá sa leabhar seo ar na teaghlaigh Gaelacha seo i gcoitinne, sa Ghaeltacht agus lasmuigh, agus go háirithe ar na fadhbanna lena gcaithfidh siad streachailt gach lá, idir scolaíocht, comhluadar, rialtas áitiúil, seirbhísí pobail, acmhainní foghlama agus siamsaíochta, meáin, cearta sibhialta agus eile.
Ach tuar dóchais atá sa leabhar seo. Taispeántar an chaoi ina bhfuil pobal cainteoirí dúchais ag teacht chun cinn sna cathracha, ainneoin easpa tacaíochta ó na húdaráis, agus mar atá an eagraíocht Comhluadar, a thosaigh sna nóchaidí le cúpla scór teaghlach, anois ag freastal ar bhreis agus 650 teaghlach.
Thar aon rud eile, ámh, tugann an leabhar seo dóchas do dhuine ar bith atá ag déanamh machnaimh ar thógáil clainne le Gaeilge. Cuirtear síos, ní amháin ar na míbhuntáistí, ach ar na buntáistí agus an luach saothair a bhaineann le páistí a thógáil le Gaeilge. Taispeántar freisin go bhfuil daoine go leor ag glacadh leis an dúshlán seo cheana féin.
Scríbhneoirí sa leabhar
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
An t-Eagarthóir
Is léachtóir le teangeolaíocht agus léann na meánaoise é Brian Ó Broin in William Paterson University, Nua Gheirsí. Tógadh i nGaillimh é, agus fuair sé a ollscolaíocht in Éirinn, sa Ghearmáin, agus sna Stáit Aontaithe. Tá sé ina chónaí i mBloomfield, Nua Gheirsí lena bhean Josephine Schuster agus a bheirt iníonacha, Ána agus Fiona, atá á dtógáil le Gaeilge agus Gearmáinis.
Labels: gaeilge, Irish language, Parenting, tuismitheoirí
Thógamar le Gaeilge Iad
Thógamar le Gaeilge Iad (Coiscéim, 2012) is a collection of academic papers and essays by scholars, activists, and parents on the issues surrounding Irish-language parenting in the twenty-first century.
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
Labels: gaeilge, Irish language, Parenting, tuismitheoirí
Mary Burke Speaking at William Paterson University March 6th 2012
PLAIN TEXT:
Time: March 6th, 6pm (Tuesday).
Place: Atrium Auditorium
Speaker: Professor Mary Burke, University of Connecticut
Subject: “WHITE IRISH?" TRAVELLERS AND THE SCOTS-IRISH IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE.
Labels: America, Éire, Éireannach, Ireland, irish, Mary Burke, New Jersey, NJ, Scots-Irish, Tincéirí, Tinkers, Travellers, University of Connecticut, William Paterson University
