Lesson 3 & 4: Hiberno-English + John Harris

What is Hiberno-English (HE)?

The variety of English spoken in Ireland.

What is the difference between Hiberno-English and Irish Gaelic?

Hiberno-English is an English variety; Irish Gaelic is the Celtic language of Ireland.

To which language family does Irish Gaelic belong?

The Indo-European language family.

To which branch of Celtic languages does Irish belong?

The Goidelic (Q-Celtic/Gaelic) branch.

What are the two major branches of Celtic languages?

Q-Celtic (Goidelic) and P-Celtic (Brythonic).

Which languages belong to the Goidelic/Q-Celtic branch?

Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx.

Which languages belong to the Brythonic/P-Celtic branch?

Welsh, Cornish, and Breton.

Which Celtic branch is historically older: Q-Celtic or P-Celtic?

Q-Celtic is older.

What is Hibernia?

The Latin name for Ireland.

What did early explorers often describe Ireland as?

The western island of Europe.

Where did Celtic culture originally come from?

Central Europe during the Bronze Age.

Which Celtic languages have the strongest modern revival movements?

Irish and Welsh.

What happened in Ireland during the Viking settlements of the 9th century?

Vikings settled in Ireland and founded towns like Dublin.

What was “The Pale”?

The Norman-controlled English-speaking region around Dublin after the 12th-century invasion.

What was Gaelicisation?

The process where Norman settlers became culturally and linguistically more Irish.

Which king became the first King of Ireland in the 16th century?

Henry VIII.

What was the Ulster Plantation (1607)?

The colonisation of Ulster by English and Scottish Protestant settlers.

Why did English spread strongly in 17th-century Ireland?

• Because of colonisation

• plantations

• religious conflict

• and political control.

What important battle strengthened Protestant English dominance in Ireland?

The Battle of the Boyne (1690).

What nearly caused the death of Irish in the 19th century?

• Political repression

• schools

• church influence

• the potato famine.

What is diglossia?

A situation where two languages are used for different social contexts.

How did diglossia work in Ireland?

Irish was used informally at home, while English was used formally.

What is the Gaeltacht?

Official Irish-speaking regions where Irish is still used as a home language.

eg Galway and western Ireland.

What happened in Ireland in 1922?

Irish independence.

What became Ireland’s first official language in 2003?

Irish Gaelic.

Does Irish mainly function as a communication language or an identity language today?

Mainly an identity language.

Why does Harris criticize Labov’s model?

Because it works better for phonology than for syntax.

According to Labov, what must variants share?

The same meaning.

Why is syntax different from phonology according to Harris?

Because syntactic variants often have different meanings and functions.

What is the Panlectal Identity Hypothesis?

The idea that all dialects share the same core grammar and differ only superficially.

Harris doesn’t accept this

Why does Harris reject the Panlectal Identity Hypothesis?

Because dialects can have deep structural grammatical differences.

he proposes Structural dialectology. instead

What is structural dialectology?

The idea that dialects may differ in deep grammatical structure, not only surface variation.

What is dialect divergence?

The process where dialects become increasingly different over time.

How does dialect divergence happen?

Small changes lead to grammatical restructuring and deeper differences over time.

Which two social pressures influence dialect divergence?

1. Prestige/standardisation

2. local identity/vernacular identity.

What does it mean that Hiberno-English has a Gaelic substratum?

Irish Gaelic strongly influenced the structure of Hiberno-English.

What is negative attraction?

• The movement of negation toward words like “no one.”

• HE failure of NA: “Anyone wasn’t at home.”

What is subordinating “and” in Hiberno-English?

• Using “and” where Standard English uses “while” or another subordinator.

• eg. HE : “He fell and him crossing the bridge.”

What is a calque?

A word-for-word loan translation from another language.

What is the basic word order of Irish Gaelic?

VSO (Verb-Subject-Object).

What plural second person pronouns are common in Hiberno-English?

• Ye = neutral form

• youse

What is the progressive a-Verb-ing construction?

Forms like “I am agoing to school.”

What is unusual about “till” in Hiberno-English?

• It can function as an infinitive marker meaning “in order to.”

• eg. “We went over to New York till see the O’Donnells.”

What is a cleft sentence?

• = A sentence split into two parts for emphasis.

• eg. “It is Helen that I saw.”

Which three aspect systems are especially important in Hiberno-English?

• Habitual : The simple present.

• progressive

• perfect constructions.

What is the P1 construction in Hiberno-English?

• The “after-perfect” construction.

• Be + after + verb-ing.

• eg. “She is after leaving.”

What meaning does P1 express?

Hot-news past / very recent events.

What is hot-news past?

A recent event that is still relevant or important now.

What is the origin of the P1 construction?

Irish Gaelic influence.

Why is P1 considered a calque?

Because it is a word-for-word translation from Irish Gaelic structure.

What is the P2 construction?

• A perfect construction with object + participle.

• Have + object + past participle.

• eg. “She has her homework finished.”

What meaning does P2 usually express?

• Resultative meaning.

• = A past action with a visible present result.

Why is P2 historically important?

• Because it probably preserves an older English perfect structure.

• probably mainly influenced by Older English

What is reanalysis in relation to the perfect construction?

The process where “have” became reinterpreted as an auxiliary verb.

What is an indefinite anterior?

• = A past event without a specified time reference.

• eg. “I have seen that film.”

What is an extended now meaning?

• = A situation that started in the past and continues into the present.

• eg. “She has lived here for years.”

What is a resultative perfect?

• = A past action whose result still exists now.

• eg. “She has finished her course.”

What is an acrolect?

The variety closest to the standard/prestige language.

What is a mesolect?

An intermediate variety between acrolect and basilect.

What is a basilect?

The variety furthest from the prestige language.

What is decreolization?

The process where a creole becomes more similar to the prestige language.

What is the post-creole continuum?

A range from basilect to acrolect varieties.

What is a lexifier language?

The language providing most vocabulary to a creole.

What is a substrate language?

A local language influencing another dominant language.

What is a superstrate language?

The socially dominant language influencing another language.

What is an adstrate language?

A neighbouring language influencing another language without dominance.