Dalarna University Centre for Irish Studies

Irish English: History and Present-Day Forms by Raymond Hickey

Review by: UNA CUNNINGHAM
Nordic Irish Studies, Vol. 9 (2010), pp. 196-199
Published by: Dalarna University Centre for Irish Studies
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 IrishStudies
Nordic

Raymond Hickey, Irish English: History and Present-DayForms.

Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,2007. 504 pages. 65. ISBN:
978-0-521-85299-9.

RaymondHickey'sIrishEnglishaimsto 'give an overviewof Englishin

Irelandat the beginningof the twenty-first century'(1), as well as to
provide a historicalbackground to the development ofthevariousformsof
IrishEnglish.Hickey's earlierworkon Englishesspokenin the former
Britishcoloniesmadehimawareof theneedfora fulldescription of Irish
Englishas one of thesourcevarietiesthatwas transported to Canada,the
US, theCaribbean, AustraliaandNew Zealand.In addition, he is interested
in describing contemporary developments in a numberof specificvarieties
of IrishEnglish,spokennorthand southof theborder.His researchon the
Englishof variousareas of the island- such as on DublinEnglish- is
extensiveand informs his writing here;buthe also drawson theworkof
otherresearchers on the Englishspokenin otherpartsof Ireland.The
publisher presentsthistextas 'a comprehensive surveyof IrishEnglishat
all levelsoflanguage'revealing'how IrishEnglisharose,howitdeveloped
andhowitcontinues to change'.
Thereare six chapters in thebookas well as appendices.Chapter4 on
theemergence of IrishEnglishandChapter5 on presentday IrishEnglish,
at 174 and 87 pages respectively, together formthebulkof thebook.The
introductory chapter sets the scene and lays out theterminology, teasing
aparttheintricacies andassociationsoftermssuchas IrishEnglish,Anglo-
Irish and Hiberno-English. (Hickey himselfprefersthe neutral'Irish
English').The delicatematter ofhowto referto thelanguageandpeopleof
Northern Irelandis also broachedhere,as is thelinguistic statusof Ulster
Scots,witha promisethatthisinteresting questionwillbe dealtwithmore
fully later. Hickey also addresses the issue of non-linguistic, often
derogatory references to the Irish and their language.The use of Celtic,
Gaelic and Irish is likewiseraised and accountedfor. Afterexpertly
dispatching thesesensitivetopics,Hickeymoveson to discusstheidentity
of IrishEnglishby touringthe mostprominent phonologicalfeaturesof
southernand northern accents,includingmalapropisms and shibboleths.
The introduction endswitha historical accountof Englishattitudes to the
IrishpeopleandchangingIrishattitudes to theIrishlanguage,whichled to
a shiftto Englishformostpeople in Irelandby the secondhalfof the
nineteenth century. Thisshiftis thebasisforthevarietiesofEnglishwe see
today.The existenceofa standard varietyof IrishEnglishis surveyed with
reference to studiesof 'Celticity'in IrishEnglishin ICE-Ireland(theIrish
materialin theInternational Corpusof English).The standard-vernacular

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 BookReviews

continuumis described for Irish English syntax,morphologyand

phonology. Hickeyclosesthechapterby speculating howthelargenumber
of Polish speakerswho came to Irelandin the economicboom might
influencetheEnglishspokenin Ireland.Of course,therecentrecessionhas
meantthatmanyofthesemigrant workers havemovedon.
Two chaptersare devotedto history.Chapter2 startswithHenryII's
invasionin 1169,and tracesthespreadof Englishthrough theisland. The
roleof theAnglo-Normans andTudorsin therelationbetweenEnglishand
Irishareexplored,andtheestablishment ofplantations,whichbrought new
waves of English and Scots speakersinto Ireland,is accountedfor.
Movementin the opposite directionalso occurred,with Cromwell's
transportation of undesirableelementsto theCaribbean.The seventeenth
and eighteenth centuriessaw a gradualshiftfromIrishto Englishwithin
theIrishpopulation.In whatfeelslikea separatestudy,Hickeygoes on to
describethe languagesituationin Irelandduringthemedievalperiod,in
particularthe interaction betweenEnglish and Irish,as evidencedby
loanwordsfromtheformer intothelatter, and by medievalpoetrywritten
in Englishbutinfluenced by Irish.A descriptionof thedialectspokenin
Forthand Bargyuntiltheearlynineteenth centuryfollows.These studies
arecertainly notwithout interest,buttheydo haltthenarrative flow.
The second historicalchaptercovers the Ulsterplantationand the
relationshipbetweenIrish,Englishand Scots in thenorthof Ireland.The
broad divisioninto Ulster Scots, mid-UlsterEnglishand south-Ulster
English(Adams1965) is described, and theinfluence of theIrishlanguage
on northern English is illustrated.The restof thischapteris devotedto an
in-depth diachronic and synchronic account of Ulster Scots, with a
discussionofthesensitiveissueofitslinguistic statusandofUlsterEnglish
in general.Particular attention is paid to thephonology, especiallywhereit
differsfromsouthernaccents.Hickey handlesthis politicalhot potato
elegantly,and managesto expressa scholarlyview withouttreadingtoo
hardon touchytoes.
The fourth chapter,whichfocuseson theemergenceof IrishEnglish,
steps back to a historicalperspective, and looks at the development of
varietiesof IrishEnglishin termsof thelanguageshiftof thepopulation,
frombeingpredominantly Irish-speaking to beingpredominantly English-
speaking.Hickeyalso addressestheadditionalfactorthatlargenumbers of
adultslearnedEnglishwithouttheguidanceof a teacheror evenmuchin
thewayofdirectcontactwithnativespeakers.He presents recentworkthat
has attempted to accountformuchof whatis IrishEnglishin termsof its
historyas a contactvariety. He thengoes on to describeboththestructural
featuresof Irishand,foralmost120 pages,thegrammar (morphology and

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 IrishStudies
Nordic

syntax)of Irish English.While this may seem disproportionate to the

generalreader, it will be welcomed by specific sections of the readership
Hickey has in mind. The last sectionsof this chapterdeal with the
interpretationandexplanation oftheoccurrence ofvariousfeatures ofIrish
English,suchas whether theretention of featuresof substrateIrishin Irish
English,or theconvergence of Englishand Irish,giveriseto IrishEnglish
forms.Hickey also discusses whetherIrish English mighthave been
appropriately termeda creole at some point in its development, and
concludes by consideringwhetherIreland might be described as
constitutinga linguistic area.
The fifth chapter,'Present-day IrishEnglish',is, at 87 pages,halfthe
lengthof theprecedingchapter, yetitmanagesto takethereaderfromthe
early modernbackgroundof Irish English- includingthe writingof
Shakespeare while dismissingthe popular view that, due to its
conservatism, IrishEnglishis particularly close to thelanguageofthebard
- to Swiftand laterwriters who portray Irishpronunciation in theirwork.
The non-standard, vernacular pronunciations found in ruralareas and local
urbanvarietiesprovidecontinuity of use of thesefeatures, whichcan be
tracedto earliervarietiesof English.Hickeydescribesthesefeatures in a
sectionon vernacular IrishEnglish,andthisleadseasilyto thenextsection
on supraregional IrishEnglish,whichis whatis foundwhenspecificlocal
featuresare lost.Hickeyaccountsforthisloss as the superimposition of
more standardforms,which occurred as schooling became more
widespread.He also outlinesthe processeswherebysupraregionalisation
takesplace.The nextsectiondescribesthesoundsystemofa supraregional
southernvarietyin some detail,accountingfor consonantsas well as
vowels.This fifth chapteralso offersthereadera surveyof researchinto
theurbanaccentsof IrishEnglishspokenin Belfast,Derry,Coleraineand
Dublin,as well as a tourofthelexiconof IrishEnglishand itspragmatics.
The chapterends withtwo epilogues,one discussingthe role of Irish
Englishas the targetvarietyforimmigrants to Ireland,and the second
the
describing language of the Irish Travellers.As in the thirdchapter,
theseself-contained are
essays interesting and valuable, buttheydo notfit
easily into the chapterand thusdisruptthe flow thatHickeydevelops
through mostofhistext.
The last chapter,'Transportation Overseas',deals withIrishEnglish
outsideof Ireland.Emigration fromIrelandhas a longhistory, and Hickey
distinguishes a number of waves of departure for various groups,for
variousreasons.These includetheFlightof theEarls,thedeportation of
groups to English colonies (especially Barbados and Australia), the
departure of UlsterPresbyterians, who leftforthe religiousfreedomof

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 BookReviews

NorthAmerica,and a more general,economicallydrivenmigration to

Britain,Canada and the US. Hickey traces some features of Irish English,
whichmayappearin othervarietiesas possibleinstancesof influence from
thelanguageof Irishsettlers.The Irishin Britainhavea dedicatedsection
in thischapter,and areas like Mersey side, Teesside and Tyneside,and
Scotland,wheremanyIrishendedup, are analysedseparately. Finally,the
situationin theUnitedStates,Canada,theCaribbean,Australiaand New
Zealandare examined.Six appendicesconcludeHickey'smonograph with
a usefultimelineof Irishhistoryand a history of Irishstudies,followedby
someextracts thediscussionof earlyIrishEnglishin chapter2
illustrating
andsomemaps.
Hickeypresentsin thisvolumea smoothly-written, coherent accountof
muchof whatis knownaboutIrishEnglish.The breadthand depthof his
knowledgeon thistopiccannotfullybe reflected in a monograph of this
type,buttheextensivereferences madeto his own workand thatof other
scholarsis veryhelpfulto a readerwantingto exploreparticular topicsin
moredetail.Muchofwhatis presented in thisbookis availableelsewhere,
in workby Hickeyand others, buttheopportunity to access so muchall at
once is, of course,verywelcome.Hickey's aim was to drawup a full
descriptionof Irish English,as well as an account of the historical
background to manyof itsfeatures,fora readerdealingwithIrishEnglish
as one of a numberof contributing substratelanguagesin a language
contactsituation.Thisaimhe has achievedadmirably.
As a sourcebook forlinguistsstudying featuresof a varietyof Irish
Englishes,this textdoes notprovideenough detail; butitdoes ineverycase
referthe readerto further sources,many of themwrittenby Hickey
himself.It is a wonderfully thorough annotated bibliography of thefield,
andcan be recommended toanyreaderwishingto gainan understanding of
whatIrishEnglishis,andofthefactors thatinfluenced itsdevelopment.

UNA CUNNINGHAM

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