The Irish Language in Ireland: From Goidel to Globalisation

摘要

The first part of this book charts the historical and social evolution of the Irish language in Ireland and Northern Ireland from the early historical to the modern period. The second provides contemporary geographies of the language in the two polities. The third section includes two substantial chapters on the future of the language in both jurisdictions; here, new directions are identified and discussed, with cogent arguments that point to a future of dramatic changes for Irish. This is not another positivistic sociolin-guistic study on language policy and planning in Ireland: Mac Giolla Chriost has compiled an immensely valuable sociolinguistic, historical and contemporary study. What sets his work apart is the complete, cross-border treatment of the Irish language - the first, to my knowledge - with a particular focus on contemporary contexts.