New Speakers of Irish English: Usage, Self-Identification and Social Attribution
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35903/teanga.v13i.11910Keywords:
Irish English, new speaker, self-identification, other attributionAbstract
This paper’s aim is to establish whether newcomers to Ireland (those born and raised outside Ireland and now resident in Ireland) can be designated as “new speakers” of IrE. The term “new speakers” is generally associated with later acquisition of a language. We extend it here to include new speakers of varieties of a language (IrE) in order to explore speaker identity in relation to IrE. Criteria identified by Jaffe (2015) to define new speakers include usage, self-attribution (identifying oneself as a speaker of a variety) and other-attribution (being recognised as one by some other group). Our main dataset consists of data gathered through semi-structured conversation-style interviews and follow-up sessions with 14 newcomers (both L1 and L2 English speakers) representative of the adult immigrant population in the Mid-West region of the Republic of Ireland. The interviews allowed both for the collection of naturally-occurring speech data, as well as eliciting speakers’ orientation and commitment to Ireland. In follow-up sessions, the participants identified features (pragmatic, grammatical, lexical and phonological) that they associated with IrE and reported their usage of such features. From this dataset, four participants were selected for in-depth analysis, two L1 English speakers (from USA) and two L2 English speakers (from Brazil). These pairs were chosen as they have similar language and cultural backgrounds. Both datasets were analysed qualitatively for evidence of self- and other-attribution as well as the features associated by the participants with IrE, and their naturally-occurring usage of these features. The findings revealed that participants both use and acknowledge their use of IrE features in particular contexts; they also report the ratification of their use of IrE features by others. However, there is a tendency to distance themselves from identifying as IrE speakers. This demonstrates how self- and other-attribution as regards usage of these features does not necessarily equate with self-identification as an IrE speaker.
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