Modern Irish: Grammatical Structure and Dialectal Variation (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics) [Paperback]

Mícheál ósiadhail (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 1991 | ISBN-10: 0521425190 | ISBN-13: 978-0521425193

Micheal O Siadhail considers modern Irish dialects against the background of their common grammar, providing a comprehensive overview for Celticists and general linguists with an interest in dialectical comparison. His Modern Irish contains a wealth of empirical data which is analysed in a fresh and accessible manner, keeping technical terminology to a minimum. It includes background information on the Irish language and gives explanations of basic concepts in order to compare the phonology, morphology and syntax of the dialects. Students of linguistics amd the Irish language will welcome this clear and sensible cross-dialectal survey by Micheal O Siadhail, who is well-known as an Irish scholar and as a poet.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This carefully crafted book, the product of tremendous labour, should earn Ó Siadhail the thanks of the linguistics community. It has always struck me as odd that, given the extensive historical and descriptive studies of Irish, the language plays such a small part in theoretical linguistic discussions. The part it does play is principally in the arena of syntax, although that is certainly the area with the shortest tradition: the phonology and the morphology of the language are relatively ignored. This book certainly has the potential to reverse that situation by offering linguists of all stripes an excellent guide to the intricacies of Modern Irish." Language

"...Ó Siadhail has done a splendid job." C.M. Adderley, Language Quarterly

Book Description

This comparative overview of modern Irish dialects surveys the phonology, morphology and syntext of the various dialects and contains a wealth of empirical data organized in an accessible way for the nonspecialist.

Product Details

• Paperback: 388 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 30, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521425190
• ISBN-13: 978-0521425193
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,778,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing tour of the Gaeltacht, January 25, 2002

By 

S. Gustafson "Holy Roman Emperor" (New Albany, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Modern Irish: Grammatical Structure and Dialectal Variation (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics) (Paperback)

This book would be of interest mostly to scholarly readers who have mastered the material in the author's -Learning Irish-. This is not a grammar, in the traditional sense; it is a survey of dialects, touching on the distinctive phonology of each.

And for such a dry subject, the book is unusually interesting. To attempt to summarise its thesis, the author maintains in effect that each speaker of Irish is an amateur etymologist. In the back of their minds, they have Platonic ideas of the words of the language, to which phonetic rules are applied to yield the spoken form. The book covers the phonetic rules that guide the several surviving dialects, and explains how the similar Ur-forms of the words yield the different results they do.

The book thus argues for the essential unity of Irish as a language, despite the divergence of its spoken forms. It also generates some sympathetic understanding for the cumbersome and daunting traditional orthography.