Orality in Written Texts: Using Historical Corpora to Investigate Irish English 1700-1900

by Carolina P. Amador-Moreno

Shortlisted for the 2020 ESSE Book Award in English Language and Linguistics Orality in Written Texts provides a methodologically and theoretically innovative study of change in Irish English in the period 1700-1900. Focusing in on a time during which Ireland became overwhelmingly English-speaking, the book traces the use of various linguistic features of Irish English in different historical contexts and over time. This With direct relevance to corpus-based literary studies as well as the exploration of hybrid, modern-day text forms, Orality in Written Texts is key reading for advanced students and researchers of corpus linguistics, varieties of English, language change and historical linguistics, as well as anyone interested in learning more about Irish history and migration.

232 pages, Hardcover

First published February 12, 2017

Reviews

[Purna Pratiti]

As a beginner in Irish linguistics, this book has been a key resource for me for my undergrad project: "The Social Dynamics of mid-19th Century Irish Families: Observations from a Trail of Family Correspondences.". The book provides key insights into vernacular features of Irish correspondences of said time, and also substantiates the information with great references. It is quite interesting to picture history in vivid details through linguistics features, many of which explain how correspondences in this case were a shared communication involving dictating, scrivening, voicing multiple people in the same letter.

The book seemed to briefly touch upon how repeated spelling patterns reflect common pronunciation styles. I would have enjoyed reading a little more about. I would also consider outlining the topics/subtopics that appeared as headings inside the book, at the beginning, although the Index was quite helpful to navigate into specific topics that I had been acquainted with.