Hidden Community: A Social History of the Irish Language and its Speakers, 1800-1870

FAIN: FT-57739-10

Nicholas Wolf
Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA 23284-9005)

Scholars have used the expression "hidden Ireland" to refer to the Irish-speaking populations of the 19th century, a description that arises from the near-invisibility of this community both to the increasingly English-speaking society of the time and to modern historians as well. Put simply, there have been few attempts to bridge the gap between history, which tends to treat language as an addendum to culture, and fields like sociolinguistics, which recognize language contact as a varied social phenomenon that contribute to how humans conceive of class, gender, and ethnicity. Ireland thus presents an extraordinary case study in recovering the history of linguistic heterogeneity and minority languages. My proposed project aims to advance preliminary findings in Irish- and English-language historical sources that suggest the continued vitality of the Irish language in early nineteenth-century political and religious spheres despite a context of decline.

Associated Products

An Irish-Speaking Island: State, Religion, Community, and the Linguistic Landscape in Ireland, 1770-1870 (Book)
Title: An Irish-Speaking Island: State, Religion, Community, and the Linguistic Landscape in Ireland, 1770-1870
Author: Nicholas M. Wolf
Editor: Thomas Archdeacon
Editor: James S. Donnelly, Jr.
Abstract: After 1770, Ireland experienced the establishment of modern forms of Irish Catholicism, new engagement by the public with the political process, and the growth of the modern state, represented by new legal and educational systems. An Irish-Speaking Island investigates the role in these developments of the population who spoke Irish in their daily lives—whether as a first or second language—and links the history of language contact and bilingualism with the broader history of Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As late as 1840, Ireland had as many as four million Irish speakers—a significant proportion of the total population—who could be found in every county of the island and in all social classes and religious persuasions. Their impact on the modern history of Ireland and the United Kingdom cannot be captured by a simple conclusion that they became anglicized. Rather, Nicholas M. Wolf explores the complex ways in which the transition from Irish to English placed a premium on adaptive bilingualism and shaped beliefs and behavior in the domestic sphere, religious life, and oral culture within the community. An Irish-Speaking Island will interest not only historians but also scholars of linguistics, folklore, politics, literature, and religion.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5334.htm
Publisher: The University of Wisconsin Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780299302740
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Prizes

Michael J. Durkan Prize for Books on Language and Culture
Date: 3/1/2015
Organization: American Conference for Irish Studies

Donald Murphy Prize for Distinguished First Books
Date: 3/1/2015
Organization: American Conference for Irish Studies

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