This is the second volume in the collection entirely devoted to Irish English (the first was Focus on Ireland, G21, edited by Jeffrey Kallen, 1997). The book stems from a conference by the same name, ‘New Perspectives on Irish English’, held at University College Dublin in 2010. As stated in its preface: ‘The aim of the conference, and now the volume, was to assess the directions of research on varieties of English spoken on the island of Ireland since the publication of Focus on Ireland … in 1997, and to highlight how that research has developed in the last fifteen years’ (xi). New perspectives on Irish English comprises a selection of sixteen papers that offer a current survey on a wide range of topics revolving around the varieties of English spoken in Ireland. The volume stands out for its contemporary methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of Irish English and its emphasis on new trends in linguistic research.
Most of the articles in this book are corpus-based studies that follow either a broad sociolinguistic or a pragmatic approach using both qualitative and quantitative methods. As the editors suggest, the papers in the volume can be ascribed to five main categories: phonetic and phonological features (e.g. rising intonation in Belfast English; schwa epenthesis e.g. [ˈfɪləm] film in Galway English), morphosyntactic structures (e.g. it-cleft sentences; after-perfect in Newfoundland), discourse-pragmatic features (e.g. discourse markers like and now; the use of vocatives; the responsive system in Irish English), corpus compilation (e.g. A Corpus of Irish English Correspondence, CORIECOR) and language and identity (e.g. the use of discourse marker like by Polish speakers of L2 Irish English).
It is noteworthy that some of the papers included in the volume have a contrastive focus. Some articles examine features of Irish English and compare them with other varieties of English (e.g. the use of the modal auxiliary with the progressive in Irish English and British English). Features of both local varieties of Irish English (e.g. Bóthar Mór English; Dublin English) and transplanted varieties of Irish English (e.g. the English spoken by the Argentine-Irish community) are considered in the volume. Even though most of the articles explore synchronic phenomena, there is some space for diachronic linguistics in the book (e.g. modal verbs and past-time reference in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Irish English).
Alongside approaches to the English of the Irish diaspora, the English of incoming migrants in contemporary Ireland is also examined (e.g. the attitudes of migrants towards Irish English). Interestingly, the volume succeeds in reflecting a major social change that Ireland has undergone in the last decades: Ireland, traditionally a country of emigration, has become a destination for immigration.
As is suggested in its title, this volume is a state-of-the-art contribution to the study of Irish varieties of English. It will certainly be appealing to linguists, particularly to those scholars interested in varieties of English, sociolinguistics, and language variation and change. Undoubtedly, New perspectives on Irish English lays down guidelines for the research on Irish English that is to come.
