Diglossia and interlanguage contact in Ireland

Abstract

Societal bilingualism is described in various periods of the history of Ireland. From the fourth to the twelfth centuries Irish was expanding and at various periods was in contact with Latin, Norse, British and Anglo‐Saxon. In the post‐Norman period forms of Irish‐English diglossia are observed, with Irish as the almost universal vernacular. The decline of Irish and its gradual movement towards peripheral regions proceeded throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and gathered pace in the nineteenth century. When the decline was almost complete it was slowed down, partly by the density of the communities along the western coast; and also because of the development of the restoration movement. In contemporary Ireland the Irish spoken in the English‐speaking and Irish‐speaking areas is rapidly converging: an urbanised koine is developing among Irish speakers of high competence, irrespective of background, while others of Irish‐speaking upbringing enter a pattern of subtractive bilingualism in which their Irish competence is limited.

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