The Irish in Argentina
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Carolina P. Amador-Moreno
Abstract
Although the legacy of Irish English around the world has been dealt with in various studies since the 1980s, the Latin-American scene has hardly figured in this context. During the nineteenth century 40–45,000 Irish people emigrated to Argentina. Most emigrants settled in the Argentine Pampas, becoming the largest Irish community in the Spanish-speaking world. Despite the fact that they eventually acquired Spanish, a high percentage of their descendants still speak a form of English which displays Irish English features. This paper analyses the survival of some of these features in their speech. The study reflects upon the transportation and preservation of dialectal features through generations of Irish English speakers whose contact with Ireland was, in many cases, non-existent. Keywords: Irish English transported; emigration; Argentina; intergenerational transmision of dialect
Abstract
Although the legacy of Irish English around the world has been dealt with in various studies since the 1980s, the Latin-American scene has hardly figured in this context. During the nineteenth century 40–45,000 Irish people emigrated to Argentina. Most emigrants settled in the Argentine Pampas, becoming the largest Irish community in the Spanish-speaking world. Despite the fact that they eventually acquired Spanish, a high percentage of their descendants still speak a form of English which displays Irish English features. This paper analyses the survival of some of these features in their speech. The study reflects upon the transportation and preservation of dialectal features through generations of Irish English speakers whose contact with Ireland was, in many cases, non-existent. Keywords: Irish English transported; emigration; Argentina; intergenerational transmision of dialect
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contact details for contributors vii
- Preface xi
- Is Dublin English ‘Alive Alive Oh’? 1
- Linguistic change in Galway City English 29
- [ˈfɪlǝm] and [ˈfarǝm]? 47
- The why of Belfast rises 67
- Exploring grammatical differences between Irish and British English 85
- From Ireland to Newfoundland 101
- “A cannot get a loan for more than six years now” 131
- Is it truly unique that Irish English clefts are? Quantifying the syntactic variation of it -clefts in Irish English and other post-colonial English varieties 153
- The discourse marker LIKE in Irish English 179
- “I’m fine girl, and how are you?” 203
- “It’s lunacy now” 225
- The responsive system of Irish English 247
- A Corpus of Irish English Correspondence (CORIECOR) 265
- The Irish in Argentina 289
- Irish English and recent immigrants to Ireland 311
- Discourse ‘like’ and social identity – a case study of Poles in Ireland 327
- Bio Sketches 355
- Index 359
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contact details for contributors vii
- Preface xi
- Is Dublin English ‘Alive Alive Oh’? 1
- Linguistic change in Galway City English 29
- [ˈfɪlǝm] and [ˈfarǝm]? 47
- The why of Belfast rises 67
- Exploring grammatical differences between Irish and British English 85
- From Ireland to Newfoundland 101
- “A cannot get a loan for more than six years now” 131
- Is it truly unique that Irish English clefts are? Quantifying the syntactic variation of it -clefts in Irish English and other post-colonial English varieties 153
- The discourse marker LIKE in Irish English 179
- “I’m fine girl, and how are you?” 203
- “It’s lunacy now” 225
- The responsive system of Irish English 247
- A Corpus of Irish English Correspondence (CORIECOR) 265
- The Irish in Argentina 289
- Irish English and recent immigrants to Ireland 311
- Discourse ‘like’ and social identity – a case study of Poles in Ireland 327
- Bio Sketches 355
- Index 359
