The Spread of Irish English

Abstract

Abstract From the beginning of the English colonial period in the early seventeenth century Irish emigration to overseas locations figured prominently. The reasons for emigration were various: deportation, the search for religious freedom, but above all the escape from oppressive economic conditions. Emigration from Ireland can be broken down into different periods, with early input to the Caribbean during its Homestead Phase (first decades of the seventeenth century) followed by major Ulster Scots input to North America in the eighteenth century and large-scale emigration by southern Irish in the nineteenth century during the Great Famine and immediately afterwards. This was to both North America and to Britain, with an influence on the formation of new dialects in both these regions. This chapter examines features of overseas varieties, and considers whether Irish sources are likely given what is known of group status and contact and the mixing of different ethnicities.