Languages of Ireland II: Irish English; Irish Sign Language; Migrant languages
Jeff Kallen, Lorraine Leeson, Margaret Leahy, David Singleton, John Saeed, David Little, Lorna Carson, John Bosco Conama, Pat Matthews, Carmel Grehan
Our research on Irish English, encompasses linguistic and phonetic studies dealing with the segmental and intonational characteristics of Irish English varieties.
Ground-breaking research has been undertaken on Irish Sign Language (ISL), analysing the grammar of sign language and comparing ISL to other signed languages. As part of this, major corpora have been developed for Irish English varieties and ISL: a new conversational corpus will be used to develop conversational speech synthesis.
Recent research has also yielded the first standardized normative data for the assessment of articulation and phonological development in Irish English, a tool which has already become the clinical benchmark.
Through the years, symposia have also been organised focussing on Ulster Scots, and the linguistics of Irish English. There is considerable scope for extending current collaborations, linking both theoretical and with practical applications across the three disciplines in the School.
College’s Strategic plan: This theme entails many outreach activities with Irish society (Section 5 of College’s Strategic Plan) and many aspects relate to College’s Digital Arts and Humanities programme.