New perspectives on Irish English - Bettina Migge

This volume brings together current research by international scholars on the varieties of English spoken in Ireland. The papers apply contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches and frameworks to a range of topics. A number of papers explore the distribution of linguistic features in Irish English, including the evolution of linguistic structures in Irish English and linguistic change in progress, employing broadly quantitative sociolinguistic approaches. Pragmatic features of Irish English are explored through corpus linguistics-based analysis. The construction of linguistic corpora using written and recorded material form the focus of other papers, extending and analyzing the growing range of corpus material available to researchers of varieties of English, including diaspora varieties. Issues of language and identity in contemporary Ireland are explored in several contributions using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The volume will be of interest to linguists generally, and to scholars with an interest in varieties of English.

Whatever the uncertainties over specific empirical issues, there can little doubt that the vast majority of studies in "New Perspectives" will contribute significantly to future work on Irish English. The volume has much to offer students of language contact, pragmatics, urban varieties, and corpus linguistics.
Terence Odlin, Ohio State University, on Linguist List 25.2527, 2014

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.
Mario Serrano-Losada, University of Santiago de Compostela, in Language in Society 43(4): 480-481, 2014

This wide-ranging collection of papers truly delivers on the promise of its title, to offer 'new perspectives' on the study of Irish English. The social perspective is global - covering long-standing communities, recent immigrant groups in Ireland, the Irish diaspora, and international comparisons - and the methodologies embrace novel uses of corpus linguistics, quantitative sociolinguistics, instrumental phonetics, and discourse analysis. The book offers not just critical insights of its own, but understandings which will help to set the research agenda for Irish English, and its relation to other Englishes, over many years to come.
Jeffrey Kallen, Trinity College Dublin