Thesis: Scr íobh na nDaoine...

[Brian Doyle]

Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that I recently completed and defended my  
master's thesis in linguistics at Northeastern Illinois University, a  
copy of which is available at: http://www.gael-image.com/DoyleThesis-Dec2008.pdf 
.

I have copied below the title and abstract.

Best regards,
Brian Doyle
Chicago, IL

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SCRÍOBH NA nDAOINE:
Orthographic Variation, Ideology,
and Literacy Practices in Irish

Irish is an endangered Celtic language with official status in the  
Republic of
Ireland and the European Union. This study describes the historical  
development and
grammatical foundations of Irish orthography, the reform and  
standardization of
which became the focus of intense political debate starting in the  
late 19th century.
Between the years 1945 and 1972, a series of new spelling, grammar,  
and script
standards were released by the Irish government and implemented in the  
Irish
educational system. Prompted by personal exchanges with some members  
of Chicago’s
Irish-language speech community who express a degree of unfamiliarity  
with or
dislike of these standards, a survey was conducted that sought to  
measure 43 subjects’
preferences for three discrete aspects of Irish writing: 1) classical  
vs. simplified
spelling; 2) Gaelic vs. Roman type; and 3) the use of Hs vs. overhead  
dots to mark
lenition. By isolating and measuring preferences for each of these  
three orthographic
variables, the survey sought to deconstruct the “abrogationist” and  
“appropriationist”
frames identified by Ó Conchubhair (2003) and determine which, if any,  
aspects of
orthographic variation remain salient today. Subjects’ preferences  
were analyzed in
relation to age, gender, education, and childhood residency in the  
gaeltaċt to determine
to what degree orthographic variation may serve to differentiate  
speech communities.
Analysis of the survey results supported the identification of two  
underlying factors,
spelling preference and script preference, and found a significant  
correlation between
higher levels of education and preference for Roman script using Hs to  
mark lenition.