IRISH DIALECT CLASSIFICATION

The Irish language is among the oldest vernaculars spoken in Europe, but Ireland’s history and the language shift to English led to the almost complete demise of traditional Irish in Ireland. The current dialects areas – South, West and North – are the remnants of a much greater geographical distribution of Irish throughout the country. The major differences in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, which can be observed in Irish today, probably go back to the early classical period. The standard dialect survey of Irish is Heinrich Wagner’s comprehensive atlas (1958-1964); there are also many individual studies which document the language in the early twentieth century. Southern Irish refers to a few areas in the southern province of Munster (Co. Kerry, Co. Waterford), Western Irish refers to forms of Irish spoken west of Galway and on the Aran Islands and Northern Irish is spoken in pockets of West Ulster (Co. Donegal).