Employing geographical principles for sampling in state of the art dialectological projects

The aims of this paper are twofold: First, we locate the most effective human geographical methods for sampling across space in large-scale dialectological projects. We propose two geographical concepts as a basis for sampling decisions: Geo-demographic classification, which is a multidimensional method used for the socio-economic grouping of areas. We also develop an updated version of functional regions that can be used in sociolinguistic research. We then report on the results of a pilot project that applies these models to collect data regarding the acceptability of vernacular morpho-syntactic forms in the North-East of England. Following the method of natural breaks advocated for dialectology by Horvath and Horvath (2002), we interpret breaks in the probabilistic patterns as areas of dialect transitions. This study contributes to the debate about the role and limitations of spatiality in linguistic analysis. It intends to broaden our knowledge about the interfaces between human geography and dialectology

Voices from the Pitch: A comparative study of British dialects in videos about rugby

Languages are modified for many reasons, and from these modifications come dialectal varieties. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyse different dialects of the British Isles in order to find a possible dialectal identity, those dialects are Hiberno-English, English, Scottish English and Welsh English. I will provide a historical-linguistic context for each area in which the dialects studied are spoken to understand how English reached every region. I will explain previous studies on the description of dialects that will give me guidelines for the analysis. To reach the objective, a corpus has been created for each variety through rugby interviews from professional players and coaches. I will then develop the characteristics found in the corpus, the results will be shown quantitatively and discussed. The results reflect that a dialect can be a symbol of identity in some regions.Un idioma cambia por diferentes razones, y de estos cambios surgen las variedades dialectales. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar diferentes dialectos de las islas británicas para encontrar una posible identidad dialectal, dichos dialectos son los hablados en Irlanda, Inglaterra, Escocia y Gales. Proporcionaré un contexto históricolingüístico de cada zona en la que se hablan los dialectos estudiados para entender cómo llegó el inglés a cada región. Explicaré estudios previos sobre la descripción de dialectos que me darán pautas para el análisis. Para lograr el objetivo se ha creado un corpus para cada variedad mediante entrevistas de rugby de jugadores y entrenadores profesionales. A continuación desarrollaré las características encontradas en el corpus, los resultados se mostrarán cuantitativamente y se discutirán. Los resultados reflejan que un dialecto puede ser símbolo de identidad en algunas regionesGrado en Estudios Inglese

Ritual and myths between Ireland and Galicia. The Irish Milesian myth in the Leabhar Gabhála Éireann: Over the Ninth Wave. Origins, contacts and literary evidence.

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate whether the Milesian myth in the Leabhar Gabhála Éireann is an accurate historical account and, therefore, this discussion explores the possibility that Galicia may share a Gaelic/Celtic cultural identity with Ireland. This dissertation proposes to compare the Milesians pre-Christian myths in the Leabhar Gabhála Éireann and their rituals, with those of Galicia, for example, The Ninth Wave. Early traces of Gaelic/Celtic Galician identity are difficult to identify, and the Celtic language of Galicia is no longer spoken; all that remain are place names which seem to have a foundation in Celtic lexis (Murguia, 2000, Caridad: 2006) This dissertation hypothesises that Galicia may have shared an early cultural identity with Ireland, as stated in the Milesian myth in the Leabhar Gabhála Éireann, chapter XIII. The framework for the thesis will be anthropological and I will therefore use anthropological methodologies in order to compare Irish/Galician myths and rituals, with a view to providing a description of a particular culture and the social foundations of this culture. For the first time, anthropological theory will be applied to the Milesian myth of the Leabhar Gabhála Éireann. The cultural studies comparison between Ireland and Galicia will focus firstly on diachronic written material: I will thus analyse chapter XIII, that is, the Milesian myth in the Leabhar Gabhála Éireann, in order to establish its historical accuracy. I will also analyse some of Galician toponymy, which have no meaning in any Latin-based languages, and I will compare it to the Irish/Gaelic. Secondly, contemporary written material will be analysed, namely, a poem by the contemporary Galician poet Luz Pozo Garza, as translated by Irish poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. The literature review will be based on the examination of the meaning and function of myth and ritual according to the anthropological perspectives of Malinowski, Frazer, Eliade, Puhvel and Durand, among others. The value of the structural theory of Leví-Strauss will be assessed in the light of the meaning of myth in the construction of identity

LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AND LANGUAGE SHIFT

In language shifts, ancestral tongues are abandoned by their speakers and replaced, in one way or another, by dominant languages. Such changes in language use will ultimately lead to the irreversible suppression of the world's language diversity. Language maintenance attempts to counter these processes. Linguists may assist ethno linguistic minorities in safeguarding their threatened languages in many different ways, including establishing orthography when necessary, but speakers decide to abandon their heritage languages within a broad socio-political and economic context. Communities uphold or give up languages, so only the speakers of endangered languages themselves can opt for and execute language maintenance activities. Linguists might have to accept that some communities may no longer care for their heritage languages

Perceptions of creativity and authenticity when acquiring a minoritised language as an adult

The authors wish to acknowledge the contribution to this research made by Dr Kathryn Jones who also collaborated on the project. We would like to extend our gratitude to all the research participants, who were so generous with their time and volunteered their experiences so freely. Finally, we gratefully acknowledge the support and assistance of Bòrd na Gàidhlig who funded the original research. A version of this paper was presented at the Celtic Sociolinguistics Symposium, Dublin 2016.Peer reviewedPublisher PD