Multilingualism in Dublin: Home Language Use Among Primary School Children, Report on a Pilot Survey
Citation:
Carson, Lorna and Guus Extra, Multilingualism in Dublin: Home Language Use Among Primary School Children, Report on a Pilot Survey, Dublin: Centre for Language and Communication Studies/Tilburg, NL, Tilburg University, 2010, 67Download Item:
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Abstract:
Travellers who arrive at Dublin airport from abroad easily receive the impression that
they have arrived in a bilingual country. However, whilst both English and Irish appear
on official signage, the languages they frequently hear are Russian and Polish. Mac
Einri and White (2008: 153) suggest that `Ireland?s historical demographic and
migration profile can fairly be described as unique, at least in European terms.? Unlike
its neighbours, large?scale population diversity has been a recent phenomenon in
Ireland. In the 1990s, the country?s economy began to prosper (referred to as the
Celtic Tiger), and contributed to a reversal of the well?trodden path of Irish emigration
towards England, North America and beyond. A surge of immigrants arrived in Ireland
from every continent. Newcomers ? professionals, seasonal migrant workers, asylum
seekers, refugees ? along with returning Irish emigrants, created an entirely different
demographic and linguistic profile in the space of a decade. Kallen (2010: 55) highlights
how the `linguistic landscape in Dublin is undergoing a profound change?. This shifting
city landscape is observable both in `?top?down?, official signage? (ibid: 42) in the civic
domain ? where state agencies now frequently provide information in Russian, Polish,
Arabic and Mandarin Chinese in addition to English and Irish ? through to prolific
multilingual entrepreneurial signage, and even at the level of street detritus (ibid: 55).
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PUBLISHEDDublin: Centre for Language and Communication Studies/Tilburg, NL, Tilburg University
Author: Carson, Lorna
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Language and linguisticsSubject (TCD):
Creative Arts Practice , International IntegrationLicences: