Méid an Téacs

Error-laden pidgin or creative creole? The Irish of the Gaelscoil

Iúil 8, 2014

Is the mixture of Irish vocabulary and English grammar spoken by students in immersion courses simply incorrect language… or a linguistic gem?

In an exploration of the weird and wonderful linguistic features of the Irish language spoken in gaelscoileanna, Breandán Mac Ardghail offers an alternative perspective on the non-native schoolyard Irish of pupils.

Is the Irish students speak error-laden pidgin or a deviously creative creole?

In 2012, Breandán was a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant at the University of Montana. He holds a Masters and a Batchelors degree in Modern Irish and is currently reading Applied Linguistics at Trinity College Dublin.

Watch the TedX Talk here.

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