Newfoundland Irish

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For Scottish Gaelic in Canada, see Canadian Gaelic
Newfoundland Irish
Gaeilge Thalamh an Éisc
Spoken in: Canada 
Region: Newfoundland, mostly on Avalon Peninsula
Total speakers: none; extinct
Language family: Indo-European
 Celtic
  Insular Celtic
   Goidelic
    Irish
     Newfoundland Irish
Language codes
ISO 639-1: ga
ISO 639-2: gle
ISO 639-3: gle 
The Irish Shore of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula.
The Irish Shore of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula.

 

Newfoundland Irish (Irish: Gaeilge Talamh an Éisc) is a dialect of the Irish language specific to the island of Newfoundland and widely spoken until the mid-20th century. It is very similar to the language heard in the southeast of Ireland centuries ago, due to mass immigration from the counties Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Cork.

The Irish language was commonly spoken among the Newfoundland Irish until the middle of the 20th century. There is direct evidence to suggest that as high as 90% of the Irish in Newfoundland spoke only Irish as their mother tongue.[citation needed] Records from Newfoundland's courts, where defendants often required Irish-speaking interpreters, indicate that the dominant language of the Avalon Peninsula was Irish rather than English. Ecclesiastical documents from previous centuries bolster this case—for example, in letters to Dublin requesting a Franciscan missionary for the parishes of St. Mary's and Trepassey, Bishop James Louis O'Donel indicated that it is absolutely necessary that he should speak Irish.

A 2001 census report indicates that there are 10 men in Newfoundland whose mother tongue is a Gaelic language [1]. However, the report does not specify which Gaelic languages are included in this figure. In principle, it is possible that these 10 people speak Newfoundland Irish; however, it is also possible that they are immigrants from Ireland who speak "Irish" Irish. Scholars at Memorial University of Newfoundland have concluded that Newfoundland Irish became extinct during the 20th century [2].

Both the Irish language and Hiberno-English have had a clear and noticeable impact on the dialect of English spoken in Newfoundland, known as Newfoundland English.

Newfoundland is the only place outside Europe with its own distinctive name in the Irish language, Talamh an Éisc, literally "Land of the Fish [singular]".[citation needed]


v  d  e
Irish linguistics
History of the language | Primitive Irish | Old Irish | Middle Irish | Early Modern Irish | Modern Irish
Connacht Irish | Munster Irish | Newfoundland Irish | Ulster Irish
Initial mutations | Morphology (nominals, verbs) | Phonology | Syntax | Orthography | Ogham | Gaelic script
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.