Presentation of Irish English in a 19th Century Usage Guide : Analysis of Language Attitudes in The Vulgarities of Speech Corrected: with Elegant Expressions for Provincial and Vulgar English, Scots and Irish; for the Use of Those Who Are Unacquainted with Grammar.

Abstract

This paper examines how Irish English is presented in the 19th-century English language usage guide The Vulgarities of Speech Corrected: with Elegant Expressions for Provincial and Vulgar English, Scots and Irish; for the Use of Those Who Are Unacquainted with Grammar. The analysis is qualitative and employs the societal treatment method in order to study the usage guide writer’s attitudes towards Irish English. The nouns and the adjectives that the writer uses to refer to or to describe features of Irish English are considered attestations of their attitudes. The results show that the presentation of Irish English in the usage guide covers various levels of language and that the nouns and adjectives that express the writer’s attitudes are both disapproving and neutral. Irish English is not discussed in too positive a light in the primary material but considering its genre and the stereotypical image of the Irish people in the period, this is not surprising.