Reviewed by Joseph F. Eska, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

This information-rich volume by Raymond Hickey seeks to provide ‘a comprehensive audio overview of English as spoken in present-day Ireland’ (v) and succeeds admirably. The accompanying DVD is packed with maps, images, an introduction to the phonology of Irish English, background information on the variety, software, 1,017 databases, and 1,517 sound files that were collected from the mid-1990s through 2002, the majority of which reflect the speech of eighteen- to thirty-year-olds. All speakers read a list of fifty-seven sample sentences (containing key words to illustrate the pronunciation of a sound), about one-quarter read a sample text, and those from Dublin—the national capital—read a list of words. Speakers are identified by gender, geographical location, and approximate age.

Ch. 1 of the volume, ‘Data collection and analysis’ (1–21), sets out H’s interview methodology and the background of his project. Ch. 2, ‘The English language in Ireland’ (23–84), describes the dialect divisions and historical background of Irish English, goes on to treat the English of Northern Ireland, contrasting it with southern Irish English, and examines the language as spoken in urban locations. Samples of the sentences used in the interview are provided (the full list is printed on pp. 131–32), as are the sample text and the lexical list used in Dublin. The chapter concludes with discussions of the sounds of Irish English.

Readers are urged to listen to the relevant sound files as they progress through this section of the volume. Ch. 3, ‘Processing software for atlas data’ (85–114), explains that the DVD may be used either by installing the Windows software provided and launching it from the reader’s hard drive or by employing the Java version on the DVD, which is platform-independent and does not require any installation. (I tried both versions, and found them both easy to use.) Readers are led through the use of the various databases and sound files. The use of other software on the DVD—a file manager, a word processor, a database editor, and so on—are also explained. Ch. 4, ‘A survey of Irish English usage’ (115–36), instructs the reader on how to use the processing software to examine the databases and goes on to describe morphological and syntactic features of Irish English, which are embedded in the sentences in the survey. H concludes this chapter with his assessment of the source of some of these distinctive features, whether native to English, transfer from Irish Gaelic, or convergence. Chs. 5–8, ‘Technical notes’, ‘Glossary of computer terms’, ‘Timeline for Irish English’, and ‘Glossary for Irish English’, complete the volume.

This slim volume provides a wealth of information for dialectologists, sociolinguists, and those interested in this variety of English.