Finding the ‘Right’ Irish for the New Testament
Register in the First Three Printed Books in Irish, 1567–1602
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/linguistica.63.1-2.177-196Keywords:
Early Modern Irish, translation, register, dialect, literacyAbstract
An Irish translation of the New Testament was published in Dublin in 1602. This publication, and the translation work which underlay it, did not appear in a vacuum: two earlier printed books in Irish had paved the way, viz. John Carswell’s translation of Knox’s Forme of Prayer and Ministrations of the Sacraments, published in Edinburgh in 1567, and Seaán Ó Cearnaigh’s primer of the Irish language and catechism translation, published in Dublin in 1571. This paper seeks to shed light on the process by which an appropriate register was arrived at for Protestant printing in Irish, and in particular for the New Testament, through an examination of some of the linguistic and stylistic features of these texts, with regard both to decisions made by the individual translators and to sociolinguistic factors which may have limited their room to manoeuvre. These factors include contemporary conceptions of and attitudes to different language varieties, the lack of alternative models, and the nature and level of education received by individual translators. This paper builds upon the pioneering research of Ailbhe Ó Corráin (2013) to show that linguistically that portion of the Irish New Testament completed after 1597 has a more colloquial and dialectal quality than that which preceded it. This is tentatively connected with specific changes in the team responsible.
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Abbreviations
Aibidil = Ó CUÍV, Brian (1994) Aibidil Gaoidheilge & Caiticiosma: Seaán Ó Cearnaigh’s Irish Primer of Religion published in 1571. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
Cló = SHARPE, Richard/Mícheál HOYNE (2020) Clóliosta: printing in the Irish language, 1571–1871 – an attempt at narrative bibliography. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
eDIL = Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language. dil.ie [accessed on 3 March 2022].
EEBO = Early English Books Online. proquest.com/eebo [accessed on 3 March 2022].
FU = THOMSON, R. L. (1970) Foirm na n-Urrnuidheadh: John Carswell’s Gaelic translation of the Book of Common Order. Edinburgh: Scottish Gaelic Texts Society.
HIC = Historical Irish Corpus/Corpas Stairiúil na Gaeilge 1600–1926. corpas.ria.ie [accessed on 3 March 2022].
I bprionta = WILLIAMS, Nicholas (1986) I bprionta i leabhar: na Protastúin agus prós na Gaeilge 1567–1724. Dublin: An Clóchomhar.
IGT = BERGIN, Osborn ‘Irish Grammatical Tracts’, supplements to Ériu 8 (1916), Ériu 9 (1921–3), Ériu 10 (1926–8), Ériu 14 (1946), Ériu 17 (1955).
ISOS = Irish Script on Screen. isos.dias.ie [accessed on 3 March 2022].
LUC = Leabhar na nUrnaightheadh gComhchoidchiond agus Mheinisdraldachda na Sacrameinteadh [...] (1608). Dublin: Seón Francke.
OG = HOGAN, Edmund/Donnchadh Ó CORRÁIN, Onomasticon Goedelicum. 3 March 2022. dias.ie/celt/celt-publications-2/onomasticon-goedelicum.
TN = Tiomna Nuadh ar dTighearna agus ar Slanaightheora Iosa Criosd [...] (1602). Dublin: Seón Francke.
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