The Acquisition of Celtic Languages

by Vicky Chondrogianni (Editor), Ciara O'Toole (Editor), Enlli Thomas (Editor)

Overview

In recent times, there has been a growing interest in how Celtic languages are acquired, due to ongoing efforts for minority language revitalisation through immersion education. With contributions from a team of leading scholars, this is the first volume to bring together state-of-the-art studies on language development in both children and adults learning the three most prominent Celtic languages spoken in the UK and Ireland: Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Irish. It focuses on how core language areas – phonology, lexicon, morphology and syntax – are acquired by different groups of learners, providing key insights into theoretical and empirical debates around bilingual language development and linguistic change more generally. The volume also covers the socio-cultural and educational context within which these languages are learnt, highlighting how these factors affect linguistic outcomes in a minority language context. It is essential reading for academic researchers and students in developmental linguistics, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and Celtic languages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009284943
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/10/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Vicky Chondrogianni is Professor of Bilingualism and Language Development at the University of Edinburgh. She is also an Associate Editor of the Journal Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. Her research focuses on the bilingual development of neurotypical children and children with developmental language disorders from an experimental and crosslinguistic perspective.
Ciara O'Toole is a Senior Lecturer in Speech and Language Therapy at University College Cork. She is also an Associate Editor of the Journal of Child Language. Her teaching and research interests are in the area of child speech, language and communication development and disorders, and the acquisition of minority languages in multilingual contexts.
Enlli Thomas is Professor of Education Research, Interim Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Bangor University and Visiting Professor at Umeå University, Sweden. Her research encompasses psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, and educational approaches to the study of Welsh language acquisition and use in Welsh-English bilinguals.

Table of Contents

Introduction; The acquisition of Celtic languages as a paradigm for addressing current issues in bilingualism and (minority) language development Vicky Chondrogianni, Ciara O'Toole and Enlli Thomas; Part I. The Socio-Educational Context: 1. The acquisition of Scottish Gaelic: sociolinguistic and policy dimensions Wilson McLeod; 2. Sociocultural and educational aspects of Irish language acquisition Padraig Ó Duibhir and Aisling Ní Dhiorbháin; 3. Sociolinguistic aspects of children's Welsh Peredur Webb-Davies; Part II. Acquisition of Phonology and Phonetics: 4. The acquisition of Scottish Gaelic phonology Claire Nance; 5. Acquisition of Irish phonology Nicole Müller and Martin J. Ball; 6. Acquisition of Welsh phonology Robert Mayr, Ronwen Lewis and Jonathan Morri; Part III. Acquisition of Vocabulary: 7. The acquisition and processing of Scottish Gaelic vocabulary Vicky Chondrogianni; 8. The acquisition of Irish vocabulary Ciara O'Toole; 9. The count and beyond: vocabulary knowledge in Welsh bilinguals Virginia C. Mueller Gathercole; Part IV. Acquisition of Morphology and Syntax: 10. The acquisition of Scottish Gaelic morphology and syntax Vicky Chondrogianni and Morag Donaldson; 11. The acquisition of Irish morphosyntax Tina M. Hickey and Thea Cameron-Faulkner; 12. The acquisition of Welsh morphosyntax Enlli Thomas, Hanna Binks and Siân Lloyd-Williams; 13. Concluding remarks on the acquisition of Celtic languages: implications and future directions Vicky Chondrogianni, Ciara O'Toole and Enlli Thomas; Index.