Presentation - ECV2024-519

Children’s speech development: English (Irish)

Joan RAHILLY, Queen’s University, Northern Ireland, UK (j.rahilly@qub.ac.uk)
Jill TITTERINGTON, Ulster University, Northern Ireland, UK (jill@thespeechdoctorni.co.uk)

Irish English is spoken in Ireland and has two main varieties: Northern and Southern Irish English, relative to the border implemented by partition in 1921. Reference dialects have been described for key locations: Belfast (Northern Irish) English and Dublin (Southern Irish) English, for example, representing the speech in and close to the respective capital cities, and broader dialect zones across the island (Ulster Scots, for example, in the north; and east coast and west coast varieties in the south). Irish English varieties are differentiated from one another by their vowel and diphthongal systems, consonantal differences and aspects of suprasegmental organization. There are 24 consonants and 13 vowels (6 long and 7 short) plus 3 diphthongs. Researchers have focused on application of evidence to practice for children with speech sound disorders (SSD) resulting in a co-produced online resource supporting SLPs with evidence-based practice (SuSSD: also relevant UK-wide). A common speech assessment is the DEAP (Dodd et al., 2002; Leahy & Dodd, 2011), and the most frequently used intervention approach is conventional minimal pairs (Weiner, 1981).

Key words:
Irish English [northern and southern varieties], multilingual, communication, speech, language, children’s development, interdisciplinary, international communities, assessment, intervention

Book chapter:
Rahilly, J., & Titterington, J. (2025). English (Irish) speech development. In S. McLeod (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press.

Language overview presentation:

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

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