Art Hughes

Dr Art Hughes is Reader in Irish. In 2009-2010, he was Visiting Professor and Senior Fulbright Scholar, Ireland House, at New York University.In 1999, he was appointed Lecturer in Irish language and Literature at Ulster University. He was Lecturer in Institute of Irish Studies Queen's University Belfast and Armagh in 1995-98.He is also chair of the McCracken Cultural Society, Belfast and contributor on a sporadic basis to radio and television programmes on Irish-language related topics.Research FieldsOld Irish to modern pan-Gaelic dialects; phonetics, Old, Early Modern and Modern Gaelic literature.

A Digital Linguistic Atlas of pan-Gaelic Dialects  by Art Hughes

The pan-Gaelic area

The Gaelic dialects under investigation are the twentieth-century Gaelic-speaking regions of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. The overall story of this broad Gaelic-speaking belt is, sadly, one of linguistic decline with native Gaelic now lost in the Isle of Man since the 1970s, and being confined, in the main, to the western seaboards of Ireland and Scotland with shrinkage sadly an omnipresent phenomenon. Notwithstanding, we are in the fortunate position of having some (yet arguably not enough) individual monographs for the Gaelic dialects of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.

Two previous paper linguistic atlases for Gaelic dialects

The most notable practitioner in the field of Gaelic linguistic geography was Heinrich Wagner whose four-volume Linguistic Atlas and Survey of Irish dialects consisted of a first volume containing a series of 300+ maps for 87 points in Ireland with the addition of the Isle of Man (point 88). This first volume of LASID was followed by three volumes of raw data from the 1200-item questionnaire for Munster (LASID ii), Connaught (LASID iii) and Ulster, with appendices for the Isle of Man and areas in Gaelic-speaking Scotland (LASID iv).

A quarter of a century after the publication of all four volumes LASID we witnessed, in 1994, the publication of volumes ii-v of the Survey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland (SGDS). These four volumes of raw data were followed, in 1997, by volume one of SGDS which provides much of the background information.

A new Digital Linguistic Atlas of pan-Gaelic Dialects for the modern era: live recordings

My new atlas is pioneering in that it brings the living voice to data rather than the written phonetic symbol. Over the last 30 years I have gone to every Gaelic-speaking region and island in Ireland and Scotland and recorded the answers to a 421-item questionnaire. The questionnaire I designed is based on the verb in the past, present, future, conditional, imperfect plus the stem and subjunctive.

The101 pan-Gaelic dialects in question

60 for Ireland (20 from Munster, Waterford, Cork and Kerry; 23 from Connaught, Galway and Mayo; 17 from Ulster, Donegal

40 for Scotland Highlands and Islands

1 reconstructed version for Manx

Presentation of the data in Digital Linguistic Atlas of pan-Gaelic Dialects 

The responses to the 101 interviews have now all been segmented into separate sound files and these will appear on a database, future website, with the English question, the Gaelic response and accompanying audio recording of the voice. Many end-notes and incidentals from the interviews will also feature.

This information garnered will provide an over-arching view of the Gaelic language in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, with an emphasis on the verb, in terms of ‘synthetic’ versus ‘analytic’ paradigms and the survival of Old Irish independent irregular forms, especially in Ulster, Scotland and the Isle of Man.

At a local level it will enable the user to hone in on a specific dialect and the sound archive of a particular dialect and the sound archive will also have an instrumental part to play in the regeneration of the voice for regional literature, folklore and manuscript collections.

Funding to date:
In addition to generous grants for fieldwork from my internal research unit at Ulster University the following external grants for the total sum of £64,392 have been received from the following external funding bodies, with a further £57,464.68 awarded in Feb-25:

• £28,000 Éigse Loch Lao 2010-present. An Irish-language conference run jointly between UU Belfast and McCracken Cultural Society. A.J. Hughes joint signatory for funding as Chair of McCracken Cultural Society.
• £3,300 Summer 2019 Soillse, Sabhal Mór Ostaig, Isle of Skye for Scottish fieldwork
• £1,300 Summer 2019 from Colmcille, Foras na Gaeilge for for Scottish fieldwork
• £10,192 August 2022 from Colmcille, Foras na Gaeilge for fieldwork and sound editing of Scottish interviews and development of database
• £10,800 December 2023 from Colmcille, Foras na Gaeilge for sound editing of Irish interviews and remaining fieldwork
• £10,800 January 2024 from Colmcille, Foras na Gaeilge for transcription of Scottish interviews and provision of Manx materials
• £57,464.68 February 2025 from British Academy: A Digital Linguistic Atlas of pan-Gaelic Dialect: Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man (ongoing in 4 payments: Dec-25, Mar-26, Jun-26, Oct-26)

State of progress

With all data now sound-edited and nearly transcribed, work will begin on an introduction and historical analysis of the project’s findings plus a search for a host for the eventual website.

Supervisor PhD  A.J. Hughes

Malachy O’Neill (100%)

The Book: Eoghanach: Analytical study of the text plus introduction, translation and notes.

Date of Award:  2007

 

Supervisor PhD

Nicholas McCaul (Nioclás Mac Cathmhaoil (100%)

Muiris Ó Gormáin: Poetic Life and Work

Date of Award:  2010