Acquisition of vocabulary in Irish is of interest for many reasons. For example, Irish has a verb–subject–object word order, placing verbs in a more salient sentence position compared to nouns, and lexical verbs are repeated/negated in response to a yes/no question. Lexical items in Irish carry rich inflectional information, the acquisition of which may slow down the overall acquisition of words. Furthermore, Irish vocabulary is acquired in a context of universal bilingualism, so can inform us about bilingual language acquisition in a minority language context. The chapter will review how children acquire comprehension and expression of Irish vocabulary categories compared to other languages, and how Irish vocabulary develops in line with that of English. Using data from longitudinal and cross-sectional research collected through parent diaries, corpus data, parent report, and direct testing, the chapter reviews the internal and external factors that influence overall vocabulary attainment as well as the changes in Irish vocabulary knowledge that have been observed across the generations. Finally, future directions for research that have emerged from these studies will be explored.

Vowels are different from consonants in that the lower articulators are much farther away from the upper articulators. Vowels do not differ from one another considerably in the way they are produced, so there is no straightforward classification into several manners of articulation like for consonants. This chapter introduces the system of cardinal vowels that helps us describe different language-independent vowel qualities that can be used to classify the vowels of any language. Vowels can be subdivided into monophthongs, where the tongue remains in one stable position, and diphthongs, where the tongue performs a gliding movement during articulation. Considering the vowels of English, we focus on monophthongs in this chapter. At this point, IPA symbols become a necessity: there are many more vowels than you may initially think and there is no way to represent them in a satisfactory way orthographically.

Welsh grammar is characterised by an interesting set of morphosyntactic structures. Unique features within these structures distinguish Welsh – along with Irish and Scottish Gaelic – from other Indo-European varieties, and these differences offer a novel lens through which we can explore how language is learned. How children acquire the structures of Welsh, and how these structures are used by adults, has been the focus of a growing body of research over the past few years. The results of these studies have helped shape our understanding of the linguistic profiles of different types of bilingual Welsh-English speakers, in terms of their rate and pattern(s) of learning, and have highlighted some of the key factors influencing potential and achieved linguistic outcomes when learning within a minoritised bilingual context, contributing new and important insights into the various theoretical debates in the field. In this chapter, we outline how various morphosyntactic structures work in Welsh, and provide an overview of what is known from the current literature about L1 and L2 acquisition of Welsh morphosyntax, as spoken by both typically and atypically developing bilinguals. The different types of methodologies that have been applied to the study of Welsh grammar with adults and children will be discussed throughout, and suggestions for future studies presented at the end.

The smallest building blocks of languages, if we set sign languages apart, are sounds. In this chapter, you are going to discover which processes are necessary to produce speech sounds. We are going to learn about the speech organs and how they function. The chapter focuses on the anatomy of the larynx and the oral cavity. This knowledge about our anatomy is helpful when trying to understand how consonants and vowels are produced.

In this chapter, we are going to discover that in each word with two or more syllables one syllable stands out from the rest. It differs in pitch, intensity or length or is marked in some other way, so we perceive this syllable as being stressed or accentuated. This phenomenon is called ‘word stress’. Word stress is an integral and essential part of the pronunciation of English words. In your transcriptions, you will have noticed that unstressed syllables often do not contain a full vowel, but that the vowel is shortened or reduced to schwa. Which syllable is stressed hence has an impact on the segmental structure of the word. Stressing another syllable may alter the pronunciation of a word in a way that makes it incomprehensible. In this chapter, we will investigate the nature of word stress in English as well as in other languages. We are going to see cases where stress placement creates a difference in meaning. A look at foreign suffixes helps to explain why related words, such as courage and courageous, may differ greatly in pronunciation.

The syllable is a unit in-between the phoneme and the word. It minimally consists of one phoneme, but usually is consists of more. While even preschool children have no trouble telling you how many syllables a word contains and can clap the syllable structure, we are going to investigate why a word has as many syllables as it does. We will discover the internal structure of syllables and which phonemes combine with one another into syllables and which do not. Finally, we will consider some principles that help us syllabify words and split them into syllables.

This chapter firstly outlines the phonological structure of Gaelic and aspects of phonetic implementation. I then consider methods used so far in the study of Gaelic phonological acquisition and review work in this area. The journey of language acquisition is varied across different sectors of the Gaelic-speaking population, as well as individuals. For example, while some children acquire Gaelic and English virtually simultaneously in the home, other children acquire Gaelic sequentially through a form of immersion schooling known as Gaelic Medium Education (GME). Many lie somewhere on a simultaneous-sequential continuum. Adult acquirers of Gaelic are a hugely diverse population, which naturally leads to a range of differing outcomes in the acquisition of phonology. In this overview of the field, I consider the different factors associated with multilingual phonological acquisition, and how they have predicted or challenged results obtained from data-driven studies of Gaelic. The chapter ends with a discussion about the multiple future directions needed for research in this area, including larger studies of primary-aged populations, and more focus on universities as an important locus of adult language acquisition.

The chapter starts by presenting a sketch of the phonology of Irish. This covers first the segmental phonology dealing with consonants and then vowels. The importance of the palatalised–non-palatalised distinction in the consonant system is stressed. The phonotactics of Irish are described and the range of possible consonant clusters outlined. Attention is then turned to prosodic aspects of Irish phonology, with a description of both stress and intonation.

Phonological processes such as allophonic variation and sandhi phenomena are also included, and a description of the initial consonant mutation system is given in phonological terms. In all these sections of the chapter, important dialect differences are noted. Following the description of Irish phonology, a review is presented of studies of the acquisition of Irish as a first (or joint first) language. Two diary studies provided some information on order of acquisition of segments and on patterns of simplification. A longitudinal, group study is also reviewed and the results of this add much more to our knowledge of phonological acquisition in Irish. The chapter concludes with a look at the development of new, urban, forms of Irish, and at the need for more research into phonological acquisition norms in Irish.

Speech sounds can be subdivided into vowels and consonants. This chapter will explain the articulation of consonants in general and of English consonants in particular. The chapter is grouped into the different kinds of consonants and their manner of articulation. The full IPA consonant table is quite extensive. However, the chapters are arranged in a logical order, making it easier to remember them. Many consonants can actually be felt, and it is fun to produce them as you read along. At the end, the chapter deals with letter-to-sound correspondences and provides guidelines for when matching a letter to a consonant sound is not straightforward.