An Chonair Chaoch: an Mionteangachas sa Dátheangachas.

This book offers an analysis of Irish speakers’ contemporary experience of social bilingualism. The primary focus of this collection of academic essays is the uni-directional bilingualism which is now pervasive in Irish-speaking communities, and the manner in which it is having a detrimental effect on the viability of Irish as a communal language in the Gaeltacht. The book contends that the current experience of bilingualism in minority language communities is socially and linguistically beneficial to the majority language while simultaneously undermining the social basis of the minority language and its ethnolinguistic resilience. By offering an up-to-date and rigorous analytical evaluation of the current challenges faced by minority language communities, the contributors to this volume seek to broaden the academic and societal discourse on the bilingual condition. Particular attention is afforded to the Irish experience of this condition and its implications for the sustainability of Irish and the Gaeltacht as a distinctive linguistic community.