ARE TEMPO AND SEGMENTATION OF IRISH SPEECH DIFFERENTIAL PROSODIC MARKERS?

Abstract

This article is devoted to the investigation of segmentation and temporal features of the speech of native Irish English speakers. Irish English is a combination of features borrowed from English, Celtic and Scottish. The situation of bilingualism, which developed historically and infl uenced the development of Irish English, is explained both by the historical factors and the economic development. It should also be noted that nowadays Irish language is socially in demand and remains a symbol of the revival of Irish culture and national identity. The conducted perceptive analysis allowed revealing certain temporal means that serve as gender and age differentiating markers. Thus, the distinctive features of Irish speech are syntagmatic division with the predominance of short and medium syntagmata in the speech of the age groups «20-25 years», «25-35 years», less fractional division in the speech of the informants older than 35 years, as well as faster speech rate of the female speakers compared to the male ones.