Note: It will help your comprehension of both large and small points in the exercise if you read all of the questions before beginning the Exploration.

1. What caused Ireland's population to rise greatly in the nineteenth century?

2. What was An Gorta Mór? What was its impact on the Irish language?

3. Why is it improbable that schools played the most important role in the spread of English in many of Ireland's poorer regions?

4. Who were spalpeens? What role did they have in the spread of English?

5. How are the linguistic changes in the Ardnamurchan district typical of other areas in the Celtic lands? How do some connotations of the term Hieland suggest the perceptions working against the Celtic languages? (In answering the latter question, you might want to use the link for an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

6. In what way is the influence of Gaelic on English (as well as the influence of English on Gaelic) a marker of generational differences?

7. How has the European Union influenced the status of minority languages in Europe?

8. What are Gaeltachts and how is the Irish government involved with them?

9. What kinds of evidence suggest that the Celtic languages once again have an appeal for middle class people in the British Isles?

10. How is the situation in Cornwall different from that of other regions?

11. In what way did the Battle of Bannockburn influence the development of a standard language in Scotland?

12. What does Inglis mean and what term started to replace it around 1500?

13. What factors led to the devaluation of the Scottish standard? How might recent political developments reverse the trend? What implications are there in the Scottish situation for the rest of the world?

14. Read either of the following pages and be prepared to summarize it: the one on the Columbian Exchange (linked from the page on language and poverty) or the one on language and imperialism (linked from the page on languages and dialects).

15. Read either the page on Tiree or the one on Barra (both linked from the page on language death). Be prepared to summarize it.

16. Look at two of the following pages: the one on the English-Speaking Union (linked from the page on language and imperialism) and two on linguistic minorities in Europe (one is linked from the page on Barra, the other from the page on language revival). Be prepared to summarize the pages.

17. Look at any two of the following: a) the one on the experiences of Michael MacGowan in the Lagan (linked from the page on language and poverty), b) the ones on Carrickfergus (linked from the same page), c) the one on the Welsh department at the University of Aberystwyth (linked from the page on language revival), or d) the one on Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (linked from the page on Tiree). In the case of the latter two pages, there is a lot of material in the Celtic languages: do look at those pages, but focus on the information in English.

To begin investigating, press here.