Teachers as new speakers of a minority language: Identity, speakerness, and ideologies on variation in Irish

Aims and objectives: This article reports the ideologies on linguistic variation among a cohort of new speaker teachers (NSTs) Irish. It investigates responses to three main traditional dialects Irish post-traditional variety common speakers. Design methodology: An experimental design was employed. Participants responded 15-second samples four speakers, first adjective items referring speakers’ characteristics (speaker phase) second statements specifically type in (speech phase). Background information also gathered, for example, school type, place origin, spoken. Data analysis: We present subset 88 NSTs Irish, focusing participants’ speech phase where they evaluated samples. were analysed determine whether there significant differences ratings within different respondent subgroups. Findings conclusions: Some found Teachers working Irish-medium schools align more closely with established native language than those English-medium institutions. did not distinguish significantly between their local Gaeltacht other areas, but rate all positively variety. Finally, participants who self-identify as speakers ‘standard’ describe themselves practising rated positively. Originality: While investigations are central sociolinguistics, this is original its focus Significance implications: research illustrates robustness some shows that others challenge these ideologies. Results speak complexities contradictions identity speakerness minority language.