How the Irish Invented Slang: The Secret Language of the Crossroads (Counterpunch)
A provocative, erudite study that rereads American slang through Irish etymologies.
Work Information
It digs into the origins of words to uncover traces of immigrant culture.
Using slang, songs, and working-class speech, the book traces the Irish influence hidden beneath English. It recasts popular language as cultural history and invites debate.
Review Summaries
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Its bold claims and abundance of examples are compelling, though some readers question the leaps in its argument.
Book Information
- Publisher
- A K Pr Distribution
- Published
- 2007-05-01
- Pages
- 303 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.24 x 2.03 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781904859604
- ISBN-10
- 1904859607
- Price
- 11171 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Nonfiction/Education/Reference/Words & Language
In a series of lively essays, this pioneering book proves that US slang has its strongest wellsprings in nineteenth-century Irish America. "Jazz" and "poker," "sucker" and "scam" all derive from Irish. While demonstrating this, Daniel Cassidy simultaneously traces the hidden history of how Ireland fashioned America, not just linguistically, but through the Irish gambling underworld, urban street gangs, and the powerful political machines that grew out of them. Cassidy uncovers a secret national heritage, long discounted by our WASP-dominated culture. Daniel Cassidy is the founder and co-director of the Irish Studies Program at New College in San Francisco.
Daniel Cassidy is founder and co-director of An Léann Éireannach, the Irish Studies Program at New College of California in San Francisco. His research on the Irish language's influence on American vernacular and slang has been published in the New York Observer, Ireland's Hot Press magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Lá, the Irish-language newspaper.
Reviews
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This book was very well received by the critics at first then later "the experts" rubbished Cassidy's work and said he stretched the limits of language too far. Those of us that actually speak Irish disagree argue that he was very much closer to the truth in most cases than a bevy of experts. The book itself is great fun to read and if one as a smattering of Irish there are quite a few phrases that will immediately make sense i.e. Jazz from the two words; te (hot) and deas (nice or sweet). Irish speakers use the word constantly (speaking as Gaeilge) Sin deas! that's great/nice - but pronounced with the 'hard d' rather like in Dutch. Other words and phrases made me go - aahh so that's where that came from - I think one has to have spoken Irish (Gaeilge) to appreciate the book fully. The book itself isn't one to read cover to cover and there is a lot of repetition that a good editor should have omitted - that said I've had to buy several copies as friends and family delight in it.
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Anyone interested in Irish history in America in the time of the Potato Famine and the impact they had on the major entrance port cities on the East Coast will find the history here is solid. Anyone who is interested in the development of language in general and American slang in particular will not be able to put this book down. Adding to the history and language elements is a dictionary that is fully 1/3 of the book in which the original Gaelic word followed by the American mispronunceation of that word followed by the slang word that evolved from the marriage of the first two words is fascinating, educational and fully worth the book's price in of itself. If you happen to be Irish, your enjoyment of this book will be even more intense. A thoroughly enjoyable book.
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It’s enlightning and informative of word and phrase origins that other sources, including the OED, fail to properly pursue. I use it as a valued reference book. I only hope there will be a part two or updated/expanded version coming.
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received this in good time.Excellent book,well put together,easy to read with interesting adages and introduction,just a fascinating read and also academically inciteful;i am crossreferencing this with my own work interests and contrary to some critics-it is well researched and a landmark in the its field.Just top-rate.Mr Cassidy deserves greater admiration etc.
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This book is very interesting. There are a few connections he makes that seem a little far fetched, but overall he makes it clear that the similarities between Irish and the street slang of New York in particular can't be ignored.