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Accepted Paper:

Dinneen's dictionary as repository of Gaelic traditional culture  
Diarmuid Ó Giolláin (University of Notre Dame)

Paper short abstract:

The Irish-English dictionary of Fr Patrick Dinneen (1860-1934) first appeared in 1904. The 1927 edition covers the classic literary language but, more than that, it is a repository of Gaelic traditional culture, the reason for its continued popularity.

Paper long abstract:

Patrick Dinneen (1860-1934) was a Jesuit priest who devoted himself to scholarship. Witty and good company, he was also a combative and uncooperative personality, to the fore in the various debates that characterized the Irish language revival movement. He wrote fiction and drama, but is best known for his editions of 17th and 18th century literary texts and for his Irish-English dictionary. The dictionary's first edition appeared in 1904, commissioned by the Irish Texts Society to fill a glaring need. The plates were destroyed in the fires following the bombardment of Dublin city centre during the 1916 Rising and a second and much enlarged edition appeared in 1927. Dinneen used historical dictionaries and early modern and modern literary texts in compiling the work, but at a time when the spoken dialects were gradually becoming the basis for a new literary standard, he felt compelled to ensure that the dialects were adequately represented. The result is a work that is an extraordinary rich resource for traditional Gaelic culture. Notwithstanding its use of the historical spelling and Gaelic script, neither in use today, it continues to be popular and is constantly reprinted by the Society. The book's references to traditional culture and its lexicographical method (e.g. 'Sagairtín, m., a little priest; a small inedible periwinkle') have been the butt of homorous comments, most notably by the comic writer Flann O'Brien (Myles na gCopaleen/Brian Ó Nualláin), but are also part of its continued appeal.

Panel P07
Laography and lexicography, or finding folklore in the dictionaries
  Session 1