160015 VO Sociolinguistics of Celtic Languages (2014W)

The term Ulster-Scots has, for nearly 400 years, referred to people who migrated from the Lowlands of Scotland to Ulster, and to the Ulster-Scots communities that they established right across the nine counties in North-East Ireland.
When you glance across some of the key chapters through Scottish and Irish history - from King Robert the Bruce’s links with Ulster in the 1300s, to the organic settlements and organized plantations of the early 1600s, the period of Covenants and "Killing Times", the great popularity of Robert Burns in Ulster, the Scottish Enlightenment of the 1700s and the role played by the Ulster-Scot Frances Hutcheson, and the great industrial partnerships that linked the shipyards of Belfast and Glasgow throughout the 1800s and 1900s it is clear that the Ulster-Scots story is of massive significance to both countries, and to people on both sides of the slim stretch of water.
The lecture will deal with various aspects of the Ulster-Scots language and literature, in particular poetry, as well as the history and the culture of the Scots population in Ulster since Scottish settlers moved to Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th Century. Furthermore, the lecture will deal with various social-linguistic aspects of Irish history, languages and cultures in today’s Northern Ireland and the political and cultural history of the Protestant, Unionist and Loyalist population of modern Ireland.
The lecture course will be held in the English language. Oral and written contributions by students can be in German or English. The willingness to read texts in English is a pre-condition for entrance to the course.