Abstract
It is now commonplace to see surnames written in the Irish language in Ireland, yet there is no online resource for checking the standard spelling and grammar of Irish-language surnames. We propose a data structure for handling Irish-language surnames which comprises bilingual (Irish–English) clusters of surname forms. We present the first open, data-driven linguistic database of common Irish-language surnames, containing 664 surname clusters, and a method for deriving Irish-language inflected forms. Unlike other Irish surname dictionaries, our aim is not to list variants or explain origins, but rather to provide standard Irish-language surname forms via the web for use in the educational, cultural, and public spheres, as well as in the library and information sciences. The database can be queried via a web application, and the dataset is available to download under an open licence. The web application uses a comprehensive list of surname forms for query expansion. We envisage the database being applied to name authority control in Irish libraries to provide for bilingual access points.
Highlights
We describe the development of the Gaois linguistic database of Irish-language surnames
NAMES: A JOURNAL OF ONOMASTICS 13 Developing the Gaois Linguistic Database of Irish-language Surnames grammatical information, we have developed an algorithm for generating all inflected forms of all Irishlanguage surnames
The form given in Ó Droighneáin (2013), which adheres to modern standard Irish spelling rules, was taken as the standardised Irish-language form
Summary
We describe the development of the Gaois linguistic database of Irish-language surnames. Irish-language surnames are defined here as surnames written in Irish, whether of Gaelic origin or not. We refer to them as Irish-language surnames throughout to avoid confusion with surnames of Gaelic ethnic origin as our database contains surnames of both Gaelic and non-Gaelic origin, e.g. English, Norman. The database could be modified to include new Irish-language surnames of Polish, Chinese, Nigerian or other origins in the future, should these be gaelicised. The language is referred to as Irish and not Irish Gaelic, in keeping with ISO 639 and to distinguish it, crucially, from the Gaelic ethnicity, as well as from the (Scottish) Gaelic language. The research is based on surname data from the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland, but could be expanded to include data from the 6 counties of Northern Ireland which is part of the UK
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