Irish English in the Anglophone world

The English language in Ireland can look back on a history of several centuries during which it developed various forms, from urban varieties, especially in Dublin, to rural varieties which arose during the language shift from Irish to English, above all in the nineteenth century. In addition, divergent forms of English arose in the North of Ireland, chiefly as a result of significant immigration from Scotland and the North of England during the seventeenth century. Contemporary English in Ireland evinces a wide range of varieties determined by a number of factors, including strongly localised forms of English as well as supra-regional varieties, which show the greatest degree and rate of change, given the sensitivity of their speakers to both developments of English outside Ireland and their reactions to local forms of English in their surroundings.