Thesis advisor: Michael J. Connolly / The Insular Celtic languages, such as Irish and Welsh, distinctively feature a morphophonemic process known as initial consonant mutation. Essentially the initial sound of a word changes due to certain grammatical contexts. Thus the word for 'car' may appear as carr, charr and gcarr in Irish and as car, gar, char and nghar in Welsh. Originally these mutations result from assimilatory phonological processes which have become grammaticalized and can convey morphological, semantic and syntactic information. This paper looks at the primary mutations in Irish and Welsh, showing the phonological changes involved and exemplifying their basic triggers with forms from the modern languages. Then it explores various topics related to initial consonant mutations including their historical development and impact on the grammatical structure of the Celtic languages. This examination helps to clarify the existence and operations of the initial mutations and displays how small sound changes can have a profound impact upon a language over time. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Slavic and Eastern Languages. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Philip O'Leary / This paper takes the opportunity to examine some of the lesser known roots the fictional world, Middle Earth, and its accompanying mythology, both created by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is concerned with tracing the elements of Celtic myth and legend that appear to have influenced Tolkien’s work. While he is ambiguous on the subject – flatly denying Celtic influences in one letter, while stating that his stories of Elves are rather Celtic – consulting the text yields a world rife with Celtic underpinnings. This paper makes no claims that such Celtic elements are the only myths Tolkien borrowed from, but attempts to give a compelling case that they some of the elements Tolkien used when creating Middle Earth and, consequently, are worthy of being introduced into the discussion of Tolkien’s extraordinary mythology. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English Honors Program. / Discipline: English.

Kilroy F****n Jones is a PhD thesis of two parts: a novel, and an evaluative critical commentary based around elements explored in Kilroy F****n Jones. The novel itself is about a young man still grieving for what he sees as his abandonment by both parents. Denied a stable family home, he has set out on a path of hedonism and reactionary thinking which can only inevitably lead to tragedy. The critical commentary, consisting of five chapters, explores the themes of identity, masculinity, the underclass, the Welsh novel, and the two primary dialects of south east Wales: Cardiff English and Wenglish. These chapters demonstrate the critical decisions I made during the creative process, which in turn substantiate the significance of such elements as Kilroy's point of view and character. Taken as a whole, they explain the Welsh - and indeed Cymraeg - nature of the story itself.

Orientador: Maria de Lourdes Ortiz G. Baldan / Banca: Karin Volobuef / Banca: Diana Junkes Martha Toneto / Resumo: Este trabalho tem como objetivo verificar as transformações ocorridas em seis contos maravilhosos celtas, coletados por Ellis (1999) e Jacobs (1894; 2001), por meio da identificação de elementos tardios presentes nas narrativas, pertencentes às sociedades celta ou advindos de outras culturas, bem como alterações no estilo padrão deste gênero. Para tanto, recorremos à análise morfológica dos elementos constituintes do conto, juntamente com o estudo de seu estilo. A seguir foram realizadas análises para determinar os fatores socioculturais implicados em sua composição: as origens primitivas e mitológicas de seus motivos, os elementos inerentes à cultura celta e aqueles relacionados a fatores sociais em geral; além disso, verificamos também o percurso das principais personagens, baseado na teoria actancial. Por último, destacamos as transformações mais relevantes dos contos, identificadas por meio das informações conjuntas obtidas em todas as análises empreendidas. Esse trabalho é importante por contribuir para o estabelecimento de possíveis parâmetros de como tais contos se desenvolvem na sociedade celta, possibilitando a especificação de cânones em sua evolução, cujas informações poderão ser utilizadas como ferramentas comparativas em estudos posteriores relativos à composição de narrativas populares de outras sociedades, localizadas em diferentes regiões do mundo / Abstract: This paper‟s objective is to analyze six Celtic wonder tales collected by Ellis (1999) and Jacobs (1894; 2001), in search of their evolutionary transformations. This shall be done by identifying late elements deriving from the Celtic society and other cultures, as well as the changes in the standard style of the genre. In order to achieve that, we went through the morphological analysis of the tales‟ constitutive elements, together with stylistic studies. Next, such elements were subjected to social and cultural analysis, such as the identification of their primitive or mythological sources; those elements which were related specifically to the Celtic society and those generated by other social factors in a more general way; moreover, it was accomplished the actantial analysis of the characters‟ development. Finally, we pointed out the main transformations in the tales identified by means of the results obtained in all the performed analyses. The importance of this study lies on the possibility of establishing parameters for the tales evolution in the Celtic society, which can lead to specific canons related to this process. The results here obtained are supposed to operate as comparison tools for later researches related to the composition of this type of narrative inherent to societies other than the Celtics ones, from other regions of the world / Mestre

Excerpt: Visitors fortunate enough to hear the John Doyle Trio during the Mountains of Music Homecoming will be reminded of the old but not forgotten bonds between Appalachia and the British Isles.

This thesis aims at an exploration of the ascetical theology and praxis of the sixth to the eighth century Irish monasticism viewed as a radical response to the Christian evangelium. It also aims to analyse the extent to which the distinctive response of the monastic Irish in the period arose from their Celtic cultural context. Culture influences all aspects of life and given that this work is addressing the critical period of the emergence of a people from primitive forms of religious belief and practice to Christianity it would be important to evaluate the influence of culture. The thesis is an exploration in the sense that, though much has been written about monasticism and specifically the Irish monastic movement up to and beyond the tenth century, the discussion of the ascetical theology and praxis has the potential to open up new pathways to better understanding and appreciation of this phenomenon within the wider Irish Church.  The scope of the work ranges briefly over the cultural context of Irish society in the pre and post-Christian era: its social organisation, sagas, Brehon laws and druidism. The primary sources utilised include the penitentials, the monastic rules, the Vitae and writings of ColumCille and Columbanus. These formative works regarding two of the most influential early Irish monastic founders are seen as encapsulating, and broadly illustrating, the ascetical emphasis and praxis of this time. The work draws on the ancient notions and practices of asceticism and the principle of contraries brought to light by Cassian. One facet of the radicality of Irish monasticism, manifested specifically in the penitentials, lies partly in the fact that, whereas asceticism is usually perceived as a personal response to the call to change one's lifestyle, the Irish praxis was, on the whole, undertaken in the context of a community.  Chapter One looks briefly at the Irish Church as part of that phenomenon called the Celtic Church. Other aspects of the topic addressed in this chapter include history (the Irish of the period had a particular way of looking at it), theology, asceticism, radicality and how each of these facilitates the future analysing of the primary sources. Chapter Two analyses the Irish penitentials that traditionally, and often today, have been seen as harsh and inflexible. Chapter Three analyses the monastic rules of some early founders and demonstrates that they are a call to a radical lifestyle for those committed to the religious life, compared with the ordinary demands of the Christian evangel. In Chapters Four and Five, the lives and writing of ColumCille and Columbanus are treated. The Sermons of Columbanus are the primary material used in Chapter Five. The conclusions of this work are that the radicality in the monastic rules, penitentials and the Vitae of its most prominent founders reveals that all the practices were designed to promote personal growth in the spiritual life and were not primarily focussed on punishment. They were about an inner transformation that enhanced one's personal, spiritual and human well being rather than a humiliation and belittling of the person. Present day psychology and the behavioural sciences in general would affirm the wisdom of the fundamental belief inherent in Cassian's contraries, which underpinned the injunctions in both the monastic rules and penitentials. The evidence deduced from many of the injunctions in the extant penitentials is that of a balanced presentation of the ideals of asceticism, which were a guide for the inner transformation of the person. Both the penitentials and the monastic rules also point to the emphasis on individuality that is evident in much Irish secular writing. The injunctions of the extant rules make it clear that their asceticism was, through prayer, sacrifices or mortification and work, to aid in the transforming of the energy of self-denial into a spiritual power. The asceticism thus recommended in these primary sources of the sixth to the eighth century Irish monastic movements was not harsh and inhuman, for the radicality of their lives depended on the fact that it was deliberately and personally chosen by the monks. They were captured by the beauty of their newly found faith in the Christian God, incarnated in Jesus whose life they contemplated in the daily recitation of the Canonical Hours and whose presence surrounded them in the totality of creation.

No description available.

The anxiety produced by the Celtic Tiger collapse created a cultural demand for cognitive frames that made the dramatically altered social circumstances and processes leading to the new economic conditions relatable. To understand the 2008 financial collapse's impact on Ireland, the nation's leading newspaper, the Irish Times, predictably employed tropes in service since the Great Depression, including human body and geological metaphors for the economic system, while rarely using metaphors such as the casino economy or the networked economy that more aptly described the level of speculation in an economic system structured by the realities of the information age. Ireland’s post-Celtic Tiger poets exemplify the reciprocity between journalistic discourse incorporating economic tropes and Irish and Northern Irish poets’ use of this discourse as a method of social critique invested in the political policy direction of their nation. Irish poetry, absorbed in a more intensive version of linguistic expression and experimentation than journalistic discourse and economic rhetoric, provides insight into the effect of economic metaphors on the socio-cultural circumstances of the nation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [356]-388).

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1999. / Bibliography: leaves 180-192.