Ireland as a linguistic area

Table 13 contains features which are traits of vernacular varieties throughout the entire island. When treating features of Irish English, a holistic view can be useful, that is, rather than stress differences, one could examine the features common to most or all varieties and indeed go a step further and compare these to parallel structures in Irish. This approach is largely typological and sees Ireland (north and south) as a linguistic area. Not all of these are strongly diagnostic of Ireland as a linguistic area; they are also found in forms of English in England, quite apart from Anglophone varieties overseas. One should also mention that the non-existence of features across the entire country has led to negative definers for Irish English arising. For instance /r/-lessness and/or /h/-dropping are definite signs that a speaker is not Irish.