Hiberno-English

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Hiberno-English is the form of the English language used in Ireland. Hiberno-English is also called Irish English and rarely Anglo-Irish.

The type of English spoken in Ireland is founded in the types of English and Scots that were brought to Ireland during the English and Scottish Plantations of Ireland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and their change due to the influence of the Irish language on these forms of English. The linguistic interference of the Irish language on the English spoken in Ireland is most clearly seen in those areas where Irish is still spoken as a mother tongue or where it has survived until recently.

The standard spelling and grammar are the same as UK English but, especially in the spoken language, there are some unique characteristics, due to the influence of the Irish language on pronunciation.

Contents 1 Pronunciation 2 Grammar derived from Irish 3 Preservation of older English and Norman French usage 4 Turns of phrase 5 Lexicon 6 See also

Pronunciation

Hiberno-English retains many phonemic differentiations merged in other accents of English. Phonetic transcriptions are given using IPA.

• With some local exceptions (most notably Drogheda and some other eastern towns, whose accent is distinctly non-rhotic), 'r' is pronounced wherever it occurs in the word, making Irish English a generally rhotic dialect.
• 't' is rarely pronounced as a plosive when not at the beginning of a word, instead being a fricative between 's' and 'sh'
• The distinction of w Template:IPA and wh Template:IPA, as in wine vs whine is preserved.
• In some varieties, Merger of the vowels in father and bother in Southern Irish English; Template:IPA and Template:IPA.
• In some varieties /Template:IPA becomes /t^h/, and /Template:IPA and /d/ merge, making thin and tin and then and den near-homonyms, with the pair tin and den employing alveolar pronunciation (as in other varieties of English), while the pair thin and then are distinuished by using dental pronunciations, as in e.g. French. In still other varieties, only /Template:IPA is hardened to /t^h/, with /Template:IPA/ left unchanged; some dialects of Gaelic pronounce "slender" (palatalized) d as Template:IPA.
• The distinction between Template:IPA and Template:IPA in horse and hoarse is preserved.
• The distinction between Template:IPA-Template:IPA-Template:IPA in herd-bird-curd is preserved.
• "l" is clear wherever it occurs in a word, as in French
• 'Pure' vowels: "boat", in a traditional accent, is pronounced Template:IPA, and cane is pronounced Template:IPA
• The "i" in "night" may be pronounced Template:IPA.
• The "u" in Dublin may be pronounced Template:IPA.
• In County Cork, some vowel sounds are often altered. An "e" sound becomes an "i" ("well" becomes "will"). Also "Cork" is locally pronounced as Template:IPA.
• An accent unique to Dublin known as the Dublin 4 intonation (referring to the local postal district) is an urban/suburban middle class feature. This is an oft derided posh dialect that renders words such as 'car' as 'core' and 'far' as 'fore' (START-NORTH merger). Dublin 4 speakers often end a sentence with the rising question 'Do you know what I mean?' contracted and pronounced rapidly as 'Dja kneww whad I min?'
• Similarly the working-class Dublin accent is a unique urban feature resembling the blue-collar accents of Manchester and Liverpool in England. This dialect includes phrases such as 'What's the story, Bud?' meaning 'How are you, friend?' pronounced 'Wats de stary bud?' and 'Mad out of it!' pronounced 'Mad ou vih!' meaning drunk or intoxicated by drugs. 'Giddup de yaard' or 'gerrup de yaard' means 'Get lost!' or 'I disagree.'
• In some old-fashioned varieties, words spelled with ea and pronounced with Template:IPA in RP are pronounced with Template:IPA, for example meat, beat.
• In words where "oo" usually forms an Template:IPA sound, it may be changed to an Template:IPA sound, e.g. book is pronounced "buke".

Grammar derived from Irish

The Irish language has no words which directly translate as "yes" or "no", instead the verb in a question is repeated in an answer. People in Ireland have a tendency to repeat the verb, positively or negatively, instead of using "yes" or "no."

• "Are you coming home soon?" "I am."
• "Is your mobile charged?" "It isn't."

(However, quite a number of people in Ireland, especially younger people, exclusively use the words yes and no, as elsewhere in the English-speaking world.)

Alternatively, it is common for Irish English-speakers to use the word "aye" as a weak form of "yes" (somewhat akin to "yeah" or the use of "sure" in American English).

• "It's getting late, is it?" "Aye, it is." or " It is, aye." in Donegal.
• "Is that okay with you?" "Aye."

Irish verbs have two present tenses, one indicating what is occurring at this instant and another used for continuous actions. For example, 'you are now' is tá tú anois (literally 'are you now'), but 'you are every day' is bíonn tú gach lá (literally 'be you each day'; or, 'you do be every day').

Some Irish speakers of English, especially in rural areas, especially north Mayo/Sligo, use the verb "to be" in English similarly to how they would in Irish, using a "does be/do be" (or "bes", although less frequently) construction to indicate this latter continuous present:

• "He does be working every day."
• "They do be talking on their mobiles a lot."
• "They bes doing a lot of work at school." (rare)
• "It's him I do be thinking of."

Irish has no pluperfect tense: instead, "after" is added to the present continuous (a verb ending in "-ing"). The idiom for "I had done X when I did Y" is "I was after doing X when I did Y", modelled on the Irish usage of the compound prepositions i ndiaidh, tar éis, and in éis: bhí mé tar éis/i ndiaidh/in éis X a dhéanamh, nuair a rinne mé Y. This can most commonly be heard used by Dubliners.

• "Why did you hit him?" "He was after insulting me."

A similar construction is seen with the 'hot news perfect', used to express extreme excitement at something which has happened recently:

• "Jaysus, I'm after hitting him with de car!"
• "Would ya look at yer one — she's after losing five stone in five weeks!"

Less explosively, using what might be termed the 'warm news perfect', the Irish perfect can indicate a recent action of less stellar importance, strongly resembling the German spoken perfect in structure:

• "I have the car fixed." Tá an gluaisteán deasaithe agam.
• "I have me breakfast eaten." Tá an bricfeasta ite agam.

Mirroring the Irish language and almost every other European language, the plural 'you' is distinguished from the singular, normally by use of the otherwise archaic English word 'ye' (the word 'yous' (sometimes written as 'youse') also occurs, but primarily only in Dublin and across Ulster:

• "Did ye/youse all go to see it?"

Also, in some areas in Leinster, and also north Mayo/Sligo, the hybrid word 'ye-s', pronounced 'yis', may be used.

• "Are yis not finished yet?"

In rural areas the reflexive version of pronouns is often used for emphasis or to refer indirectly to a particular person, etc., according to context:

• "Was it all of ye or just yourself?"
• "'Tis herself that's coming now." Is í féin atá ag teacht anois.

- where 'herself' might, for example, be the boss or the woman of the house. Use of 'herself' or 'himself' in this way often indicates that the speaker attributes some degree of arrogance or selfishness to the person in question. Note also the indirectness of this construction relative to, for example, 'She's coming now' and the use of "'Tis" rather than the more standard contraction "It's".

It is also common to end sentences with 'no?' or 'yeah?'

• "He's not coming today, no?" Níl sé ag teacht inniu, nach bhfuil?
• "The bank's closed now, yeah?" Tá an banc dúnta anois, an bhfuil?

Though because of the particularly insubstantive yes and no in Irish, (the nach bhfuil? and an bhfuil? being the interrogative positive and negative of the verb 'to be') the above may also find expression as

• "He's not coming today, sure he isn't?" Níl sé ag teacht inniú, nach bhfuil?
• "The bank's closed now, isn't it?" Tá an banc dúnta anois, nach bhfuil?

Irish English also always uses the "light l" sound, and the naming of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' is standard. A is often pronounce "Ah" and Z as "Ezed"

When describing something, rural Hiberno-English speakers may use the term 'in it' where 'there' would usually be used. This is due to the Irish word ann (pronounced "oun") fulfilling both meanings.

• Is it yourself that's in it? An tú féin atá ann?

This isn't limited only to the verb 'to be': it's also used with 'to have' when used as an auxiliary; and, with other verbs, the verb 'to do' is used. This is most commonly used for intensification.

• This is strong stuff, so it is.
• We won the game, so we did.
• She's a right lash, so she is.

There are some language forms that stem from the fact that there is no verb 'to have' in Irish. Instead, possession is indicated in Irish by using the preposition 'at,' (in Irish, ag.). To be more precise, Irish uses a prepositional pronoun that combines ag "at" and me "me" to create agam. In English, the verb "to have" is used, along with a "with me" or "on me" that derives from Tá ....agam. This gives rise to the frequent

• The book, I have it with me.
• Do you have the book? I have it with me.
• Have you change for the bus on you?
• I have my phone on me, if you want to use it.

Somebody who can speak a language 'has' a language, in which Hiberno-English has borrowed the grammatical form used in Irish.

• She doesn't have Irish. Níl Gaeilge aici. literally 'There is no Irish at her'.

Another idiom is this thing or that thing described as 'this man here' or 'that man there', which also features in Newfoundland English in Canada.

• This man here. An fear seo. (cf. the related anseo = here)
• That man there. An fear sin. (cf. the related ansin = there)

The reported clause is also often preserved in its direct form, for example 'John asked me to buy a loaf of bread' becomes 'John asked me would I buy a loaf of bread'.

Bring and take: Irish use of these words differs from that of English, because it follows the Gaelic grammar for beir and tóg. English usage is determined by direction; Irish usage is determined by person. So, in English, one takes "from here to there", and brings it "to here from there". But, in Irish, a person takes only when accepting a transfer of possession of the object from someone else — and a person brings at all other times, irrespective of direction (to or from). Thus someone might say "Don't forget to bring your umbrella with you when you go" or, to a child, "Hold my hand: I don't want someone to take you."

Preservation of older English and Norman French usage

In old-fashioned usage, "it is" can be freely abbreviated "'tis", even as a standalone sentence. This also allows the double contraction "'tisn't", for "it is not".

The word "ye", "yis" or "yous", otherwise archaic, is still used in place of "you" for the second-person plural. "Ye'r" "Yisser" or "Yousser" are the possessive forms, e.g. "What's yisser weather like over in France this time o' the year?"

The verb "mitch" is common in Ireland, indicating being truant from school. This word appears in Shakespeare, but is seldom heard these days in British English, although pockets of usage persist in some areas (notably South Wales, Devon, and Cornwall).

In some parts of Ireland, in particular the eastern seaboard, when someone is telling tall tales he is said to be "blowing" or "bilowen" out of him/her, which is likely to be a preservation of the Middle English "bilowen" or "bi-lyen", as seen in Piers Plowman (by William Langland ): "2.22 - And bilowen hire to lordes þat lawes han to kepe."

"Gassin" or "gossoon" is a common descriptor in rural areas for a child, and derives from the word "garçon" (meaning "boy") as used by 12th century Norman settlers (via "gársúin" in Irish).

For influence from Scotland see Ulster Scots.

Turns of phrase

Amn't is used as an abbreviation of "am not", by analogy with "isn't" and "aren't". This can be used as a tag question ("I'm making a mistake, amn't I?"), or as an alternative to "I'm not" ("I amn't joking"), and the double negative is also used ("I'm not late, amn't I not?").

Arra is used also. Arra tends to be used after something bad has happened, when someone is looking on the bright side ("Arra, we'll go next week", "Arra, 'tis not the end of the world"). Arra comes from the Irish word "dhera" (pronounced "yerra"). As a result, the words yerra and erra are also used in different parts of the country.

Come here to me now or Come here and I'll tell ya something is used to mean "Listen to this" or "I have something to tell you" and can be used as "Come here and tell me". The phrase "Tell me this", short for "Tell me this and tell me no more", is also common. These phrases tend to imply a secretiveness or revelatory importance to the upcoming bit of information.

The devil is used in Irish as an expletive, eg. Cén áit sa diabhal a bhfuil sé? "Where the devil is he?" (the Irish version is literally "What place in the devil is he?"). This has been translated into Irish as a mild expletive, used in the song "Whiskey in the Jar" in the line "But the devil take the women, for they never can be easy". Diabhal is also used for negation in Irish, and this usage might be carried over to Hiberno-English: diabhal fear "devil a man", for "not a soul".

Various insults have been transferred directly from Irish and have a very mild meaning in English: e.g. Lúdramán, Amadán, pleidhce, rogue, eejit (idiot), all (loosely) meaning "fool" or "messer" (messer is also a Hiberno-Irish turn of phrase). "Langer" is a variant used especially in Cork.

Also more prevalent in Cork is a profligation of colourful emphasis-words; in general any turn of phrase associated with a superlative action is used to mean very, and are often calculated to express these in a negative light and therefore often unpleasant by implication - "he's a howling/ thundering/ rampaging/ galloping/ screeching langer, so he is." The practice is widespread in the rest of Hiberno-English but such a feature of Corkonian speech that it is now commonly lampooned when imitating the accent.

Reduplication is not an especially common feature of Irish; nevertheless in rendering Irish phrases into English it is occasionally used:

• ar bith corresponds to English at all, so the stronger ar chor ar bith gives rise to the form at all at all
  • I've no money at all at all.
• ar eagla go... (lit. on fear that) means in case .... The variant ar eagla na heagla, (lit on fear of fear) implies the circumstances are more unlikely. The corresponding Hiberno-English phrases are to be sure and to be sure to be sure. In this context, these are not, as might be thought, disjuncts meaning 'certainly'; they could better be translated in case and just in case. Nowadays normally spoken with conscious levity.
  • I brought some cash in case I saw a bargain, and my credit card 'to be sure to be sure'.

So is often used for emphasis ("I can speak Irish, so I can"), or it may be tacked on to the end of a sentence to indicate agreement ("Bye so", "Let's go so", "That's fine so", "We'll do that so"). The word is also used to contradict a negative statement ("You're not pushing hard enough" - "I am so!").

Sure is often used as a tag word, emphasising the obviousness of the statement. Can be used as "to be sure", the famous Irish stereotype phrase. Or "Sure, I can just go on Wednesday", "I will not, to be sure." "Sure Jayzus" is often used as a very mild expletive to express dismay.

Casual conversation in many parts of Ireland includes a variety of colourful turns of phrase. Some examples:

• Yer man (your man) and Yer wan (your one) are used in referring to an individual known by the party being addressed, but not being referred to by name. The phrases are an unusual sort of half-translation of a parallel Irish-language phrase, "mo dhuine" (literally 'my person'). The nearest equivalents in colloquial English usage would be "whatsisname" and "whatsername". Note also "wan" for female person may be a direct usage of the Irish 'bean' (woman). In Newfoundland the same form exists as 'buddy,' who is a generic nameless person. They use the word not always in the sense of 'my friend' but more in the sense of 'what's his name'. 'I went inside to ask for directions and buddy said to go left at the lights'.

• a soft day – referring to a rainy day with that particular soft drizzle, and an overcast sky, but yet relatively bright. This is a translation of the Irish "lá bog".

• Fecking is a mild abusive equivalent in force to "bleeding" or "darned." It is not a parallel of the English word "fucking", despite their similarity, and is generally less offensive. "Feck" is the corresponding expletive. The noun "fecker" is slightly stronger but not vulgar. These terms were lately introduced to Britain by Father Ted. In old Dubliner slang, "to feck' is also slang for "to steal", as in the phrase, "We went to the orchard and fecked some apples." It can also mean "to throw", especially if something is being thrown where it shouldn't, as in "We fecked his schoolbag into the river." Some areas of South Yorkshire use the word "fetch" to mean bring, "fetch me a glass of water, I'm gagged." throw " I fetched it up the tree and now its stuck" or arrive "We fetched up in Barnsley before 4 o'clock"

• Yoke is typically used in place of the word "thing", for instance "gimme that yoke there". It's also used as an insult: "you're some yoke".

• Now is often used at the end of sentences or phrases as a semantically empty word, completing an utterance without contributing any apparent meaning. Examples include "Bye now" (= "goodbye"), "There you go now" (= when giving someone something), "Ah now!" (= expressing dismay), "Hold on now" (= "wait a minute"), "Now then" as a mild attention-getter, etc. This usage is universal among English dialects, but occurs more frequently in Hiberno-English.

• To is often omitted from sentences where it would exist in British English. For example, "I am not allowed go out tonight", instead of "I am not allowed to go out tonight".

There are many terms for having consumed a drop too much drink, many are used elsewhere, but the Irish tendency is to attempt to find the most descriptive adjective yet on each occasion. Some examples: "scuttered", "stocious/stotious","baloobas" (common in Cavan), "locked", "langered", "mouldy" (pron. mowldy as in "fowl"), "polluted", "flootered", "plastered", "bolloxed", "well out of it", "wankered", "fucked", "fuckered", "binned", "gee-eyed", "buckled", "steaming", "messy", "sloppy", "wasted", "paralytic", "full as a boot", "full as a tinker's nipple", "full up", "legless", "hammered" , "blootered", "squooshed", "banjoed", "bingoed" . (Phrases in italics are more "colourful")

Some turns of phrase are more localised and their meaning may not be widespread throughout the country, while others are more transient and fall out of use after a number of years.

Lexicon

Hiberno-English vocabulary is largely the same as British English, though there are variances, especially with reference to certain goods, services and institutions. Examples that would come into everyday conversation include:

• To banjax something is to break it, ruin it, or render it incapable of use. As in "My mobile's been banjaxed since I dropped it in the toilet."
• Bauld - meaning 'bold', describes someone (usually a child) who is impudent, naughty or badly behaved.
• Crack or craic is a good time, good company, good atmosphere and conversation. If you are enjoying yourself, it is good craic. [1] The word may also be used to refer to events, news, or gossip, as in the phrases what's the craic?, how's the craic? and any craic.
• College, more like American English than British English, would usually be referring to any sort of third-level education, be it college, university or Institute of Technology. This is because the Leaving Certificate Examinations (the rough equivalent of A-levels or NVQs in the UK) are taken in secondary school in Ireland, so there is no intermediary college like sixth-form colleges in Britain. (The probable origin of this usage is that, until the 1970s, the only tertiary education available was at university level, through the Colleges (Dublin, Cork, Galway, Maynooth) of the National University of Ireland or Trinity College, Dublin University or the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
• Couple often means "a few", somewhere between two and (?) four or five - whereas in British and American English it means precisely two.
• Cute can mean shrewd or clever, particularly in the business sense, as in "cute hoor".
• D4 refers to the Southside middle classes of Dublin - referring to an affluent postal code - used derogatively.
• Delph meaning Dishware, occasionally meaning artificial teeth. From the name of the original source of supply, Delft in the Netherlands. See Delftware.
• Dinner can often still mean the meal eaten in the middle of the day, especially in rural Ireland.
• ESB (Electricity Supply Board), being the only national electricity supplier in Ireland, is regularly used in reference to this type of service. Whereas in other countries one would use the term "mains supply" or "power supply" when referring to the electricity supply that comes to their house/business, in Ireland a lot of people would say "ESB supply".
• Flag can mean the conventional Flag it can also be a Flagstone
• Footpath is used in Ireland where "pavement" is in British English and "sidewalk" in American English.
• Geansai, pronounced "gansey", refers to a jumper or sweater (American English). This term is also used, although rarely, in parts of Northern England.
• Grand is frequently used as a response to refer to a person or thing as being alright, for instance, "I'm grand" or "That's grand", but is rarely used to express the quantity of a thousand, as in British English "two grand"
• Guards refers to the Garda Síochana, the Republic's police force, the equivalent in Irish Gardaí being used more formally, usually in the media. The singular Garda is widely used, the female equivalent, Bangharda less so. The word "police" generally refers to police in other countries, while the American "cops" is rarely used.
• Gobshite - refers to somebody talking crap/out of their arse.
• Gurrier means a young boy up to no good, usually working class, from Dublin area.
• Handy has more meanings in Hiberno-Irish than just "useful": it usually also means "great", "terrific". It is also used to describe a person's skill at a particular task; "Paul is pretty handy with a golf club" meaning "Paul is a good golfer".
• Hiace (as in Toyota Hiace) is used by many to refer to any light commercial van, much like "Transit" or "Transit van" (as in Ford Transit) in the UK.
• Hoo-er - meaning whore. 'She's an awful wee hoo-er so she is!'
• Jacks : toilet, usually in a pub or similar. As in "mind my handbag while I go to the jacks". From 16th century English "Jakes". (mind means "look after") the words Bog and Loo are also used.
• Jaykers - expression of amazement.
• Jaysis - meaning Jesus Christ. Often used in the sentence 'Sweet Be-Jaysis'. Common in rural areas.
• Jeep, much like "Hiace", is used by many to refer to any sort of off road vehicle, be it a small 4x4 like a Suzuki Jimny or large SUV like a long wheelbase Mitsubishi Pajero. This comes from U.S. military usage of the term, while, oddly enough, actual Chrysler Jeeps were never officially sold in Ireland until the 1990s, and the word was just as common before then.
• Knacker is used as a derogatory term which implies that somebody is a "gypsy", those who in British English would be called "Irish Travellers".
• Looder - an eejit.
• Messages means groceries or errands. She's gone to the shop to get the messages. I had a few messages to do in town.
• Minerals means soft drinks
• Mot: In Dublin, 'my girlfriend' would be 'me mot'. As the 't' is not strongly pronounced, this sounds as if it might be related to the Irish maith for 'good' (maybe via cailín maith, 'good girl') but is actually a preservation of an English word (mainly for 'harlot') with possible French, Dutch, and Romany origins.
• Nohjis - Twisted version of odious. Often used with the word 'fierce. 'The craic last night was nohjis fierce'. Common in Cavan.
• Oul' fella and oul' wan/lass(y) are used to describe one's father or mother respectively.
• Oxter means Armpit He had a book under his oxter. (sounds similar to the German Achsel (axel))
• Pack is often used to refer to quite small packets, as in a "pack of crisps".
• Press is almost invariably used instead of Cupboard. The hot press is the airing cupboard.
• Ratchet, used mostly in Cork and Kerry, refers to a thing, also called a "yoke"
• Rubber means an eraser (not a condom!) (Note to American readers: this is standard British English too)
• Runners or tackies, or in the north gutties, refers to "trainers" (British English) or "sneakers" (American English).
• Scallion is almost always used instead of Spring Onion (British English) or Green Onion (American English). However, since the proliferation of British supermarkets such as Tesco Ireland, some people have also started to use the term Spring Onion.
• Scoop is used to describe an alcoholic bevarage i.e. "Going for a few scoops". It is rarely, if ever, used in the singular (for example "I left my scoop on the table" is not a phrase that would ever be used). Also used is the word Jars (giving rise to the expression to be intoxicated jarred), usually referring to pints (of Guinness)
• Tayto (an Irish brand of potato crisps &madsh; US "chips") has become synonymous with any sort of crisps, regardless of brand. In Dublin, especially in working class areas, the alternative crips is commonly used (as in "Get us a packet o' crips will ye?" — or even "a package o' crips")
• Tin means "can", especially for processed foods. Give us a tin of beans. "Can" is usually reserved for soft drinks or beer/cider.
• Tinker is a derogatory term referring to the Travelling community, although it is not as offensive as "knacker." It is derived from the word for "tin"
• Toddle is slang for Football (soccer)-->
• Topper, pointer and parer are often used to refer to a "pencil sharpener".
• Wean an abbreviated form of the Scots wee ane, is used to refer to a child, but almost exclusively in Ulster and north Leinster.

See also

• The lists at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project:
  • list of Irish words
  • list of words of Irish origin
  • list of Scots words
  • list of words of Scots origin
  • list of Scottish Gaelic words
  • list of words of Scottish Gaelic origin
• List of English words of Irish origin
• Terence Dolan
• Regional accents of English speakers
• Ulster Scots
• Mid Ulster English
• English speaking Europede:Hiberno-Englisch

es:Inglés en Irlanda