Clan Coleman
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Page 3 - Irish English The influence of the Irish language on how the Irish pronounce certain words is also quite evident. For instance it is not uncommon to hear butther (butter), laddher (ladder), wardhrobe (wardrope), thrue (true), etc. with the ‘t’ and the ‘d’ both being sounded as they would in the Irish language. “Dis, dat dese and dose” (this, that, these and those) can be heard in many parts of Ireland with the ‘th’ replaced by the Irish ‘d’ sound, and in words like ‘tirsty’ (thirsty) and ‘fate’ (faith) the Irish ‘t’ sound is spoken instead of the ‘th’. To the trained ear, there is a marked difference between the substitution of the Irish ‘d’ in the pronunciation of these words and the substitution of the English ‘d’. This difference can be explained by comparing the formation of the consonants in the two languages. In both Irish and English, the‘d’ is pronounced like the ‘t’ except for the use of the vocal cords. In Irish each has a broad sound when the nearest vowel in the word is ‘a’, ‘o’ or ‘u’, and a slender sound when the nearest vowel is ‘e’ or ‘i’. It is said that the life of a people is pictured in their speech which can be defined as a national or regional language or dialect or a certain people’s characteristic manner of speaking. Australian English, for example, has its own regional variety of the language with its own characteristic manner of speech which can be explained, though not entirely, by considering pronunciation, slang and colloquial terms and expressions and intonation patterns peculiar to it. The same can be said of Irish English but then that’s only part of the story. Here we have also the situation where the native language has a lasting influence on all aspects of the adopted language from vocabulary and pronunciation to the very structure of the language. At the turn of the last century, John Synge who was one of the leading dramatists of the Irish national theatre was persuaded by his friend William Butler Yeats to visit the Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland, and study its people. It was a rather primitive wind- bitten life, but in the joys and sorrows of the people Synge found a deep strain of poetry. He listened carefully to the musical speech of the islanders, and then wrote his play Riders to the Sea in 1904. It is the tragedy of a mother who loses her men folk one after another to the sea. There are few more powerful and flawless dramas than this little one in its lilting, rhythmic prose that captures the symphonic quality of the appeal to the ear in the phrasing of the speech of its characters. This same quality is a distinct feature of his other play of the Aran Islands, a comedy entitled the Playboy of the Western World. It is also an enduring feature of Irish English as a direct result of the very significant influence of the Irish language on spoken English. Such expressions as – |
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There was he sitting … Bhí sé ina shuí - verb + subject + modifier Daft … Don't be daft! (silly) |
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The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary contains quite a few words of Irish and Irish language origin, in fact more than its lexicographers acknowledge declaring the origin of some of these words as unknown or obscure. The following list contains some of the more familiar ones as well as a few rarely heard outside Ireland: |
| English Language Word | Irish Origin | Meaning |
| banshee | bean sídhe – fairy woman | A female spirit whose wail portends death in the house. |
| bard | bard | Any of an ancient order of minstrel-poets who composed and sang verses usually to the harp celebrating the achievements of chiefs and warriors, recording historical events and traditional lore. |
| ben | beann – a mountain peak | Common in Ireland and Scotland. (I could see the Twelve Bens in Connemara from where I lived in south Mayo.) |
| bog | bogach or bog – soft | Wet spongy ground, peaty soil. |
| boreen or bohereen | bóithrín – diminutive of bother (road) | Small country road or lane. |
| boycott | From the surname “Boycott” – Captain Boycott, an agent for an absentee English landlord, Lord Erne, at Loch Mask in County Mayo. | In September 1879, a campaign against Boycott who ignored the demands of the tenants was effectively orchestrated by Father John O'Malley of The Neale. It was he who suggested to James Redpath, special correspondent of The New York Herald, the term 'boycotting' as being easier for his parishioners to pronounce than 'ostracisation. |
| brogue | bróg – shoe | Earlier, it meant a strong outdoor shoe. |
| brogue | Perhaps from bróg | A strongly-marked regional (esp. Irish) accent. |
| callow | Originally from the Latin ‘calvus’meaning ‘bald. | Low-lying land liable to be flooded. |
| colleen | cailín – girl | Usually referring to an Irish girl |
| craic | An Irish spelling of the word ‘crack’. | The craic (fun and entertaining conversation) was great. |
| eejit | An Irish form and pronunciation of ‘idiot’ | It’s a real eejit you are to go there. |
| galore | From the Irish ‘go leór’ | For the Irish enough was a lot and more than most people had. |
| gob | The Irish word ‘gob’ | Beak or mouth. |
| gobshite | Irish compound of ‘gob’ and ‘shit’. | An ignorant loud-mouth. |
| Keen(ing) | From the Irish ‘caoin’ – to cry | To wail mournfully at wakes. |
| loch | From the Irish ‘loch’ | A lake or arm of the sea. |
| leprechaun | From the Irish word ‘leipreachán’ | In Irish folklore, a small usually mischievous being of human form, often associated with shoemaking and buried treasure. |
| poteen | From the Irish ‘poitín’ – small pot | Bootleg alcoholic drink often distilled from potatoes. |
| shebeen | From the Irish ‘síbín’ – illicit whiskey | An illicit drinking place. |
| shenachie or sennachie | From Old Irish ‘senchaid’ | A professional recorder and reciter of family or traditional history and genealogy. In Modern Irish ‘seanchaí´- story-teller, historian. |
| sheogue | From the Irish ‘sióg’ | Fairy. |
| shite | Euphemistic Irish pronunciation of ‘shit’. | |
| smashing | From the Irish ‘is maith é sin’ (ismohayshin) | That’s good. |
| smithereens | From the irish ‘smidiríní’ | Little pieces. |
| tilly | From the Irish ‘tuilleadh’ | It means an additional quantity or article as a gift from the vendor. |
| whiskey | From the Irish ‘uisce beatha’ | Water of life |
Well might it be said that the life of the Irish people is pictured in their speech which is more than words; it’s to
be found all around and it’s part of what they are.