English As We Speak It in Ireland

ut for those who have no Irish the translations will answer equally well. Besides the examples I have brought together here, many others will be found

is tá mé a m' sheasamh, lit. I am in my standing. This explains the common Anglo-Irish form of expression:-'He fell on the road out of his standing': for as he is 'in his standing' (according to the Irish) when he is standing up, he is 'out of his standing' when he falls. This idiom with in is constantly translated literally into English by the Irish p

erto noticed-so far as I am aware)-as may be seen from the following examples:-'The Shannon ... rushed through Athlone in a

e turf in many a

's 'E

e Proteus, long i

sters and ama

'Dunc

piece' (Daily Mail). Shelley's 'Cloud' says, 'I laugh in thunder' (meaning I laugh, and my laugh is

home] sometimes in specie and sometimes in goods' (Lord Rothschild, speech in House of Lords, 29th November, 1909), exactly like 'the corn came home in flour,' quoted above. The preceding examples do not quite fully represent the Irish idiom in its entirety, inasmuch as the possessive pronouns are absent.

t it go waste; they bring it into their English in the form of either in it or there, both of which in this construction carry the meaning of in existence. Mrs. Donovan says to Bessy Morris:-'Is it yourself that's in it?' ('Knocknagow'), which would stand in correct Irish An tusa atá ann? On a Sunday one man insult

ion in-namely, to denote identity-referred to

s understood): 'She is living her lone.' All these expressions are merely translations from Gaelic, in which they are constantly used; 'I am in my lone' being from Tá me am' aonar, where am' is 'in my' and aonar, 'lone.' Am' aonar seal do bhiossa, 'Once as I was alone.' (Old Irish Song.) In north

tions in English. Yet the Irish phrases are continually translated literally, which gives ri

might have one or the other of two meanings, viz. either '

d 4d. by mending it. St. Patrick left his name on the townlan

im for half a year' (with him); 'You could find

it.' 'You have a good time of it.' I find in Dickens however (in his own words) that the wind '

be haughty out of your cattle.' This is a form of expression constantly heard in English:-'he is as proud as a peacock out

y: very common: a translation from the equall

translates 'for a year and for a day.' As the Irish preposition le signifies with, the literal translation would be 'with a year and with a day,' which would be incor

o intimate injury or disadvantage of some kind, a violation of right or claim. Thus, Do bhuail Seumas mo ghadhar orm [where orm is air me], '

ish language) in the tenth century, says, 'The mountain was filled with great sooty-black birds on him' (to his torment or detriment). In 'The Battle of Rossnaree,' Carbery, directing his men how to act against Conor, his enemy, tells them to send some of their heroes re tuargain a sgéithe ar Conchobar, 'to smite C

our Anglo-Irish idioms, so that

ice on Tara's champ

ays of the We

harmingly petting way, to her little grandchild who came up cr

or pronoun. Typical examples are: one fellow threatening another says, 'I'll break your head for you': or 'I'll soon settle his hash for him.' This of course also comes from Irish; Gur

rking, and a person says impatiently, 'Ah, choke you for a dog' (may you be choked). Lowry Looby, who has been appointed to a place and is asked how he is going on with it, replies, 'To lose it I did for a place.' ('Collegians.') In the Irish story of Bodach an Chota Lachtna ('The Clown with the Grey Coat'), the Bodach offers Ironbones some bones to pick, on which Ironbones flies into a passion; and Mangan, the tr

.' 'Of you' is here simply a translation of the Irish díot, which is always used in this connexion in Irish: bainfead díot é, 'I will take it of you

ngstown.' Both these are often heard in Dublin and elsewhere. Correct

on after to be married:-'After Peggy M'Cue had be

n heard very often among all classes. The phrase in italics is merely the translation of

has frightened me': and both are expressed in Donegal by 'I am afeard for her,' 'I am

mported into English. If a person wishes to ask 'What ails you?' he often gives it t

on you?' A mild invitation to stay on (Arm

the South. 'They never asked me had I a mouth on me': universally understood and o

eck on him like a bowsprit' ('Innocents Abroad'); but here I th

im to give me another shilling. This is very common with Irish-English speakers, and is a w

y a translation of an Irish phrase, in which the preposition le or re is used in the sense of against or in

meet his father [who was coming home from town]. This, which is quite common, is, I think, pure Anglo-

at of hemp wa

ay when their

ne' in 'Da

aning chiefly your family, those persons that are under your care. This is m

ause, occasion, or motive of anything. 'Did he really walk that distance in a day?' Reply in Irish, Ní'l contabhairt air bith ann a cheann: 'there is no doubt at all on the head of i

take in one of the books, and I was s

's the pity':-'More's the pity that our

e pity one

uld live

rish Fol

een in:-Budh mhó an sgéile Diarmaid do bheith marbh: 'More's

hich is very common, is a Gaelic construction. Thus in the song Fáinne geal an lae:-Cia gheabhainn le m'ais acht cúilfhionn deas: 'Whom should I find near by me but the pretty f

ing for themselves.' 'I was looking about the fair for myself' (Gerald Griffin: 'Collegians'): 'he is pleasant in himself (ibid.): 'I felt dead [dull] in mysel

nglish, is a classic idiom in Irish, from which it has been imported as it stands into our English. Thus:-Do chonnairc me Tomás agus é n'a shuidhe cois na teine: 'I saw Thomas and he sitting beside the fire.' 'How could you see me there and I to be in bed at the time?' This latter part

hough

he stranger would

away on t

this by Miss Hayde

ther, and me after turning the Voster' (i.e. after working through the whole of Voster's Arithmetic: Carleton). 'John and Bill were both reading and them eating their dinner' (while they were eating their dinner). This is also from the Irish language. We will first take the third person plural pronoun. The pronoun 'they' is in Irish siad: and the accusative 'them' is the

, which accusative forms are (incorrectly) imported into English. Do chonnairc mé Seadhán agus é n'a shuidhe, 'I saw Shaun and him sitting down,' i.e. 'as he wa

ple of this use of amhlaidh in Irish is the following passage from the Boroma (Silva Gadelica):-Is amlaid at chonnaic [Concobar] Laigin ocus Ulaid mán dabaig ocá hól: 'It is how (or 'the way') [Concobar] sa

xpression, 'this is the way I made my

ppened.' 'What do you want, James?' ''Tis the way ma'am, my mother sent me for the loan of

n't keep the smell'; 'I brought an umbrella the way I wouldn't get wet'; 'you want not to let the poor boy do for himself [by mar

hat the common Irish salutation, Cad chaoi bh-fuil tu? is translated with perfect correctne

f 'by this time':-'The horse is ready this way,' i.e.

rather avoided even, a word not very familiar to them in this sense, and substituted the better known itself, in cases where even would be the correct word, and itself would be incorrect. Thus da mbeith an meud sin féin agum is correctly rendered 'if I had even that much': but the people don't like even, and don't well understand it (as applied here), so they make it 'If I had that much itself.' This explains all suc

lly 'the hour' or 'the time.' This is often transplanted into Engli

g your substance): which is an exact translation of the equally common Irish wish Go meádaighe Dia dhuit.

me, them, &c.] is a translation of the equall

n say 'the father of you,' 'the sister of you,' &c.; and correspondingly

as 'Show me that knife,' i.e. hand it to me. 'Show me the cream, please,' says an Irish ge

me'; 'he refused to give a contribution by the way h

mhuinterse féin. In Irish the repetition of the emphatic pronominal particle

ession in English is often opened by this word that: 'that you may soon get well,' i.e., 'may you soon get well.' Instead of 'may I be there to see' (John Gilpin) our people would say 'that I may be there to see.' A person utters some evil w

al or unexpected, he says to his

t cow: well, I'm not so soft all out

about the money,' i.e. I brought on or introduced the subject. This i

d,' i.e., I was near being killed: I had a narrow escape of

raining': which is merely a translation of t

texts), 'he let a roar out of him'; which is an expression you will often hear among people w

s the literal translation of chuireas rómhaim é to dheunamh. Both

narrative, he often resumes with the opening 'That was well and g

illilu, i.e., 'roaring and bawling,' says after a short pause 'that was we

r, 'there is no talking about it,' corresponding to the English 'in short,' or 'to make a long story short.' These Irish expressions are imported into our

exhausted, and there

scalded, a

d S

g, go I will.' ('Knocknagow.') Often the expression takes thi

:-'Ah what's the use of talking, your father will never consent.' These expressions are used in conversational Irish-English, not for the

the common Irish phrase is breagh an lá é sin, where the demonstrative sin (that) comes last in the p

from the Irish Ní'l contabhairt ann, and is equivalent to the English 'doubtless.' It

on is a translation from the Irish language. For example, speaking of a drinking-horn, an old writer says, a lán do'n lionn, literally, 'the full of it of ale.' In Silva Gadelica we find lán a ghlaice

half a crown, fool that I was': 'My grandchildren came round me to give them money for sweets.' This expression is borrowed from Irish:-'When the Milesians reached Erin

rom an Irish phrase. In the very old tale The Voyage of Maildune, Maildune's people ask, 'Shall we speak to her [the lady]?' and he replies Cid gatas uait ce atberaid fria. 'What [is it] t

ssion, which is merely a translation from bacach ar aonchois. (MacCurti

a rock of an ollamh (doctor), i.e. a doctor who is a rock [of learning]. (Book of Rights.) So also 'a thief of a fellow,' 'a steeple of a man,' i.e. a man who is a steeple-so tall. This form of expression is howe

ll not sell my pigs till coming on summer': a translation of air theacht an t-samhraidh. Such Anglo-Irish expressions are very general, and are all from the Irish language, of which many examples might be

en by an Irishman) speakers and writers are warned against it. This is an importation from Irish. One of the Irish words for 'at all' is idir (always used after a negative), old forms itir and etir:-nir bo tol do Dubthach recc na cumaile etir, 'Dubthac

which is just a translation of is cuma liom (best rendered by 'I don't care'). Both Irish and English expressions are very c

bachelor, a

d counties are

d S

t the beginning and finish it out and o

he great wind storm of 1842 a poor shooler or 'travelling man' from Galway, who knew little English, took refuge in a house in Westmeath, where the people were praying in terror that the storm might go down. He joined in, and unconsci

ld do:-'The dog got in under the bed:' 'Where is

d woman, old w

you going u

e cobwebs of

h it is not easy to say: but I find this expression in 'Robin

lann an righ: 'Out with you [on the water] ye children of the king.' This idiom which is quite comm

s is Ní fós, which in Kerry the people translate 'no yet,' consid

) death,' and this is sometimes imitated in Anglo-Irish:-'He was near getting hi

y me gloves.' 'What else have you to do to-day?' 'I have a top to bring to Johnny, and when I come home I have the cows to put in the stab

mples of this need be given here, as they will be found in every page of the Irish Annals, as well as in other Irish writings. Nothing like this exists in English, but the people constantly imitate it in the Anglo-Irish speech. 'How did you come by all that money?' Reply:-'To get into the heart of the fair' (meaning 'I got into the heart

d whither. As a consequence of this our people do not use hither, thither, and whither at all. They make here, there, and where do duty for them. Indeed much the same usage exists in the Irish language too: Is ann tigdaois eunlaith (Keating): 'It is here the birds used

?' asks the blind fiddler. 'All that's left of me is here,' answers Frank. (Carleton.) These expressions, which are very usual, and many others of the kind, are borrowed from the Irish. In the Irish tale, 'The

tress] at home Jenny?' 'I'm afraid himself [the master of the house] will be very angry when he hears about the accident to the mare.' This is an

or speak Irish. This is exactly the way of saying it in Iris

ames don't let on you saw me,' is really a positive, not a negative request: equivalent to-'If you meet James, let on (pretend) that you didn't see me.' A D

overed now'; he is nearl

-is derived from the Irish language, in which it is used in the oldest documents as well as in the everyday spoken modern Irish; the usual word cos for 'foot' being used. Thus in the Brehon Laws we are told that a wife's share

of a swine and an ox on foot (for a coiss, 'on their foot') to be given to Mac Con and his people, i.e. to be sent to

miss it.' Our office attendant Charlie went to the clerk, who was chary of the pens, and got a supply with some difficulty. He came back grumbling:-'A person would think I was asking them for God's sake' (a thoroughly Hibernian sentence). This expression is common also in Irish, both an

hat they ate their enough of them' ('Diarmaid and Grainne'): d'ith mo shaith 'I ate my enough.' Accordingly uneducated people use the word 'nough in this manner, exactly as fill is correctly used

.' 'Oh you young thief of the world, why did you do that?' (to a child). These expressions are all thrown in for emphasis, and they are mainly or altogether imported from the Irish. They are besides of long standing. In the 'Colloquy'-a very old Irish piece-the king of Leinster says to St. Patrick:-'I do not

er to Queen Elizabeth the Earl of Ormond (an Irishman-one of the Butlers) designates a certain Irish chief 'that

boasts of having slain Finn's father; and Finn answers bud maith m'acfainnse ar gan sin do léicen let, 'I am quite powerful enough not to let that go with you.' ('Silva Gadelica.') Sometimes this Anglo-Irish phrase means to vie with, to rival. 'There's no doubt that old Tom Long is very rich': 'Yes i

n't give in that there are ghosts at all.' This is an Irish idiom, as will be seen in the following:-[A lion and three dogs

so:-[Beelzebub] 'proposes a third undertaking which th

re the infinitive: 'he boug

ailor dear

e you he

he began f

ish Fol

e pitched his

s for to

lk Song: 'The

the amendment of your souls.' ('Dunlevy.') Two Irish prepositions are used in this sense of for: le (as above) and

say in Irish is e do chailleamhuin do rinn me: 'It is to lose it I did' (I lost it). The following are everyday examples from our dialect of English: ''Tis to rob me you want': 'Is it at the young woman's house the wedding is to be?' ('Knocknagow'): 'Is it reading you are?' ''Twas to dhrame it I did sir' ('Knocknagow'): 'Maybe 'tis turned out I'd be' ('Knocknagow'): 'To lo

lly Donovan says in our own day-in half joke-when she is going to Ned Brophy's wedding:-'There'll be some likely lads there to-night, and who knows what luck I might have.' ('Knocknagow.') This expression 'there is no knowing but' or 'who knows but,' borrowed as we see from Gaelic, is very common in

or a thréigeas a bhean é). 'Poor brave honest Mat Donovan that everyone is proud of him and fond of him' ('Knocknagow'): 'He was a descendant of Sir Thomas More that Henry VIII. cut his head off' (whose head Henry VIII. cut off). The phrases above are incorrect English, as there is redundancy; but they, and others like them, could generally be made co

his father-he took it from his father.' So also ''Tis kind for the cat to drink milk'-'cat after kind'-''Tis kind for John to be good and honourable' [for his father or hi

o and so' ('Collegians'): corresponding to the Irish:-'Is

arcels will go into the box.' This is from a very old Gaelic usage, as may be seen from this quotation from the 'Boroma':-Coire

re or the rhyme, with little or no use besides. The practice of using chevilles was very common in old Irish poetry, and a bad practice it was; for many a good poem is quite s

h an island a

ul the

after, on the

of

found-it was a

er of a

he little phrase gan go, 'without a lie'; and this is often reflected in our Anglo-Irish s

d maidens I p

you I will

oung lady's

oving of a f

other of

e all I pra

I'll te

lovely f

ame is Po

ry, both classical and popular; but of course

nt for nothing. Thus fair, may, saint, blaze, there, all rhyme assonantally. As it is easy to find words that rhyme in this manner, the rh

in my 'Old Irish Music and Songs'; and it may be seen in very large numbers of our Anglo-Irish Folk-songs. I will give just one example here, a free translation of an elegy

eighbour MacBrady

me and dazed me wi

rave his name wa

akes there was no one

way how to make a g

Gaelic quite aisy

ze the fair maids with

fair at his aise wi

aid in his grave in t