English As We Speak It in Ireland

at anomalous and complicated niceties in the English use of shal

hose Irish 'vulgarisms' that are really survivals in Ireland of the correct old English usages, which in England have been superseded by other and often incorrect forms. On this point I received, some years ago, a contribution from an English gentleman who resided long in Ireland

I will gain nothing but my shame and the

shall indicated obligation or duty (as in Chaucer:-'The faith I shal to God') being derived from A.S. sceal 'I owe' or 'ought': this has been discarded in England, while we still retain it in our usage in Ireland. You say to an attentive Irish waiter, 'Please have breakfast for me at 8 o'clock to-morrow morning'; and he answers, 'I shall sir.' When I was a boy I was present in the chapel of A

and of Mat Rea is exactly acco

):-Be bright and jovial a

, love.' ('Macbeth,'

erer:-We sha

ommand us.' (Ibid.

tiful assent, as it is intended to be, and as it would be in England in old times, it would look too

e above quotations-and others that might be brought forward-prove that this usage then prevailed and was correct, which

e king, I would a

few

will.' ('Macbeth,'

as bad (or as good) in this respect as we are. Like many another Irish idiom this is also found in American society chiefly through the influence of the Irish. In ma

been developed in Ireland independently, and not derived from any former correct usage: in other words we have created this incorrect locution-or vulgarism-for our

inflection. But our people in Ireland, retaining the old English custom, have a leaning towards the strong inflection, and not only use many of the old-fashioned English strong past tenses, but often form strong ones in their own way:-We use slep and crep, old English; and we coin others. 'He ruz his hand to me,' 'I cotch him stealing the turf,' 'he gother s

e fair-did you

ll Roe riding

er a penny to give me sir? No, I have ne'er a penny for you

nusual words, mostly taken from dictionaries, but many coined by themselves from Latin. Goldsmith's description of the village master with his 'words of learned length and thundering sound,' applies exactly to a large proportion of the schoolmasters of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century all ove

ds often made mistakes in applying them; which will be seen in some of the following e

captivated an

ticated my sad

uminated-suppos

plicated or treat

waited with my s

nderated let wha

epated how Cupi

ated with The Pho

ells us what he might do for the Phoenix

like Homer that

a poem in praise of Queen Victoria just after he

r queen reside

thority and k

his song in

erene as I rov

agnitude of t

song in praise of

uming the fiel

poet winds up

ranging and

iquel to C

means wandering

id' speaks of the danger of M

ising shepherd b

d to mean playing on an org

ples of this kin

ered through this chapter; and here also there are often misapplications: 'What had you for dinner to-day?'

y had gone out in their boat that night they were lost men'; i.e. 'they would have bee

come over, the green flag f

. See my 'Old Irish Folk

m to Limerick, a summo

surrender, else the sword a

llads of Irish C

and point out the bride to us.' 'I never see her myself Miss' [so I don't know her] replied Nelly. (Knocknagow.) This is a survival from old En

right,' our people say 'let you go to the right': 'let you look after the cows and I will see

out always takes the plural

s expression 'cause why, which is very often heard in Ireland,

'Give us a penny sir to bu

ther grow wheat still?' 'He do.' 'Has he the old white horse now?' 'He have.' As to has, Mr. MacCall states that

hrough the old Waterford Bye-Laws; which would render it pretty certain that both have and

hortened to thon, which is used as equivalen

s this several times: but the following quotation is decisive-'No, Dinny O'

p-stealing before the late Judge Monahan, and the jury acquitted him, very much against the evidence. 'Y

hush my l

een arbut

'Irish Songs

vick is mhic, vocative of mac, son) heard universally in Munster: 'Well Billy a vick-o, h

Our use of the often adds a sort of emphasis to the noun or adjective:-'Ah John was the man,' i.e. the real man, a man pre-eminent for some quality-bravery, generosity, &c. 'Ah that was the trouble in earnest.' The Irish chiefs of long ago 'w

maid to me.' (See my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' p. 135.) A steamer was in danger of running down a boat rowed by one small boy on the Shannon. 'Get out of the way you young rascal or we'll run over you and drown you!' Little Jacky looks up defiantly and cries out:-'Ye'll drownd me, will ye: if ye do, I'

uch better the day than I was yesterday. In this the day is merely a translation of th

ssions as nine head of cattle. A friend of mine, a cultivated and scholarly clergyman, always used phrases like 'that bookcase cost thirteen pound.' This is an old English survival. Thus in Macbeth we find 'this three mile.' But I t

ey, I brought a book that I may read as I travelled along.' I have heard and read, scores of times, expressions of which this is a type-not onl

of to:-'I am going till Belfast to-morro

he want of them, and use various expedients to supply their places. The most common of these is the use of the word after (commonly with a participle) following the verb to be. Thus instead of the perfect, as expressed above, they will say 'I am after finishing my work,' 'I am after my supper.' ('Knocknagow.') 'I'm

translation of the Irish iar or a n-diaigh-for b

station yet sir.' Sometimes the present progressive is used, which also is bad grammar: 'I am sitting here waiting for you for the last hour' (instead of 'I have been sitting'). Occasionally the have or has of the perfect (or the had of the pluperfect)

is a co

my heart

ish Fol

I f

l goddess has

in mourning his

h Folk Music and

e the pluperfect ought to come in:-'An hour before you came yesterday I finished my work': where

onvenient tense, so much so that the Irish, feeling the want of it in their English, have created one by the use of the word do with be: 'I do be at m

e of is without any consuetudinal meaning. 'My father bees always at home in the morning': 'At night while I be

lackbird wherever h

Song-'The

mon in the eastern half of I

s from English classical writers. 'If my child was standing anear that stone.' (Gerald Griffin: 'Collegians.') 'She was never a-shy or ashamed to show' [her respect fo

se old English words; for we have in Irish a group of words identical with them both in meaning and s

it.' 'I be to remain here till he calls,' I am bound to remain. 'The only comfort I have [regarding some loss sure to

day-meaning every day of the week except Monday: which is the most usual application among us. 'My father goes to town every other day,' i.e. every a

see them drinki

loving ever

ish Fol

few days ago. 'When did you see your bro

ailed away and part

Folk

ey always use ye in the plural whenever possible: both as a nominative and as an objective: 'Where are ye going to-day?' 'I'm afeard that will be a dear journey to ye.' Accepting the you as singular, they have created new for

ll make good at de

ughing at the way we'll carry out yeer song afore the day is over.' ('The House of L

ll-known English writers:-'Every one for themselves' occurs in Robinson Crusoe; and in Ireland plurals are alm

and perish in an active sense. The first is seen in the very general Irish prayer 'Go

e Will of C

rest

gan in 'Caoc

sleeps his las

you, Caoc

n the saying-'That breez

ly; my throat is powerful dry.' ('Shanahan's Ould Shebeen,' New York.) 'John Cusack is the finest dancer at all.' 'This day is mortal cold.' 'I'm black out with you.' 'I'm very glad entirely to hear it.' 'He is very sick entirely.' This word entirely is one of our most general and characteristic intensives. 'He is a very good man all out.' 'This day is guy and wet': 'that boy is guy and fat'

ve in great measure lost their original signification; and although we use them in our Irish-English, they hardly convey any separate meaning. But een is used everywhere: it is even constantly tacked on to Christian names (especially of boys and girls):-Mickeen (little Mick), Noreen, Billeen, Jackeen (a word applied to the conceited little Dublin citizen). So also you hear Birdeen, Robineen-re

ound of the diphthong ea was the same as long a in fate: sea pronounced say, &c. Any numb

in a myst

ders to

is footstep

s upon t

(18th ce

eserved among the Irish people. You will hear everywhere in Ireland,

e me with your false praises most

aze must be sounded so as to r

he was to get off: a tall fine-looking old gentleman was waiting for him, and nothing could exceed the dignity and kindness with which he received him. Pointing to his car he said 'Come now and they'll get you a nice re

d adopted the affected pronunciation (greet), saying that only an Irishman would call it grate. 'Single-speech Hamilton'-a Dublin man-who was considered, in the

diphthong ei and long e, that is to say, they

blood of an il

from Lucrece

'Essay

showing that he pronounced it sphaire. Our hed

ds on this ter

s the fairest

re fruitless

y did c

digg'd for

untimely

and

nds of long e and ei; for they say pers

gave me was h

fine him, he's the

man say-a man who had some knowledge of Shakespeare-about a girl who was becom

d as it was formerly; and accordingly the Irish people always sound these correctly. They never say pras

ople pronounce it ait: 'Yesterday I ait a good dinner'; and when et is h

nxiety to avoid this vulgarity, they overdo the refinement: so that you will hear girls talk mincingly about derning a stocking. This is like what happened in the case of one of our servant girls who took it into her head that mutton was a vulgar way of pronouncing the word, like pudde

nd faut. 'If I don't be able to shine it will be none of my faut.' (Car

e to vent his d

was never in

cited b

ook it from classical English writers, by whom it was used (as by Pope) almost down to his ti

ind, or if se

to learning was

erature, in which the professor makes great fun, as a 'superior person,' of the Hibernicism in the above

is a tendency to give the long

whose deeds

raather on

ng-'The Coll

ers both bold

morning to wa

Song-'Cast

t he was a spectaathor at one of O'Connell's Repeal meetings: and the same man, in reply to a strange gentleman's i

gh indeed I ought to mention that the same tendency is found in Monaghan

e believe that in the old fighting times, when he was a young man, he was a desperate gladiaathor; but he really was a gentle creature who never in all his born days hurt man or m

of our neighbourhood that he was now looking out for a wife that would shoot him. This

d a very short obscure vowel sound is heard between them: and a native Irish speaker cannot avoid this. By a sort of hereditary custom this peculiarity finds its way

no more nor descen

the tyrant's

his care on that

coronations for

olk So

the time of the Bulgarian massacres, I knew a Dublin doctor, a Tipperary man, who fel

ed huz, which might seem a Cockney vulgarism, but I think it is not

sighth, for height, sight, which are common in Ireland, are all old En

him malicio

us wolfe and

nkred teeth a

Chester Plays' (Lowell); and highth for height is found all

torians I'll st

he monarch who di

Lov

Limerick; and catch is e

long since abandoned in England. Thus in a State Paper of 1598, we read that two captains r

night or any

s his steps.' ('

ng, wheedling, making love, &c.-as in the phrase 'she put her comether on him, so that he married her up

on. In Friar Clyn's Annals (Latin) written in the fourteenth century, the death is recorded in 1329 of

les it is still so pronounced by all classes. The little

ossing the brudge I dropped the sweeping brish into the ruvver.' 'I never saw sich a sight.' But such words are used only by the very uneducated. Brudge for bridge and the like are however of old English origin. 'Margaret, mother of Henry VII, writes seche for such' (Lowell). So in Ireland:-'Jestice

negal and elsewhere; but corruptions like these are fou

glish survival; for Shakespeare and Lovelace have renched for rinced (Lowel

f the old English way of pronouncing such words. In the State Papers of Elizabeth's time you will constantly meet with such words as hoult and stronghowlt (hold and stronghold.) In my boyhood days I knew a great large sinewy active woman who lived up in the

use of butchers' waste. 'Ah sir'-said he, with a luscious roll in his voice as if he had been licking h

Dublin seaside baths that the prices were-'a shilling for the hot and sixpence for the cowl.' So we constantly use an' for and: in a Waterford folk song we have 'Here

How many arrived?' 'Tin min and five women': 'He always smoked a pipe with a long stim.' If

here they spoke English. Some violent political dispute happened to be going on there at the time, and the people eagerly asked the stranger about his political views; on which-instinctively giving expression to the

: constantly heard in Dublin. 'Go out Mike for the

f differen

ks and some l

Dodsley's plays we have onions

ible. But among our people there is a contrary tendency-to throw forward the accent; as in ex-

so grand ere the scep

ish Fol

rmidable prospectus of the subjects he could teach, among which were 'the raddiation of light and heat and the vibrations of swinging pen-joo′lums.' The same fine old scholarly pedant once remarked that our neighbourhood was a very moun-taan′-yus locality. A

e-Mis-chee′-vous: but I have come across this in Spenser's

whisper to m

charac′ter has

Patrick Murra

of great abilit

hich unfortunately I remember only the opening line: but this fragment s

b′era, you're my

people of Tipperary that I cannot l

erary

e cross and co

ontrairy' is uni

, a fellow pupil, Tom Burke-a big fellow too-with face down on desk over a book, said, without lifting his head-to make fun of him-'foine day, Mick.' 'Yes,' said Mick as he walked past, at the same time laying h

n me like the

e heart of the

ish Fol

ronunciation of o

ols, by flatte

ng that he ne

op

d to you. It is now generally heard in Kildare among all classes. A similar tendency is in the sound of whine, which in Munster is always

for grin, purty for pretty. I heard a man quoting from Shakespeare about Puck-from hearsay: he said he must have been a wonderful fellow,

ear garner for gardener, ornary for ordinary. The late Cardinal Cullen

be all over Ireland: Now me boy

ith cur), or serr; but in this latter case they always give the r or rr what is called the slender sound in Irish, which there is no means of indicating by English letters. Fir is also sound

ected to go by night on a message that would oblige him to pass by an empty old house th

ig priest good-naturedly, as he stood ready equipped for a long ride to a sick call-poor old Widow Dwan up in the mountain gap: 'Just tell me exactly how many cows are grazing in that field there behind you.' Jack, chuckling at the fun that was coming on, turned round to count, on which Father Tom dealt him a hearty kick that sent