Hiberno-English Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Hiberno-English is the form of the English language used in Ireland. Also called Anglo-Irish or Irish English.
The basis for the type of English spoken in Ireland is said to be a mixture of the language of Shakespeare and the Irish of the Gaelic earls, as Modern Irish English does bear the marks of two major historical events. First we have the various types of English and Scots that were brought to Ireland during the English and Scottish colonisation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Secondly there is an early hybrid jargon which arose as a result of the contact between the Irish and English languages. 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. However, this merging is minimal in Dublin where cultural influences (news media, music, television) from the US and the UK are more readily assimilated and utilised. This influence can be seen in the typical Dublin working-class accent, which is closer to a Liverpool or Manchester accent than anything found in Ireland.
The standard spelling and grammar are the same as British English, but especially in the spoken language, there are some unique characteristics, due to the influence of Irish on pronunciation.
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2 Preservation of Older English usage 3 Turns of phrase 4 See also 5 References |
Like other Celtic languages, Irish has no words for "yes" and "no", instead the verb in a question is repeated in an answer. People in rural Ireland have a tendency to use this pattern of avoiding "yes" or "no" when speaking English:
Rural Irish speakers of English use a "does be/do be" (or "bes", although less frequently) construction to indicate this latter continuous present:
It is also common to end sentences with 'no?' or 'yeah?'
When describing something, rural Hiberno-English speakers may describe this as something that is 'in it', which can also be translated into English as 'so it is', or for comical effect 'that it be'.
Grammar Derived From Irish
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').
Irish has no pluperfect tense: instead the idiom for "I had done X when I did Y" is "I was after doing X when I did Y."
In Hiberno-English this construction is nowadays often used for the perfect tense as well as the pluperfect:
Alternatively, Hiberno-English can follow the syntax of the Irish perfect :
Mirroring the Irish language and almost every other European language, the plural 'you' is distinguished from the singular, normally by using the otherwise archaic English word 'ye' (the word 'yous' also occurs, but only in Dublin dialect - an example of the Dublin accent moving away from standard Hiberno-English):
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:
- where 'herself' might, for example, be the boss or the woman of the house. Note also the indirectness of this construction relative to, e.g. 'She's coming now' and the use of "'Tis" rather than the more standard contraction "It's".
Irish English also always uses the "light l" sound, and the pronunciation of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' is standard.
It ought to be noted that this construction is generally limited to the northern half of the country. The isn't just limited 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.
A person or place may be described as being 'where it's at', as this is the translation of the verb to have:
Similarly, somebody who can speak a language, 'has' a language - a very rural construction.
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.
- That man there. An fear sin.
In old-fashioned usage, "it is" can be freely abbreviated "'tis", even as a standalone sentence. This also allows the double abbreviation "'tisn't", for "it is not".
The word "ye" or "yous", otherwise archaic, is still used in place of "you" for the second person plural.
Preservation of Older English usage
The verb "mitch" is common in Ireland indicating playing 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).
"mathematics" (and maybe other -ics words?) is, in old-fashioned usage, treated as a plural noun, taking a plural verb and substituted with a plural pronoun.
- My son thinks mathematics are interesting, and he's good at them.
"Am not" is abbreviated amn't by analogy with "isn't" and "aren't". ["Aren't I" would be considered ungrammatical in Ireland.] This can be used as a tag question:
Turns of phrase
or as an alternative to "I'm not":
and the double negative is also used:
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'.
- I brought some cash in case I saw a bargain, and my credit card 'to be sure to be sure'.
- 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 nearest equivalents in colloquial English usage would be "whatsisname" and "whatsername".
- 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 perceived as connected to the English word "fucking", despite their similarity. "Feck" is the corresponding expletive. The noun "fecker" is slightly stronger but not vulgar. These terms were lately introduced to Britain by Father Ted.
Some turns of phrase are more localised. Not only might a non-native English speaker encounter unknown language in everyday conversation, but also an Englishman or Dubliner may not understand anything a rural dweller, a "culchie", may say.
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