English As We Speak It in Ireland
English As We Speak It in Ireland
Free DownloadThis book deals with the Dialect of the English Language that is spoken inIreland.As the Life of a people--according to our motto--is pictured in theirspeech, our picture ought to be a good one, for two languages wereconcerned in it--Irish and English.
Book Excerpt
Coiner,' 'Tales of a Jury-room,' &c.) than any other writer; and very near him come Charles Kickham (in 'Knocknagow'), Crofton Croker (in 'Fairy Legends') and Edward Walsh. These four writers almost exhaust the dialect of the South of Ireland.
On the other hand Carleton gives us the Northern dialect very fully, especially that of Tyrone and eastern Ulster; but he has very little idiom, the peculiarities he has preserved being chiefly in vocabulary and pronunciation.
Mr. Seumas MacManus has in his books faithfully pictured the dialect of Donegal (of which he is a native) and of all north-west Ulster.
In the importation of Irish idiom into English, Irish writers of the present day are also making their influence felt, for I often come across a startling Irish expression (in English words of course) in some English magazine article, obviously written by one of my fellow-countrymen. Here I ought to remark that they do this with discretion and common sense, for they always make sure that
FREE EBOOKS AND DEALS
(view all)
Popular books in Language, Fiction and Literature
More books by P. W. Joyce
(view all)
Readers reviews
4.0
LoginSign up
A fascinating collection of Irish dialect terms in common use a century ago. It shows that old English phrases, no longer used in England itself, were widespread around Dublin, whilst Gaelic terms survived across the west, and of course 'Scottishisms' predominated in Ulster. Much of these last ones I heard as a child. Needless to say, the pseudo-Gaelic word 'craic' (invented by the Irish media in the 1960s as a blarnified version of the Northern English/Scots word crack) is nowhere to be found...
- Upvote (0)
- Downvote (0)
