Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

I grew up speaking what linguists call Hiberno-English, an Irish dialect of English. How does it differ from Standard English? Well, first of all, it is full of words and phrases from the Irish language imported directly or Anglicised. Take "galore" (plentiful), a word that's now part of Standard English usage. It's an Anglicisation of the Irish go leor, meaning "in abundance". Or another example: in Ireland, the noun "rake" can have the standard meanings of "garden tool with long handle" or "man who gambles and drinks a lot", but in Hiberno-English it has the separate meaning of "a large quantity":

"She bought a rake of books from Amazon yesterday."

The Hiberno-English vocabulary also comprises words obsolete in Standard English. So a verb like "cog", meaning to cheat in an exam, is still widely used in Ireland. Similarly, words such as "bowsey" (ruffian), "delph" (crockery) and "oxter" (armpit), which passed out of Standard English around 1800, survive in Hiberno-English.

Then there's Hiberno-English grammar. Because Irish Gaelic has no words for "yes" and "no", the verb in a question is repeated in an answer. As a result, Irish people tend to avoid using "yes" or "no" when speaking English:

"Are you finished reading that book?" "I am." "Is your project going well?" "It is."

Irish Gaelic verbs have two present continuous tenses, one indicating what is happening at the moment and the other indicating ongoing activity. To convey the latter present continuous, Hiberno-English speakers use a "does be/do be" construction:

"He does be training every day for the marathon."

"They do be discussing investment strategies a lot."

The Gaelic phrase tar eis, which means "after", is used by Hiberno-English speakers to modify verbs to indicate that an activity has been completed recently. So, instead of using the standard English present perfect " We have just finished our dinner," Hiberno-English speakers opt for: "We're after finishing our dinner just now."

I'm after finishing blogging for today now, but I'll take another look at Hiberno-English next week. Meanwhile, I can highly recommend Terence Patrick Dolan's Dictionary of Hiberno-English, if you're interested in the subject.