English as spoken in Ireland

ninty9er · 04-05-2008 04:30PM

happens everywhere.

dis, dat, dese and dose; as opposed to the english vis, vat, vese and vose; which are in turn spelled this, that these and those.

really, would ya be well with all this fuss over nuttin:)

Stuff being in the press is one foreigners never get either...i.e there's plates in that press over (there)

bangersandmash · 04-05-2008 09:15PM

Echelle wrote: »

I've just had yet another frustrating `conversation with my husband's mother who lives in the midlands. She tends to say the following kind of thing :"He said I should go" Quite often this can mean "He said he should go" as she is in fact quoting the person. In a long conversation when who said what is being discussed the result can be quite confusing. The mother in law is not the only one who speaks this way, other members of the family do also...is this common all over Ireland?.If so it must cause confusion in court cases also.

"He said, "I should go," "

maybe you're just retarded

if you spoke to real people/ever left your house/had a social life, you would realise that people do not always verbalize punctuation

:pac:

______________________________________________________________

i once say don't written as d'ont! at least they were trying. I also think that scottish people saying "fray" for from and "ken" for know is hilarious

trishasaffron · 04-05-2008 09:26PM

Yesterday saw those "tomato's" for sale in Donnybrook Fair.

OK-Cancel-Apply · 04-05-2008 10:05PM

trishasaffron wrote: »

Yesterday saw those "tomato's" for sale in Donnybrook Fair.

Ah sure now that's a fair mistake we all make when tired.

DJ_Spider · 04-05-2008 10:23PM

I am from the UK and have been here for 2 years now. I lived in London, the north, (fecking freezing!) the south west and the south coast. So I have a mish mash of sayings. It has been tricky getting used to the sayings over here, and my g/f has had just as much trouble with mine! :eek:

The things that annoy me is when she askes for a package of crisps, it isn't a package it's a packet! A package to me is bigger. I have gotten used to press, but still find it strange, we call it a cupboard because originally it was a board for hanging cups on then someone put a box round it. But I now use grand like a native, hate yoke, loike, ya know wot I mean, and people saying now every 2 seconds when they serve you in a shop!

But I use where are you to, clamming, (hungry) mutton, (deaf) face like a smacked a$$, and of course don't say my H's much to the amusement of my g/f, especially when I say 'ammer or 'ole!

So you see even someone who is a native of england can't talk proper like wot I does! Actually I was born in Galway and moved to Essex when I was 3 years old, I was then adopted and grew up in cheltenham, (where the gold cup horse races are) I even lived in gloucester for a while and my claim to fame is that I drank with fred west! :eek:

mrsdewinter · 04-05-2008 10:40PM

Fair few influences there, alright, DJ-Spider. I love the quirky 'do be' construction. It's so handy, it really underlines the point that this is an action I undertake on a very regular basis. I grew up in Galway, but the person I picked this up from is from the southeast. Never realised it was a particularly West of Ireland thing.
OP needs to listen to the context.
Whoever said that they transcribe speech all the time and pointed out that it doesn't always comply with the rules of grammar is right. You'd be shocked how inarticulate we are in everyday speech, and how much we depend on verbal clues and the context to pick up the meaning.

Defenestrate · 04-05-2008 11:48PM

trishasaffron wrote: »

Yesterday saw those "tomato's" for sale in Donnybrook Fair.

Do you have a favourite Donnybrook Fair employee? Perhaps the efficent Marie, the pretty Alexandra or maybe even the hilariously named Junior?

useful_contacts · 05-05-2008 10:16PM

micmclo wrote: »

Tipperary is in the Mid-West goddammit. :mad:
Well, North Tipperary is anyway, the good half

I live in South east OF tipperary, you know nenagh, cahir...ring any bells?

rainbowtrout · 05-05-2008 10:30PM

useful_contacts wrote: »

I live in South east OF tipperary, you know nenagh, cahir...ring any bells?

That's funny I could have sworn Nenagh was in North Tipperary. At least it was the last time i was on the Nenagh bypass

anonymous_joe · 05-05-2008 10:32PM

Defenestrate wrote: »

Do you have a favourite Donnybrook Fair employee? Perhaps the efficent Marie, the pretty Alexandra or maybe even the hilariously named Junior?

Everything about Donnybrook Fair is blissful.

Except the prices I suppose. ><

Capt'n Midnight · 07-05-2008 12:45AM

rainbowtrout wrote: »

That's funny I could have sworn Nenagh was in North Tipperary. At least it was the last time i was on the Nenagh bypass

They changed the boundary to get the IDA grand for the Ambulance factory.

FruitLover · 07-05-2008 12:53AM

Acacia wrote: »

She was very confused at the use of two verbs,'do' and 'be' together, god love her. :pac: It's terrible English, but it comes from an Irish ( gaeilge) sentence structure.

Explain how.

Edit: after pondering, I think I get it - 'bíonn sé ag obair' kind of thing.

biko · 07-05-2008 12:59AM

FruitLover wrote: »

Explain how.

"To do is to be" - Nietzsche
"To be is to do" - Kant
"Do Be Do Be Do" - Sinatra

HAPPYGIRL · 07-05-2008 01:01AM

I went out with a guy from Tipperary his sayings wrecked my head. 'i do be', 'he have', 'well', 'for the gallery', 'the mother' (refering to his mother), Well bud how's she hanging'. Grrrrrrr.

Wibbs · 07-05-2008 01:20AM

Another one, the shore is blocked rather than the drain is blocked. Apparently an elisabethan throwback.

One I absolutely hate is the fairly recent addition of H's where they don't exist. The word height is the big one. You'll notice there is no H at the end of that word people. It's not the same as width. It's not "heighth", OK?

That bloody ad on the old telly warning truckers about low bridges and the like, the voiceover buffoon does it. "Watch your heighth".

I blame eejits trying to elocute their sons and daughters away from the flat H dropping tongue of their bumpkin forebears. So instead of saying wit and hi, they come out with width and heighth. God forbid you drop H's so add them just in case. Grrrrrr. Ruf instead of roof is another bugbear.

_feedback_ · 07-05-2008 09:22AM

Echelle wrote: »

I've just had yet another frustrating `conversation with my husband's mother who lives in the midlands. She tends to say the following kind of thing :"He said I should go"

What's the big deal with that?! She was quoting somebody...

phreneticus · 07-05-2008 11:27AM

Echelle wrote: »

I've just had yet another frustrating `conversation with my husband's mother who lives in the midlands. She tends to say the following kind of thing :"He said I should go" Quite often this can mean "He said he should go" as she is in fact quoting the person. In a long conversation when who said what is being discussed the result can be quite confusing. The mother in law is not the only one who speaks this way, other members of the family do also...is this common all over Ireland?.If so it must cause confusion in court cases also.

Try living in waterford with such beauties as "i do be girl"

Which does not, in fact mean "hullo, I am a female" but "why yes female compatriot, indeed I am"

It BeeMee · 07-05-2008 02:50PM

rainbowtrout wrote: »

That's funny I could have sworn Nenagh was in North Tipperary. At least it was the last time i was on the Nenagh bypass

useful_contacts wrote: »

I live in South east OF tipperary, you know nenagh, cahir...ring any bells?

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

They changed the boundary to get the IDA grand for the Ambulance factory.

Regardless of North or South, Nenagh definitely isn't East Tipperary.....

itsallaboutheL · 07-05-2008 03:20PM

i used to live with a Cork girl who said "with" instead of "for" when refering to lenghts of times spent places.. i.e "i was there with 20minutes" instead of "for twenty minutes", used to drive me nuts.

Lizzykins · 07-05-2008 03:45PM

Dr_Teeth wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English

Just spent the last 20 minutes on that link! Great fun!

Latchy · 07-05-2008 03:54PM

upper plum voice '' The rain in spain stays mainly on the plain '' or

cockney speak '' the waatah in majorca dont taste like it ottah ''

I use to greet this english girl with ' how's the form '' and she would reply '' i dont live on a farm ''

Blisterman · 07-05-2008 06:37PM

That Wikipedia link is interesting

"The distinction between [ɛɹ]-[ɪɹ]-[ʌɹ] in herd-bird-curd is made. This feature is in decline amongst young speakers."

I didn't know people made any distinction between these. I certainly dont. Then again, I am young.

Other parts of the Wikipedia article couldn't be any more difficult to understand.

Can anyone explain this sentence, for example:
"In upper-middle class speech, however, final 'r' is often retroflex, a feature which creates a strongly rhotic auditory effect, and as such a clear means of disassociation from the city's weakly-rhotic vernacular."

vektarman · 09-05-2008 03:17PM

Irish people must be the dizziest in the world, they're forever 'turning around' to say something, e.g. 'so I turned around and said to her' or 'she turned around and said to him'. Is this how the phrase spin doctor came about?

Wibbs · 09-05-2008 05:20PM

Blisterman wrote: »

"The distinction between [ɛɹ]-[ɪɹ]-[ʌɹ] in herd-bird-curd is made. This feature is in decline amongst young speakers."

I didn't know people made any distinction between these. I certainly dont. Then again, I am young.

That's weird I would hear (and use) distinctions between those words quite clearly Herd and curd would be close, but bird? How would you say them otherwise? Herd berd cerd, or the more D4 hurd, burd, curd? Both equally strange to my ear. Then again I'm old so.......:)

Stephen · 09-05-2008 05:22PM

I've only heard that turning around sh1te from Dubliners. I've heard 'with' when expressing time from Waterford people a LOT too.

Malice · 09-05-2008 05:42PM

Wibbs wrote: »

That's weird I would hear (and use) distinctions between those words quite clearly Herd and curd would be close, but bird? How would you say them otherwise? Herd berd cerd, or the more D4 hurd, burd, curd? Both equally strange to my ear. Then again I'm old so.......:)

Hmm, I pronounce all three of those words to rhyme with each other. Does that mean I don't count as old?

Wibbs · 09-05-2008 06:03PM

malice_ wrote: »

Does that mean I don't count as old?

Yes or insufficiently educated..... *Sniff* Damned hoi polloi.....

Really though? You don't hear a difference? That's so weird to me. So to you there isn't a clear distinction? As I said they are similar but I do hear the diff. Reading back I meant to say bird and curd sound the most similar(but different), but herd sounds quite different to my ear. Now you're confusing me Goddammit!

I wonder why people(those damned young types grrr:)) have dropped the distinction? Is it an americanism or something else?

I remember reading somewhere that the ability to use or hear those kind of sounds in a particular language is set quite young and hard to learn later. You'll see that with spaniards who can't hear(or find it very difficult to hear) the difference in E sounds. If you try to rip off a spanish accent you'll see what I mean. So to them sheep and ship sound the same or very similar. "I sailed the seven seas on my sheep" kinda thing. Píss, peas and peace or sheet and shít are hard for them too leading to much hilarity.:) "I had some peese soup for lunch". Germans have difficulty with W sounds "Ve hav vays of making you talk" etc(does that break Godwins law..). Japanese with R's etc too. They're just not used in their languages in the same way so they're hard for them to hear the distinction. Chinese and other Asian languages can be hard languages for us as they can have very subtle sounds that can change the whole meaning of a word.

Fascinating stuff though.

Malice · 09-05-2008 06:22PM

Wibbs wrote: »

Yes or insufficiently educated..... *Sniff* Damned hoi polloi.....

Me not edumicated enough?? *cry*

Wibbs wrote:

Really though? You don't hear a difference? That's so weird to me. So to you there isn't a clear distinction? As I said they are similar but I do hear the diff. Reading back I meant to say bird and curd sound the most similar(but different), but herd sounds quite different to my ear. Now you're confusing me Goddammit!

I wonder why people(those damned young types grrr:)) have dropped the distinction? Is it an americanism or something else?

Yep, I genuinely don't hear a distinction in the end of the word when I pronounce the three words. They sound like "hurd", "burd" and "curd". Maybe it's a west of Ireland thing?

Wibbs wrote:

I remember reading somewhere that the ability to use or hear those kind of sounds in a particular language is set quite young and hard to learn later. You'll see that with spaniards who can't hear(or find it very difficult to hear) the difference in E sounds. If you try to rip off a spanish accent you'll see what I mean. So to them sheep and ship sound the same or very similar. "I sailed the seven seas on my sheep" kinda thing. Píss, peas and peace or sheet and shít are hard for them too leading to much hilarity.:) "I had some peese soup for lunch". Germans have difficulty with W sounds "Ve hav vays of making you talk" etc(does that break Godwins law..). Japanese with R's etc too. They're just not used in their languages in the same way so they're hard for them to hear the distinction. Chinese and other Asian languages can be hard languages for us as they can have very subtle sounds that can change the whole meaning of a word.

Fascinating stuff though.

I know what you mean about hearing sounds. I was teaching some Polish friends how to pronounce some Irish placenames recently. To me, something like Oughterard is pretty straightforward but they had trouble with the hard "gh" sound.

baker59 · 09-05-2008 06:27PM

I think someone quoted this word a few pages back but "yizzers" has to be the funniest local word. I'm presuming it's some form of "your" plural like "ye" from "sibh"
When heard in a Dublin accent, it's gas !

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5 · 09-05-2008 06:30PM

Ha, where I went to school people call a pair of trousers "a pants". If there's two more pairs of trousers they're refered to as "pantses".
Wrecked my head <another Irish expression innit?

English as spoken in Ireland

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