Hiberno English

Spore · 21-04-2012 12:52AM #1

Doing a bit of ESL teaching at the moment and I have to constantly check how I speak, here are some of the things I catch myself saying:

"Yer man", "Yer one" - the first is obviously male, but how is "one" female?
"Amn't I only after showing yiz!" what the hell tense is this?!
"Amn't" - a contraction that only we Irish use apparently
"Yous" (as in more than one 'you')
"I does be watching the tv..." ok I don't use this one but I've heard people saying it, it's present continous I'm guessing...

So AH post up your favourite examples.

El Weirdo · 21-04-2012 12:54AM

Spore wrote: »

"I does be watching the tv..." ok I don't use this one but I've heard people saying it, it's present continous I'm guessing...

"I do be watching...", surely?

micropig · 21-04-2012 12:54AM

B1tches be crazy:pac:

batistuta9 · 21-04-2012 12:58AM

i don't what this is called or if there's even a name for it but most people would say for example "I am freezing" but some dubs say "Freezing I am".
another "I am hungry" vs "Hungry I am"

what's that about

cml387 · 21-04-2012 12:59AM

Spore wrote: »

Doing a bit of ESL teaching at the moment and I have to constantly check how I speak, here are some of the things I catch myself saying:

"Yer man", "Yer one" - the first is obviously male, but how is "one" female?
"Amn't I only after showing yiz!" what the hell tense is this?!
"Amn't" - a contraction that only we Irish use apparently
"Yous" (as in more than one 'you')
"I does be watching the tv..." ok I don't use this one but I've heard people saying it, it's present continous I'm guessing...

So AH post up your favourite examples.

Maybe you aint cut out for that line of work.
Teaching Dubs to speak culchie...maybe.

H2UMrsRobinson · 21-04-2012 01:07AM

batistuta9 wrote: »

i don't what this is called or if there's even a name for it but most people would say for example "I am freezing" but some dubs say "Freezing I am".
another "I am hungry" vs "Hungry I am"

what's that about

Jedi-Irish descendants.

dlofnep · 21-04-2012 01:10AM

The lack of yes/no answers - and rather responding to the question with the verb used.

Did you? I did / I didn't

Are you? I am / I'm not

That comes from Irish which has no words for yes or no, and uses the same way to respond to questions with the verb that was used in the question.

davet82 · 21-04-2012 01:12AM

yisser dog shyted in me garden

Doc Ruby · 21-04-2012 01:13AM

batistuta9 wrote: »

i don't what this is called or if there's even a name for it but most people would say for example "I am freezing" but some dubs say "Freezing I am".

Its called talking like a pirate and Irish people do it by sheer instinct, once again reinforcing the brilliance that is Irish people.

senorwipesalot · 21-04-2012 01:15AM

Know Noel,no?

davet82 · 21-04-2012 01:21AM

ye wouldnt pass me smokes = would you pass me my smokes

never really got that one

Sea Filly · 21-04-2012 01:21AM

"Lookit!"

4zn76tysfajdxp · 21-04-2012 01:26AM

Let's not forget the slang for teenaged girls. That even made it as far as Hollywood.

bennyineire · 21-04-2012 01:33AM

"I'm only after gone to the shop and now you want me to go again"
also when I was in the states the people over there could'nt get over me saying "it's half ten" when saying its 10.30, not sure if thats an Irish thing, maybe the brits say it to

AngryBollix · 21-04-2012 01:34AM

yer oul wans a geebag

dlofnep · 21-04-2012 01:35AM

bennyineire wrote: »

"I'm only after gone to the shop and now you want me to go again"

Táim díreach tar éis blah a dhéanamh (I'm just after doing blah).. I'd say that's from Irish too.

AngryBollix · 21-04-2012 01:37AM

micropig wrote: »

B1tches be crazy:pac:

for real yo

AngryBollix · 21-04-2012 01:38AM

dlofnep wrote: »

Táim díreach tar éis blah a dhéanamh (I'm just after doing blah).. I'd say that's from Irish too.

At least the blah bit is clear

ejmaztec · 21-04-2012 01:44AM

It drives me off the head, instead if it drives me off my head.

BOHtox · 21-04-2012 01:47AM

Gewan ya mad cúnt ya!

policarp · 21-04-2012 02:02AM

dlofnep wrote: »

Táim díreach tar éis blah a dhéanamh (I'm just after doing blah).. I'd say that's from Irish too.

A good old Waterford Blaa. . .
Nach ea?

policarp · 21-04-2012 02:08AM

I'm only here for the crack. . .

grenache · 21-04-2012 03:07AM

Spore wrote: »

Doing a bit of ESL teaching at the moment and I have to constantly check how I speak, here are some of the things I catch myself saying:

"Yer man", "Yer one" - the first is obviously male, but how is "one" female?
"Amn't I only after showing yiz!" what the hell tense is this?!
"Amn't" - a contraction that only we Irish use apparently
"Yous" (as in more than one 'you')
"I does be watching the tv..." ok I don't use this one but I've heard people saying it, it's present continous I'm guessing...

So AH post up your favourite examples.

To be "after" doing something derives directly from Irish. For example, "tá mé tar éis an dinnéir" meaning "I am after the dinner", or in plain Queens English, "I have just had my dinner".

I love the way Irish has influenced how we approach and speak English. It's unique. Hiberno-English should be cherished and be allowed to flourish, not corrected!!

The Scots and Welsh have borrowings from their own languages too which they use when speaking English.

randylonghorn · 21-04-2012 03:14AM

"I used to go / do / whatever ..."

Directly lifted from the gnathchaite (habitual past tense) in Irish, and still often to be heard in the normal vocabulary of people whose great-great-grandparents were the last of the family to speak Irish as a first language.

Such a useful tense too; English is the poorer for its lack.

youreadthis · 21-04-2012 03:44AM

randylonghorn wrote: »

"I used to go / do / whatever ..."

Directly lifted from the gnathchaite (habitual past tense) in Irish, and still often to be heard in the normal vocabulary of people whose great-great-grandparents were the last of the family to speak Irish as a first language.

Such a useful tense too; English is the poorer for its lack.

Apparently a few people outside Ireland also use this unique tense.

humbert · 21-04-2012 03:54AM

Spore wrote: »

Doing a bit of ESL teaching at the moment and I have to constantly check how I speak, here are some of the things I catch myself saying:

"Yer man", "Yer one" - the first is obviously male, but how is "one" female?
"Amn't I only after showing yiz!" what the hell tense is this?!
"Amn't" - a contraction that only we Irish use apparently
"Yous" (as in more than one 'you')
"I does be watching the tv..." ok I don't use this one but I've heard people saying it, it's present continous I'm guessing...

So AH post up your favourite examples.

That's not Hiberno English, that's shit English. Don't 'teach' shit English.

kowloon · 21-04-2012 03:56AM

All these little phrases and bits lifted from Irish get us a lot of attention abroad. The accent is part of it, but it's also the way we say things.
Too many people moan about or neglect the English language, too few realise how much we've made it our own.

The English may have invented the language, but we gave it grace. (forgotten who said that)

randylonghorn · 21-04-2012 04:15AM

youreadthis wrote: »

Apparently a few people outside Ireland also use this unique tense.

I never said the habitual past tense was unique to Irish; most linguists seem to agree that it came to be used in Hiberno-English from the Irish (unsurprisingly enough).

Spore · 21-04-2012 05:34AM

humbert wrote: »

That's not Hiberno English, that's shit English. Don't 'teach' shit English.

Did I say anything about teaching this "shit" English? I said in my original post that I catch myself saying these things, meaning I don't actually say them. Maybe you're just a "shit" reader.

guitarzero · 21-04-2012 05:49AM

Stall it/Ehh'!

I do be calling...

Badly Drunk Boy · 21-04-2012 06:54AM

'Yoke' meaning thing.

Hiberno English

Comments