Hiberno-English

Hiberno-English is the form of the English language used in Ireland. Hiberno-English is also called Irish English and rarely Anglo-Irish.

The type of English spoken in Ireland is founded in the types of English and Scots that were brought to Ireland during the English and Scottish colonisation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and their change due to the influence of the Irish language on these forms of English. 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.

The standard spelling and grammar are the same as UK English, but especially in the spoken language, there are some unique characteristics, due to the influence of Irish on pronunciation.

Pronunciation

Hiberno-English retains many phonemic differentiations merged in other accents of English. Phonetic transcriptions are given using IPA.

'r' is pronounced wherever it occurs in the word, making Irish English a rhotic dialect.
't' is rarely pronounced as a plosive when not at the beginning of a word, instead being a fricative between 's' and 'sh'
The distinction of w [w] and wh [ʍ], as in wine vs whine is preserved.
Merger of the vowels in father and bother in Southern Irish English; /fɑːðɚ/ and /bɑːðɚ/.
In some varieties [θ]/ and [t], and [ð] and [d] merge, making thin and tin and then and den homonyms; /tɪn/ and /dɛn/.
The distinction between /ɔːɹ/ and /oʊɹ/ in horse and hoarse is preserved.
The distinction between [ɛɹ]-[ɪɹ]-[ʌɹ] in herd-bird-curd is preserved.
Split of the phoneme /E/ into /E/ and /E:/ making tenor and tenner contrast as /tEn@`/ and /tE:n@`/.
"l" is clear wherever it occurs in a word, as in French
'Pure' vowels: "boat", in a traditional accent, is pronounced /boːt/, and cane is pronunced /keːn/
The "i" in "night" may be pronounced /ɔɪ/.
The "u" in Dublin may be pronounced /ʊ/.
In County Cork, some vowel sounds are often altered. An "e" sound becomes an "i" ("well" becomes "will"). Also "Cork" is locally pronounced as /kɑːɹk/.
An accent unique to Dublin known as the Dublin 4 intonation (referring to the local postal district) is an urban/suburban middle class feature. This is an oft derided posh dialect that renders words such as 'car' as 'core' and 'far' as 'fore'. Dublin 4 speakers often end a sentence with the rising question 'Do you know what I mean?' contracted and pronounced rapidly as 'Dja kneww whad I min?'
Similarly the working-class Dublin accent is a unique urban feature resembling the blue-collar accents of Manchester and Liverpool in England. This dialect includes phrases such as 'What's the story, Bud?' meaning 'How are you, friend?' pronounced 'Wats de stary bud?' and 'Mad out of it!' pronounced 'Mad ou vih!' meaning drunk or intoxicated by drugs. 'Giddup de yaard' or 'gerrup de yaard' means 'Get lost!' or 'I disagree.'
In some old-fashioned varieties, words spelled with ea and pronounced with [iː] in RP are pronounced with [eː], for example meat, beat.

Grammar derived from Irish

The Irish language has no words which directly translate as "yes" or "no", instead the verb in a question is repeated in an answer. People in Ireland have a tendency to repeat the verb, positively or negatively, instead of using "yes" or "no."

"Are you finished debugging that software?" "I am."
"Is your mobile charged?" "It isn't."

Alternatively, it is common for Irish English-speakers to use the word "aye" as a weak form of "yes" (somewhat akin to "sure" or "yeah").

"It's getting late, is it?" "Aye, it is."
"Is that okay with you?" "Aye."

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'; or, 'you do be every day').

Irish speakers of English, especially in rural areas, use the verb "to be" in English similarly to how they would in Irish, using a "does be/do be" (or "bes", although less frequently) construction to indicate this latter continuous present:

"He do(es) be coding every day."
"They do be talking on their mobiles a lot."
"They bes doing a lot of work at school." (rare)

Irish has no pluperfect tense: instead, "after" is added to the present continuous (a verb ending in "-ing"). The idiom for "I had done X when I did Y" is "I was after doing X when I did Y", modelled on the Irish usage of the compound prepositions i ndiaidh, tar éis, and in éis: bhí mé tar éis/i ndiaidh/in éis X a dhéanamh, nuair a rinne mé Y. This can most commonly be heard used by Dubliners.

"Why did you hit him?" "He was after insulting me."

A similar construction is seen with the 'hot news perfect', used to express extreme excitement at something which has happened recently:

"Jaysus, I'm after hitting him with de car!"
"Would ya look at yer one — she's after losing five stone in five weeks!"

Less explosively, using what might be termed the 'warm news perfect', the Irish perfect can indicate a recent action of less stellar importance:

"I have the computer rebooted." Tá an ríomhaire atosaithe agam.
"I have me breakfast eaten." Tá an bricfeasta ite agam.

Mirroring the Irish language and almost every other European language, the plural 'you' is distinguished from the singular, normally by use of the otherwise archaic English word 'ye' (the word 'yous' also occurs, but primarily only in Dublin and north Ulster, from Co. Donegal across to Co. Antrim):

"Did ye all go to see it?"

Also, in some areas in South Leinster, the hybrid word 'ye-s', pronounced 'yis', may be used.

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:

"Was it all of ye or just yourself?"
"'Tis herself that's coming now." Is sí féin atá ag teacht anois.

- where 'herself' might, for example, be the boss or the woman of the house. Note also the indirectness of this construction relative to, for example, 'She's coming now' and the use of "'Tis" rather than the more standard contraction "It's".

It is also common to end sentences with 'no?' or 'yeah?'

"He's not coming today, no?" Níl sé ag teacht inniú, nach bhfuil?
"The bank's closed now, yeah?" Tá an banc dúnta anois, an bhfuil?

Though because of the particularly insubstantive yes and no in Irish, (the nach bhfuil? and an bhfuil? being the interogative positive and negative of the verb 'to be') the above may also find expression as

"He's not coming today, sure he isn't?" Níl sé ag teacht inniú, nach bhfuil?
"The bank's closed now, isn't it?" Tá an banc dúnta anois, nach bhfuil?

Irish English also always uses the "light l" sound, and the naming of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' is standard.

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'.

The day that is in it. An lá atá ann.
That's John, so it is. Is Seán é, atá ann.

It ought to be noted that this construction is generally limited to the northern half of the country. This isn't limited only 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.

This Wintel box sucks, so it does.
I've finished debugging, so I have.

There are some language forms that stem from the fact that there is no verb 'to have' in Irish. In Irish, possession is indicated by using the verb 'at,' in Irish, ag. The prepositional pronoun used in Irish combines ag "at" and me "me" to create agam. Saying "with me" at the end of the sentence in English echoes the use of "agam" in Irish. Tá an leabhar agam., literally, 'The book is at me'. In English, the verb "to have" is used, along with a "with me" that derives from Tá ....agam. This gives rise to the frequent

The book, I have it with me.
Do you have the book? I have the book with me.

Somebody who can speak a language 'has' a language, in which Hiberno-English has borrowed the grammatical form used in Irish.

She doesn't have Irish. Níl Gaeilge aici. literally 'There is no Irish at her'.

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.

The reported clause is also often preserved in its direct form, for example 'John asked me to buy a loaf of bread' becomes 'John asked me would I buy a loaf of bread'.

Bring and take: Irish use of these words differs from that of English, because it follows the Gaelic grammar for beir and tog. English usage is determined by direction (from a place for take, and to a place for bring); Irish usage is determined by person. So, in English, one takes "from here" (hence) "to there" (thither), and brings it "to here" (hither) "from there" (thence). But, in Irish, you "take" only when accepting a transfer of possession of the object from someone else—and you "bring" at all other times, irrespective of destination. Someone might say "Don't forget to bring that with you when you go" or, to a child, "Hold my hand: I don't want someone to take you from me."

Preservation of older English usage

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.

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).

For influence from Scotland see Ulster Scots.

Turns of phrase

"Am not" is abbreviated amn't by analogy with "isn't" and "aren't". This can be used as a tag question:

I'm making a mistake, amn't I?

or as an alternative to "I'm not":

I amn't joking.

and the double negative is also used:

I'm not late, amn't I not?

"Arra" is used also. Arra tends to be used after something bad has happened, when someone is looking on the bright side.

Arra, we'll go next week.
Arra, 'tis not the end of the world.

"Come here to me now" or "Come here and I'll tell ya something" is used to mean "Listen to this" or "I've got something to tell you". Can be used as "Come here and tell me". The phrase "Tell me this", short form of "Tell me this and tell me no more" is also common. These phrases tend to imply a secretiveness or revalatory importance to the following bit of information.

Various insults have been transferred directly from Irish and have a very mild meaning in english. Eg.Lúdramán, Amadán, pleidhce, rogue, eejit all meaning "fool" or "messer", messer is also a Hiberno-Irish turn of phrase. "Langer" is a variant used especially in Cork.

The devil is used in Irish as an expletive, eg. "Cén áit sa diabhal a bhfuil sé" - Where the devil is he (the Irish version means actually "what place in the devil is he"). This has been translated into Irish as a mild expletive, used in the song "Whiskey In The Jar" in the line, "But the devil take the women, for they never can be easy". "Diabhal" is in Irish also used as a negation, and this usage might be carried over to Hiberno-English: diabhal fear "devil a man", for "not a soul".

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'.

"Sure" is also often used as a tag word, emphasising the obviousness of the statement. Can be used as "to be sure", the famous Irish stereotype phrase.

Sure, I can just go on wednesday.
I will not, to be sure.

"Sure Jayzus" is often used as a very mild expletive to express dismay.

Casual conversation in many parts of Ireland includes a variety of colourful turns of phrase. Some examples:

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 phrases are an unusual sort of half-translation of a parallel Irish-language phrase, "mo dhuine" (literally 'my person'). The nearest equivalents in colloquial English usage would be "whatsisname" and "whatsername". Note also "wan" for female person may be a direct usage of the Irish 'bean' (woman). In Newfoundland the same form exists as 'buddy,' who is a generic nameless person. They use the word not always in the sense of 'my friend' but more in the sense of 'what's his name'. 'I went inside to ask for directions and buddy said to go left at the lights'.

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 a parallel of the English word "fucking", despite their similarity, and is generally less offensive. "Feck" is the corresponding expletive. The noun "fecker" is slightly stronger but not vulgar. These terms were lately introduced to Britain by Father Ted. In old Dubliner slang, "to feck' is also slang for "to steal", as in the phrase, "We went to the orchard and fecked some apples." It can also mean "to throw", especially if something is being thrown where it shouldn't, as in "We fecked his schoolbag into the river."

Yoke is typically used in place of the word "thing", for instance "gimme that yoke there". It's also used as an insult: "you're some yoke".

Now is often used at the end of sentences or phrases as a semantically empty word, completing an utterance without contributing any apparent meaning. Examples include "Bye now" (= "goodbye"), "There you go now" (= when giving someone something), "Ah now!" (= expressing dismay), "Hold on now" (= "wait a minute"), "Now then" as a mild attention-getter, etc. This usage is universal among English dialects, but occurs more frequently in Hiberno-English.

To is often omitted from sentences where it would exist in British English. For example, "I am not allowed go out tonight", instead of "I am not allowed to go out tonight".

There are many terms for having consumed a drop too much drink, many are used elsewhere, but the Irish tendency is to attempt to find the most descriptive adjective yet on each occasion. Some examples: "scuttered", "stocious/stotious", "locked", "langered", "mouldy" (pron. mowldy as in "fowl"), "polluted", "flootered", "plastered", "bolloxed", "well out of it", "wankered", "fucked", "fuckered", "binned", "gee-eyed", "buckled", "steaming", "messy", "sloppy", "wasted", "paralytic", "full as a boot", "legless", "hammered" , "blootered" . (Phrases in italics are more "colourful")

Some turns of phrase are more localised and their meaning may not be widespread throughout the country, while others are more transient and fall out of use after a number of years.

Lexicon

Hiberno-English vocabulary is largely the same as British English, though there are variances, especially with reference to certain goods and services. Examples that would come into everyday conversation include:

Bold describes someone (usually a child) who is impudent or badly-behaved.
"The channels" is often used to refer to cable TV and MMDS (used in Ireland extensively in less populated areas) - probably slightly moreso for MMDS due to its largely unknown method of operation (it is a subscription-based TV service much like cable, but uses terrestrial microwave transmissions). Much like in the UK, "Sky" is commonly used to refer to satellite TV as BSkyB are the only service providers who operate in the country.
Crack or craic is a good time, good company, good atmosphere and conversation. If you are enjoying yourself, it is good craic. [1]
College, more like American English than British English, would usually be refering to any sort of third level education, be it college, university or Institute of Technology. This is because the Leaving Certificate Examinations (the rough equivalent of A-levels or NVQs in the UK) are taken in secondary school in Ireland, so there is no intermediary college like sixth-form colleges in Britain. (The probable origin of this usage is that, until the 1970s, the only tertiary education available was at university level, through the Colleges (Dublin, Cork, Galway, Maynooth) of the National University of Ireland or Trinity College, Dublin University).
Delph meaning Dishware, occasionally meaning Artificial teeth. From the name of the original source of supply, Delft in the Netherlands. See Delftware.
Dinner can often still mean the meal eaten in the middle of the day, especially in rural Ireland.
ESB (Electricity Supply Board), being the only national electricity supplier in Ireland, is regularly used in reference to this type of service. Whereas in other countries one would use the term "mains supply" or "power supply" when refering to the electricity supply that comes to their house/business, in Ireland a lot of people would say "ESB supply".
Flag can mean the conventional Flag it can also be a Flagstone
Footpath is used in Ireland where "pavement" is in British English and "sidewalk" in American English.
The word "police" is very rarely used in Ireland. Guards, or the Irish equivalent Gardaí (or singular Garda) are both more or less equally used. Some people may tend to use the word "police" for foreign police forces, though.
Hiace (as in Toyota Hiace) is used by many to refer to any light commercial van, much like "Transit" or "Transit van" (as in Ford Transit) in the UK.
Jacks : toilet, usually in a pub or similar. As in "mind my handbag while I go to the jacks". From 16thC English "Jakes". (mind means "look after") the words Bog and Loo are also used.
Jeep, much like "Hiace", is used by many to refer to any sort of off road vehicle, be it a small 4x4 like a Suzuki Jimny or large SUV like a long wheelbase Mitsubishi Pajero. This is quite odd, especially as actual Chrysler Jeeps were never officially sold in Ireland until the 1990s, and the word was just as common before then.
Messages means Groceries She's gone to the shop to get the messages.
Minerals means Soft drinks
Oxter means Armpit He had a book under his oxter.
Press is almost invariably used instead of Cupboard. The hot press is the airing cupboard.
Rubber means an eraser (not a condom!)
Runners or tackies, or in the north gutties, refers to "trainers" (British English) or "sneakers" (American English).
Spancil a rope tied to a grazing animal's leg or legs to limit movement. To limit the animal wandering, spancil a front leg to the corresponding rear leg. To prevent cow from kicking while being milked spancil the leg.
Tayto (an Irish brand of potato crisps) has become synonymous with any sort of crisps, regardless of brand. In Dublin, especially in working class areas, the alternative crips is commonly used (as in "Get us a packet o' crips will ye?")
Topper or parer is often used to refer to a "pencil sharpener".

References

Dolan, Terence Patrick (Ed.) (1998). A Dictionary of Hiberno-English. Gill & Macmillan (Dublin). ISBN 0-7171-2942-X

Sammon, Paddy (2002). Greenspeak - Ireland in her own Words. TownHouse (Dublin) ISBN 1-86059-144-2; (N. Am.): ISBN 0-684-02015-7. See also corresponding website: www.greenspeak.info.

Irish literature is full of examples, see in particular: Ulysses by James Joyce and The Commitments by Roddy Doyle